Ye Olde Rocket Forum - View Single Post

Quote:

Originally Posted by Earl

Thanks Tim and Bob for your posts. Much appreciated.

So Bob, are you indicating then that the chromed fin can and nose cone and clipped fin can both ended with the he Citation version?

I kinda wondered whether that might be the case, but, as stated above, the catalog images showed clipped fins for the entire run of the kit...all the way through ‘84. The chrome stopped though after the ‘74 catalog image. So, it is not really easy to know exactly when the clipped fin can stopped.

Earl

My understanding is that Estes had many more of the wrap-around Quasar body tube decals than the chrome-plated fins and nose cones. At some point they ran out of the chrome-plated parts. Perhaps there were bagged Quasar kits which had the chrome-plated parts? I don't know. It would be a good collector's item if these existed.

The Citation line was not successful in it's original purpose (Product for mass-market retailers) so the kits were downgraded from boxes to bags and had other cost cutting measures applied. In the case of the Quasar the Alpha III fin cans no longer had the tips cut off (Estes had a jig to hold the fin can and cut off the fin tips but it was a manual operation). In addition, the chrome-plating was eliminated.