Park Plastics, Ye Old Water Rockets
 

In a thread on TRF, Roy posted about receiving Park Plastics water rockets for Christmas one year (circa 1967). http://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?p=144444

His description mentions these as having a console and launch tower. That sounds very much like a setup I received a year or so later, also for Christmas. I wanna say mine came from/had been in the Sears Wishbook.

Very similar water rockets were common back then which used a combo hand-held pump/launch pad. But the more elaborate setup I had came with a remote control console (with pump) which was connected to the remote tower/pad with a hose (~8').

I was wondering if anyone else had this setup. I'm also looking for links. I've gotten lots of Google hits on "Park Plastics" but thus far all I've found are the handheld units with the toy-looking, teardrop-shaped rockets.

As I recall, my kit came with two rockets. Both were red, translucent plastic, one taller than the other. Can't recall if one was 2-stage or not. The console was white and greenish blue, and the hose to the tower was yellow. Compared to the handheld stuff I've seen, these rockets were more scale/realistic looking in appearance and lacked the toy rocket looks of the handhelds which tapered aft like bombs.

I want to say these rockets used the same couplings/nozzles as the hand-helds, and that they would work interchangeably with the hand-held launcher.

(I'm working from very fuzzy memories, so some of the details may be way off ;))

I'd love to hear others' recollections and comments on these 1960's/70's toy rockets.

Doug

.

I went through a bunch of the Park Plastics water rockets as a kid. They all used the handheld pump/launcher though. I had the standard teardrop shape rockets, and had a couple of all red 2-stage water rockets.

I loved anything that flew in the air as a kid. Model rockets, water rockets, kites, fireworks, dime-store balsa airplanes, homemade hot air balloons and Cox/Wen-Mac/Testors U-Control airplanes. I never had the patience to build a Guillows-type model plane out of balsa and tissue.

I'm getting smarter in my old age. Thinking these were in the Sears Wishbook, a little Googling turned up a great find: http://www.wishbookweb.com/ (You can spend hours there, so be careful :) ).

In the heyday of the moon race, there were several water rocket kits sold thru Sears. This one below appears to be the most likely candidate for what I was describing. I don't recall the boat tails and spin fins, but everything else seems to strike a nerve.

Roy, is this what you had?



I want to say my rockets weren't quite the same as these, but it's been 40 years. Anybody else remember these?

Here are a couple of similar kits from that era:
http://www.doug79.com/stuff/1966_SearsChristmas_Page480.jpg
http://www.doug79.com/stuff/SearsWishbook-1971-P171.jpg

Doug

.

Interesting. I never saw that type of water rocket as a kid.

That page did bring back memories though. I LOVED Zeroids! I had Zobor and the Mighty Zogg.

I think Park Plastics is no longer with us, but the molds and patents made it somewhere.

http://www.thefind.com/sports/info-deluxe-water-rocket

I've seen the blimp looking rockets being sold at Fry's Electronics, but I've never seen this
"{Aqua/Prop}{Zone/Shots}"set with one of the "Apollo" style rockets.


I've seen the console set on Ebay every once in a while, but they are exceedingly rare.

I had the Gemini version which I had fun with. This was before I knew about Estes rockets.



I still have the single and 2 stage Plastic Park rockets.

That's the 2-stager I had as well.

I had one of those too as a 10 yr old kid.

My brothers and I destroyed it a couple of years later using them as BB gun skeet targets.

What's weird about the rockets is that to this day they still have that very strong plastic oder.

I loved these things as a kid, but have never seen the 2-stage version. How does the staging mechanism work? Does it look for zero pressure in the lower stage tank, or something else?

I think I received my first Park water rocket some time around 1954. There were also a number of baking soda / vinegar rockets on the market back then. Note that many of them used spin fins.

The water rocket folks even have their own NAR-equivalent!

http://www.wra2.org/

Some of these folks get pretty hard-core: http://www.water-rockets.com/article.pl?201,0

I saw one of these with the tower launcher on eBay recently. I saved a picture from it.

I had the single stage version when I was a kid. I flew the heck out of it until one of the spin fins broke off. I picked one up awhile back still in the original box off eBay. I got a lucky surprise when I opened it that there were 3 rockets inside the box, 2 were not visible or mentioned in the auction.

Great pic. Thanks, Tim.

http://www.oldrocketforum.com/attac...achmentid=20924

The one on the pad looks very much like what I pictured in my mind.
...
How does the recovery system deploy?

Doug

.

I'm curious about that too. Maybe it is a loose fit and falls apart at apogee. :confused:

I wish I had bid on it, it only went for $19. Then I would know. :rolleyes:

I had several Parks water rockets when I was a kid (red single-stage, red two-stage, Gemini capsule & parachute with booster).

The Gemini capsule paracute was stored under the capsule during boost. When the rocket reached apogee and turned over, the capsule fell away and the parachute open (It really did work).

That boosted rocket coming in ballistic made quite a'thud' when it hit. :eek:

Bob

My younger brother had that supposed 2-stage Apollo setup. He may still have it; I dunno.
Never could get it to fly nearly as well as the claims.
The cheap hand-held teardrop shaped ones most often flew better.

Thanks for posting that, Leo.

This looks like the rocket I was thinking of.

Do you mind if I copy this pic and maybe use it on my site? Thanks.

Doug

.

Leo's rocket is the same as the one on the pad at right? They look much the same, but I'm not 100% sure.

Doug

.

BTW, that's definitely the console I remember.

Doug

.

Doug,
Thanks for posting this link.
Not trying to hijack this thread,
I went to the 1969 Sears catalog and found the first real rocket I had, the Vashon Valkyrie 2.
I ordered it from this very catalog.
We couldn't get black powder engines in California then, at the time this seemed like the best alternative.
Even in 1969, $14.99 was a great price for the whole package.

Thanks for the flashback!

That's a slightly different version from the one I had. The tower and the console were the same, but my console was molded in either red or white, and it had the rocket that is pictured on the pad, as well as a two stage version. I did not have that parachute rocket, but I remember seeing that one for sale by itself (or with the blimp rocket) in Woolworths.

As I recall the two stage rocket rarely stayed together through "burnout" of the first stage. They separated not very long after launch, and just looked like two rockets flying in formation, and they didn't fly much higher than the single staged version (which, for me, only got about 70-80 feet... about 10-20 feet above the tallest pine in the yard).

Ken Montanye asked that I post these links related to this thread:

http://www.vintagetoys.com/toy/fors...59?imgdisplay=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/1950s-PARK-PLAS...=item45f4d0ea9d

http://www.water-rockets.com/article.pl?143,0

Still get them?
 

I bought my son one of these about six years ago. (Newer version)
He loved it!
I still see them once in a while.
Cheap summertime fun.

Just don't use warm or hot water.

I learned that in the early 70's the hard way :rolleyes:

:)

Leo

That is called a Sauna.....

RD

Parks Plastic GEMINI version, up for auction. Looks pretty cool!

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-PARKS-G...=item5d2ba373e3