Special Halloween Edition!

The 1960's brought about quite a few fads and crazes.  There was the space race, the British Invasion, and monsters. Yes, I said monsters. This post dives into the point where monsters and rockets collide (not literally, but that would be cool.)

The monster craze of the 1960's found its start in the 1930's....in Hollywood. In the 1930's monster movies were very hot and many studios (most notably Universal) cranked them out with abandon. Now these are not to be confused with the 1950's B movie space aliens. These were the classics; Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy, and Frankenstein.

The movie goers tastes changed, however, and soon these films were largely forgotten....until a new outlet became available for them. The outlet was television, and movie studios were more than happy to dust off their tired old films to make a few more bucks on them. Included in these films were the classic monster movies, and people, especially kids, couldn't get enough! Suddenly monsters were cool again, and everybody jumped on the band wagon....or hearse....or whatever.

Television gave us such new shows as The Munsters, The Addams Family, and Dark Shadows, toy companies came out with games such as The Green Ghost, Haunted House, and Ka-Balla, and Estes rockets came out with the following classics:

The Goblin.....Mine has flown tons, hence the busted fin...

The A-20 Demon

The Scamp....actually my Maxi Scamp, but close enough...

The Zoom Broom....A Goony Classic!

After sometime in the 1970's, the craze died down (except maybe for stupid zombies. Here's my tip to get away from zombies, "Walk fast." You're welcome.) Still, these birds are just plain cool in their own right, and they are perfect for this time of year. So from SLB, Happy Halloween, and to all a spooky night!

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Disney in Plastic

As many of you know, I am a fan of both rocketry and Disney. Nothing combines these subjects quite as well as the TWA Moonliner. Now, I have written at length about this subject before, so I won't go into it again (sound of cheers). This week we are focusing on the plastic model kit.

The original kit was produced in the mid 50's by Strombecker. It was an official licensed product. Disney discovered very early how to cross promote just about everything.

More recently the kit has been produced by Glencoe, who purchased the original molds. The only difference is that now it was NOT an official Disney product. This fact makes sense when you realize that the "real" Moonliner has been missing from Disneyland since the mid 1960's. Also, TWA wouldn't have any interest in licensing it due to the fact that they have been out of business for a few decades. This is not a huge issue since you can sometimes find replacement TWA decals on eBay.

I have also included a picture of what comes in the box. As you can see, this is a very simple model. Also, I don't think it would be good for Plastic Model Conversion, due to the small scale. 1/144 scale translates into about 11 inches tall, and pretty skinny.  Still, it is pretty cool, overall.

The TWA Moonliner was used to promote both TWA and Disneyland. 

The original kit

The most current kit

What is inside...

By the way, there is a 41 inch tall TWA Moonliner plastic model being offered on eBay right now that seems like it would be really cool....IF it didn't go for 250 bucks! Is it weird that I still find it a little tempting? Oh well, maybe when I hit that ol' lottery (that I always forget to play)

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

46 Years Ago....

In celebration of the Apollo 7 flight 46 years ago, I'm sharing one of my most prized rocketry items. It was an incredible honor to be on the team that built these birds, and an even greater honor to see and meet many childhood heroes, including Walt Cunningham, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong. (My wife still has a crush on Buzz after he insisted on standing by her in the pictures, lol)
So in honor of Apollo 7, I give you model number 3, built by the DFW team....

Here is hoping that one day our nation will find its way in space exploration again...

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!

Happy Birthday to STB! Plus, A Look at an FSI Classic

Well guys, a year ago about this time Shroudlines The Blog was born! Now, 53 posts later, we are still going....Who woulda thunk it? On a side note, some of you may be thinking "Why don't we see more DARS stuff on here, or launches or meetings?" The truth be told, I haven't been to many lately. A combination of ever increasing demands at work and playing in three bands means very little time for rocket related activities. However, I can still access my 40 year collection of rocket junk and I can still ramble on about practically nothing, so I think we can keep going here for a while....At least it gives me a "rocket fix" once a week...

Speaking of that collection, this week I have a treat for you! Namely, this:

Yes, its the FSI Sandia Sandhawk! FSI produced this kit from 1990 to about 1994. It was a respectable 49 inches tall and designed to take FSI E60 and F100 motors. One interesting thing that I noticed when I set the parts out is that the fins are 1/4 inch balsa....and very light. I guess I have gotten used to heavy plywood fins, but these seemed a little flimsy. That being said, I have never heard of one of these models shredding, so what do I know?

The size of this bird is about the size of the FSI Black Brant (which is one of my favorites). I have toyed with actually building it, but can't bring myself to ruin the value of a vintage kit. Such is the plight of the collector. Oh well, maybe someday when things settle down a bit I can think about cloning her...

Until next time, fly 'em fast and high!