AMT ProShop Man In Space Rocket Collection  
Kit 30037
MSRP $20.00

AMT had done many of us who like spacecraft a real favor by rereleasing this set.  Now we don't have to pay $100 + for this set and can get all we want for a mere $20.00

First released way back when (sometime in the late 1960's), it has not been rereleased before.  The thing that makes this set nice is that all of the spacecraft are to scale.  Now 1/200 might be small for the Mercury-Redstone (and it is), but it is a great scale for the Apollo-Saturn 5.

In addition to the spacecraft, you get the base for one of their display cases to put the finished kits on.  Three things struck me about the kit.

  First was the decals.  They are printed beautifully, and are very gloss, which is appropriate for rockets.  How they will work is an unknown.  AMT decals are not known to be the best in the world as they are generally thick and will not conform to any surface changes. What all those labels (First Stage, Second Stage, etc) are all about are beyond me.  They are not called out in the instructions.  Might be good for a science fair project, though!

Secondly was the instruction sheet.  While it does call out all the parts in a chart alongside an exploded view, there is really no building sequence.  I guess you could start at the top and work your way down or at the bottom and work your way up!  Really not a problem for the non-Saturn kits as they have few parts, but could be a problem with the bigger kit.  There is also no specific decal call-out.  All the black patterns have to be painted on the kits, which in retrospect isn't such a bad deal.

Finally the kits themselves.  The non-Saturn rockets are all on one sprue!  The smallest of them, the Mercury Redstone, comprises 6 pieces.  Typical greenish grey plastic with surprisingly little flash! Two other identical sprues carry two Apollo Command Modules and LEM's each.  That's a total of 4 of them.  There must be some other parts on there as I cannot see why the extras. One sprue for the Saturn 1 and two for the Saturn 5.  The packaging is very good and bound to help prevent a lot of scratches!.

Overall, I am impressed with the kit and look forward to building it.