Hi all, as you know I am a recently active BAR. During my entire course of rocketry, I have always dealt with and built kits from Estes. I have even tried designing some rockets but I was still using the Estes Designer's Special kit. I have not had any experience in building anything from Quest or anyone else. Most of the shops around here deal exclusively in Estes kits except for one who has some Quest and some no-name (at least that I can see) kits.

I'd like to get some opinions from everyone. I have built or purchased most of the current Estes kits that are readily avilable and I am looking to move into other companies and their offerings. Is there any company that stands out as far as designs, quality, pricing, etc? Or, are most off-the-shelf kits pretty much the same?

Please let me know your thoughts. I may have to start shopping online to get more products and designs for my collection.

Thanks....Rick

I find Semroc to be the absolute tops when it comes to quality, variety, value, customer service, responsiveness to customer wants, and light speed shipment.

I like Hawks Hobby too, but they only make upscale versions of classic kits.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

You're in luck in that there are many more kit manufacturers out there now than there has ever been. Almost all proved great customer service, so it sometimes is a matter of what designs peak your interest. A few to look at would be;

Semroc - Semroc.com
Fliskits - Fliskits.com
RedRiver - redriverrocketry.com
SquirrelWorks - squirrel-works.com
Sirius - siriusrocketry.com

That will get you going.

Edit - yep, I forgot Hawks Hobby. I've bought a few of their kits recommend them as well.

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Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati

Tough to respond to. So many, all GOOD!

Red River Rocketry, Semroc, Fliskits, Sunward, Sandman, Squirrel Works, Pemberton Technologies. What do you like? There is so much out there, ( forgive me if your company didn't come up). For my money, I'd buy from those listed here in a heart beat. For myself, I buy Estes & Quest motors, composite motors from Apogee & Aero-tech. Fly everything here, and support them. Great kits, great people, good prices and service. How can you beat that ?

These are only a few out there. There are more, (again, sorry if you didn't get listed). These are companies by rocketeers, for rocketeers. It just doesn't get any better than that. I hope someone will list the other great companies out there.

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Enjoy life, it has an expiration date.

IMHO, Semroc is #1 but there are a lot of other vendors following closely behind them. Fliskits, Quest, Madcow, Starlight, Red River, Hawks Hobby and Advanced Rocketry Group are all doing good stuff as are many others - too many to list. It's a great time to be in the hobby.

Mario

Great advice. I can personally vouch for Semroc. The following is a true story about what happened last week.

I decided to clone an old Estes EAC Viper. I browsed the Semroc site and put together a list of the parts I would need in my shopping cart. I inadvertently picked a package of shock cords that was twice the width of what I should get.

Sheryl popped me an email asking if I really wanted the larger shock cord pack? Most companies would have just filled my order as it was and shipped it. I was busy all day so it took a while to get back to her. When I finally did get back to her and thanked her for pointing out my mistake, she said she already shipped and filled my order as it was and threw in a few of the smaller shock cords just in case. I offered to PayPal her for the difference, but she said to not worry about it. You can bet I will always be stopping by Semroc first.

BTW, this was not the first above and beyond incident I've had with Semroc. I know business is business, buy with Semroc, I really feel like Carl and Sheryl are my friends.

Also, for the time being, stay away from PDRocketry . They were a really great company that produced fantastic kits, but do to a series of personal tragedies, they seem to have crashed and burned. There are quite a few people out of $$$$ from the last orders they placed before they seemed to have gone belly up.

Semroc - Semroc.com
Fliskits - Fliskits.com
RedRiver - redriverrocketry.com
SquirrelWorks - squirrel-works.com
Sirius - siriusrocketry.com

I've bought kits and parts from Semroc, and one kit from Red River. The price, quality, and delivery have been great on all of them.

I have yet to purchase anything from Fliskits, Squirrel Works, or Sirius, but I plan to buy something from all of them. Maybe at NARAM-50 this summer!

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John Thro, NAR #84553 SR
I was too old when I started! Now I'll *never* become a BAR!

I can say that I have been pleased with each of the companies listed above (including Hawks Hobby). As a BAR I find it much different than when I was a kid. The Estes and Centuri I knew are gone but they have been replaced by many more companies offering a bigger variety. If only some of them would get into the BP motor business as well...

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John A. Lee O.S.L.
Alamo Rocketeers NAR Section 661
NAR 87285, L1 8 March 2008
TRA 03040, L1 8 March 2008
Photos of the "Fleet": http://www.flickr.com/photos/23694991@N03/

I used to tell Mom, "...I want to fly rockets when I grow up!"

She said, "Make up your mind, you can't do both!"

I think all of us that have ordered from Semroc many times have a great customer service story to tell. They have been a model for how to take care of the customer since day one.

It's really too bad about PDR too. They had a lot of good clone kits that nicely filled a void.

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Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati

Don't forget Dr. Zooch! http://www.drzooch.com/


Also, ASP kits are very nice. www.asp-rocketry.com