Originally posted by DeWain
I'm curious to see what other Estes kits will be discontinued, in case there is one or two that I want to snatch up before they are gone.
As much as I grumble about Estes' current offerings vs. the golden oldie days, I think that Estes should be praised for the X-Prize kits. These are (for the most part) really nice kits that only Estes can make for a reasonable amount. Estes (and perhaps Quest) can mass produce enough kits to justify the cost of developing molded plastic parts for scale models.
The shame is that most of the real X-prize concepts will never fly. So some of the Estes kits are scale models of things that just don't exist in the real world. The Lucky-7 is vapor ware (some guy claims to be building in his garage, but no one has every seen any hardware, no does it seem like he has any real hope of being able build something that will carry a person into suborbital space). The guys that want to build the Vanguard Eagle at least have a high power model rocket that they are testing, but they are a loooooonnnnggg way from building anything the size of the Eagle.
But... the Eagle kit is just a nice kit. The capsule has the detail that I would like to see in more Estes models. And the most of the X-Prize rockets come with removable display nozzels; again, more of this feature would be nice in future kits. The Thunderstar is also a nice kit (nice escape tower and conduit tunnels), and the Thunderstar is one that may actually carry tourists in the real world.
So... in short... rather than just saying "good riddence Estes X-Prize rockets", lets pat Estes on the back, and encourage then to build nice scale rockets of non vapor ware stuff in the future.
