Brief:
The Mini Meanie is a very small plastic rocket similar to the RTF Mighty Mites, except that you get to do a bit of assembly. It uses 13mm 'Mini' motors and a very small streamer for recovery

Construction:
This kit assembles like a plastic model. There is no body tube as such, just the two halves of the rocket with fins already attached. Estes does provide a motor tube and hook along with the nose cone, recovery system and a square of clay for ballasting.

The whole thing goes together in moments. Instructions are pretty good, and should be easy for children to follow. The rocket body is delivered in two halves, with the fins built in. The shock cord is attached to one half, the motor tube and hook are laid in place, and the other half glued on with plastic cement.

The only 'tricky' part concerns the nose cone. It needs to be filled with clay and then sealed with a bottom cap. The amount of clay provided actually exceeds the space in the nose by a small amount. The excess clay can interfere with the glue for the nose cone base, so you have to clean up any clay from the glue area. No big deal but it might trip-up a youngster. The free end of the shock cord is secured to the nose cone base unit (another reason to make sure you have a good glue bond there), and the streamer ties to the cord. That's about it. You can build this whole rocket while the glue on one fin sets on your larger project!

Finishing:
The only finishing is the stick-on decals. You could have your kids build this one at the launch site and fly it as soon as the glue dries. I'm rating it 4 1/2 only because it's a plastic kit and I can't bring myself to rate it a 5, but there is really no problem with it that I can see.

Construction Rating: 4 out of 5

Flight:
Flights are actually pretty satisfying. On 1/2A power the rocket gets 200-300 feet, I'd estimate. Stable even in a breeze. The flight is not so fast you cannot follow it easily, which adds to the fun. Ejection has been right at apogee. Our one flight on an A motor was quick but still could be visually tracked. I was watching another rocket in the drag race and did not see the apogee and separation, but I hear it was still visible.

Recovery:
The streamer really does little to slow the recovery. The rocket does tumble down after the nose cone pops off (no little-lawn-dart like the Quark) and does not eject its engine, so I find it a bit less scary to fly than the 'tumble' recovery kits. The streamer does make it easier to spot on the way down. You won't have to hunt for it much though, even in winds all our flights landed very close to the pads.

Flight Rating: 5 out of 5

Summary:
For what it is, it's very good. My 7 year old built it pretty much on his own, got a good looking and good flying rocket, and he likes it. It cost me less than 4 bucks. When the shock-cord breaks I don't know how we will ever replace it, now that the body is glued closed, but it's unlikely we'd ever find the nose-cone if it separated, so at that point we'll just get another. It's not much of a building project, but at least you have to build something, and at least it has some sort of recovery system, so I like it better than the RTF Flying Saucer and other favorites of my son's. Comparing it to the Estes Quark I thought the Quark a more 'interesting' rocket to build, but I prefer the flights of the Meanie, with its slower lift-off and streamer recovery.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5