[Innova] Innova disc timelines

[captain jack]

I thought that was a better title than "Dating discs"

I was reading a thread on another forum that mentioned some older models of Innova discs have " Rancho Cucamonga, Cal." printed on them instead of " Rancho Cucamonga, Ca." , so of course I started rifling through my discs to check the imprints.

I have a couple of "Cal." Champ Leopards and a " Cal." Dx Raven, so I wondered if anybody knew when they changed the imprint.

I also have an old Stingray with the " Ontario, Ca. " address, as well as an old putter with the Ontario address but no patent #.
Does this have any date implications ?

Lastly I have an old Scorpion with the " San Marino " address, anyone know when Innova used that ?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[AdamCaudle]

I'm waiting for ThreePutt to get in on this one.

 

[Three Putt]

Innova originally outsourced all their molding. The tooling on those cores said "San Marino" because that's where Innova's P.O. Box was.

Around 1990ish they started molding their own discs in a shop in Ontario, CA. The cores of the discs they molded from 1990ish to 1995ish said "Ontario" on them, but discs like the Aviar that were already in production continued to say "San Marino."

Around 1995ish they moved to the Rancho Cucamonga site that they are still at. At that point there were "San Marino," "Ontario" and "Rancho" discs all being produced by Innova, but they were all being made at that same plant in Rancho Cucamonga.

In the last several years they have moved away from physical locations and started putting the website on the underside tooling.

None of this is a hard and fast rule of when a disc was made. The Ontario Stingray, for example, is a mid-2000's disc. The Stingray was a San Marino disc, but sometime in the 2000's the top of the Stingray mold wore out. Before they replaced the top (with a new core that has the website in the tooling) they ran some Stingrays using the Cobra top. The core that was used with the Cobra top had "Ontario" tooling. So the Ontario (or flat top) Stingrays are way off according to the timeline.

As for the "Cal" discs, I have no idea. They used different tooling on different cores, so some must say "Cal" and others say "CA." I don't think it will really tell you anything about when it was made. All the tooling really can tell you is when that core piece was made, not when the disc was made.

 

[captain jack]

Thank you for the information, that helps me alot.

 

[dkjhorseman]

Origins of San Marino Rocs

So if a Roc with the original DX mold is engraved with San Marino, CA 91108, was the molding outsourced in San Marino, or could it have been molded in Ontario and just have the 91108 zipcode on it? Several people I have talked to that know the mold say they fly more true than most other rocs with different mold stamps. At one time, a lot of the better pros were looking for those old DX 91108s to put in their bags. I believe if my story is correct, Barry Schultze has a 91108 mold. But was it molded in San Marino, or by Innova, themselves, in Ontario?
I too have the oppurtunity to get my hands on about 5 of them.
Something to think about.

David

Innova originally outsourced all their molding. The tooling on those cores said "San Marino" because that's where Innova's P.O. Box was.

Around 1990ish they started molding their own discs in a shop in Ontario, CA. The cores of the discs they molded from 1990ish to 1995ish said "Ontario" on them, but discs like the Aviar that were already in production continued to say "San Marino."

Around 1995ish they moved to the Rancho Cucamonga site that they are still at. At that point there were "San Marino," "Ontario" and "Rancho" discs all being produced by Innova, but they were all being made at that same plant in Rancho Cucamonga.

In the last several years they have moved away from physical locations and started putting the website on the underside tooling.

None of this is a hard and fast rule of when a disc was made. The Ontario Stingray, for example, is a mid-2000's disc. The Stingray was a San Marino disc, but sometime in the 2000's the top of the Stingray mold wore out. Before they replaced the top (with a new core that has the website in the tooling) they ran some Stingrays using the Cobra top. The core that was used with the Cobra top had "Ontario" tooling. So the Ontario (or flat top) Stingrays are way off according to the timeline.

As for the "Cal" discs, I have no idea. They used different tooling on different cores, so some must say "Cal" and others say "CA." I don't think it will really tell you anything about when it was made. All the tooling really can tell you is when that core piece was made, not when the disc was made.

 

[the camera guy]

here's an interesting read...

http://discgolfwarehouse.com/Disc Evolution/evolution_of_disc_golf_discs.htm

 

[apdrvya]

all leopards are CAL molded, even ones molded yesterday

I would imagine that all Ravens are CAL molded as the run wasn't all that long for these discs

AFAIK, the only discs that CAL v. CA matters is 11x KC teebirds (and maybe 11x KC eagles)

 

[atay87]

Apparently CAL engraving is important for Champ TL's too. They make sure to point it out when selling them here: https://www.discgolfvalues.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=449