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Old 03-27-2016, 12:40 AM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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Default Products that were never released

I like many on this website enjoy discussing/learning about the history of our hobby.

One of the best threads started on this site was the discussion with Mike Dorrfler about Estes products which were announced but never released.

In my many years of collecting I've heard stories about products from hobby rocket companies which never made it out the plant door. In some cases literature, pictures, parts or even entire products were made but never released to the public.

I have some of these items and decided that others may enjoy hearing about them and their history.

I will do the best I can to present these items but most of what I know about each has been verbally told to me, there is little written documentation. If anyone has more actual knowledge about these items please feel free to post it.

I plan to just present items I have. If anyone wishes to ask questions about other products than what I am presenting I ask that this be done in a different thread.

There is no set time for me to contribute to this thread. It will happen randomly as time/mood/if I can find the darn item allows.

Thanks to Scott for supporting this idea.

I hope my fellow rocketeers will enjoy the stories of these products.
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Old 03-27-2016, 01:07 AM
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Sounds good to me, Bob. Bring it on .
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Old 03-27-2016, 01:50 PM
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Oh, this is going to be real interesting! I love this kind of info. I'm looking forward to this, Bob.
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Old 03-27-2016, 06:18 PM
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SEL SEL is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Initiator001
I like many on this website enjoy discussing/learning about the history of our hobby.

One of the best threads started on this site was the discussion with Mike Dorrfler about Estes products which were announced but never released.

In my many years of collecting I've heard stories about products from hobby rocket companies which never made it out the plant door. In some cases literature, pictures, parts or even entire products were made but never released to the public.

I have some of these items and decided that others may enjoy hearing about them and their history.

I will do the best I can to present these items but most of what I know about each has been verbally told to me, there is little written documentation. If anyone has more actual knowledge about these items please feel free to post it.

I plan to just present items I have. If anyone wishes to ask questions about other products than what I am presenting I ask that this be done in a different thread.

There is no set time for me to contribute to this thread. It will happen randomly as time/mood/if I can find the darn item allows.

Thanks to Scott for supporting this idea.

I hope my fellow rocketeers will enjoy the stories of these products.


Great idea Bob - looking forward to this!

S.
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Old 03-27-2016, 06:33 PM
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+1 to comments above! Go for it!

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Old 03-27-2016, 07:25 PM
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I'm all eyes.
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Old 03-27-2016, 08:55 PM
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Hopefully not a thread that's never released...
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Old 03-27-2016, 09:15 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rich Holmes
Hopefully not a thread that's never released...
Wondering the same thing !

Doug

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Old 04-07-2016, 10:39 PM
Ltvscout Ltvscout is offline
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This thread is ONLY to be used to discuss items that Bob posts about from his own personal collection. If you wish to discuss other old rocketry items, I strongly encourage it, but not in this thread. Bob already broke off the original off-topic messages into it's own thread located here:

http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=15884

Which by the way is NOT a closed thread! I have no idea where that insanity came from.

I just broke off the latest off-topic messages into their own thread located here:

http://www.oldrocketforum.com/showthread.php?t=15909

Feel free to continue talking about other old model rocketry items in those threads or feel free to create new ones.

Scott
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  #10  
Old 04-09-2016, 08:40 PM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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Default Ejecting SRBs

Time Frame: 1998-1999
Company: Estes
Product: Zenix SSRV Rocket Kit

By the late 1990s Estes management was interested in sales beyond those to hobby distributors/hobby shops. There was no bigger outlet for product than Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart was/is a mass-merchandiser and it’s customers are not necessarily hobbyists used to working with traditional model rocket materials (balsa, unpainted body tubes, water-slide decals). Products for the Wal-Mart consumer needed to have quick assembly times so the rocket can be launched as soon as possible after purchase.

Along with this the product needed to have a ‘toy’ appeal in that it had ‘play value’, that is, the rocket had to do more than just go up and come down.
This lead to such models as the Astrocam RTF (Camera), Shellshocked/Omloid (Egg carrier), Bailout/Free Fall (Ejects an action figure), Mach 12 (Change fin styles), Manta (Glider), Skywinder and Turbo Copter (Helicopter recovery).

There was one more model announced in this trend for 1998 and it was named the Zenix SSRV. The Zenix was a large rocket over thirty inches tall and nearly one-and-a-half inches in diameter (BT-55). The big feature of the Zenix is that it would drop three simulated external boosters upon ejection of the recovery parachute. These boosters would return to the ground under streamer recovery.

The Zenix SSRV was shown in the 1998 Estes catalog and some marketing fliers but never made it into stores.

Rumors for why this happened discuss initial problems with the three external boosters not reliably falling away from the model. Sometimes all three boosters fell away and sometimes none of them came off. This required more R&D effort and additional work done to the mold for the plastic parts.

Eventually, the problem was resolved. A production run of many thousands of kits were produced and made ready for delivery. According to unsubstantiated stories Estes took the Zenix SSRV model to the Wal-Mart buyers who showed no interest in the kit.

One would think that Estes would still ship the Zenix model to hobby distributors without an order from Wal-Mart. That’s not what happened. For unknown reasons Estes management decided to scrap all the finished Zenix SSRV kits. Some parts were salvaged from the kits but the rest (Packaging, instructions, decals and plastic parts) went to the landfill.

The pictures attached to this post display the packaging and parts for a Zenix SSRV kit. This is the only one of these kits I have ever seen but it suggests that other examples may exist.

(Note: The pictures did not display in the order I wanted)
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Name:  Estes Zenix SSRV 001 Box front.jpg
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Name:  Estes Zenix SSRV 002 Box back.jpg
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Name:  Estes Zenix SSRV 003 Box side 1.jpg
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Name:  Estes Zenix SSRV 004 Box side 2.jpg
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Name:  Estes Zenix SSRV 005 Parts Bag 1.jpg
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Name:  Estes Zenix SSRV 006 Parts Bag 1.jpg
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Name:  Estes Zenix SSRV 007 Parts Bag 2.jpg
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Name:  Estes Zenix SSRV 008 Parts Bag 2 Displayed.jpg
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Name:  Estes Zenix SSRV 009 Box Front with Hang Tab.jpg
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