CAVE CREEK, Arizona USA — Bill Stine has dusted off an oldie-but-goodie for today's scale rocketry hobbyist: The 1/12 scale Nike-Smoke, the same model originally designed by his father, G. Harry Stine, for MPC in 1969. Featuring the original molded plastic fin canister and a highly detailed 10° nosecone, the model stands nearly 20" tall and measures 1.378" in diameter.

When MPC originally entered the model rocket marketplace, they were greeted by the likes of Estes and Centuri.  But MPC brought a unique process to the hobby rocketry market, the first widespread use of plastics in model rockets. This was easy for MPC because they had an extensive in-house mold-making shop that supported their plastic model car kit business.

The "Nike-Smoke" mold was a large family mold that shot two fin units, two each of the nose cones halves, and all the centering rings, launch lug and nose cone tip in one shot, running on a large 400 ton injection molding machine. The mold was designed to produce 1 million pieces over its lifetime, where most plastic injection molds usually wear out around 250,000 pieces. MPC spent an incredible $300,000 on its model rocket molds at the time, a investment value in excess of $1.6M in 2006 figures.

After MPC left the model rocket market, the molds became the property of Aerospace Vehicles, Inc. (AVI), but were never used again because there was literally hundreds of thousands of parts already molded for AVI to use. Bill Stine was fortunate enough to acquire the molds in 1988 and re-launched Quest with many of the MPC-based parts. By 1998 though, the molds were reaching the point where repairs were too costly and they ultimately were retired.

The "Nike-Smoke" mold was pulled from retirement recently and refurbished enough to make a short run of parts. Uniquely, the centering rings would not run correctly, so this kit includes rings molded in a different color from pre-retirement runs.

The kit includes all original parts along with the Quest instruction sheet. Because of its collectible nature, the kit is boxed and numbered. It includes a special 11" x 17" blue print reproduction of the original scale drawing done by G. Harry in 1967. You also get plans of the unique display stand shown here.

This product will begin shipping April 26, 2007
 
Specifications:

Skill Level: One
Recovery: Parachute
Length: 19.5 inches (49.5 cm)
Diameter: 1.378 inches (35 mm)
Recommended Motors: A6-4, B6-4, C6-5
Maximum Altitude: 1200ft (366m)

Interesting info:

Interesting note for scale buffs: One of the other scale models designed by G. Harry for MPC was the Tomahawk. It was also 1/12 scale. A Nike-Tomahawk was planned and in fact, a test mold for the lower to upper stage transition was made, but the kit never went into production. Only a few of these molded transitions exist in the Stine Archives today.

Website: http://www.questaerospace.com/

05-03-2007 01:35 AM  #1
Raider Rocketry Low Power Enthusiast   Joined: Mar 2007 Posts: 128	Great... another rocket to add to my LP list. At this rate I don't know that I'll get out of mid-power. (Little Joe II...)

05-09-2007 10:37 PM  #2
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2587	I finally got one... no I got THREE! Well I got my Limited Edition Nike-Smoke kit from Quest. Actually, I got THREE. Not by choice, either. The kit is only $11. But Quest has a $25 minimum order for their shopping cart. And, it has to be $25 of product, not total price. So in order to get one Limited Edition Nike-Smoke, I had to pay $41.40 to do so. Kinda took the wind out of my sails. Such an irritating little detail too. I wrote customer service several days ago and it took two attempts before someone responded. In the end, I was told there was no way around the minimum order threshold. Between my experience with Firefox earlier today and now Quest, perhaps I should lay off online purchases for a while...

05-10-2007 01:03 AM  #3
Steve_Shannon When in doubt, ask Keenan   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 1822	Put the other two up for auction on Rocketry Planet!

05-10-2007 02:13 AM  #4
Raider Rocketry Low Power Enthusiast   Joined: Mar 2007 Posts: 128	Thanks DD. Quest is now off my list of people to shop from. I don't want costumer service, I demand it. If they have a $25 purchase minimum thats fine, but to insist that it one kit and not a combined total is ridiculous. That's right, I wont do business with people who are inflexible. Seriously, thanks DD. You just helped me avoid headache.

05-15-2007 11:05 AM  #5
Raider Rocketry Low Power Enthusiast   Joined: Mar 2007 Posts: 128	I was contacted by Quest and informed it was a $25 total purchase. There must have been an issue with the site. All I can say is I was happy to be contacted directly. $25 minimum order is no biggie to me, but insisting that they be one product is, well, stupid. I am going to give them a shot later in responce to them taking the time to contact me directly. Customer service, or lack thereof, is a make or break deal with me.

05-15-2007 12:11 PM  #6
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2587	Quote: I was contacted by Quest and informed it was a $25 total purchase. There must have been an issue with the site. All I can say is I was happy to be contacted directly. $25 minimum order is no biggie to me, but insisting that they be one product is, well, stupid. I am going to give them a shot later in responce to them taking the time to contact me directly. Customer service, or lack thereof, is a make or break deal with me. I am sure that Quest doesn't want to see problems about their customer service disclosed or discussed, especially if a poster states that he will mark Quest off their list of companies to do business with. But there was nothing wrong with their website. It was working as it was set up, no matter how erroneously that may be. I save emails that I exchange with people because you never know when you are going to need one. When I wrote Quest's customer service, I asked if I *really* had to purchase three Nike-Smoke kits just to make the minimum order, or could I do it with two Nike-Smoke kits PLUS the shipping. This is what I was told: "As for your question yes there is a $25 minimum and it applies to product only. Your shipping is in addition to the $25 minimum. Yes ordering purchasing 3 Nike Smoke rockets to make your minimum is an option or you can search our website to see if there are other products that you might be interested in. A couple of weekends ago we had an awesome special that many used as their option to achieve their $25 minimum. If you did not receive the sale notice you may want to sign up for our Quest newsletter on the website." I only know one way to interpret that, Damon. I am glad they are working with you, as obviously someone saw my post here and reported it to them.

05-15-2007 01:31 PM  #7
herefishy Certified Level Two   Joined: Mar 2007 Posts: 56	You've got to keep in mind that there are other costs relating to (filling an order) such as packaging, labor to process/fill orders, real estate costs to have inventory on hand... etc. Let's say the profit margin is 40%. On a $25.00 order, that would be $10.00 realized. In this case the vendor has established a policy that a minimum of $10.00 shall be realized on any order that is processed. This essentially is what the policy is establishing. Did you pay with a credit card? in that case anywhere from 1.5% to 3% of the $25.00 plus a flat processing fee is being expended in processing fees, so let's say $9.00 is realized. Now really, would it be worth it to you (if you were in business) to pay someone to process a $12.00 order to realize $3.26? That may depend on your business objectives or particulars of your overhead costs. In my business I charge for a "service call". This covers travel, administration and other overheads. Occasionally a prospect inquires of my charges and complains about the "service call" charge, "Well company XYZ doesn't charge a service call". Yeah, but their labor is $100.00 per hour, mine is $65.00. All of the energy in the universe is constant. I guess Quest could calculate the average freight and taxes and re-phrase the minimum purchase to be $32.00, lock-stock-and-barrell. Would that have satisfied you? I guess it depends on what your definition of "is", is. PS - I'm not associated with any rocketry vendor - I'm just making an observation. Mark

05-15-2007 01:53 PM  #8
crontab Certified Level Three   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 204	Personally, I think if a company wants to do business, they should be prepared to sell ONE of whatever they have on their shelves if that's what a customer wants. As long as they charge a realistic price for shipping and handling, you should be able to order a launch lug if that is all you want. To top it off, the Limited Edition Nike-Smoke is only available direct from Quest. It's not like I can go to a hobby shop and purchase one to avoid the online minimum order. If they want to restrict the availability of limited edition kits to only be available online, they shouldn't force all customers into the same box with a minimum order. But if the *real* purpose of the limited edition kits is to promote the purchase of OTHER products, then their policy is working as intended.

05-15-2007 02:14 PM  #9
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2587	Quote: Personally, I think if a company wants to do business, they should be prepared to sell ONE of whatever they have on their shelves if that's what a customer wants. That is part of the description of customer service, giving customers what they want. Shipping and handling is supposed to cover the cost of picking the part off the shelf (handling), putting it in a box and getting it to me (shipping). How novel! Nobody wants to spend $41 for an $11 product. With shipping and handling, the order of one kit would have been right around $20. Is it asking too much on limited edition kits, available only from the manufacturer's website, to make this reasonable exception? Perhaps. I don't know. In retrospect, I should have done just what I did the first time I went to place the order: close the browser and walk away from the computer.

05-15-2007 11:49 PM  #10
Steve_Shannon When in doubt, ask Keenan   Joined: Aug 2006 Posts: 1822	Again I say: put the other two up for auction on RP. That will help others who would like to buy just one and it would maybe get things moving on your auctions.

05-16-2007 04:12 PM  #11
ddmobley Administrator   Joined: Jul 2006 Posts: 2587	Quote: Again I say: put the other two up for auction on RP. That will help others who would like to buy just one and it would maybe get things moving on your auctions. Patience, Grasshoppah! They haven't gotten here yet. And I don't know know if a 20 megaton Ex-Lax bomb would get things moving in the auctions...

05-17-2007 01:13 AM  #12
Raider Rocketry Low Power Enthusiast   Joined: Mar 2007 Posts: 128	If you put it up, I'll bid - provided you take a personal check.