New Estes kit?

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jetra2

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Looky here! This is WAY cool! I want one of these! Seems that Estes might be listening to us! Looks a lot cooler than anything else from them recently, save the Enduring Freedom kits!

Jason
 
Wow, thats pretty nice! I think I might get one of them.
 
is there a better pic of it somewhere? looks very cool, but I want to see more :)
 
I'll certainly be getting one of those, when Deepsky get them in.

Nice one Estes! :D
 
Don't shoot me when I say this, but I never did care much for the "Mars Lander" but should I get the "Outlander" I would name it the Mars Outlander...A very appealing kind-of-bring you into the year 2004 of space exploration kind of rocket.

In short the Outlander is a very nice bird, I likes it...
 
Both the Renegade and the Outlander is on my must get list :D. I am a Mars lander fan :).

OBTW.... I am looking for another Mini Marz lander... you know... the plastic one.... mine finally worn out after many many flights.... I want another one. Does anybody know where I can find one?
 
ok, I want BOTH of these....Estes is FINALLY coming out with the OLD TIME fantasy rockets!

****, I'm going to have to figure out how not to break my budget these days...
 
For me, it's hard to appreciate the Mars Lander. I certainly understand the desire because when I first got started in rocketry I had some absolute favorites. (The Estes Optima was one of them.) I suppose I will give the Outlander a try and see if it does to me what some of the Mars Lander folks like so much about it.
 
Eugene:
I had a great time with my Optima..but was very disappointed with the 100 foot flights on the single D12-3 motors:( After badly crashing her on a mistaken D12-5 motor installation, I added 3 permanent D12 strap-ons boosting the power to a 4 - D12 cluster, really made one heck of a difference in performance:) I sent this pic to estes and to MR mag. but they never published it. I still fly her every so often just for the KICK:D

Doug:
I don't have any of the plastic Mini-Mars Landers, but I still have 8 or 9 for the regular Mini- Mars landers. I'll Look, if you want one we can discuss it later:)
 
Cool. I love the Optima too :). I flew mine several times with E11-3 motors.. my favorite... I would launch it in my back yard with D12-3's... and atr SPAAR launches... I would fly it on F motors :).... but that was back 95... memories :)

Sure... I am interested :)
 
I've got the Shadow....same as the Optima...just a name change. My Shadow is currently (and has been for a couple years) in a naked state (no paint), so it's called "Naked Shadow IV." And, of course, I've clustered it. Currently the center 24mm and three outboard 18's. I may add some boosters like Micro did (very nice!), but I'm definately gonna stick three more 18mm's or 6 13mm's (if they can squeeze in there...haven't checked) in there sooner or later. Gotta paint it too. I've flown it once on all BP motors, once with a center composite airstarting (3) A8-3's (one didn't light), and once on 3 C6's and an F24W composite, but I knew the F would come up late, so I retained it's igniter, and I got a great "fake" airstart about 100ft. up with that one. Fun stuff. There's some info on it somewhere in my site (link on bottom bar).
 
i *used* to know the designer of the mars lander...

do you know the original designer of the *mini* mars lander?
 
Opps... The question should be:

"Who here can guess who the original designer of the Mini Mars Lander was?"
 
Originally posted by Micromister
Eugene:
I had a great time with my Optima..but was very disappointed with the 100 foot flights on the single D12-3 motors:( After badly crashing her on a mistaken D12-5 motor installation, I added 3 permanent D12 strap-ons boosting the power to a 4 - D12 cluster, really made one heck of a difference in performance:) I sent this pic to estes and to MR mag. but they never published it. I still fly her every so often just for the KICK:D

Doug:
I don't have any of the plastic Mini-Mars Landers, but I still have 8 or 9 for the regular Mini- Mars landers. I'll Look, if you want one we can discuss it later:)

Micromister - VERY sweet! I just remember how BIG the Optima was at the time. Heck, it's still pretty big considering all the other offerings in the catalogs back then. I won my Optima on eBay a while back. Unfortunately, all the decals except of the "Optima" logo were in there. The package was shrinkwrapped too. :( I don't know if the seller re-wrapped it or not. If anyone has a spare they'd be willing to part with, I'd be indebted to you for life. I haven't built my Optima yet. I'm still debating on what I want to do with it. I may do a dual 24mm mount or single 24 w/ 18mm outboards. I'd like it to remain BP powered just to keep in the spirit of Estes BP Optima design. I never knew the Optima had multiple suggested paint schemes until I looked through the instructions. Very neat. Thanks for sharing. I now have new fire to refuel my interest in building it.

I know the answer to the Mini-Mars Lander question! LOL. Duh, shouldn't it already be obvious? I'm sure some will be surprised. I know I WAS!
 
Micromister - you have 8 or 9 of the original mars lander kits? wow - selling any? :D
 
Back to the Renegade....

I picked one up at my local Hobby shop on Friday, and haven't opened it yet. Living in Colorado does have some advantages:D .

However I can tell you that this looks like a kitbasher's delight.
The body tube is Big Bertha size, It is two stage (read Two motor mounts), there are 4 of the BT-5 Nose cones for those neat silver pods that you see, and the Big nose cone has a cockpit molded into it. there are 4 different sizes of body tubes, don't know all of the lengths yet.

The kit itself has a picture on the cover of the model staging. the sustainer is your basic 3FNC, and the booster has those neat pods mounted to it. Since the model pictures are all black, it is difficult to see where the seperation point is, and what part the fins are connected to.

Goose
 
Originally posted by jetra2
Drool....:D :p

I want one!!!

Jason

I agree. I also hope they slap it in a "Launchables" box so that WalMart will start carrying booster motors! Sounds very intricate and enticing. What's better is that it sounds like this is a "rocketeer's rocket." The pricing, from what I've found, seems to be perfect for this kit too. BT60 based? Wow!
 
Originally posted by n3tjm
Both the Renegade and the Outlander is on my must get list :D. I am a Mars lander fan :).

OBTW.... I am looking for another Mini Marz lander... you know... the plastic one.... mine finally worn out after many many flights.... I want another one. Does anybody know where I can find one?

I don't know where you can get an original Marz Lander unless A: Someone nice enough on this forum gives or sells you one. B: Pray to some deity that specializes in rocket miracles.
C: Watch ebay non-stop.
D: An alternative that best suits you is that I found that Tango Papa: https://www.tangopapadecals.com
does upscales of the kits.

So Doug I hoped I helped a little. Laters. Ed
 
Nobody posted an answer... so it is time to answer this TRF Challenge Question...

"Who here can guess who the original designer of the Mini Mars Lander was?"

- Jim Flis. :D
 
Originally posted by n3tjm
Nobody posted an answer... so it is time to answer this TRF Challenge Question...

"Who here can guess who the original designer of the Mini Mars Lander was?"

- Jim Flis. :D

Mike Dorffler?
 
DOH!

No, it wasn't Mike Dorffler, but a quick bit of Googling around uncovered who it was.

I'll let someone else reveal who it was, since I already made my guess and lost. :)
 
Jim Flis!

BTW, that Outlander is not only great-looking, but priced right, too. Maybe we're on the verge of a Silver Age of Estes kits?
 
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