What are your least favorite (or most hated) rocket designs?

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Orien

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I see many people pay good money and spend hours and even days to build some of these rockets and I'm like, "You knew it would be that ugly before you started!" This is all a matter of opinion, of course, but where better to share an opinion than on the internet!

Here are some of my least favorite rocket features:

  1. Dull, rounded off nose cones.
  2. Rectangular fins, especially if they come off at a 45 degree angle (looks like a child's drawing to me).
  3. Short, stubby rockets.
  4. Split fins (unless part of a scale model kit).
  5. Lame paint jobs (especially neon pink ones).
  6. Rockets designed to be under-powered so they fly low and slow.
How about you? What leaves you shaking your head when you see it? Again, not talking about construction techniques or anything, just design and finish. I'm curious how many posts it will take before someone describes what they hate most and it's my preferences!

002442_Mini Fat Boy.png
Just... no.
 
I love the Fat Boy!

Why? Because it's short, fat, and fly's low and slow!

That means I can launch and recover it in a small field, It will be in my fleet for a long time and provide lots of fun flying.
Also when my kids were much younger It was an easy kit for them to build, paint, and fly.

It's easily modded for up to a D, or clustering.

Heck, on an A8-3 it's almost a backyard flyer!

For me, I find anything long, thin, pointy, 3/4 small fins un interesting.

But thats just me.
 
I love the Fat Boy!

Why? Because it's short, fat, and fly's low and slow!

That means I can launch and recover it in a small field, It will be in my fleet for a long time and provide lots of fun flying.
Also when my kids were much younger It was an easy kit for them to build, paint, and fly.

It's easily modded for up to a D, or clustering.

Heck, on an A8-3 it's almost a backyard flyer!

For me, I find anything long, thin, pointy, 3/4 small fins un interesting.

But thats just me.

I agree there's a fine line between "thin and pointy" and "sleek and sexy". I have a 3" LOC Iris that's a little over 5 feet tall. Probably one of my favorite profiles.
 
You're going to make enemies here by hating on the Fat Boy. :p

Being a guy who mostly picks his kits based on "function" (does it do anything besides woosh-pop?), the single thing I hate the most is seeing a set of fins on a kit midway up the body tube and only later realizing the kit is not a two-stage. The Estes Red Nova is a prime example of this. This dislike of mine does not extend to scale models like the AMRAAM.

I'll still buy a single motor woosh-pop kit if there's something interesting about it. Mean Machine and Fat Boy's differing flight characteristics are interesting to watch, and the Red Max is an overall fun aesthetic to play with, decals included. Estes's "Designer Signature Series" is super interesting to me and I picked up Orange Bullet as soon as it came out, and I'll be picking up the Antar soon as well.
 
You're going to make enemies here by hating on the Fat Boy. :p

Being a guy who mostly picks his kits based on "function" (does it do anything besides woosh-pop?), the single thing I hate the most is seeing a set of fins on a kit midway up the body tube and only later realizing the kit is not a two-stage. The Estes Red Nova is a prime example of this. This dislike of mine does not extend to scale models like the AMRAAM.

I'll still buy a single motor woosh-pop kit if there's something interesting about it. Mean Machine and Fat Boy's differing flight characteristics are interesting to watch, and the Red Max is an overall fun aesthetic to play with, decals included. Estes's "Designer Signature Series" is super interesting to me and I picked up Orange Bullet as soon as it came out, and I'll be picking up the Antar soon as well.
I'm in total agreement with your first paragraph. But the Orange Bullet would never appeal to me. The Antar is pretty cool, though. I'd likely never get one, but I find it visually appealing. I guess I'm into the more prototypical sounding rocket designs like my LOC Iris.
 
I'm going to gather some hate here too, but for me it's any rocket with a BT-5 body tube. So your Wizard, Yankee, Viking, Hi-Flier, etc.....

This feature alone has caused me more grief with recovery than anything else. Doesn't matter how well I pack, I always struggle to get chutes and streamers to actually come out of the tube. I'll fly A8's with glee, but only of it's got a 24mm or larger body tube.

-Hans
 
I'm sure I'm going to catch some hate for this too, but I've never understood the appeal of the Der Red Maxes. The shape/design is fine, but the decals. Didn't that side lose both wars? On the other hand, the thread up right now with the invasion stripes is kinda fun.

Otherwise, I'm mainly down on the Wizard. I never could keep the fins on that thing, even on soft fields.
 
I think I have seen at least one example of just about every possible design element that I have liked. I normally gravitate towards pointy noses, but there are plenty of blunt-nosed designs that I like.

I have always found the Big Bertha to be homely, and have no affinity towards it. But I don't hate it.

For me, it's a lot like interior design styles: I have my own preferences, but I've seen examples of just about every different style that I have liked, because they were executed well.

From a purely practical standpoint in my own builds, I mostly (but not completely) avoid anything that requires me to stuff a parachute into a tube smaller than BT55.
 
Here are some of my least favorite rocket features:

  1. Dull, rounded off nose cones.
  2. Rectangular fins, especially if they come off at a 45 degree angle (looks like a child's drawing to me).
  3. Short, stubby rockets.
As Steve Martin would say, "Well, excuuuuuuuuuse me"!
Here's a cool stubby rocket built a few days ago.
Launch Labs Bullet Bobby.
See my signature.
;)
0302210625[1].jpg
 
Anything made of plastic / printed parts
I was going to post that there really isn’t a design or feature I dislike. Then your post, I flashed back helping my 6YO build his Amazon from the Tandem X starter set and realized, I really dislike the plastic prefab stuff. OK, I get it for young ones starting out....but still.
 
I can't pick out specific design features so I'll just pick 3 rockets that seem to be popular, but I don't understand why:
  • Fat Boy
  • Big Bertha
  • Der Red Max
If they didn't have fans, I would never have noticed them.
 
Anything made of plastic / printed parts
and realized, I really dislike the plastic prefab stuff. OK, I get it for young ones starting out....but still.
I used to feel that way until I put together a couple of the Boyce Aerospace kits.
Sometimes you feel like pizza, sometimes you feel like filet mignon.
 
I don't see the appeal of the Big Bertha either and don't care for the sidekick as well.. That's okay though, I won't buy them so that's more kits for people who like them.
 
I can't pick out specific design features so I'll just pick 3 rockets that seem to be popular, but I don't understand why:
  • Fat Boy
  • Big Bertha
  • Der Red Max
If they didn't have fans, I would never have noticed them.

Love the Fat Boy.
Don't like Bertha (but if somebody else likes it, that's fine)
Max is neither hot nor cold.

If you want to build it and fly it, I'll watch. I may not get as excited as you, but that's OK.
 
I like the Max, but the Der Red Max is a weird one to fly. Can't get off the rod on an A, you chase it for a half mile on a C. It really needs a smaller chute to make it viable.

Love the MDRM though. Upscaling it did that design a world of benefit.

-Hans
 
I can't pick out specific design features so I'll just pick 3 rockets that seem to be popular, but I don't understand why:
  • Fat Boy
  • Big Bertha
  • Der Red Max
If they didn't have fans, I would never have noticed them.
The fat rockets are popular with me because I'm old and can see them more easily, they don't go too far and get lost, and my recovery walks are shorter.
 
I feel that I prefer the opposite of most people in this forum. I'm going to make a lot of enemies with my opinions here, but oh well! I love simple, clean 3-4NC rockets, and they make good canvases for cool paint jobs. So on that note....hot takes incoming:

-Bertha models are pretty ugly. The name is also dumb. (I got a Baby Bertha to see what the hype was about. It's...fine)
-Der Red Max. Dumb name, dumber decals. General shape is fine. I don't understand the hype here.
-Goblin: See above, Re: DRM

I'm also not a fan of scale models of mid-century rockets. e.g. Little Joe, Saturn, etc. I understand their significance, but they don't do anything for me, especially if they require clear plastic fins to fly.

Lastly, I hate the pseudo sci-fi rockets with lots of complicated tubes, fins, and cockpit window decals. Interceptor? Astron Explorer? Explorer Aquarius? 🤮

Now that I think of it, my preferences can be described as the complete opposite of Kuririn! 😅
 
I'm sure I'm going to catch some hate for this too, but I've never understood the appeal of the Der Red Maxes. The shape/design is fine, but the decals. Didn't that side lose both wars? On the other hand, the thread up right now with the invasion stripes is kinda fun.

Otherwise, I'm mainly down on the Wizard. I never could keep the fins on that thing, even on soft fields.
Love the BBZ!! M'eh on the DRM.. both feature 'those' markings..
 
Rockets modeled after jets, that are typical with 2 engines, but the rocket only has one.. central: SR-71

I'm not a fan of massive downscales of full sized one either, that just don't fly right: Saturn V, Shuttle, Orion, etc..


and this thread is akjn to:
(some gonna love it, some gonna hate it..)
Ford vs. Chevy
NASCAR vs Indy
Bass vs. Trout
Bluegrass vs. Country
Rocketpoxy vs. West systems
 
What makes the DRM aesthetic interesting to me isn't so much the decals it comes with, but the decals it inspires. See the Max section on the Stickershock23 website. I had Stickershock make me this pope-themed Max, with all the text in latin, papal crosses, a Vatican secret archive seal, and skulls in pope hats. My dog-loving wife is planning a dachshund-themed Max.

20201227_115020.jpg
 
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