eBay win - Estes Star Wars Death Star Starter Set

I just won this starter set on eBay:
https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5985729478

It's an Estes Star Wars Death Star starter set, I presume from the early '90's, but the seller didn't say. It's still sealed in its original box.

The past couple of weeks, I've been looking at and bidding on old Star Wars kits and starter sets. This one went for $12.50 plus $8.95 shipping and handling, which seems pretty reasonable. Similar items, even open ones, have recently gone for over $20 plus shipping.

My sons have gotten really interested in Star Wars lately, and I just saw Episode III a couple of weeks ago.

I'm going to build this one.

Actually late 90s John, but I won't tell Darth about the mistake.

Originally posted by rokitflite
Actually late 90s John, but I won't tell Darth about the mistake.

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Thanks for the correction, Scott! I don't suppose you have 1 or 5 of these starter kits in your collection, do you? Or do you even collect starter kits?

From what I saw in Episode III, Darth is none too bright anyway, so he just might believe me if I told him that Padme sold me this starter set in the early 90's. The mere mention of Padme's name would bring up such strong feelings of guilt, resentment, and his really whiny form of anger, he'd be totally blinded to the truth.

Was anyone else just totally unconvinced that Anakin was evil? He seemed to be much more stupid and resentful than anything else, as far as I could tell.

Originally posted by JRThro


Was anyone else just totally unconvinced that Anakin was evil? He seemed to be much more stupid and resentful than anything else, as far as I could tell.

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I kinda got that too. No John, you now own
something that I never owned rocketwise. I do have starter sets, just not that one. I won't tell you what our store was selling those for several years ago!

Originally posted by rokitflite
I kinda got that too. No John, you now own something that I never owned rocketwise. I do have starter sets, just not that one. I won't tell you what our store was selling those for several years ago!

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Scott,

I would never have imagined in my wildest dreams that I'd ever own an OOP Estes kit that you don't have. I was looking at the pictures of your collection that you posted a while ago, and I did see a few Star Wars kits, including an NCR X-Wing Fighter.

I'm guessing you were selling the Death Star Starter Sets for more than $12.50 plus $8.95, am I right? Or were you clearing them out at much lower prices?

It was bad John. We over ordered that Star Wars stuff and it sold terribly. They started at like $30... didn't sell. They (and every other Star Wars starter set) got marked down to $19.99... Didn't sell. They went on the clearance sale we have every year where every Monday the clearance stuff goes down 10% until it gets to 80% off. We are supposed to mark stuff back up to full retail before the sale, but I left them at $19.99... They sold when the sale reached 70 and 80% off. A kid even came in to buy a launch controller, over $25 by ITSELF. I showed him the R2D2 set that was $8.99 at the time and came with EVERYTHING, he bought the launch controller anyway for $25!!! I did end up buying a couple sets for $4, but the Death Star was not one of them. Amazing.

our club has a kid kit giveaway each launch where there are more than 4 kids there.... my youngest son won a Death Star kit about 4 months ago... Its flown about 4 times now.. all of the kids love it when it "explodes"

i'm actually amazed how well the foam "ball" holds up to the ejection charges.

later
Jerryb

Originally posted by rokitflite
It was bad John. We over ordered that Star Wars stuff and it sold terribly. They started at like $30... didn't sell. They (and every other Star Wars starter set) got marked down to $19.99... Didn't sell. They went on the clearance sale we have every year where every Monday the clearance stuff goes down 10% until it gets to 80% off. We are supposed to mark stuff back up to full retail before the sale, but I left them at $19.99... They sold when the sale reached 70 and 80% off. A kid even came in to buy a launch controller, over $25 by ITSELF. I showed him the R2D2 set that was $8.99 at the time and came with EVERYTHING, he bought the launch controller anyway for $25!!! I did end up buying a couple sets for $4, but the Death Star was not one of them. Amazing.

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Originally posted by rokitflite
It was bad John. We over ordered that Star Wars stuff and it sold terribly. They started at like $30... didn't sell. They (and every other Star Wars starter set) got marked down to $19.99... Didn't sell. They went on the clearance sale we have every year where every Monday the clearance stuff goes down 10% until it gets to 80% off. We are supposed to mark stuff back up to full retail before the sale, but I left them at $19.99... They sold when the sale reached 70 and 80% off. A kid even came in to buy a launch controller, over $25 by ITSELF. I showed him the R2D2 set that was $8.99 at the time and came with EVERYTHING, he bought the launch controller anyway for $25!!! I did end up buying a couple sets for $4, but the Death Star was not one of them. Amazing.

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Yikes! (Also, where's my time machine?)

All of those Star Wars starter kits were on sale at ABSURD prices at K&B discount toys.

The Red Wing squadron was something like $6 or less.

The Best buy was the Darth Vader Tie fighter (with the angled solar panels) at 3 kits for $5!

Yea...I got a few.

Originally posted by sandman
All of those Star Wars starter kits were on sale at ABSURD prices at K&B discount toys.

The Red Wing squadron was something like $6 or less.

The Best buy was the Darth Vader Tie fighter (with the angled solar panels) at 3 kits for $5!

Yea...I got a few.

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The force is strong for this one...

I built one of these and really liked it. The only problem is the fins tend to snap real easily.

I thought about building a better 24mm booster for it but haven't done that yet.

BEWARE THE POOPY CLAY.

Motors from year A (the year of the episode 1 models and many of the other Star Wars kits that we were flooded with) have the white powdery poopy clay. Extremely dangerous to use in some models that are sensitive to low or vectored thrust.

Originally posted by JRThro
I just won this starter set on eBay:
https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5985729478

It's an Estes Star Wars Death Star starter set, I presume from the early '90's, but the seller didn't say. It's still sealed in its original box.

The past couple of weeks, I've been looking at and bidding on old Star Wars kits and starter sets. This one went for $12.50 plus $8.95 shipping and handling, which seems pretty reasonable. Similar items, even open ones, have recently gone for over $20 plus shipping.

My sons have gotten really interested in Star Wars lately, and I just saw Episode III a couple of weeks ago.

I'm going to build this one.

Click to expand...

As far as Star Wars goes I have not been able to get into the new movies. For one I don't care for the effects. There is just nothing like huge highly detailed models blowing the hell out of each other aka the original trilogy and the star trek movies(done by the same guys at ilm). Also, the kid who plays darth in the new movies just looks like a total punk to me. I avoided the first one due to it violating one of my rules of movie watching which is that it had an irritating little kid in it.

As far as clearance rockets goes I feel your pain fellow retailers... I bought around 750 dollars of wholesale inventory of estes kits then proceeded to sell them on ebay at slightly reduced retail prices. There is a husband and wife team on there who also sell and have been for a few years. I and about 3 other guys were their competition. At first there was a 'little' money to be made but quickly a bunch and I mean a bunch of other people jumped in and drove the prices down to zilch. You can get estes stuff on ebay right now for ridiculously low prices. I still have some inventory left and I listed some of it in the yard sale. If anyone wants some commanches, astrocams or sr71's cheap email me.. lol

Originally posted by shreadvector
BEWARE THE POOPY CLAY.

Motors from year A (the year of the episode 1 models and many of the other Star Wars kits that we were flooded with) have the white powdery poopy clay. Extremely dangerous to use in some models that are sensitive to low or vectored thrust.

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Then I probably should just trash the motors that come with the starter set, eh?

The large R2D2 flies fine on a D12-3 if you put in a 24mm MMT and add a bit of nose weight.

Originally posted by Zachary Lau
The large R2D2 flies fine on a D12-3 if you put in a 24mm MMT and add a bit of nose weight.

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How big are the large and small R2D2's, in case I ever see one of them?

The Large R2D2 is Estes 1301--it has a 4" body tube and is a skill level 2 kit--not a plastic RTF. A nicely painted one really gets the attention of the kids.

I used all of mine (many, many dozens of them) in clusters.

Cluster models that do not weigh very much (like Ranger clones) will use them quite nicely.

They are only dangerous on models that need every bit of thrust. when the thrust is degraded or vectored you have problems.

Originally posted by JRThro
Then I probably should just trash the motors that come with the starter set, eh?

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Originally posted by Zachary Lau
The Large R2D2 is Estes 1301--it has a 4" body tube and is a skill level 2 kit--not a plastic RTF. A nicely painted one really gets the attention of the kids.

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Cool. There are a couple of 1301's on eBay right now.

Be very careful about leaving your Droid out in the sun (or in the back seat of your car) on hot days. My clear plastic fins warped quite badly, and even repeated dunking in not quite boiling water didn't straighten them out. R2's last flight was a little erratic (yeah I could tell the difference between that and the normal flight profile) and ended up snapping one of the fins.

kj

I have a Death Star that I have flown five times. When it works right, the "explosion" effect is really cool! Some advice:

• Do NOT fly it in windy conditions. It will arch badly. Mine ejected at zero altitude with a C6-3 engine.
• Avoid long-burn low-thrust engines.
• Consider modifying the booster to use 24mm engines. The short-duration high-thrust burn of a C11-3 would probably be great.
• B6-2 works well. B6-4 delay is too long.

Originally posted by BobCox
I have a Death Star that I have flown five times. When it works right, the "explosion" effect is really cool! Some advice:

• Do NOT fly it in windy conditions. It will arch badly. Mine ejected at zero altitude with a C6-3 engine.
• Avoid long-burn low-thrust engines.
• Consider modifying the booster to use 24mm engines. The short-duration high-thrust burn of a C11-3 would probably be great.
• B6-2 works well. B6-4 delay is too long.

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Thanks for the pointers, Bob.

Originally posted by LtSharpe
I avoided the first one due to it violating one of my rules of movie watching which is that it had an irritating little kid in it.

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LOL! I'll bet Terminator II was a big hit with you

Originally posted by JRThro
Cool. There are a couple of 1301's on eBay right now.

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There is also the 15th anniversary version, Estes 2104, that is a re-issue of the same rocket. I bought three from a local hobby shop on closeout--the owner was quite happy to see them go.

Originally posted by rokitflite
LOL! I'll bet Terminator II was a big hit with you

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Even better, an irritating little teenaged boy!

Admittedly one who would grow up to (do his damnedest to) save mankind, but still...

Well, the mailman brought the package to my door on Thursday, and I had it opened up in less than a minute! Everything looks like it's in great shape, and as of Saturday morning I have the motor mount finished and glued in, plus the 4 fins mounted, with fillets drying on 2 of them now.

Can anyone tell me why this kit has through the wall fin mounting? Not that I'm complaining; it works great and really kept the fins perpendicular to the body tube when I glued them on.

Also, the yellow launch pad seems a bit more... robust than the black one I got with the Stars and Stripes starter set I bought at Hobby Lobby last summer. So that's a good thing. But the yellow launch controller seems even cheaper/ junkier than the black one I got with the Stars and Stripes.

Originally posted by rokitflite
LOL! I'll bet Terminator II was a big hit with you

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That kid fell into a different class all together,, he was in the 'irritating little punk' category. T3 was MUCH better. Now if arnold would just quit being the governator and go back to what he was meant to do,, do t4 and play King Conan(yes there is a movie called King Conan which was put on hold because of arnolds political ambitions.)

Originally posted by JRThro
Can anyone tell me why this kit has through the wall fin mounting? Not that I'm complaining; it works great and really kept the fins perpendicular to the body tube when I glued them on.

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This is a nice kit even without the Death Star mounted on it.

The TTW fins are cool, and the body is a nice length of 2 BT-50's with a coupler to join them. Right now I have an extra Estes No. 2 Skywriter pencil nose cone on it, just because it looks cool and silly.

Hmm... if I paint the pencil nose cone black and come up with Star Wars-ish stickers or decals, I could have two versions of this rocket: One with the Death Star sections and one with a normal nose cone. Just make the nose cone removable by using a snap swivel, which I would have used to attach the parachute anyway... hmm...

I wonder if the plastic fins on an Estes No. 2 Skywriter are big enough for that rocket to be stable with a Death Star instead of the stock nose cone? Probably so, if it's stable with the pencil nose cone on it... and I have a spare Skywriter kit on hand.


So, the current state of the Death Star build is that the motor mount is built and installed, the two BT-50's are joined together, the fins are mounted and filleted with yellow glue, the Elmer's Wood Filler (thinned with water) is painted on, dried, and sanded. The fins are nice and smooth and the joint between the two sections of BT-50 is almost invisible.

Next step is to mount the launch lugs, then prime and paint the rocket, then assemble the Death Star wedges and paint them. Then assemble and install the parachute, attach the big Star Wars sticker to the body tube, and voila!

Those TTW fins are really cool, btw.

I'd like to have this rocket done by Saturday, when my club will be having a launch.

Id like to see someone do a upscale of the death star something like it would fly on a K550 or something

They have.

It's called "Bowling Ball Lofting".

"AMF"

Originally posted by Bowhunter
Id like to see someone do a upscale of the death star something like it would fly on a K550 or something

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