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Old 10-18-2008, 08:02 AM
Rocket Doctor Rocket Doctor is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2007
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gus
Rocket Doctor,

Some observations and questions.

Estes has been very eratic of late. It's hard to figure out their retailing strategy.

Mass market (Walmart) lineup has been reduced to a few RTFs and a few motors so this new announcement doesn't seem to have much to do with them.

A whole bunch of great new hobby-line kits got announced, including Shrox kits, then none got produced.

Info from customer service new catalogs were just about here, then the catalog got axed. Did that have anything to do with this announcement or are the two unrelated?

Now this info that Estes will reproduce over 40 old kits within the next year, when the whole current product line is only 60 kits.

Does this mean much of the current product line is going away, or is this proposed in addition to the current lineup ostensibly targeting a different audience?

Who are the targeted retailers for these kits, mass market, chain hobby shops, independents, online retailers? I can see the iHobby Expo presentation of this lineup as a floater to see if there is enough interest to produce such a product line, but I'm having difficulty imagining who would retail them in addition to current stock.

Bring-backs are a good thing, but I'm having trouble seeing a market for 40 of them as quickly as is being suggested. Any inside scoop as to the marketing strategy at work here?



From what i gather, Estes wants to move in a different direction. Having the designs sitting in their files does no good unless they are put to use.

I had heard that Estes wanted to release the Centuri based kits for along time.

I think the reason why the catalog didn't come out was the introduction of all of these kits.

Yes, Mike has been working on these for quite some time, and, he wouldn't be wasting his time if this wasn't for real.

I don't know what had transpired with the Shrox designs, I tired to get the low down to no avail.

The current kits will be still be around with some changes, BALSA parts.

There is other info that I am waiting on to be released here.

In my opinio0n, I think that the retailers wanted something different, so, their getting what they have asked for.

In order for Estes to continue to release "bring backs" and other new kits, they need the support from the hobbyists, who have wanted these kits, and, now finally are getting them.

All i can say, they are moving in the right direction, and, only time will tell how successfull it was/is.

I was surprised myself to see such an assortment of kits, I knew about the BALAS, but, certainly nothing so intense as this.

I guess the Inteerceptor and the Red Max was a guidline and they went over quite well, so, it's onto more classics.

We also have to remember, that Centuri became a part of Estes when Damon took it over and at one time, Estes produced both their own kits and Centuri as well. If you look at the address on some of the Centuri kits, it does state "Penrose". So, all of the designs, prints, decals and related information became a part of Estes.

Also the word "Astron" is still a big part of Estes as well.

I hope this has cleared up some of your questions.
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