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Old 10-30-2005, 10:09 AM
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Royatl Royatl is offline
SPEV/Orion wrangler
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 2,645
Default PortaPad over the years

Ok, trivia time.

So, I'm looking around the house, trying to organize things, and I notice I have a bunch of Estes Porta-Pads, some dating back 30+ years, and I notice that no two are alike (ok, that's stretching a bit, because I've got a number of the current version). I've got a burgandy version (the oldest) that is taller and has a bigger center section. I've got an orange one that has a smaller center, the tips of the legs are different, and it has one less bracing piece. Then there's a yellow version that is lower, wider, and has a small center. Finally I have a bunch of the current black lightning bolt designs.

Given that injection molds wear out, I guess it makes sense that they have to get new ones made, and take it as an opportunity for a redesign, but what ideas went into the redesign?

Later today I'll put up photos of the versions I have, so we can see if there's any more, and we can speculate as to why there are so many versions.

Boy, won't this be fun!

Remember, this is limited to Estes Porta-Pads (or Porta-Pad II) and Centuri equivalent.

I don't care about the MPC/AVI/Canaroc pad (though that might be a semi-interesting subject), or the Quest pads, or the MRC pads or the Estes BigFoot or Firing Line pads.

This message is going up on both RocketryForum *and* Ye Olde Rocket Forum.
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