View Single Post
  #9  
Old 10-01-2008, 10:13 AM
joecool's Avatar
joecool joecool is offline
Intermediate Rocketeer
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Colorado
Posts: 55
Default

hey, ol' jr, didn't i see you over at TRF?! Guess this is a pretty small community we're in, eh?

Thanks to everyone for the details. I've read a few articles on Vern and the beginnings of Estes (including the article linked to above) and I have to say I wish I'd been a rocketeer back then (I was 6 in 1969 and didn't even know model rockets existed, sad to say). I really like what I hear/read about Vern's approach to the hobby and business in general - the level of customer service they provided should be the standard. I enjoy many of the modern Estes rockets but I'm not impressed with the company - their motiviation is clearly on profit with customer service at the lowest level they can get away with. Many of the modern rockets also seem very toy like. The RTF models are particularly lame!

Right now I'm really enjoying learning about the older Estes models and beginning to collect them. I'd love to collect the entire catalog but not sure that's possible even with eBay - some models just don't seem to be available and the old ones are dang expensive! I'm sure I will wind up cloning some of the oldest ones. And of course, while Estes has a strong appeal as one of the oldest and most prolific companies, there are other companies whose catalogs are equally if not more creative and important to the hobby that I would like to collect as well. No doubt this can be a life long pursuit that I'll never really finish - which is half the fun! And at some point my wife may draw the line as the collection takes over the house!
Reply With Quote