Help with K-45 Beta Descriptions
 

Adding K-45 Beta kit to Estes kit database and pictorial guide.

Research results appear confusing and would appreciate inputs. Here is what is known so far.

1. In Estes catalog years 1970-1971 and priced at $1.50
2. Recent ebay lot with yellow double oval hang tag and blue two panel facecard with printed $1.35 pricing
3. Checking Mojo1986 database shows appearance of kit with pre Damon yellow hangtag

Thanks in advance for forum insight

The silence demonstrates the research difficulties with several of the early Estes kits.

Gerry, I lost all of my auction photos a year or so ago in a computer crash. Have been told that it would cost a fortune to retrieve the info from the old hard drive (which I still have) so I won't be doing that. As a result, I will have difficulty helping you out on this one.

Joe

It may not cost a small fortune - was the crash due to a crashed and trashed drive or due to damaged information in the boot sectors? If the latter, you can probably put the drive in an external drive case, plug it into a USB port and open it as a non-boot drive on another computer. I keep a spare drive case around just for such a purpose. It is always worth a try. Unless the head has actually crashed into the platter, the electrics of the drive are totally fried or the head and/or drive mechechanism is completely frozen up, you may be able to get some data out of there.

Greg

Greg, thanks for your advice. I'm afraid those instructions are beyond my capabilities. If there is anyone on the forum who, in the interests of preserving vintage model rocketry information, wants to give it a try, I can mail the hard drive to them.

Joe

I have 2 of these kits. The one I can find at the moment matches #2 above.
If and/or when the other kit turns up, I'll let you know - It may be earlier.

S.

SEL, thank you for the input. Hope the other kit is earlier as would be helpful to explain Joe's pre Damon yellow hang tag observation.

If I remember correctly, the Beta was first made available through a MRN flyer,
though I may be confusing it with the original Starblazer. That could explain the pre Damon tag.

S.