Ye Olde Rocket Forum

Go Back   Ye Olde Rocket Forum > Weather-Cocked > FreeForAll
User Name
Password
Auctions Register FAQ Members List Calendar Today's Posts Search Mark Forums Read


Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1291  
Old 09-23-2020, 04:53 PM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
BAR
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Needville and Shiner, TX
Posts: 6,134
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ez2cDave
I always thought that Sheri would have looked so much better, without all those tattoo's.

Dave F.


Agree tats aren't my thing either... fugly things. Shame because she was a very attractive young woman...

Course given the reportedly rancorous divorce, well... might not be the most pleasant of people to live with ya know... and given her response afterwards when she started ripping people off by taking their money for kits costing several hundred bucks, and then not even sending them ANYTHING or just a box full of junk!

NO respect whatsoever for THIEVES, which is what that is, pure and simple. Sorry that folks fall on hard times, but outright THEFT is just not acceptable, or shouldn't be. Buy a pack of stamps and mail their orders back to them with their checks and call it a day...

Course, she wasn't the only one... those STINKING THIEVES at LAUNCH magazine got me plenty good... and just kept the money and ran...

Been plenty of other rocket companies go under-- some quit the business with CLASS (Semroc) and filled the remaining orders or sent people's money back... other's showed they were low class THIEVES and kept the money and RAN...

Later! OL J R
__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!
Reply With Quote
  #1292  
Old 09-23-2020, 04:53 PM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
BAR
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Needville and Shiner, TX
Posts: 6,134
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ghrocketman
The only thing LESS attractive than tattooed women are women that chew tobacco.

Yup! LOL OL J R
__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!
Reply With Quote
  #1293  
Old 09-23-2020, 06:01 PM
tdracer's Avatar
tdracer tdracer is offline
Scale Modeler Extrodinare
 
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: Everett, WA
Posts: 398
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by luke strawwalker
Red Arrow Hobbies bought the SHR line from her (or whomever had rights to it, assuming it was her) and the remaining stock, and started revamping the line probably about 10 years ago... I visited Red Arrow Hobbies one time when I was up in Michigan from Indiana on a sweet black cherry/farm equipment run, and he was kind enough to show me some of the stuff he got from Sheri as part of the deal-- all of it substandard and "unusable"... He told me the story and was in the process of having NEW masters made by an excellent modeler; these were complete with the ACTUAL scale details and were extremely accurate-- VERY nice master he showed me, absolutely NO COMPARISON to the substandard "that looks about right" masters that Sheri had been using (for instance, the windows on her Gemini capsule were COMPLETELY the wrong size and shape, and the screw detail on the "shingles" on the surface of the capsule were all wrong... his NEW master corrected ALL those deficiencies and added a LOT of detail totally missing from hers...

I forget the name of the guy who ran Red Arrow - but I emailed with him quite a bit after he took over the Sheri's line. He seemed to be working hard to improve the kits - new molds and better quality cast resin parts, upgraded parts (e.g. he replaced the vertical struts for the Little Joe II escape tower with carbon fiber rod instead of the original plastic), that sort of thing. But then Red Arrow went under as well, and I understand he also stiffed many people who paid for stuff they never received.
Reply With Quote
  #1294  
Old 09-23-2020, 06:47 PM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
BAR
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Needville and Shiner, TX
Posts: 6,134
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ltvscout
I could've sworn she had some bikini shots that were floating around as well. I seem to recall some TRF'ers being offended.


Yeah that was right after she divorced and moved to Hawaii, and she was using a squatting thong bikini shot for her avatar over there, which started a firestorm on the "8 year old birthday party" Terribly Run Forum...

That was about the time a lot of people started coming out of the woodwork wondering where the kits they'd paid several hundred bucks for were and WHY they hadn't received them, any explanation, and no refund and she refused to communicate with them, and hadn't for months. OF course the more questions that were asked, the more comments made (about the customer service issues AND/OR the picture issues on TRF) and the more criticism started the SHRILLER she became until she finally just dropped off the radar altogether and left a lot of people holding the bag, FWIU... some people received "boxes full of junk" from what I recall, and some people received ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. All I know after that is that Red Arrow eventually bought the line some time not too long before I visited his store and he told me about the situation (messy divorce and the move and all that-- and how she basically kept taking orders and money even as the parts ran out and she had no "pipeline" to get more, so people started getting a lot of substandard stuff and missing stuff or "junk", he told me how a buddy of her ex was a machinist making the aluminum retainer nozzles and once they went splitsville that arrangement abruptly ended leaving her without the nozzles... Basically they cut a deal and she had packed up everything that was left and shipped it all to him, and "most of it was junk" he said...

He showed the stuff she'd been sending out-- capsules with half the detail flat missing, because it'd been cast in molds that were past "worn out" where the detail was literally GONE... Plus the fact that they weren't really "Scale" just "scale-like" (TLAR-- that looks about right) the windows on the Gemini capsule were all wrong in size and shape, etc. He had commissioned new masters to be made and showed me the first molded part from the new master, which corrected all the mistakes made on the original molds and added TONS of detail... even screw heads on the Gemini capsule corrugated shingles on the outside of the spacecraft! It was a gorgeous part, and made the stuff she was sending out look absolutely shameful... He told me about the aluminum nozzle arrangement and he'd contacted the guy who made them trying to make a deal but he wasn't interested-- from what I understood he basically made them as a favor to her ex husband who was a buddy of his when he didn't have anything else going on, and he was done with messing with it. Everybody else he'd contacted about making them wanted an exorbitant price to machine the aluminum nozzles for the kits-- so much so that basically he said it would "double the price of the kits" which was already pretty high-priced, which would put them COMPLETELY out of the price point where he could sell enough to justify making them at all. He was still working on that issue at the time. He was saying he was gonna change the name of the kit line to differentiate it from the original substandard SHR stuff, since his retooling was going to make them essentially "all new kits" compared to the old ones... and to keep people who she'd stiffed from coming out of the woodwork looking for HIM to fulfill the orders that SHERI had stiffed them on...

Course, I heard a few years ago he kinda got himself into a pickle and Red Arrow is no more... Sad seemed like a nice enough guy-- but his business practices always were somewhat different than a lot of folks were used to, and that got him a lot of criticism...

Later! OL J R
__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!
Reply With Quote
  #1295  
Old 09-23-2020, 07:03 PM
ghrocketman's Avatar
ghrocketman ghrocketman is offline
President, MAYHEM AGITATORS, Inc.
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Nunya Bizznuss, Michigan
Posts: 13,443
Default

Crooked as they come... Scamulation DIRTBAG....and crappy products ta boot even BEFORE the molds were worn out.
__________________
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 !
Reply With Quote
  #1296  
Old 09-23-2020, 07:20 PM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
BAR
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Needville and Shiner, TX
Posts: 6,134
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by tdracer
I forget the name of the guy who ran Red Arrow - but I emailed with him quite a bit after he took over the Sheri's line. He seemed to be working hard to improve the kits - new molds and better quality cast resin parts, upgraded parts (e.g. he replaced the vertical struts for the Little Joe II escape tower with carbon fiber rod instead of the original plastic), that sort of thing. But then Red Arrow went under as well, and I understand he also stiffed many people who paid for stuff they never received.


Yeah I did a thread here about my visit to Red Arrow-- which was RIGHT after he got the SHR stuff from her after buying the line from her.

I drove up to Michigan to look at some farm equipment I was interested in and to get some sweet black cherries since they were in season at the time, and I knew RAH wasn't TOO far off the beaten path from where I was, so I decided to drop in and do a bit of "rocket shopping".

It took me a bit to find the place... honestly it looked like an old furniture or appliance store, or small supermarket that had gone out of business YEARS before, that he had rented and turned into a Red Arrow Hobbies... I remember the parking lot was bleached white, all the painted lines for parking were pretty much gone, grass was growing in the cracks of the parking lot, and the trees and bushes were all overgrown. The entryway was basically a glassed-in box on the front of the store, which I guess used to be common thing to store shopping carts and minimize snow blowing in or getting tracked in by people coming into the store... The glass door was propped open, as was the front door inside this entryway. At the end of the entryway was an office stacked nearly floor to ceiling with boxes, just enough room to get in there and work, and another huge stack of boxes were outside the door to this office, some labeled some not, so I assume that was the "shipping office" where the labels would be printed and postage paid for shipping the boxes out and arranging for pickup by UPS or FEDEX or whomever... There was a poorly dressed woman sitting in the office with some kids playing around her, fiddling with a computer, probably entering stuff to be shipped and printing labels I'd suppose... I turned and entered the store itself, and was immediately struck by HOW DARK it was inside... there were maybe two lights turned on in the entire store... most of the light was filtering in from the front entryway and the side door which was also propped open to allow a tiny bit of breeze to pass through the store, since there was NO AIR CONDITIONING either... He had TONS of kits, floor to ceiling, and several aisles of racks and stuff with various kits, tubes, supplies, parts, tools, motors, etc. from various manufacturers... One of the aisles was dedicated to home microbrewing, with various grains, malted barley, hops, and various other supplies, tools, and equipment needed to brew your own beer... More kits lined the side and rear wall of the store... The south wall had the propped open door in the corner, which was the best lit part of the store, and just enough room to walk past the end of a long glass case "counter" which was filled with various motors, reloads, cases, electronics, and the other "expensive fiddly bits" that RAH sold... most were of course in the original boxes as they'd been received from the respective manufacturers... About halfway down this glass case the boxes started, double rows of boxes standing open, with various amounts of stuff in them, and a printed order sheet on top, with the stuff in the boxes "checked off" the order list as they were filled. Dave (IIRC that was his name) would wander around the shop with one of these lists, picking stuff up off the shelves or out of the display case at the front, and drop them into the boxes and check it off... when he finished with one he'd double check everything and then stuff the sheet inside and fold the top down, and move it to a stack near the front to await labeling and prep for shipping. Another row of boxes behind him stood open, with their sheets sitting in the top of them-- he had an OLD computer at the end of the case in the corner that he'd pull up his orders and print them out and grab an empty box and start new orders... He told me that basically he only shipped ONE box per order, so if someone ordered something he was out of and had reordered but they hadn't arrived yet, he moved the box to the "back row" to await the arrival of the shipment of stuff he had ordered... THEN he would ship it out. Couldn't afford to ship what he had "in stock" and then ship "whatever was left" when it came in... SO that's why some people's orders were delayed a LONG TIME, sometimes weeks or even months, waiting for something that was backordered with the manufacturer to be made and delivered to him, so he could complete the order and ship the whole thing out at one time. I know he took a LOT of flack for that, because people thought it was just "poor customer service" but he had it figured out how to keep the prices down and sell stuff, and not get skinned on shipping... BUT the tradeoff was, "delayed service" if something you ordered was out of stock and awaiting arrival, and maybe "delayed for months" if it was on backorder... I know I read a post one time where a guy was complaining he'd ordered some motors and cases and kits and stuff from Red Arrow, including some motors he planned to use at an upcoming contest, and didn't receive his order for a couple months because one of the reload cases he'd ordered was on backorder, and so his "box" sat in the back row until the cases arrived from the manufacturer and he could drop one in the box, check it off, and set the box up front to be taped shut and labeled for shipping... It's not like it was any particular SECRET he did things that way; if someone NEEDED something "right away" they could always make a ONE ITEM ORDER and be *guaranteed* he'd ship it as soon as he boxed it up, ASSUMING he had it in stock when they ordered... but for multiple-item orders (especially ones with numerous items to get "reduced price" shipping or whatever) it didn't ship til EVERY ITEM was in the box!

Anyway, it was about 95 degrees that particular day, and the humidity from the forest and nearby lake was making it pretty miserable inside, so I bought a few things and split. We did have a nice little chat, and he showed me the Sheri's Hot Rockets stuff and told me the entire story on that, including the old parts vs. the new masters he was having done, as well as the 'nozzle problem' he was encountering.

Sorry that he went under-- seemed like he was "trying" but I also got the distinct impression he "marched to a different drummer" and that showed in how he did business and his lifestyle, which seemed to be pretty modest and frugal shall we say... which is okay... From what I heard his life situation got pretty difficult and things just sorta fell apart, and of course his business did as well.

Later! OL J R
__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!
Reply With Quote
  #1297  
Old 09-23-2020, 07:29 PM
luke strawwalker's Avatar
luke strawwalker luke strawwalker is offline
BAR
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Needville and Shiner, TX
Posts: 6,134
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ghrocketman
Crooked as they come... Scamulation DIRTBAG....and crappy products ta boot even BEFORE the molds were worn out.


Yeah... What was REALLY bad was, some people were shelling out several hundred bucks for some of her kits. Some of them were up around $500 or more IIRC... been a long time and I'm not into HPR so I can't recall-- I remember looking at them (and the "glamour shots") but not in the market for them just passing interest. SO, some people got taken for quite a ride when the check or money order is cashed and NO KIT(S) EVER COME. I don't think it's fair to call it "sob stories" either... Guess it always depends on WHOM is getting the shaft, though. Some folks seem to think as long as it's SOMEONE ELSE getting shafted, that it's "okay"...

Those STINKING ROTTEN THIEVES at LAUNCH magazine got me, thank goodness only for about $60 bucks... I trusted them and believed in their product and wanted to support it, and bought a 3 year subscription... and then got 2-3 issues before they trotted out their "sob story" about how they "couldn't afford" to produce the magazine and thus, were closing up shop, and basically everybody who had subscriptions got a fat greasy middle finger stuck in their face while they closed up shop and RAN like the SORRY THIEVES they were...

They never seemed to have a problem holding swanky soirees for bigshots or making fat contributions to "buy" their way into the inner circles and make themselves look like heroes, but when it came to actually PAYING THEIR BILLS and FULFILLING THEIR OBLIGATIONS, they were COMPLETE SCUMBAGS... which isn't surprising... there's a LOT of people who PRETEND to be rich and throw a lot of money around but can't even pay their bills and stiff people as a way of life....

Later! OL J R
__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!
Reply With Quote
  #1298  
Old 09-23-2020, 09:24 PM
ghrocketman's Avatar
ghrocketman ghrocketman is offline
President, MAYHEM AGITATORS, Inc.
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Nunya Bizznuss, Michigan
Posts: 13,443
Default

LAUNCH owners and Sheri's were cut from the same cloth.
Genuine DIRTBAGS.

RAH went out of business due to their crappy business and shipping policies.
Holding up shipment of an entire order due to a couple items being backordered is NEVER acceptable unless the customer EXPRESSLY authorizes it. If your costs are so tight, you deserve to be out of business. Ramshackle shamblized DUMP.
__________________
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 !
Reply With Quote
  #1299  
Old 09-23-2020, 10:04 PM
Vanel Vanel is offline
Master Modeler
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 878
Default

I placed a few orders with RAH. First couple went very well, but the last was delayed by over 2 months. After that I stopped buying from him, not because of the delay, but because the communication was so poor - he did not respond to my inquires until the order shipped, and even then gave no explanation for the delay.

A shame - I rather liked his parts assortments. Good quality and decent selection.
__________________
Up next:
Under construction:
Under repair:
In finishing: Centuri Sabre clone
In primer:
In paint:
Ready for decals:

Bill Cooke
NAR #31312
TRA #19705
SAM #0001
Huntsville, AL

My rocket blog
My rocket fleet
Reply With Quote
  #1300  
Old 09-24-2020, 06:09 AM
A Fish Named Wallyum A Fish Named Wallyum is offline
BP Mafia
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Ft. Thomas, KY
Posts: 8,596
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vanel
I placed a few orders with RAH. First couple went very well, but the last was delayed by over 2 months. After that I stopped buying from him, not because of the delay, but because the communication was so poor - he did not respond to my inquires until the order shipped, and even then gave no explanation for the delay.

A shame - I rather liked his parts assortments. Good quality and decent selection.

Loved the parts assortments. I bet I bought 15 or 20 of them over the years. Never had an issue, but my purchases were usually assortments and kits, not motors.
__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Design Contest F-150 Hurricane Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Gee'Hod, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Snake Jumper
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:57 AM.


Powered by: vBulletin Version 3.0.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Ye Olde Rocket Shoppe © 1998-2024