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  #31  
Old 02-27-2007, 07:20 AM
Ltvscout Ltvscout is offline
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Originally Posted by Mark II
And you know that this is true because...?

MK

Bob has been in the hobby/business for many moons and knows many of the main players. He was with Enertek with Lee Piester and Bill Stine and designed the Initiator rocket and the fancy launch pad that Aerotech now sells. Enertek never came to fruition and sold out to Aerotech. I'm sure Bob will correct me if I misstated anything.
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  #32  
Old 02-27-2007, 07:37 AM
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One other item to consider: In 1971-2, MPC (A major plastic kit model manufacturer with a complete set of retail contacts.) issued Boxed model rocket sets. ESTES/Damon May have looked at the Citation line as a 'must do' in order to compete, or at least a 'well, if MPC can do it, so can ESTES'.

Just speculation of course...

BTW: MPC's foray into Model rockets only lasted these few years, then they closed the whole rocket division up and sold it back to Myke Berginski of MRI/AVI "fame"

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  #33  
Old 02-27-2007, 07:39 AM
Ltvscout Ltvscout is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by excelsior_rocketry
One other item to consider: In 1971-2, MPC (A major plastic kit model manufacturer with a complete set of retail contacts.) issued Boxed model rocket sets. ESTES/Damon May have looked at the Citation line as a 'must do' in order to compete, or at least a 'well, if MPC can do it, so can ESTES'.

Just speculation of course...

BTW: MPC's foray into Model rockets only lasted these few years, then they closed the whole rocket division up and sold it back to Myke Berginski of MRI/AVI "fame"

Phred

I still have my original MPC RTF "Nike Smoke" that I got around '72 or '73. That thing is pretty indestructible.
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  #34  
Old 02-27-2007, 09:26 AM
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I remember Estes having a huge sale on rocket engines back then and I ordered a whole bunch and received them packaged in their Citation line of packaging, and wondering what is Citation. Now I know. Thanks. I still have some of those engines in the Citation packaging. They still work well today. Did I say I ordered a whole bunch?
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  #35  
Old 02-27-2007, 12:08 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ltvscout
Bob has been in the hobby/business for many moons and knows many of the main players. He was with Enertek with Lee Piester and Bill Stine and designed the Initiator rocket and the fancy launch pad that Aerotech now sells. Enertek never came to fruition and sold out to Aerotech. I'm sure Bob will correct me if I misstated anything.



Well, OK, I certainly don't have any industry contacts like that. Still, when I look through the Citation catalog at Ninfinger, my mind conjures up images of boxes of silvery Quasars and gold-nosed Bomarcs with bows on them, sitting (along with the cheap telescopes, microscopes and chemistry sets) on display tables at Christmastime in the "science and nature" section of the Toy department of major department stores like Sears, Woolco, etc.

The Citation line was introduced in 1971, which, coincidentally, was the same year that I put my involvement in model rocketry up on the shelf, so to speak (where it stayed for the next 3 decades) while I pursued college and a career. I don't remember ever seeing any of the Citation models, but if I had passed by them in the store back then, I surely would have noticed. And just about the only time that I would have been in a department store during that particular year would have been right around Thanksgiving and Christmas. So even if I don't specifically recall it now, it's possible that I did see them around that time, which may be why I keep getting that mental image now.

Hey, I am certainly not in any position to know if the following scenario is true or not, but it would make sense to me that Damon, having just acquired Estes and Centuri, would want to try to increase the customer base and sales for these products by going beyond simply having them in hobby shops and selling via mail order to trying to get them into the toy sections of major retailers. And, according to stuff that I've read about the industry, toy manufacturers always gear their product introductions and major marketing campaigns to coincide with the holiday shopping season each year. So it would have made sense for Estes/Damon to have launched (sorry for the pun) the Citation line to coincide with the 1971 holiday shopping season. Hence, the peculiar package styling and labeling that was discussed earlier. As I said, I don't know if any of this is indeed what happened and why it did, but it certainly would make perfect sense to me if it did.

It's funny/ironic that although the Citation line itself failed to sell, the effort to retail model rocketry through department stores ultimately did succeed, and is still with us today. It probably makes sense to do so from a business perspective, and it may have insured Estes' survival. From the perspective of hobbyists, though (this one, anyway), it had the unfortunate effect of creating an association of model rockets with children's toys, and the pursuit of model rocketry with playtime. (Some BARs may argue that this last bit is a GOOD thing, though. )

DISCLAIMER: The above comments reflect my view only, which means that there is a certain probability that they bear absolutely no connection with reality.

Mark K.
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  #36  
Old 02-27-2007, 04:10 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark II
Well, OK, I certainly don't have any industry contacts like that. Still, when I


Well gang, it looks like, once again, I am guilty of overthinking and overanalysing a subject. Maybe I need to get a hobby or something.

Mark K.
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