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  #71  
Old 02-02-2018, 09:37 AM
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Shreadvector Shreadvector is offline
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Bob,

Did you buy one of these yet (or are you interested in getting/collecting one)??

The Target right up the street from where I work actually has these on the shelf. They had 3 on the shelf, now they have 2.

Now it will probably show up at Hobby Lobby where i could have used the 40% off e-coupon. They are supposed to do a re-set of the modular display in February.....

Quote:
Originally Posted by Initiator001
Another iteration of the Alpha/Alpha III line:

https://www.target.com/p/rocket-sci...256#lnk=sametab
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  #72  
Old 02-02-2018, 06:04 PM
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Fred,

At least last September when I was taking to Mary Roberts about all things Alpha the plan for that set was only Target stores that have a "STEM" section. I'd love to see it show up at Hobby Lobby since (at least in the stores in my area) it would be right there with other "science kits" and such anyway.
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  #73  
Old 02-04-2018, 07:30 PM
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Thanks for the info.

FYI, it is labelled as "STEAM", not "STEM".

At least TARC has resisted the lobbying from the Arts folks to cram an "A" into STEM for TARC.

Quote:
Originally Posted by BEC
Fred,

At least last September when I was taking to Mary Roberts about all things Alpha the plan for that set was only Target stores that have a "STEM" section. I'd love to see it show up at Hobby Lobby since (at least in the stores in my area) it would be right there with other "science kits" and such anyway.
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  #74  
Old 02-05-2018, 12:02 AM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Shreadvector
Bob,

Did you buy one of these yet (or are you interested in getting/collecting one)??

The Target right up the street from where I work actually has these on the shelf. They had 3 on the shelf, now they have 2.

Now it will probably show up at Hobby Lobby where i could have used the 40% off e-coupon. They are supposed to do a re-set of the modular display in February.....


Thanks for the offer, Fred but I already have one on the way.
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  #75  
Old 07-09-2020, 07:29 PM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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Three years ago I started this thread all because of a mistake on the kit facer card.

Since that time there has been a wealth of important historical information about the Estes Alpha kit.

My thanks to all that have contributed to this thread.

Now, just to bring it full circle, here is a current Estes Alpha kit I picked up in the past few weeks.

The nose cone on the package has been returned to it's red color.

All is well.
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  #76  
Old 07-10-2020, 12:57 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Initiator001

The nose cone on the package has been returned to it's red color.

All is well.



But they still haven’t returned the nose cone to it’s proper shape!
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  #77  
Old 07-10-2020, 01:20 AM
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Interesting that this most recent Alpha package shows “skill level 1” rather than “intermediate” to be consistent with their new presentation of levels: https://estesrockets.com/product/001225-alpha/

One more for Dan French to go buy, I guess, since he’s focused on kit packaging rather than configuration of the model itself.....though I’d be curious if there are any changes there. Bob, I presume the nose cone in the kit is the same as it has been for - well - ever since 1993 or so with some of the kits just before the Beta Series version).

It is interesting to realize that the pointier shape nose cone has now actually been in production longer than the “real” Alpha shape (BNC-50K/original blow-molded plastic nose cone introduced on EK-25 Alpha IIs).

I STILL need to write up my chronology of all the Alpha configuration variations and share it somewhere. Then I need to do the Alpha III, though it is much simpler (almost no actual parts changes other than color for the entire 49-year [so far] life of the model).

And of course the Alpha VI has appeared (and, I suppose disappeared) since this thread started and the Phantom has reappeared. The Alpha VI has the extra half-inch of length that the Rocket Science Starter Set rocket (which has no name of its own) has, but is otherwise an Alpha III save for coloration. And the re-release of the Phantom restores the 5.5 inch body tube length so that it is identical in size to the Alpha III and looks way better than those 4-inch-long versions.

I also need to do the Nova Payloader since I seem to have become very enamored with it....but that’s for another thread. Spoiler alert: no fin shape changes, two nose cones, some other differences in other parts of the configuration....but not many. Of course its history is rather shorter since it’s only been around since 1986 and not in continuous production between then and the current #1716 version.
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Last edited by BEC : 07-10-2020 at 01:40 AM.
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  #78  
Old 07-10-2020, 06:02 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BEC
Interesting that this most recent Alpha package shows “skill level 1” rather than “intermediate” to be consistent with their new presentation of levels: https://estesrockets.com/product/001225-alpha/

One more for Dan French to go buy, I guess, since he’s focused on kit packaging rather than configuration of the model itself.....though I’d be curious if there are any changes there. Bob, I presume the nose cone in the kit is the same as it has been for - well - ever since 1993 or so with some of the kits just before the Beta Series version).

It is interesting to realize that the pointier shape nose cone has now actually been in production longer than the “real” Alpha shape (BNC-50K/original blow-molded plastic nose cone introduced on EK-25 Alpha IIs).

I STILL need to write up my chronology of all the Alpha configuration variations and share it somewhere. Then I need to do the Alpha III, though it is much simpler (almost no actual parts changes other than color for the entire 49-year [so far] life of the model).

And of course the Alpha VI has appeared (and, I suppose disappeared) since this thread started and the Phantom has reappeared. The Alpha VI has the extra half-inch of length that the Rocket Science Starter Set rocket (which has no name of its own) has, but is otherwise an Alpha III save for coloration. And the re-release of the Phantom restores the 5.5 inch body tube length so that it is identical in size to the Alpha III and looks way better than those 4-inch-long versions.

I also need to do the Nova Payloader since I seem to have become very enamored with it....but that’s for another thread. Spoiler alert: no fin shape changes, two nose cones, some other differences in other parts of the configuration....but not many. Of course its history is rather shorter since it’s only been around since 1986 and not in continuous production between then and the current #1716 version.



I really like the Nova Payloader too, it could have been a Centuri design. The one I have was hand painted by my seven year old at the time, she is 20 now, I miss those times.
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  #79  
Old 07-10-2020, 09:16 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BEC
Interesting that this most recent Alpha package shows “skill level 1” rather than “intermediate” to be consistent with their new presentation of levels: https://estesrockets.com/product/001225-alpha/


That’s because the face card in question was printed two years ago, just before the reassignment.
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  #80  
Old 07-10-2020, 01:27 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Royatl
That’s because the face card in question was printed two years ago, just before the reassignment.
That would do it.....which means that in the foreseeable future there will be ANOTHER kit packaging variant (with no change to the actual parts inside) to please (or irritate) the Alpha completists out there .
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