Any love for the Estes Big Foot Launch Pad?

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K'Tesh

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My first launch controller and pad was the Estes Big Foot Launch Pad. It was part of the Sizzler (1906) starter set (no. 1432). I wish that I could find the battery box, and legs of my old pad, but it seems that it's long gone now. I found the launch controller, and I've got parts (but not the time) to build a 6V battery box for it.

So, how many else started out with this launch pad?

Pointy Side Up!
Jim
 
I didn't exactly start out with the Big Foot but I had one in the early 1980s.

I had gotten into model rocketry in the late 60s via my Junior High School rocketry club. When the summer came and the school equipment was no longer available, some of us built a launch system using the big lantern batteries but mostly we used Jet-Ex wick for ignition (the recommended "hook up to a car battery" system would have meant adult supervision - who wants that?). We were all out of it in a couple of years.

When I moved to Western New York for a job, I got back into it and bought a Big Foot starter kit. It was a great, self-contained system that was easy to use and kept me interested for another couple of years. I didn't know of any organized clubs and none of the other engineers were interested in rocketry so all that stuff got left behind somewhere.

I wish I had the rockets and the Big Foot from that time. I'd still launch with clubs but that was one of the better products Estes put out for launching.
 
I started out with a scrap of plywood, a 1/8" welding rod, salvaged two-conductor wire, alligator clips, and the battery in the family '67 Impala...but the first commercial pad I got was the Bigfoot. And...I'm still using it. Its pieces fit in my big toolbox/range box. That has always been a great pad. Low center of gravity, works with 1/8" and 3/16" rods...only minus is being so close to the ground. Of course, an old card table helps with that :)
 
I started with the exact same set, bigfoot and 1906 Sizzler. Lots of good memories from that pad, wherever it ended up.

-Hans
 
I didn't start out with one,but like Kenn I got one around '82-'83ish. I went to a hobby shop with my dad ( he was into model railroading at the time ) and they had an "open box special"on a Big Foot pad. It was missing the rocket kit and the controller but everything else was still there (even the motors!). I think I got it for like 4 or 5 bucks, what a steal!!
I still have it and use it, it's my go-to pad for larger/taller rockets. Much love for the Big Foot pad here;)
 
I still have my yellow Port-A-Pad from ?1990? I prefer it over the new "lightning bolt" legged versions you find nowadays.
 
I started out with the Big Foot. It came in a kit with the Big Red Max rocket. I use a different launch controller now but still use the rod and legs from Big Foot.
 
My first launch controller and pad was the Estes Big Foot Launch Pad. It was part of the Sizzler (1906) starter set (no. 1432). I wish that I could find the battery box, and legs of my old pad, but it seems that it's long gone now. I found the launch controller, and I've got parts (but not the time) to build a 6V battery box for it.

So, how many else started out with this launch pad?

Pointy Side Up!
Jim

How interested are you in a Big Foot??
I have one in my subterranian hobby shop(basement)
Maybe we can work something out.
PM me
Mark T
 
Hi Mark,

I'm interested, but unfortunately, I really need to work on other priorities (e.g. Graduating).

Bob, if you want it, I'll not stand in the way.

Thanks for the offer though!

All the Best!
Jim
 
I started rocketry in early 90's so it was the yellow Estes Portapad II.
Few years ago I bought a launch set that included the Big Foot launch pad but all i wanted was the sizzler :)
Not sure if I have a use for the launch pad. Might end up selling it.
 
This is the launcher I started with in 1980. Strangely enough....at that time in our community only Centuri products were available...and it was a few years later before I discovered Estes.

untitled.png
 
This is the launcher I started with in 1980. Strangely enough....at that time in our community only Centuri products were available...and it was a few years later before I discovered Estes.
I have one of those (along with the Bigfoot I just got, and a Purple porta pad.along with my stash of MRC amd MPC items.
Mr. Bob
Countyline Hobbies
Grovertown, IN.
576-540-1123
[email protected]
www.countylinehobbies.com
 
I never had one, but I saw this Thread come up in New Posts so many times that I had to see what one was.
There were no Pics' of one, and I found that frustrating.
So, for the sake of anyone here, that like me, does not even know what the Big Foot looks like, I went and googled an Image.:

82est52.jpg
 
My first launch pad was an Estes Electro-Launch. It was a red plastic box that you could wire for either 6 or 12 volts (4 or 8 D Cells). It came as part of an Alpha starter kit, the real Alpha with balsa fins and nosecone.
Worked really well for its time, launched a lot of rockets off of that little thing.

https://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/nostalgia/69est086.html
 
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This is the launcher I started with in 1980. Strangely enough....at that time in our community only Centuri products were available...and it was a few years later before I discovered Estes.

I started with a PowrPad in 1978. Still have it and got two more, One CIB and one modified with a relay and rechargeable battery in a hollowed-out Lantern Battery painted with the proper Red "Everready" paint scheme. This one has a 30-ft lead wire that is red, orange, yellow twisted and fits around the control and still fits in the holder. The 30'ft is for mid-power. Best commercial modroc launch pad design ever. Lee Piester signed it last year for me.

I also have a NIB Sealed PowrControl that the controller and packaging look brand new. Hard to do with cellophane from 1978. Easy to have a lot of Centuri stuff growing up in Phoenix.

I have an Estes Solar controller, assembled, unused, as well. I may use it for my wireless controller project as the handheld portion... That or a reproduction TOS phaser.

I got a Bigfoot about 15 years ago when I was in my "collect all the **** from the 70's" phase as a BAR. I probably oughtta sell it What's it worth? Has the deflector and two piece rod.
 
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been looking for a complete set for years... if anyone has one they want to sell let me know..
 
I started with the "Bigfoot" launch pad that came as part of the Estes Star Wars X-wing kit WAY back in the mid-70's(?)

Don't know what happened to it but I think my mom might have thrown it out, along with all my rockets, at some point or another after deeming them "too dangerous" *sigh*
 
I had never seen a rocket launch, but my Mom bought me the Sizzler Bigfoot combo when I was twelve, 31 years ago. Best dog goned gift ever! And I doubt that it will ever be topped. Still have the Sizzler. :)
 
My apologies in advance for digging up a two year old thread, but stumbled across this thread and just had to register to add my "Tribute to the BigFoot" launch set. For the real sentimentalist (which I borderline myself sometimes) perhaps a sacrilege, else a slightly creative repurposing of a broken launch pad.

I hadn't launched a model rocket in 25 years, but thoroughly enjoyed this very set-up in my youth. Long story why I just had to show my wife one in action recently (and more recently the neighbor kids enjoyed a launch too) - but I dug up the old launch set. 25 years in a closet with my mom stuffing more things on top of it did no favors - a broken leg, and broken rod clamp/part missing. Some creative gluing my have brought it back to life, but thought I'd see whether a whole set was on sale at the hobby shop.
Recalling how stable the old BigFoot was with those 4 D batteries adding ballast, the PortaPad set-up in the complete kits seemed way too light. But they had a great sale on an Estes Spirit and the Booster for it. Yeah, I'm sure there's always a sale on some rocket, in hopes you'll be back to buy engines, but I digress. Anyway, with that D12-0 booster, the big deflector plate on the PortaPad-E had caught my attention - still not as stable, to my grandiose recollection anyway, as the BigFoot, but seemed better than a messy glue attempt, and that big deflector plate did seem nice. Oh, the Spirit comes with 1/8 guide, but a small mod had it in business for the 1/4 rod.

Anyway, still trying to keep it on the cheap, I wasn't going to spring for a $30.00 controller, and, like my recollection of the launch pad (admittedly again memories often grow fonder) the "A" cell ones just looked cheesy. I was now sure my controller was close enough to usable.

Well, it was CLOSE to usable. The wires were beyond even a single use. But I had a roll of 4 conductor 16ga copper trailer light wire....hmmmmm; split 15ft to two 2conductor: 15ft to the "battery box" another 15ft to the controller; plenty of distance...... I had a couple new alligator clamps handy; why not! That 16 wire needed a little drilling to get into the handset, but with drill in hand I made a hole for a key fob too - a chunk of the old wire and a wire clamp became the fob and replacement for the long lost key.

WOWWW! I'm sure it's more the 16ga copper than D vs. A cells, but when I tested an ignitor, the lag time wasn't even discernible. Launches have been just as snappy. I suspect the new ignitors take a bit less voltage than 30 years ago too, but reading comments about the new controllers on the Estes website, there a still longer (from happy reviewers) lag times than the one or two count I recall.

Yeah, I know a portable battery charger, and all sorts of other options, many of which I probably also had on hand, would have been even easier and even more reliable. But the mix of old and new, with a little modifying seemed cool to me. :cool:

BFLaunchControl.jpg
 
I'd forgotten about this thread.

I managed to acquire an unassembled Big Foot early last year, so it joined the "Classic GSE" at our annual "Classic Model" themed club launch last September.

Yes, having 4 D cells in it and the low and wide legs makes it very stable.

Third from the left in this group shot. It launched its first rockets that day. The Electro-Launches had been out a couple of times before, and the Tilt-A-Pad and Solar Launch Controller are from my first rocketry period (ending in about 1974). The Powr-Tower also launched its first rocket that September day.

IMG_0368.jpg
 
I managed to acquire an unassembled Big Foot early last year, so it joined the "Classic GSE" at our annual "Classic Model" themed club launch last September.

Neat classic line-up! Thank you for sharing the photo!

The BigFoot does look a bit vertically challenged next to that Tilt-A-Pad, but I don't recall ever finding it a problem. I never figured out whether the holes in the feet were to screw it to something even wider, screwing on height extension, or just to look like they had a purpose.

I do recall wishing for banana jacks or screw connectors (like a model train controller) or something to easily swap burnt-up clamp wires, but I'm sure it would have added to the initial price. Also, new leads would have been one more thing to stack against my meager 1980s teenage budget for engines; a little electrical tape kept it going back then. :)

Noting cost, I wonder if the BigFoot was still a domestic unit, or was already imported. Even the deflector plate on the Porta-Pad E is stamped from halfway around the world.
 
I still have a Sizzler starter set with the Big Foot pad. I had removed the motors as my stuff had been moved several times in the military and retirement. I had another Big Foot pad that was stolen out of a friend's storage unit along with other launchers. I thought that the Big Foot was the best LPR pad available.

Chas
 
I never figured out whether the holes in the feet were to screw it to something even wider, screwing on height extension, or just to look like they had a purpose.

They were there for you to stake the pad down so it wouldn't tip over with a heavy rocket or wind gusts. I used sections of coat hangers bent like candy canes.

kj
 
They were there for you to stake the pad down so it wouldn't tip over with a heavy rocket or wind gusts. I used sections of coat hangers bent like candy canes.kj

Thanks for the insight! Seems obvious, but I never needed it. A few multistage, but nothing even mid-power. Usually, when the wind blows around here - well, it blows! My work around back then was wait for a calmer day, or in moderate wind I sometimes enjoyed tumble recovery A-engine rockets - which still took a little chasing.
 
My first launch controller and pad was the Estes Big Foot Launch Pad. It was part of the Sizzler (1906) starter set (no. 1432). I wish that I could find the battery box, and legs of my old pad, but it seems that it's long gone now. I found the launch controller, and I've got parts (but not the time) to build a 6V battery box for it.

So, how many else started out with this launch pad?

Pointy Side Up!
Jim
I had one and wish I could get another.
 
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