updated 3/11/2001
Licensed Properties from popular media are a staple of kit manufacturing. Try to turn around in hobby store these days with knocking over some tie-ins from Star Trek, Star Wars or whatever this summer's or last summer's big block busters are. Here are some commercial properties that Centuri licensed.

If you were the Watergate-era equivalent of Beavis or Butthead, you knew that dare devil Evel Knievel was one of the cooooooo-elest people on Earth (along with Alice Cooper and that guy who blew himself up during demo derby intermissions). Ol' Evel made his swan song (or was it dive?) in a failed '74 attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon in his Sky Cycle. Centuri produced a semi-scale Evel Knievel Sky Cycle. It had the shortest run of any Centuri mini engined kit, lasting only from 1975 to '77. There was also an Evel Knievel Starter Set to put under your li'l dare devil's Christmas tree.

Over decades later, Mr. Knievel has been known to lampoon his accident prone and "has-been" status in TV commercials.

Evel Knievel Sky Cycle plans at JimZ rocket plans archive.

The Space 1999 Eagle Transporterwas main workhorse spaceship of Space 1999, a disco-era TV space-opera from Anderson Productions, who's other shows, notably Thunderbirds are Go!, inspired many scratch built model rockets. The model had the Eagle section was set up as a large nose cone on top of a four fin model rocket to keep this unusual shape stable in flight. The Eagle section itself was a complex construction of blow molded pieces. This kit, like the show, only lasted two years before cancellation. A Space 1999 Starter Set was also available. I had a virgin kit in the bag which I assembled and launched it in 1999 (pictures coming soon).

Plans coming soon to: JimZ rocket plans archive.

The Buck Rogers line of three kits were a tie-in to another disco-era TV space-opera, this time reviving the venerable comic strip hero. The hero's space ship was the The Buck Rogers Starfighter (right) with its unique two pod hull. The Starfighter was later recycled as the Estes Blackhawk.

The Buck Rogers Starfighter plans at JimZ rocket plans archive.

The fiberboard finned, Buck Rogers Laser Lance (right) was an easy to assemble model rocket, and was not particularly based on anything in the series. There was also starter set based on the Laser Lance. These kits, like the series, lasted two years from '79 and '80.

JimZ needs Laser Lance plans.

Some scuttlebutt that I heard at NARAM 2000 was that Centuri briefly had the license for the "Big One", the original Star Wars! (Remember that Star Wars was a the gold mine of movie franchises before over-hype and a certain donkey faced, stoner amphibian ruined it.) Reputedly, Centuri bought the original Star Wars license very early in '77, a few months before the movie's release. When Star Wars became the definitive smash hit of the late '70s, parent company Damon ordered Centuri to transfer the license to larger sister company Estes. One wonders how things could have played out differently if Centuri had been allowed to benefit from the original Star Wars' massive popularity.