I see a list of decals for sale. ;-) Try another browser or clear the cache of the one you're using.

Anyone who has interest in these decals probably already has seen, but just as an update, this seller has added even more decals late last night and has now probably around 60 different ones. Look to be all Estes stuff.

Earl

He won't ship to Canadians.

He must have gotten burned by his coffee at a Tim Hortens after buying a defective Mastercraft rotary tool at Canadian Tire. :eek: :p

Probably had some bad Roast Caribou and Poutine.

I am always interested when I see collections like this for sale. It makes me wonder if they just didn’t like using decals or they just collected parts. Is there a fleet of unpainted models in their garage? That’s a huge amount of kit decals covering a lot of time. Not really that expensive considering the cost includes shipping.

Estes sold decals as parts during that timeframe covered by the decals on sale, I think early 90s and prior), so that’s my guess. I got a many decals from Estes and used them on a bunch of scratch builds.

Here's something you don't see everyday:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HEN-GRENAD....c100044.m43681

I would of had bought this
 

Back in the day when I was collecting I would of had bought this. some things are just very
unique, and $20.00 bills are very common. spend it you'll make more. And if you like something
and you never seen one before, well you may never see it again. You just don't know.

This particular seller seems to have an extremely high opinion of his OOP rockets.

Shanghai Dragon CHANG ZHENG 2 (CZ-2E) 189.00
Mini Rocs (MPC) Delta Katt 70.00
Mini Rocks (MCP) Astrobbe D 90.00

All way overpriced from my perspective. Then again, I don't 'collect'. I 'buy to build'. Different market.

2 of these 3 kits are not so rare: the Chang Zheng 2 was still on the shelf at the museum of science last year.
the mini roc Delta Katt was just on Ebay for less than $30.00
the inflation price for the Astro bee D is about $39.00 ( I bought one for $20.00 in 1991)
I would not pay these prices for any of the above kits, but back in the day I would of had built any of one of them.

These Kits are not even in the same league as the Hen Grade.

OVERPRICED and not to mention all 3 of those are real TURDS.

This particular item is not exactly a 'deal' per se, but it is interesting to see that the prior Estes 1/100 scale Saturn 1b still seems to be attracting high bids. This one at $127 and not done yet. I thought the market for this Saturn 1b might drop considerably since the latest re-issue, but maybe not completely.

Link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Estes-2048...AAOSwxstgOow P


The above seller does have a host of Estes and Centuri kits listed though that some here might find interesting.

Earl

Yeah, and he's getting some really good prices too!

Only goes to continue to show,,, Everything is collectible to someone, to some degree !
Keep and treat everything you have as such.......

I, too, thought the #2048 would drop in price commanded, based on the new Saturn 1B.

The high price on ebay for this kit was $471! And the mean price was $188. (Numbers from Gerry Fortin site). I had 3 boxed until last year. I gave one to a friend for Christmas, I built one, and I still have one in the box. My built kit is just awaiting really nice weather so I can paint it.

The old kit is pretty nice, it does have an injection molded fuel tank shroud, but the new release has molded plastic fins and SLA (LEM shroud). Building 8 tiny vacuformed fins on the old kit is really fun!

That prior Estes 1b is almost a complete copy of the original Centuri 1b. They changed a few little things...they made the tank shroud a bit more robust and the capsule and tower come from the Estes capsule/tower mold versus the Centuri capsule/tower mold. The Centuri tower was a bit better, though the capsules between the two were very similar. Centuri had the metallic foil wrap for the SM details; Estes had you just paint the entire SM silver.

Otherwise, the tubes, wraps, hollow vacuform fins, etc are exactly the same between the two. Yes, the eight two-part fins were ‘fun’!

Earl

And the 24mm mount vs twin 18mm's. I like the cluster better. When I had my first CATO, I rebuilt it with a single 18mm and flew it on C5-3S motors until one of them CATO'd also. I went back to twin 18's when I rebuilt it the 2nd time.

My Centuri capsules are a little thicker, but don't have the raised detail that the Estes boost cover has. The escape motor is a mylar tube like launch lugs with a base and a tiny nose cone. I actually like that better than the solid plastic Estes ones with the oversized detail.

Yep, left the cluster part out completely didn't I? I did like the Centuri escape motor better too (mylar tube and nose cone). The Estes capsule did make an attempt to have some surface detail as you mentioned, whereas the Centuri capsule had no surface detail at all. But, that had a downside in the also re-issued Estes 1/100 Little Joe II kit, in that you had to sand all that surface detail off the capsule, per the instructions.

That Estes Little Joe II also had only the paper embossed wrap (as opposed to the chrome embossed wrap of the Centuri 1/100 LJ). But, the Estes 1/100 Little Joe was not a bad kit at all. I still have one that I flew very regularly for many years.

Earl

My very first Early 70's Estes k-36 Saturn V, with black/orange checkerboard parachutes, the capsule had no raised detail, but the same plastic escape tower and solid escape motor. I still have that K-36, and capsule, just without the escape tower. Do not know when the switched to the more detailed capsule.

My guess would be when Estes redesigned their Saturn V in 1988 I think it was (Keith Niskern of Centuri Saturn series fame did the redesign and had his photo on the box art because of his work). That version still had paper wraps. But I think maybe that version had the plastic capsule that had the additional surface detail for the first time.

The next version of the Saturn V after that would have been the Apollo 11 30th anniversary version (now with the revived vacu-formed wraps from the old Centuri Saturn V), and released in very late 1998, as I recall.

Earl

Don't know about the others, but i wouldn't call the Delta Katt a 'turd'...


< https://forums.rocketshoppe.com/sho...ight=delta+katt >

I stand by my statement.
TURD.

And I will stand behind your right to the make that statement.
Like, maybe 50 feet behind you while you duke it out with whomever
wants to call you on it.


However, I still haven't flown the Delta Katt yet, so it may very well

fly like a turd. I'll keep you posted.

Not necessarily a ‘deal’, but an interesting listing for an Estes/Mattel Starlab boxed kit, but apparently marketed originally overseas in the Netherlands.

I have never seen an Estes kit in any form with a Mattel logo on the kit as well.

Listing link: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Starlab-vi...AAOSwsqdgVwU n

Anyone ever seen that me of these (or similar) before?

Earl

I believe that Estes specifically marketed these Mattel branded Cape Canaveral boxed kits in Europe, primarily in Germany. Leo Nutz has quite a few of them, including the Mattel boxed Starlab kit: http://www.leo.nutz.de/Rockets.php?...0(Mattel)# 548
Seems like some of the wording on the boxes and on the instructions is in German.

Kind regards,
Jeff Jenkins
aka: Faithwalker
NAR #46879 SR

For those who'd like to clone an old Estes K-21 Gemini Titan, this is a nice set of parts to make the job a lot easier:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gemini-Tit...353.m2749.l2649

I'm reasonably sure this is the same set of parts I got a few years back to build mine. Not the greatest quality 3d printed parts, but not bad - and far easier than trying to assemble everything from scratch.

Thanks Jeff. Yeah, looks like a good variety of many of the major Estes kits from the late 70s. I’m surprised more of these have not shown up on eBay.

Earl

Leo has quite a few boxed Estes/Mattel kits. Interesting that the Big Bertha is called the “Astron”. I think “Dagmar” might have been more fitting ...

Leo shows the Estes Mattel Cape Canaveral boxed Patriot Deluxe Starter kit #90-1404 dated as 1978-1979. The contents appear to be exactly the same as the special issue Estes Spirit of '76 Patriot Starter kit #1776, issued in 1976 in the USA.

Kind regards,
Jeff Jenkins
aka: Faithwalker
NAR #46879 SR

I had a chance to buy this before it was posted. I wrote someone at Estes enquiring if they were ever a part of Mattel, but I mistakenly said Revell ! Anyway he replied saying they were a sister company once, etc. I replied saying i meant Mattel. I’m sure he’ll reply this week. Cool kit, but I didn’t want it now. I have the bagged one, which is sufficient.

Also, these kits were specially made for a different market then, which was common... like the many Estes and Centuri kits boxed, which normally would have been bagged.
Still, I await to see to What Degree, if any, Estes was a Part of Mattel ?!

When I was stationed at Mather AFB near Sacramento in the late '70s, a friend in our rocketry club went to Germany to visit relatives, He brought me back the boxed Estes Andromeda kit.
The pictures show an original kit, the boxed kit, and I believe a clone that may have been sold. The kit on the right didn't spark any memory. As you can see from the side panel, it shows the Cape Canaveral kits available. I also have a Q Modeling Andromeda kit. After 50+ years, I have still to build an Andromeda.

Chas

Hark ! ,,,, that’s cool....

In the early 1980s, Estes struck a marketing deal with Mattel to distribute model rockets in (West) Germany. They went through the process to get the engines certified by the German bureau of explosives (BAM). One of the artifacts of the German law (that came from fireworks) is that the motors had to be red.

I just happened to be stationed in West Germany from 1981-1984. So I have some of the red Mattel/Estes 18mm motors that were available in hobby shops.

I think the deal ended in the late 1980s, and sales were disappointing. All of West Germany had a 400' altitude limit on rockets, which stunted interest.

Matt

Thanks, Matt. Great and informative post. More than I hoped for. Just another tid bit about Estes I didn’t know. 400 feet,,, hmmm... I’d keep them in the box,too ! Dan.

I can see why the hobby went nowhere then in W. Germany.
A 400' ceiling is all but useless. Lemme guess, they had to pull umpteen permits and licenses to practice for FAI events. Just moronic.
I believe you still have to take a test to be able to hunt and own a rifle as well in Germany.

Lol ! ....I think over there I’d stick with gliders..... 👀

You're dissing Bill. He has 100's of flights under 400' on his B6-4 field. I've got a bunch here at Cape Cow Patty too.

How do you say B6-4 Field in German? Ho-GAN!!!

...hmmm, guess I have more B engine flights than any other motor,,, and in rockets that are at or under 400 feet. It’s fun, all good,,, I’m happy.....