Estes Launch Set-Taser

This was our first rocket and I had no idea what I was doing and I wasn't sure what to expect regarding the difficulty. The directions were clear and easy to follow and after a short time we had a rocket ready to launch. The taser is a smaller rocket, it has a sleek and appealing look that makes it visible after launch and easy to find after touchdown. We did 5 or 6 launches our first time out starting with the smaller a sized engines and worked up to the c sized engines. The c sized engines were impressive, I'm not sure what altitudes we were reaching but the rocket was barely visible at its peak, and took quite a while to return to earth. The rocket did really well and held up to the launches just fine and is still in service. My six year old son and I had a really good time time building and launching the rocket and we have built several others since. This kit includes everything but the motors, wadding, and starters. You'll need to buy those seperately. You'll also need AA batteries for the launch button, I think it takes 4 batteries. I definitely recommend this kit for anyone who is considering a new hobby, just be aware it's addicting.

Great kit! Had a blast at the beach with the kids shooting this rocket off. Came with some stuff for the engines that I didn’t expect but a good starter kit. Launcher also worked well for some other rockets we had.

We got this for our girls for Christmas. It went together easy and was pretty much a complete setup to go out and do some launches. Obviously had to buy the motors (well, that and the battery for the launcher). I just wadded up some toilet paper to serve as wadding. First time, the parachute got a tiny bit melted so after that I balled up the toilet paper and that was enough to protect the parachute. Only thing that was a little annoying was that getting the motor in and the motor holder screwed on was a little tight. I actually crushed the rocket body fighting with the motor holder but was able to straighten it out. The girls had fun launching the rocket about six times and then we gave the set to friends. Overall it was a fun family activity.

To start with, a good recommendation for beginners would be to buy a rocket "kit" rather than just a rocket. Rocket kits come with a launch pad and the launch pad's accessories so buying the kit gets you that required stuff; the kits also come with with a rocket. From there what you will need seperately will be recovery wadding (which gets added to the rocket tube before each launch to protect the parachute from the engine blast and provide flame retardant), engines (to power the launch), some craft glue or super glue (for rocket assembly) and 4 AA batteries (for the ingenious electronic launch kit). This TASER rocket kit was a great place to start. For a modest price, this included a TASER rocket and the adjustable angle Porta-Pad launch pad (*reference the reviewer from 2014 that stated the pad is not adjustable, I can only assume Estes upgraded the launch pad in the last several years). Some assembly is required; together with my tween kids this took about a half hour to assemble; most of that time being dedicated to waiting for the super glue to set as we added each piece. Directions are fairly straight forward and the process is safe. Another recomendation I can make is to consider buying a seperate, fully assembled rocket in addition to the basic kit; doing so is a few dollars more but gives the flexibility of having a backup rocket in the event the assembly goes awry or the rocket cannot be recovered after a launch. That is what I did, and despite the assembly going fine and having recovered the rocket after our first launch, it was good to know we had a backup because on a few occasions our launch resulted in a never-to-be-seen again wind blown rocket and a rocket-in-a-tree situation. Plus you can set up for two launches at a time which is nice. All tallied up, I was in for about $48; that included this kit, wadding, engines and a back up ATHENA rocket. I had glue and batteries at home so I did not count that. The launch process is relatively simple and my kids have done it as well. The long wire extending from the launch kit allows the person launching to be a safe distance away from the rocket. I have included a short video of our first launch for reference; you can judge by the enthusiasm of my two boys how much kids (and many adults) dig rockets. One last tip I can offer is to start out with the lower powered A engines; then if you stick with it and get the hang of it, go to the C engines. Have fun, this is a nice hobby to do with kids. It makes them focus, build, get fresh air and think about physics while also getting the rush of launching and recovering a rocket. Have fun.

I got two of these puppies along with Estes A8-3 Model Rocket Engine Pack (which come with wadding too) They are somewhat easy to assemble, but you have to glue most of the pieces and you need some patience - I know you or your kids want to launch it immediately, but better off waiting for all the glue (which you'll need to buy separately) to dry (I used some plastic glue and some carpenter glue). If you are the clumsy type - I recommend thinking twice before buying this. BUT - they fly great! Not bad at all with the A8 engines as well. Will probably try more powerful ones in the future, but the A8 are not bad. We had a fairly strong wind when we launched, but it was not a major issue for these rockets. I looked at most of the rockets on Amazon before buying these - if you are a beginner just like us(these were our first rockets) buy these ones. Also, they come with a launch pad, so given the low price, it is the perfect recipe to avoid a civil war between my 5 and 3 year old to decide who gets to send them into space, or onto the moon, or Mars, or to meet the aliens, or... that's it because we used all our engines. Time to get more.