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View Full Version : Estes Red Hangtag Kits Predating Skill Level


mojo1986
04-13-2007, 07:22 AM
Does anyone out there know why Estes sold some of their kits in the early seventies with a red hangtag rather than the common yellow one? Over the years I have seen only a handful of these kits on Ebay. They are really very rare. Were they used to mark a significant era or milestone in Estes kit production? Possibly something to do with the transition over to Damon? Or maybe just an error by the printer and Vern was too frugal to discard them? Anybody know? (Not to be confused with the later red Skill Level 5 hangtag that was used on the Mercury Redstone).

Joe

Phred
04-13-2007, 10:21 AM
This is the best summary of early ESTES packaging that I have seen:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050619081405/http://www.model-rockets.com/estes.htm

Phred

mojo1986
04-13-2007, 02:02 PM
Thanks for the info, Phred. Very interesting! I note that the hangtag shown for the 1971-1972 period (I call these 'double-oval' hangtags) is red. Everyone recognizes the yellow hangtag from this era, but this red one, identical in every way to the yellow one except that it had a red background, is VERY much scarcer. If anyone knows the origin of these red ones (why they were used) I would be very interested in hearing an account. I have watched for these kits on Ebay for the last 6-7 years and have seen only one or two (none in the past 3 years or so).

Joe

Ltvscout
04-13-2007, 05:43 PM
This is the best summary of early ESTES packaging that I have seen:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050619081405/http://www.model-rockets.com/estes.htm
Whoa! Mike Mauer let the model-rockets.com domain name expire?!? I wonder what it would cost to buy now?

Solomoriah
04-13-2007, 09:33 PM
It's owned by someone, of course. Registered through TUCOWS.com, anonymously.