estes saturn 1b

[lw_hughes]

I see one of these on Ebay, seems these have been pretty sought after for years. Im puzzled why estes doesnt reproduce some kits for which there is obviously high demand. This and the shuttle?

[sodmeister]

Hmmmmm.....yah ,you tell me.There are a wack of cool scale kits that many would give a left onion for !

Wish I had a time machine ,I`d buy multiple kits of the ones I want (and there would be many)

Paul

[GlennW]

Fellas, the problem is this: There would be plenty of demand from guys like us, the thing is, there are not enough guys like us out there, i.e. people who would go for a true "builder's kit." The easy to build and ready to fly stuff is what the masses will buy. For Estes to justify the costs of tooling, molds etc, they would have to sell a lot more than they're going to sell, or price it way too high. Just not feasible I'm afraid, but I'm with you on the sentiment, as I sit here casting an admiring glance at my Estes Space shuttle, Mercury Atlas, and LTV Scout....

Glenn

[stantonjtroy]

Sad but true. Fortunately we have companys like Semroc and Appogee.

Fellas, the problem is this: There would be plenty of demand from guys like us, the thing is, there are not enough guys like us out there, i.e. people who would go for a true "builder's kit." The easy to build and ready to fly stuff is what the masses will buy. For Estes to justify the costs of tooling, molds etc, they would have to sell a lot more than they're going to sell, or price it way too high. Just not feasible I'm afraid, but I'm with you on the sentiment, as I sit here casting an admiring glance at my Estes Space shuttle, Mercury Atlas, and LTV Scout....

Glenn

[NAR29996]

Still waiting impatiently for a 1:100 Saturn 1B.

[sodmeister]

Market demands ,why make it if it does not sell...too bad ,but very true.

That`s why i`m getting into cloning

BB

[Zack Lau]

If I recall correctly they lost a lot of molds in a fire. Molds for injection molded plastic is still quite expensive to make.

While injection molded parts are cheap to manufacture once you have the molds--it is rarely practical to store a large inventory of parts. You have a similar situation with books--many titles are closed out at discount to avoid having to pay inventory taxes.

[dlazarus6660]

Cloning is the way to go like sodmeister said. I have a Saturn 1B kit by Kosroc from Damon Kostron. I got one of the last ones he produced.
Kosroc has been out of rocketry for almost ten years now.
So now I clone most of my rockets and get most of my supplies from a local rocketry dealer and all my info from JimZ's and YORF plans.

[DeWain]

Still waiting impatiently for a 1:100 Saturn 1B.

Both Semroc and Estes *may* introduce a 1/100 scale Saturn 1B this year. Estes did have one in the works, but it is not clear if they will commercialize it (there was a rumor of a 1/70th scale kit that never did see the light of day). Estes was recently sold to Hobbico, which may or may not result in more "builders" kits. The sale may (or may not) delay planned new releases.

Semroc does have serious plans for a 1/100 scale Saturn 1B, but it is not definite. If Estes come out with one, Semroc may not want to. I am very glad that Semroc produces builders kits and classic clones for people like us, no matter how few we may be.

I am definitely planning on buying a 1/100 Saturn IB. I was going to clone one, but now I will wait to see if a kit becomes available.

[Stymye]

I see one of these on Ebay, seems these have been pretty sought after for years. Im puzzled why estes doesnt reproduce some kits for which there is obviously high demand. This and the shuttle?

semroc has the saturn 1-b


http://www.semroc.com/Store/scripts/...s.asp?SKU=KS-1