Brief:
Easy to build, simple to fly, novel recovery.

Construction:
The Twister came to us as a part of the Super Shot starter set, which also includes the Super Shot rocket (looks like a Bandit with a different decal set) along with a launch controller and pad and three motors. Fins are die-cut balsa and the easy to follow instructions will have this one up and running overnight, allowing time for painting.

Pros: simple, easy to follow instructions. Cons: Some of the instructions are printed on the reverse side of one of the fin templates, but nothing earth-shattering. Nothing but standard tools needed.

Finishing:
Nothing fancy here. Prime and paint as you like it. My son chose a multi-colored flat acrylic design (the random abstract brush work of a seven year old!) that was probably not the best choice paint-wise but it is certainly eye catching. The provided self-stick decals are nice enough, but they're meant to go on an all black paint job, and believe me when I say you don't want black on the Twister. Better to paint it something bright, like a day-glo red or green. This would be an easy one to lose otherwise.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
This is a very sweet flier, arrow straight off the rod and up almost out of sight even on an A8-3. Don't consider anything more powerful unless you have very, very good eyesight. The motor is taped to the lower body half, which is okay if, like me, you still use masking tape to hold igniters in place. I find that those little plastic widgets Estes provides don't always seat well, even in Estes' own motor nozzles.

Recovery:
The Twister's recovery method is supposed to be 'helicopter' but in our experience it's more like 'plummet.' At ejection the upper body portion (which bears the launch lug and one fin) and the lower body (which has the other two fins and a pair of small canards along with the motor) separate and are meant to twist down in sort of a maple-seed fashion. In theory this probably works, and maybe it does in the wind tunnel (does Estes have a wind tunnel?) but in practice it just isn't so. The lower body more or less tumbles, and the upper body does spiral down, albeit fairly quickly. If either were to land on a hard surface they would almost certainly sustain at least some damage, but on grass they seem to do pretty well. Just be sure to watch both halves carefully on their descents or you're liable to lose one or the other.

Flight Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary:
As part of a starter kit this is probably the rocket everyone puts together second, as the Super Shot is much larger and uses the standard parachute recovery, but once you've burned through the shock cord of the Super Shot a few times and finally crashed or lost it as a result, you'll get around to building the Twister and you'll wonder why it took you so long to come around to it. Providing you don't get over ambitious on the motors it'll be in your collection for years to come.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5