Cox NaBOO - Just in time for Halloween

Ok, I might be taking this a galaxy or two too far, but these ebay sellers keep accepting my low-ball offers. What's a Creaxion to do.......




Wasted on me.............I wouldn't know a Luke Skywalker from a Sally Moonbeam, I don't think I have ever watched a - what's his name Lucas...? movie but I did watch the TV series Startrek with William Shatner. Spock always an interesting character.

With this X-Wing Mark tells me I have three of the four

Bob from the planet Creaxion.........................

Here is my complete collection

Sterling/Estes had some Star Wars profile CL kits too.

More vintage Star Wars CL planes

1975 control line guy wrote:More vintage Star Wars CL planes

I've got both of those kits. Picked them up a while back at a hobby store in Denver, Colorado, they had them on clearance. Estes did a nice job on them. The decals add a lot of detail, too. Even though they are profile, they should build into something one will enjoy showing off to others.

Don't tempt me George, I'm calling it quits with this one. Another BIN ebay low offer which was accepted.



Snowspeeder.............?????? How did they come up with that one. Does it really snow in Space. Perhaps on a planet in some Galaxy far, far away. Somebody hit it with an ugly stick too. "Butt ugly" description would be too kind. I'm 99.9% sure that it's a puller, but with these I can't say 100%. Probably "flys" like a lump of coal, but I probably will never try it...........All is not lost, I get a new Cox engine and a flight kit..........Hopefully.

Beam me down Scotty, I'm though with this................

Bob, I can believe it would fly, it is basically a delta wing control liner with elevons as elevator. Reminds me of:

http://www.outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=1725 Firestrike by RC Povey from Aeromodeller December 1968, 13in span


Outerzone photo.

https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=3399 Duplex Delta by Peter Holland from Aeromodeller November 1959, 14in span


Outerzone plan thumbnail.

rsv1cox wrote:Don't tempt me George, I'm calling it quits with this one.  Another BIN ebay low offer which was accepted.



Snowspeeder.............??????  How did they come up with that one.  Does it really snow in Space.  Perhaps on a planet in some Galaxy far, far away.  Somebody hit it with an ugly stick too.  "Butt ugly" description would be too kind.  I'm 99.9% sure that it's a puller, but with these I can't say 100%.  Probably "flys" like a lump of coal, but I probably will never try it...........All is not lost, I get a new Cox engine and a flight kit..........Hopefully.  

Beam me down Scotty, I'm though with this................

I have flown, crashed, and fixed the Snow Speeder to fly.  It need a forward tip weight just behind the gun on the underside and more tip weight.  It can only be flown in very calm wind conditions and you fly higher than 7 feet it will stall.  Other than that I have had some very successful rock on a string flights

1975 control line guy wrote:

Here is my complete collection

I like that, it gives the whole line-up in a nutshell.

Also enjoy your description of the Snowspeeder flight characteristics. It flew but barely, and that is all that counts.

I could see how one could easily come up with a balsa/basswood/foam constructed clone of it.

CLG writes.......

"Other than that I have had some very successful rock on a string flights"

You have a very nice collection of these, and more importantly, you fly them.

I have put together the "Junkyard" version and may fly one or two.

Bob

The Naboo N1 is always one of the planes in my lineup when I go fly:flying:

I need to redesign and fix the jam prone X Wing elevator. I never saw a model hit so hard even the press on wheels popped off the axels.

The "SnowSpeeder" about puts a stake through the heart of my StarWars affliction!  It seems like Cox lost it's way with these as they went from a window box bubble container with the Naboo to just bagging the contents and tossing them unrestrained into a standard cardboard box.  I'm not sure if the Naboo came with a window in the box but I added one after some repair.








The Cox/Estes and our very own Cox International connection from Wikipedia:

Cox Models, a former division of Estes Industries of Penrose, Colorado, was a multimillion-dollar hobby company, is one of the hobby industry's oldest companies and is noted for its production of miniature model internal-combustion engines.

History
The company, originally named The L. M. Cox Manufacturing Co, Inc., was founded in 1945 by the machinist Roy Cox in Placentia, California. Cox grew up in and around his father's bicycle shop, and he developed an interest in mechanical devices. Cox's first products were wooden pop guns, produced in his home garage. Cox chose wood for his basic material, since metal was scarce during WW II.

When metals became readily available in the United States in 1947, Cox turned his attention to new products, beginning with a diecast metal car. This product was developed into a "whip car", a tethered vehicle which could be manually swung in a circle at high speed. Nitro- and gasoline-powered tether cars with .60 cubic inch miniature engines capable of speeds of 100 mph (160 km/h) were quickly becoming popular. Cox's first contribution to that growing hobby was a cast aluminum midget racer powered by a .09 and .15 engine by Cameron Brothers of Chino, California.

Cox Manufacturing enjoyed a large postwar growth due in part to its production of miniature model internal combustion engines and control line model aircraft, finally moving to a new factory in Santa Ana, California, in 1963. The factory started at 80,000 square feet (7432 square meters). Three expansions in a few years' time saw expansion to 225,000 square feet (20,903 square meters) and introduction of a line of slot cars, model rockets, HO scale model trains, and a full-sized, one-horsepower gasoline-powered chain saw.

Roy Cox retired in 1969, and he sold the company to the hobby conglomerate "Leisure Dynamics". Kites, toy walkie-talkies, and yo-yos were added to the Cox company products. A major step toward participation in the growing radio controlled hobby business happened in 1976 with the acquisition of the radio manufacturer "Airtronics".

By 1983, Leisure Dynamics was facing bankruptcy. Their engineer William Selzer, the designer of the "Babe Bee" .049 aircraft engine, joined with a local businessman to purchase the Cox company. The new company, Aeromil Engineering Company, changed the name of the company from Cox Company to Cox Hobbies, Incorporated, in 1984. Growth of the company continued, but its factory space became fragmented since the operations were spread out over a number of leased buildings. This prompted a move to a consolidated facility in Corona, California, in 1990.

In January 1996, a leading model toy rocket manufacturer, Estes Industries, purchased Cox Hobbies, Incorporated, and relocated operations from Southern California to the Estes facility in Penrose, Colorado. This signaled a major change in marketing direction for the new company, now known as Cox Models. A great many new products were aimed towards a mass market and they were sold in large chain stores and discount stores.

In February 2009 Estes Industries sold all of their remaining old classic Cox stock to several private buyers from the USA and Canada, one of them being a small privately owned company from Canada. In June 2009 they launched a website Cox International to sell their stock online and also via eBay. Some of the former Cox model train line is now sold by the Wm. K. Walthers company.

In January 2010 Estes-Cox Corporation was purchased by Hobbico based in Champaign, Illinois. These are the official owners of the former Cox name and logo and the Cox Models product line up consists of grand total of three basic Radio controlled electric trainer model airplanes.

To the present day Cox International continue to revive the original classic Cox brand of miniature aircraft engines as well as introducing new engine versions, reproduction parts, spare parts and accessories.

The Sterling Y-Wing fighter reminds me of this one that Roy Clough Jr. designed

https://www.ebay.com/itm/385487501800

Yes, my son reminds me that I don't have all the Cox powered StarWars stuff. But that thing is expensive even at the reduced price of $333. I'm charging the batteries on my $67 camera equipped drone that takes videos and stills and doesn't crash or need fuel. Thinking I will enjoy that more.



I have been looking for an out-of-box or crashed Naboo to buy so I wouldn't have to rip into one of my NIB examples. It didn't happen so I thought about heating the blister pack from below to loosen the adhesive and remove it that way. I couldn't make it work so I just cut into it from beneath and removed it that way. Kind of messy but it worked. When I'm though with it, it will make for good storage. Just fold the cardboard back and tape it.






I would like to gas it up and fly it, or it might just become a ceiling hanger.

This might make you want to fly it...

Very, very neat!  A VTO ducted fan.  That is the way Mark was flying his drone around, just without the piazzz.  Very involved and nicely done, it must be commercially available.  

I got the Naboo together.  Whoever screwed the belly pan on got them tight.  Only mod was that I had to pass a 1/16" bit through the control horns opening to get the rod on.

Nothing to it.  A couple of bucks of plastic and a sometimes ridiculed Sure Start nice and shiney with a nose weight.  







Nice touch is the clear elevator.



Tail dragger skid, has to be a weak point. The tail bends just sitting.  How will you deal with that roddie?  



More my style, a really cheap Testors Cosmic Wind and a personal favorite Stagger Wing beat to death when I got it.  

I widened the openings for the control arms so they wouldn't bind on the body.

I also reinforced the tail with an epoxied in place shish kebab skewer.

After that is a decent flier.

rsv1cox wrote:The "SnowSpeeder" about puts a stake through the heart of my StarWars affliction!  It seems like Cox lost it's way with these as they went from a window box bubble container with the Naboo to just bagging the contents and tossing them unrestrained into a standard cardboard box.  I'm not sure if the Naboo came with a window in the box but I added one after some repair.

Bob, I gather due to the complexity of the X-Wing Fighter, they decided to go the kit route for the buyer to assemble. It is a very detailed kit.

This was a marketing departure. I guess they felt that they could still garner the sales.

It does build into a beautiful C/L plane.

This is why I am glad I obtained their "Beginner Series" (not the official name but sort of follows the footsteps) profile balsa kit while browsing a legacy hobby shop in Denver, CO some 15 years ago. Work had sent me to some training there, and during my off time gave me a chance to obtain it and the Y-Wing.

I imagine that the balsa version would make a better flier, being considerably lighter than the plastic version.

Well, it's all part of a now bygone era, shared by those like you, @1975 control line guy, Levent, and others in this forum.

Weee Ya'll are Star War 'ing it up over here ! That RC roddie showed was cool but i could not stand the sound it puts out

Good idea using the skewer to reinforce that weak area.  I might do the same only using Formular 560 as an adhesive.  The elevator control is quite smooth on this one.  The biggest problem was the hole in the BC that had to be enlarged and the phillips heads holding it together.  Overly tight, the assembler might have been Arnold Smetzenfella as a kid working part time.  

These windowed S/Wars boxes show no sign of ever having a glassine window as there is no adhesive "bathtub ring" around the inside perminator, but I added one anyway.  It came out better than it looks in the picture.  A combo of Formular 560 and adhesive tape.





It has been fun doing these, and I learned something about the Star Wars culture.  Fun, but not nearly as much as doing the old Beech Ruff and Tuff Staggerwing.  Obviously flown many times and shows it.  I tried to maintain the used look while restoring it to flying condition.  The Ok Cub with the twisted wire ground and the reworked needle handle adds to it's appeal.  I wish I had been there when it was first and last flown.  

I checked my glo fuel supply.  One gallon of Wildcat, a quart of Brodak and half quart of SIG castor.  I ought to line up a dozen or three and light them off.

I like that old Beech with its metal cowl and OK Cub….. The Cub looks like first generation…. An interesting read on OK Cub history if you haven’t ran into it yet…

https://www.adriansmodelaeroengines.com/catalog/main.php?cat_id=225

rdw777 wrote:I like that old Beech

I am careful about using those words around Hispanic and Filipino crowds. (sorry ... couldn't help myself.)  

rdw777 wrote:with its metal cowl and OK Cub….. The Cub looks like first generation…. An interesting read on OK Cub history if you haven’t ran into it yet…

https://www.adriansmodelaeroengines.com/catalog/main.php?cat_id=225

Yes, Bob's model of that is a real classic Plain aluminum cowl really sets it apart from others. Back a long time ago, one could buy spun and stamped aluminum and steel cowls from various sources (AHC, SIG, etc.)

But, I have found that vitamin supplement bottles are good substitutes these days. I think it was Mauricio who made built up ones from balsa.

More than one way to skin a cat.

Thanks for that link Robert. I have read Adrain's (Maris Deslers) article before, but I always pick something more out of a revisit. 1947ish is when I started getting interested in model airplane engines, mostly from articles in Popular Mechanics and Science. Picked up a mail-order diesel from an ad in one of those. If I read something about Ok's it didn't stick. By the early 50's I had found Cox Space Bugs and Babe Bees.

I had a bunch of ebay Ok Cubs at one time, I either sold or gave them away. Not any more since I ran one and found them easy starting and reliable. I can't remember if I ran the Staggerwings engine, I might have, It's castor oily. Probably not with that red prop though, it's split at the hub. Got an X on the back as a warning.

But this one is a runner.



The Naboo gets to hang out with guys from a whole other Galaxy......................