A selection of classic Centuri model rocketry catalogues, from the company's pinnacle to its demise. Although I duly loved Estes model rockets and purchased a great many of them, I was always slightly more partial to Centuri. Their rocket kits had a certain inexplicable something that appealed to me, as is beautifully illustrated and thus preserved for posterity by the contents of these catalogues.
The truly glorious catalogues were of course the glossy, small-format ones of the 1969 to 1979 period. Although beautifully preserving the typical spirit of the 1960s, the graphic design of the 1969 catalogue (no. 691, 96 pages, top row, left) was still a somewhat one-dimensional affair. The same might be applied to the 1971 catalogue (no. 71 D, 96 pages, top row, third from left), in spite of the magnificent appearance of Centuri's legendary Space Shuttle on the back cover.
Centuri really came into its own with the beautiful 1972 catalogue (no. 721, 72 pages, top row, second from left), featuring stunningly strong colour renderings and photos of the company's models. The 1973 catalogue (no. 73, 76 pages, top row, right) provided more of the same.
The 1979 catalogue (no. 791, 64 pages, bottom row, left) was a less colourful and slightly more formal affair, but it was still bursting with truly extraordinary rockets. The 1980 (no. 801P, 64 pages, bottom row, second from left) and 1981 (no. 811NP, 64 pages, bottom row, third from left) catalogues were somewhat similar and even brought back some of the colour. But the kits offered therein had become far more toy-like and increasingly lacked the realism of real rockets, which, to me, decreased their appeal significantly.
By the time the dreadfully bleak 1982 catalogue (no. 821, a mere 32 pages, bottom row, right) appeared, one could easily foresee the end of Centuri's product line. The catalogue was an utterly unattractive concoction of poor, chaotic design. Only one further Centuri catalogue would appear, in 1983, but the company had sadly long lost not only its independence but also its uniqueness.
Photo taken in Zurich, Switzerland, on July 1, 2016.
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