The coolest part about this new film, I was thinking awhile back when first seeing the television advertisements and then again recently when I noted the availability of the digital download version much sooner than I would have expected, is how the scenes remind me of my favorite toys from when I was a youth.
Retro becomes retro again.
I was also thinking about that after I read back over a recent reference I made to a toy rocket I had a kid that was "R2-D2". I wrote that "R2-D2" was my first model rocket but I'm not certain if that's true. Could be true but I cannot recall for certain. I would have said now that my first model rocket was a two-stage Estes rocket, which is where I think I also bought through the postal service and Estes mail order that "R2-D2" rocket.
Well, what I am most certain of is that I never did fire that "R2-D2" rocket. The first model rocket I fired was that two-stage rocket. I wrote about it and about how I didn't let the glue dry long enough and the second stage didn't separate.
I guess I never fired the "R2-D2" rocket because I couldn't afford the rocket motors. Quite possibly I bought those two rockets together. I might have had others but those might have been just basic rocket bodies.
The "R2-D2" I can remember working with often. I was lucky I didn't kill myself back in the year 1978 because I had climbed Randy Romine's HAM radio tower so I could drop it from a high altitude and test the parachute. I also was certain I could parachute from there myself if I had a large enough towel. I can still visualize myself up there at night after sneaking outside, although I never did really have to sneak any where at night because nobody was tracking me. I know Randy was often drunk on whisky and I wonder if Thedia was on drugs but I don't really know.
So anyway, what I really wanted was one of those "X-Wing Fighters". They had those toys in several different forms including Estes rockets but I never had any of them. In my mind I always associate Broken Bow Oklahoma with that toy.
Years later I constructed one myself out of some cardboard and I was surprised at how well it flew through the air, although it was just a basic form and one would have to know of my interest probably to associate the two forms.
Earlier, I had several of the action figures and I had the "TIE Fighter" which was a plastic die-cast model I assembled. I remember the Revell brand but I don't recall if it was one of those. I can remember playing with it in the yard of that house on DeQuincy in DeQueen. I had the "Landspeeder" that I eventually cannibalized into something else and I cannot recall if I had the "Battlestar Galactica" "Viper Fighter" or the "Cylon Raider". Probably the former but I cannot visualize that anymore. That reminds me also of the F-16 Fighting Falcon model that I assembled from the plastic die-cast kit.
My favorite was the Estes model rockets but those were too expensive for me, I guess is the reason I didn't have more of them.
I just checked and Estes is still around. They have an internet site. The prices for the C and D rocket motors are less than I would have guessed. I would have guessed they were in the $25 range but are a lot less than that. Maybe they were more expensive back in the year 1977.
The way I remember the rocket motor looked kind of similar to a short stick of dynamite.
The solid rocket fuel was encased in a thick cardboard shell and when it was ignited I think of the combustion cycle as kind of similar to the sand funneling down through an hour glass. But when the main rocket fuel was exhausted there was packed on top of the rocket motor a solid fuel charge that blew off the upper portion of the rocket. In the case of "R2-D2" the charge blew its head off. When the top popped a parachute was blown out also and that parachute brought it back gently to Earth.
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http://www.rocketreviews.com/image-ken-e-coyotes-estes-star-wars-r2-d2-300-600-023415201022584.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjcuiXeWXAg1dOQj4HRWk7diE10Tmxh2mITedhHeMWOBwgOJkocJqwPMu1h-XRYQAXpDV-NOy4KB_dIj_NZn2rAOFR1TXs4VF2eIWHUv2DRZufOFiutXyaTq9V2lVOWQ13D16z/s1600/R2D2+1.JPG
http://s89.photobucket.com/user/scigs30/media/R2Dsscamp003-1.jpg.html
- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 04:30 AM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Sunday 03 April 2016
