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  #1  
Old 10-04-2019, 03:14 PM
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georgegassaway georgegassaway is offline
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Default Interceptor-E, MRI Zenith Two, R/C Rocket Glider Phoenix & Cuda kits for auction

I have added four more old kits for auction:

Estes “Interceptor E”, 39” long scale-up of the classic kit. https://tinyurl.com/yykqawzq


MRI Zenith Two Payloader from 1969-1970. https://tinyurl.com/yyns49s8


Aerotech Phoenix R/C Rocket Glider, designed by Bob Parks (F & G powered). https://tinyurl.com/y38fbskg



Vector Aero “Cuda” R/C Rocket Glider kit, designed by Kevin McKiou, for C/D/E power (designed for S8E). https://tinyurl.com/y44e654w


These are in addition to the Centuri 1/100 Saturn-IB: https://tinyurl.com/y5m3zdjl


And Estes V-2 Maxi-Brute: https://tinyurl.com/y2knvcpk


All auctions will end Thursday October 10th, shortly after 8 PM, EDT.
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  #2  
Old 10-07-2019, 04:49 PM
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Love the artwork on that Zenith Two. That's a nice old kit and certainly very scarce.
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  #3  
Old 10-08-2019, 11:09 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mojo1986
Love the artwork on that Zenith Two. That's a nice old kit and certainly very scarce.

Weird thing is that I got one of those kits in my first three months in the hobby in early 1970. J.C. Penny had them! I do not even remember if I flew it 2-stage, or what happened with it but I certainly built it.

Another odd thing is that once I got into the hobby for real in 1970, my first models were MPC, due to the nearby K-Mart. And J.C. Penny was not too far from K-Mart. The closest hobby shop was not that close, but when I did finally go there, they had Centuri, and maybe AMROCS or SAI, no Estes stuff. They also had Model Rocketry Magazine, which blew my mind, and helped get me hooked even more. I recall my 5th kit, and first with balsa fins, was the Centuri 1/100 Little Joe-II, and 10th kit was the Centuri Saturn-IB. The MRI Zenith-2 was somewhere around when I got the IB or a bit later.

Much later I went to a hobby shop much farther away, and finally saw Estes kits, and got one or two there. I'd gotten hold of an Estes catalog by then, but hated the idea of mail-order, due to a bad experience with ordering something from a comic book ad that took 6-8 weeks to show up. When I finally did order from Estes, I was shocked, the order arrived about 5 days after I mailed it in.
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  #4  
Old 10-09-2019, 07:26 AM
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George, have you always lived down around Birmingham or were you close to Huntsville at one time? The first time I went to Huntsville, I couldn't believe all the hobby shops that were there. They dwindled down over the years, but at one time it was amazing, at least to me.

Of course, I'm from a rural area and mail order was all that I had growing up. Even one shop was amazing to me when I went to the huge (to me) town of Jackson, TN and found the railroad/rocket section of Duffy's Home Center in the back right hand corner. IIRC, the owner was a railroad guy, but had other hobby stuff back there also. Not long after I found that shop, the owner passed and the hobby section disappeared. The store soon closed also.
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  #5  
Old 10-09-2019, 01:34 PM
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Growing up in Colorado, word spread pretty quickly about Estes Industries. A friend loaned me his copy of the 1964 catalog, the one with the Astron Cobra on the cover.
I think I stayed up all night devouring every bit of information on kits, engines, parts, and launch equipment. And what would I want on my first order?

My first rocket purchase was a mail order to Penrose. I think I got the order in about two weeks from sending it in. It felt like an eternity.

After maybe a couple years, we discovered that Tom Thumb Hobbies in Denver carried Estes rockets. In fact, it seemed like they carried every part, too. Long glass cases had boxes of tubes, nose cones, engines — everything! Kits hung on hooks behind the counters. It was amazing. I built a few kits, but I did a lot of scratch-building, too. I still placed orders with Estes. The early morning ring of the doorbell meant our postman had a box for me from The Model Rocket Capital if the World.

Something else I looked forward to getting — the latest issue of Model Rocket Hews. I built a lot of the Designs of the Month, and enjoyed getting copies of plans in every order, or a coupon for a free kit on a future order.
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  #6  
Old 10-09-2019, 08:48 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
George, have you always lived down around Birmingham or were you close to Huntsville at one time?


I came up to Huntsville for a lot of HARA launches in the mid 1980's thru 90's but never lived near there.

Moved from North Carolina to Midfield (west of Birmingham) in June 1968, Homewood since fall 1970. West of Minneapolis, MN since 2012.

The shop near Midfield was Spivey's, a pretty famous hobby shop for the area. But as Centuri dwindled, so did his rocket section. Caught fire and burned down around 1994-1996. The "far away" hobby shop was Homewood Toy & Cycle, which was an odd combo of a bike shop and a toy store with hobbies. About the time we moved to Homewood, the store had split into two separate stores, the original bike shop, and toys/hobbies in a card shop next door. Then later, a five and dime store on the other side of the bike shop went under, it was bigger, so the Toy & Hobby shop moved into there and it still there as Homewood Toy & Hobby, the best hobby shop in the B'ham area. I spent a LOT of time and $ there till I moved.

But also in Homewood was Bill's hobby House. A literally classic mom and pop hobby store. Bill and his wife were both in their 70's when I first started going there in 1970 or 71. He had Centuri kits, and even got hold of some MPC Mini-Jets when those came out. I learned a lot about model planes and gliders from him. His wife passed away in the mid 1970's, and she was the one who did the store's paperwork and such. One of Bill's sons stepped in to help him run it, but only a couple of years or so later it closed.
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Last edited by georgegassaway : 10-09-2019 at 11:27 PM.
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  #7  
Old 10-10-2019, 03:01 PM
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The auctions for these kits end tonight, shortly after 8 PM, EDT.
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  #8  
Old 10-11-2019, 01:17 PM
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georgegassaway georgegassaway is offline
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I was surprised by the IB price too. Figure the ones who wanted a Centuri IB bad enough already got one years ago, or are no longer in the hobby, or plain "not around" anymore.

But I was shocked how much the Phoenix went for ($379), and the Cuda too ($307.99). And good prices on the rest of the kits. So I take it philosophically, that I made more from the auction overall than I expected.

So, I'll use a lot of it to pay for 6-month car insurance next month. And also I promised myself if this went well, I'd get a 3D printer around the end of the year. So yeah, that's gonna happen.

Gotta go thru the old kit boxes and decide what to put up for the next set of auctions.
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  #9  
Old 10-11-2019, 01:23 PM
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I suspect the 1B final price was somewhat affected by the new 3D printed kits of Boyce Aerospace and possibly because Estes has new ownership and has been busy releasing classics, especially the 1969 Saturn V. Many think Estes will re-release the 1B after seeing the V's upper transition section.
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  #10  
Old 10-11-2019, 01:26 PM
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And everyone got a Semroc 1B that really wanted one.
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