Translucent white Alpha III/Quasar fins/nose cone
 

I know that in one of the other Alpha threads I had a conversation with someone who said he had a model with translucent white fins and/or nose cone of the Alpha III variety. I was skeptical. (And try as I might, I can't find that conversation now.)

Well, this afternoon I was outbid literally at the last second (and after my bid was far higher than I wanted to go) for a lot that included two Electro-Launches, one built and one unassembled, and this:


Anyone know any more?

I saw that listing a few days ago and was a bit thrown by that nose cone and fin unit. Are the fin tips clipped, as like the Quasar fin can? It is somewhat hard to tell but kinda looks like they are.

Does make for an interesting variant.

Earl

That has the Quasar fins, clipped on the end. Those were the fin cans/cones that were sent to be chrome plated for the original Citation Quasar's.

I have one of those "Alpha III's" somewhere in my collection.

That image is all I have, since I lost the eBay auction. But yes the tips are clipped like a Quasar, but the fins can is neither chromed nor white like the later Quasars.

Those are the second-generation Quasar fins/cone just after they stopped chrome plating them.
The third generation they were no longer clipped and Opaque white.

That is pretty interesting.

It looks like Estes still had some of the Quasar nose cones/fin cans molded in the plastic used for chrome plating left over and just sold the kits with those parts.

Thanks, GH. That fills in a couple of blanks in my mind down that branch of the Alpha family tree.

I have no sense of how common or uncommon those parts were, or why they were being sold as part of what I took to be an Alpha III/Electro-Launch starter set, but that still helps. I thought they were uncommon (I'd never seen them before or even pictured) and apparently whoever I was bidding against this afternoon thought so as well. I doubt he really wanted to pay $200 (including shipping) for two Electro-Launches, neither of which were Phantom E-Ls. :eek:

They are definitely the most uncommon Quasar cone/fin sets.
The non-clipped opaque white fins/cone are the most common and existed in bagged Quasar kits far longer than the chrome ones in boxed Citation Quasar kits.

The first rocket kits my father and I built/launched were the bagged Quasar and Patriot kits.
Bought both at Toys-R-Us one Saturday in 1978, built both that day, launched both on that Sunday. The Patriot was painted but less decals on first launch. Quasar launched on A8-3, Patriot on B4-2. I was all of 7 years old that summer and remember it vividly like yesterday.

I was watching that too, but went far higher than I was willing to go. Looked like two electro-launch pads were included, 1 never used. I hadn't even noticed the clipped fin.

Yes, one of the Electro-Launches was completely unassembled (and appeared to have all the parts). The other one looked lightly used if at all....but that always makes me worry about leaky D cells inside.

But what drove me to bid as high as I did was that Alpha III/Quasar. The paperwork (and decals) for a red/white Alpha III were in the pictures but that didn't square with the model itself.

Can you post the link for that closed auction? I'd like to see what it included. Thanks!

I think this is it

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Es...AAOSw2HxgFxv l

Yep - that was the right auction.

More translucent white Alpha III nose cones
 

Last weekend I attended the last launch to be held by the Blue Mountain Rocketeers, called, appropriately, “Last Blast”. At the event Tim Quigg had a couple of bins of stuff to give away—kits mostly, but some loose parts and a few other things. Rooting around in the parts bag I came across these, and immediately grabbed them.

Their provenance is unknown and there were no other Alpha III/Quasar parts in the bag (that I saw, anyway). They are translucent like the one on the Quasar in the eBay listing that had me start this thread back in February….

All I know is when you'd get a chromed part in the past (anyone, not just Estes), the base plastic part was usually a translucent white (i.e. no pigment at all)


So when these parts started life in late 1970-early 71, they had the red for the Alpha III and the chrome for the Citation Quasar. In addition they clipped the fin units (would they have spent money on A. another mold, or B. inserts to the mold to form the clip? No, they would've created a jig to clip the parts before chroming).


Later, when the Quasar transitioned to the regular bagged Estes line, they eventually ran out of chromed parts (and clipped fin units)

I suspect that Estes had more of the Quasar body tube wraps than plastic parts and that is why Estes continued to sell the Quasar kit in some form.