Good point! It almost makes me think that Musk actually knew about the licensing deal with Estes.

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I love sanding.

Yep BIG BIG royalty to Elon, he needs the money to float twitter.

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Neal Miller
Master Blaster NAR# 58296

My experience with these scale RTF offerings from Estes is limited to the Saturn V. It was kind of fun to fly, but the C6-3 doesn't boost it very well. The first flight was familiar sort of under-powered looping flight that had me imagining $50 worth of small plastic bits for me to pick up, but the parachute came out after a 1-2 heart pounding seconds. I never bothered to burn one of those Quest motors to see if it flew any better. I flew it twice and now it sits among all the other clutter on my work bench.

What did I expect? Pretty much what I got. I'll fly it again sometime. I still have some leftover D21 motors. For the $50 price tag, I think I would pass. I didn't get the SLS or Blue Origin because, even though the subject matter is very interesting, the execution is probably more of the same "RTF" experience. That doesn't mean at all that these products "suck" or that they are "a rip off." They just don't offer the kind of rocketry experience that I look for in model rocketry.

So now here is the Falcon 9, another injection molded RTF product that seems to offer the same "RTF" experience. Having recent experience with these kinds of models combined the inflated price tag sticks in my craw. Triple the price? Clearly there is something different here. I finally read Thomas Beach's product review in the Nov/Dec 2022 issue of Sport Rocketry. I was hoping that his review might reveal that there might be more than meets the eye here. But no. "The flight was stable and the model landed near the launch pads..." The model does have a cardboard inner lining, which is nice. Thomas had a photo of the 1:100 Falcon 9 displayed with other 1:100 scale models, and it was a pretty sight. This is probably the best use for the Falcon 9 - a display model. It is a very good looking scale model. I'm sure that Estes and SpaceX will sell all of them.

The clear plastic fin unit that comes with the Saturn V is available separately from Estes, and makes for a ready-made clear fin unit for any modeler who wants to build finless scale models. That's a nice spinoff from these RTF products. I imagined using one to build a sport scale Thor missile.

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-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

But being sold by Estes could mean that a Blue Origin might be shipped in the same box with the Falcon 9. Can you imagine?

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-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

Perhaps SpaceX relented! Or maybe JonRocket won't actually get it. Who knows....

Every time I read "RTF" in a post, my brain interprets it as "WTF". Not sure why...

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I love sanding.

What did you expect? ROFL WTF

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-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

I'll say that I enjoyed the Cox RTF models I flew in the early 1970's. Had an Honest John, Nike-Zeus (POSSIBLY my first 2-stage model), and the Saturn-IB.

I see RC plane fliers acting all high and mighty, making fun of RTF planes (while the number of old-school "Balsa only" RC fliers keeps slowly dying, as well as the kit choices). I see most of them as old fart whiners, too many of whom drive off new people in the hobby, causing even fewer to be invovled model airplanes. They expect everybody to fly balsa planes that the fliers built, using gas/glow engines (whose noise causes even more problmes trying to find fields). Nothing foam, nothing RTF, no Electric, and so forth.

My last all balsa sailplane that I built, and converted to electric, suffered a crash (crappy receiver that I did not realize was a crappy untrustworthy brand), and was almost totaled. I did not throw it away (yet?), but do not foresee ever rebuilding it. Meanwhile, I keep on enjoying flying electric "foamie" RC sailplanes, I really like the Radian.

And also, I've rebuilt 2-meter foamie Radians a few times. My best, I took two badly crashed Radians and made one good one out of them, one had a smashed outer left wing, and the other had a smashed outer right panel. So, I used not only the good wings from the other side, but also the good inboard parts of the damaged wings, to end up with a 2.6 meter (8.5 foot) model. Flies great. I also have a fun 28" Flying Wing model, that I like to fly. It's a foamy that can take a licking and keep on ticking. If it was made out of balsa, it would be heavier and not fly as well for the same power system, and be likely to be badly damaged in the same kind of "oops" end of flights that I have had with the foamy.

Anyway..... let people like what they like to fly, or even just put onto a shelf. It's a fact that plastic models are a dying art form, the general public is not as interested in learning how to build or paint or decal them ('memba when even drug stores had plastic models? Now not even Wal-Mart has them).

So, don't "crap" on the people who will buy this RTF (or RTP - Ready To Display) model because they want to have one that looks nice, and they are unable to build one of their own even if the kit existed.

If it ain't for you, it ain't for you. I don't see the point of people posting about kits they DO NOT want to buy of build. Should I start a thread for EVERY kit that I do not ever plan to buy or build? I do not mean one thread about kits I do not plan to buy or build, I mean one thread PER KIT.

Below - My 72" span "VeeT-1" balsa sailplane, with a merged V-Tail and T -tail design I came up with. Crappy receiver crashed it and would require massive rebuilding (airfoil rib plans long long gone, was built around 1990). Below that, 2.6 meter (8.5 foot) Extended Radian, from two crashed all-foam RTF Radians.

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Contest flying, Sport flying, it's all good.....
NAR# 18723 NAR.org
GeorgesRockets.com
Georges'CancerGoFundMe:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-geo...ay-fight-cancer

The Tom Beach review in Sport Rocketry was pretty good, and his photo of the 1:100 scale model collection was very impressive.


Why not? Lots of people posting about how much they love this new product. A few people are a more critical. The Falcon 9 is a unique and an exceptional RTF rocket that the world has never seen before. And as such it excites response in people. Estes will have no problem selling these off.

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-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

This may be a decent investment for a serious Estes collector. The high price may limit how many are sold. The Falcon 9 will eventually be replaced by Starship if Musk gets his way and this rocket will go OOP.


Bill

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It is well past time to Drill, Baby, Drill!

If your June, July, August and September was like this, you might just hate summer too...

Please unload your question before you ask it unless you have a concealed harry permit.

: countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ;

Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding...