If I was going to try to be in business cloning old Estes kits and couldn't get what I needed from the web, I would buy an original kit and make sure I had it exactly right. There are a lot of little details that aren't going to show up in an instruction sheet. Even crazy fleabay prices are a miniscule part of the development cost. And you can always flip the kit as "like-new, open package" and get a lot of it back when you're done documenting it.
On the other hand, if "looks more or less like the picture" was close enough, I probably wouldn't even bother with getting the instructions.
Which is a long-winded way of saying I think the issue of cloning is likely orthogonal to how they're managing the rollout of info on the site.
From Estes' perspective, having people out there buying parts and kits to raid for parts so they can clone OOP rockets doesn't suck, nor does having those people buy motors to launch them with. Estes makes money where the real money is made without even having to do the work of selling kits.
What does annoy me is that they settled for a generic, one-size-and-shape-fits-all web site template rather than insisting on customizations that maximize the utility of it for their products and customers. I've already provided feedback through the web site form about the lack of technical info on the parts and what I think should be shown for body tubes and nose cones.
One hundo.
