I was in my local hobby shop yesterday, and they told me that their main distributor notified them of 5 more discontinued Estes kits. They are:

#2169 Dragonite
#2452 Athena (still available in the #5304 launch set)
#7283 MAV (currently in the Estes warehouse sale)
#7297 Mars Leaper (we all knew that would happen)
#7301 Green Eggs (surprising, but still available in the #1718 bulk pack)

In good news, Estes is asking distributors to place initial orders for #9722 So Long, which generally indicates release by late February or sometime in March.

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turbofireball
NAR 25162
SAM 0278

Good riddance to all of those except the Green Eggs.
If they want ideas for new kits, they should look through any catalog from 1967 to 1987.

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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 !

Saw the Green Eggs OOP coming because I purchased BT-65 parts recently. One of the tubes arrived crimped and I attempted to get a replacement. Estes told me that there aren't anymore BT-65 tubes available and that they won't be getting anymore. I did get a refund for the tubes and couplers that I ordered, which I got to keep. That sort of telegraphed what was going to happen next.

Many of those E2X type rockets seem come and go, don't they?

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-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

Yes. Plenty of kits during that time that had sales figures that kept them in production for more than a few years.

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-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

Oh! Green Eggs has become one of my favorites — it's a real workhorse for all kids of payload experiments (say, testing four altimeters at once, for example). My first one was destroyed on its 36th flight by a D12 CATO. The replacement is "out for delivery" as I type this.

I will have to get at least a couple more while I still can.

I wonder if this "no more BT-65" business is another fallout from the changes at the Euclid/Paramount paper tube company. It seems odd that Estes would have developed those blow-molded parts for the Green Eggs/Olympus if they had known the basic body tube would become unavailable.

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

It does seem odd. The contraction in product diversity foreshadows something. Not sure what, but something...

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-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

I think this will become an ongoing issue in the future. Possibly certain body tube sizes will no longer be available.

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Bob
S.A.M. # 0014

Maybe Estes needs to buy their own tube factory like they did the Goex black powder factory.

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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 !

Agreed!

Huh, that was interesting. During the vNARCON Manufacturer’s Forum Ellis Langford was asked about BT-65 tubes/kits (I believe by you Bernard) and unless I heard/saw incorrectly Estes isn’t discontinuing the tube or the kits.

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John Scott B.

NAR #102949/L1