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kbfrazier

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Hello,

I'm wanting to produce an upscale kit of an old OOP Estes kit. Has anyone ever thought of doing this? If so did you run into any problems or any legal issues.

Thanks,

Keith
 
Anything OOP *should be* open game. I've done it a lot. There are a plethora of clones here on the forum. Hit the galleries for some awesome recreates. Which one(s) did you have in mind and did you plan to up/down scale it?

(Upscale I see) never mind on that note.
 
Doing your own is one thing, producing and selling a kit is another. There could be trademark and/or copyright issues at play. Does anyone other than Semroc offer official Estes kit recreations, and don't they have some sort of agreement with Estes?

Now that I think about it, that 3x upscale Mars Lander kit that was available a while ago is an analogous example. Dunno if they had to jump through any legal hoops to make it happen.

In any case, it seems that you couldn't go far wrong at least contacting Estes as a starting point.
 
Hello,

I'm wanting to produce an upscale kit of an old OOP Estes kit. Has anyone ever thought of doing this? If so did you run into any problems or any legal issues.

Thanks,

Keith

If you are making one for yourself you shouldn't be worried about someone coming after you. If you plan on selling kits you need to be careful. I don't know the details, but Randy at eRockets/Semroc has contacted Estes about making OOP kits.
 
Semroc doesn't have any agreements as far as I know. I even asked Carl b4 he passed. I upscale Estes all the time.
 
As far as I know, the Mars Snooper was directly cloned by BMS, but since I don't have an original to compare it with, I can't confirm that.
 

If you go to page 21 of that thread, you'll see that Carl ended up with an agreement with Estes. So it seems that it is possible (maybe not for everyone always in all situations, but possible in general) to sell kits of Estes designs with full knowledge and approval of Estes. I do not know the terms of the agreement.

Bottom line: this whole conversation is silly; step 1 should be to talk to Estes. Contacting Jumpjet here is one way, or just going straight to Estes corporate is another.
 
tep 1 should be to talk to Estes. Contacting Jumpjet here is one way, or just going straight to Estes corporate is another.


Yes!

I know of others who have produced clone kits or copies of other Estes property that have gotten permission from Estes just by asking.

-- Roger
 
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