Bout tyme a REAL hobby company took ownership of Estes instead of it being ran/owned by a former plastic TOY maker. The last ownership seemed to be bent in doing exactly the opposite of what made sense to hobbyists. Proud to lead the company for the last 19 years ??? WTH, it was lead by the previous administration RIGHT INTO A DITCH !
They catered to consumers and appeared to care very little about their actual loyal customers. Hopefully it will go back to being ran like a hobby business that caters to rocket people instead of the whims of Wal-mutt. Hopefully the previous owners will have ZERO real "consulting" ability, and if they have any, hopefully Hobbico will do the exact OPPOSITE of their advice.
Maybe now we can get some REAL variety in the SU BP engine offerings such as the return of the B14, B8, and C5 lines, small 1/2a and A booster engines, and maybe some sort of port-burning 24mm offering.
Who do we need to converse with to get them to start making REAL DRILLED-CORE B14's again ???
And nobody needs to chime in with that stinkin' mamby-pamby safety bunk/guff arguement against them either as that holds zero water in my book as the process could be AUTOMATED....

Maybe Hobbico/Great Planes will bring back the Cox products and engines too...

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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, TURMOIL, FIASCOS, and HAVOC !

GH! Watch the blood pressure there bud... Tell us what you REALLY think

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Scott

NAR #32070

My fear is that the exact opposite will happen. Knowing the electronics distribution business fairly well, I can surmise how the hobby distribution business is run - by a bunch of accountants. Which makes me wonder if the portfolios won't shrink instead of grow. We could be left with nothing but A8-3s, B6-4s, C6-5s, and D12-5s But I surely hope that's not the case...and/or that other vendors step up with some new products.

Doug

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YORF member #11

The why business is run today, if it doesn't make a million a year, dump it...

I hope you aren't saying the sky just fell, but you may be right, Doug.


On another note: Time to get out that motor making machine, Carl.

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Enjoy life, it has an expiration date.

Having worked in the hobby industry and being active in many other flying hobbies I can say that the trend for Hobbico and Great Planes both has been to offer what the market wants. That could be good or bad. The trend in R/C was to offer more RTF stuff to satisfy the market. They still offer high quality kits and the RTF stuff is actualy of good quality but the number of kit offerings has suffered. I can't say if it's because the market wanted fewer kits or they just couldn't support full production runs of both. No question we would love to see more real rocket kits with the Estes label on the shelves And more motors goes without saying. I think if we, the market, offer realistic positive oppinions, wants and needs, the company will respond.

If the need a consultant they should be talking to Vern Estes.

Mario

This is the scenario that ran through my mind when we first started hearing of this. Based on what Hobbico has done with some of the other brands it has acquired, this is certainly one possible scenario. OTOH, at least the rockets part of the current Estes-Cox "package" doesn't compete with other Hobbico brands. That could help.

It does make me wonder what, if anything, they'll do with Sterling and Pica as well...

Can't be any worse than has already been done...

When was the last time anyone saw a Sterling or Pica kit on the shelves?

Or even a Pica ad in a magazine?

I always thought Estes squandered Sterling and Cox by not combining those lines together. They should have complemented each other, rather than just be two separate lines under one roof...

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Craig McGraw

BARCLONE Rocketry -- http://barclone.rocketshoppe.com
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BARCLONE Forum -- BARCLONE Forum

BARs helping BARs

SAM 0044
AMA 352635

Agreed..... what has happened to Cox is just plain terrible. Sterling...well, the only Sterling kit I ever had was die crunched really hard balsa and the resulting parts didn't fit allt hat well....and the only Pica product I've ever had was a bottle of Gluit (which was great stuff and would probably be good rocket-building glue).