I run a small laser engraving business and have an industrial (i.e. not a Chinese/eBay) laser. I have enjoyed the rocketry hobby since the early 80's in various forms and thought it would be interesting to produce a few kits. Having said that, I've typically been a 3FNC kind of guy and while I like seeing a lot of the creative projects people post online and fly at my local club, I don't know that I have the design aesthetics to design the next big thing.
To minimize wasted time/effort, I thought I would solicit the opinions of forum members here to see what might be an interesting direction to pursue.
My wife and I designed a novelty kit called the Snowflake, which is just a simple 3FNC rocket whose fins are - you guessed it - shaped like snowflakes. If interested, you can see it here:
https://www.rocketjerk.com/shop/snowflake .
We started with something simple to get an understanding of the costs associated with kit production, the issues with production, packing etc. Overall, it turned out OK, but I don't think many people find it that interesting.
A few areas I have identified as being difficult, expensive or time consuming include creating instructions, sourcing decals and sourcing raw materials.
I hope to produce 3 more kits by May and would like to determine what the community thinks is most critical.
Please reply with any thoughts you have, such as "I won't buy a kit that doesn't include decals", "Instructions don't matter, we all know how to build rockets", "I only fly BT-60 or larger rockets" etc. While I won’t be able to address every person's desire, it would be interesting to see what types of preferences builders here are interested in.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Sandy.