Brief:
Basic four-finned, parachute-recovery rocket, fully assembled and decorated. Appears to be physically identical to the Code Red RTF starter set rocket.

Construction:
Single body tube, four fins in a single-piece plastic casting. Motor mount is integrated into the fin section and the motor retainer is a twist-lock cap.

Ready-to-fly, the only construction step was to tie the parachute to the shock cord. Good thing with a young kid wanting to go fly "right now!" Well-designed model and much satisfaction in launching a ready-made rocket right out of the box.

Finishing:
No finishing required. Decals come pre-applied and include a lot of detail. Says "US ARMY" across the side, which may or may not be an issue, depending on stance toward "rockets as implements of war."

Construction Rating: 5 out of 5

Flight:
Initial two flights on B6-4 (supplied in the starter kit) under near-zero winds. Up in a smooth, shallow arc, chute deployed at apogee, and touched down about twenty feet from the pad both times. Later two launches under 5-10 MPH winds went well. The A8-3 barely seemed to get it off the ground, and the chute popped well before apogee. On the B4-4 it flew well, but the chute carried it quite a distance in the wind, despite launching into the wind.

On the third flight, rocket took damage to the fore end of the tube on ejection, looks like the nose cone snapped back and dented it.

Twist-lock motor retainer is almost fool-proof (so long as you turn it to lock it) but it's a bother to get aligned due to tight fit of the motor. The retainer, being below the nozzle, accumulates a lot of burn residue.

Recovery:
Bright colors (white and red) easy to locate.

Needs a longer shock cord, snap-back dented the body tube. Recovery was a bit slow... a hole in the chute would have reduced the chase distance.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
On the range and launching in just minutes. Good confidence-builder for someone new to rocketry. Only worries are about getting the chute packed and the motor hooked up right. No guesswork since the rocket is assembled properly.

No real cons, it's a great basic model.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5