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-   -   To Astron or not to Astron... (http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=12363)

harsas 04-10-2013 11:55 PM

To Astron or not to Astron...
 
I have a question that I have been discussing with a friend and neither of us have the answer. The first Orbital Transport decals have Astron Aerospace Lines. At some point it changed to Estes Aerospace lines. Does anyone know what year that was in? I am trying to date an old rocket and all I can find is the change in names in the catalog. 1975 appears to be the frist year that there was no Astron in the catalog, but then the OT never did have the name Astron attached to it in the catalog. If anyone has a definitive answer, I would be appreciative. No money, just my undying gratitude.

Rex R 04-11-2013 01:39 AM

Estes changed the catalog picture of the OT in 1975, I would wager that is the switch over point. though I can't make out what it says the '74 picture has the right number of letters for Astron.
rex

ghrocketman 04-11-2013 09:02 AM

I know the first two that I built were Green Face-Card, and Green Hang-Tag and the decals read "Astron". The third I built was green face-card but had I think a Black Hang-Tag. That one had the "Estes" decals. I however have no idea of the time frame.

Neal Miller 04-11-2013 08:42 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by harsas
I have a question that I have been discussing with a friend and neither of us have the answer. The first Orbital Transport decals have Astron Aerospace Lines. At some point it changed to Estes Aerospace lines. Does anyone know what year that was in? I am trying to date an old rocket and all I can find is the change in names in the catalog. 1975 appears to be the frist year that there was no Astron in the catalog, but then the OT never did have the name Astron attached to it in the catalog. If anyone has a definitive answer, I would be appreciative. No money, just my undying gratitude.


Hi H, I have been wondering this myself, I have both sets of decals and only 1 OT kit,
It came in a Green Hang Tag/ Green Card era Kit. the Astron Decals are from a Kit I bought back in the 1970's ? The Newer Green Carded Kit was bought in the 1980's from Carl's Clear
Track Hobbies in Fort Myers . So if we can figure out the Dating of the Green Labels,
we can get close. Iam going to check into this closer.

harsas 04-11-2013 10:21 PM

Thanks for the info. It is driving me crazy because I have an old one I built many years ago but cannot remember exactly when. I know it was early on, pretty sure in the 70's but it has the Estes decals not Astron. So if I can figure out the dates I can get a better idea of when I built it.

Carl's Clear Track Hobbies? Must have been before 76 when I moved down here...

Ltvscout 04-12-2013 08:53 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Neal Miller
Hi H, I have been wondering this myself, I have both sets of decals and only 1 OT kit,
It came in a Green Hang Tag/ Green Card era Kit. the Astron Decals are from a Kit I bought back in the 1970's ? The Newer Green Carded Kit was bought in the 1980's from Carl's Clear
Track Hobbies in Fort Myers . So if we can figure out the Dating of the Green Labels,
we can get close. Iam going to check into this closer.

I never thought of looking at the hobby shops in Fort Myers when I'm down there for old gems. I'm usually too busy on the beach. :D

I imagine all the mom & pop shops are gone and/or the ones left have been picked clean by you and Harold. ;)

kurtschachner 04-12-2013 12:54 PM

Yeah, back in the day wherever I went, either for pleasure or business I immediately checked out the phone book for hobby shops and visited every one I could. I remember just randomly exiting the freeway in various states when a medium sized town came up, just to find the shops. I never really found anything too exciting.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ltvscout
I never thought of looking at the hobby shops in Fort Myers when I'm down there for old gems. I'm usually too busy on the beach. :D

Neal Miller 04-12-2013 08:41 PM

Astron or Estes
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by kurtschachner
Yeah, back in the day wherever I went, either for pleasure or business I immediately checked out the phone book for hobby shops and visited every one I could. I remember just randomly exiting the freeway in various states when a medium sized town came up, just to find the shops. I never really found anything too exciting.


I Moved to South West Florida in 1980, when I got here there was two Hobby Shops in Naples,
and 5 in the Fort Myers / Cape Coral Area. All those old shops are gone.
I moved to the East Coast in 1988, there were 8 shops in the Fort Lauderdale Area.
now there are 2, and they are no long owned by the original owners.

As for the OT Decals, I looked on the Gerry Fortin Web Site, and narrowed the time frame down to 1975-1981, and the Green Tag/ Header Card, More than likely, Estes change the
Decals, but used the last of the Astron Aerospace Lines Decals until they were gone.
I am going to dig out the kit I have ( with Estes Aerospace Decals) and see if I can find anything that might be dated in the kit.

Neal Miller 04-12-2013 09:13 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ltvscout
I never thought of looking at the hobby shops in Fort Myers when I'm down there for old gems. I'm usually too busy on the beach. :D

I imagine all the mom & pop shops are gone and/or the ones left have been picked clean by you and Harold. ;)


A real crying shame was when one hobby shop in Cape Coral was Closed by the IRS.
this happened in 1986, this shop had dozens of Centuri and Estes Kits Motors and
Hundreds of parts. I went to this shop one Saturday and there was a sign that said,
Something like: Closed by Order of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Tax Auction Delpredo Mall this Saturday. As I remember this Mall was also in Tax trouble.
I went over to the mall and they had all of the items from the hobby shop and who know
what other stores on pallets with lot numbers on them. I looked at every pallet but no
rocketry items. A few Months later the guys who owned the Hobby Shop resurfaced in a
new store, I hoped they still had the rocketry items but no such luck. I asked them
what happened to the rockets. and was told that the IRS took them and that any thing that
the IRS did not sell was sent to the dump. I never saw these items for sale any where
in Florida and I do mean any where.

harsas 04-12-2013 09:31 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ltvscout
I never thought of looking at the hobby shops in Fort Myers when I'm down there for old gems. I'm usually too busy on the beach. :D

I imagine all the mom & pop shops are gone and/or the ones left have been picked clean by you and Harold. ;)



What Neal says is true. I have been here since 76 and don't remember more than 3 shops in Ft. Myers / Cape Coral area. I don't remember the auction because I would have camped out. ANyway, the very last shop in the Cape that closed was A&J models which was taken out by Hurricane Charlie. It was a little tiny one man shop that almost no one knew about (and I was stingy with the info). He has lots of reallyold Estes, Custom and Aerotech stuff. Little by little I snatched it up and by the time the hurricane hit there was not much left of any worth. His shop was actually in the very first office building I had when I was building homes. After the storm he tried reopening in the damaged building but one day I went there and he was gone and the shop was cleaned out. I never knew exactly what happened until one day I responded to a Craigs list ad up in Port Charlotte. The guy was advertising a box full of kits. I knew instantly from the price stickers that they came from the old man's shop. Turns out this was his nephew and he inherited the inventory after the old man died. It was kind of sad but it did put an end to my wondering.


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