Hooben tank models

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Coryphodon
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Hooben tank models

Post by Coryphodon »

Hello,
I just noticed that Hooben is issuing a new 'batch' of tank models,
including the German E100 in the 1/16 scale
plus several other models in the larger 1/10 scale.

However, the tank models by Hooben only feature Infrared firing systems.
I was wondering whether they could be retrofitted with an Airsoft firing system.
By the way, and in the first place, has anyone in this forum purchased Hooben tanks?

I am providing here a link for anyone interested;
https://www.hooben-shop.com
Greetings
SCHWEREPANZER
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Posts: 531
Joined: Thu Jan 08, 2015 1:40 am

Re: Hooben tank models

Post by SCHWEREPANZER »

Did you (collectively, that is) happen to notice the starting price of the E-100? I would guess that the buyer's appeal would be somewhat diminished on this one. :-<
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STHV
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Location: Hertfordshire, UK

Re: Hooben tank models

Post by STHV »

Avoid them like the plague. I own their Maus, it is by far the lowest quality and most overpriced piece of crap in my collection. Its construction is horrendous as it is held together by nuts glued to brackets on the inside, mine even had its convoy light held on with blu tac. The gearbox was broken on arrival. It was advertised as full metal but huge parts are plastic like the gun mantlet, shot deflectors, fuel drum, headlights (also broken on arrival) and all of the hatches and periscopes. I will have to replace the entire turret due to the front face being completely wrong with a flat bit at the bottom as well as the front and back plates of the hull because they are too small and leave large gaps in the tank.

Now for the really bad stuff. The gun elevation system was designed by a moron, it used a reasonably strong motor/servo with a steel gear that drives another gear made of the softest plastic imaginable and with no limit switch so the first time I tried it out the Steel gear stripped the plastic one bare. The turret traverse was advertised as 360°, it is about 320° as the turret has no slip ring for the wires and has been deliberately limited with micro switches (those would have been nice to have on the elevation drive). On arrival I physically could not open the hull roof to check the internals due to some of the bolts being completely covered in glue. The tank is neither the V2 or Kubinka hybrid and has details from both V1 and V2 spliced together along with being just flat out wrong this is because those idiots just copied a 1/35 scale dragon kit of the Maus, its blatantly obvious because that kit had the exact same broken details like the flat part on the bottom of the turret face. The sound system is horrendous, sounding worse than even the cheapest Heng Long. The FPV system was a lie, I was explicitly told by their customer support that it was 1080p, the camera is 720p and the headset is 480p. The coaxial 75mm has no function at all, no recoil at all. In a promotional video they even showed the coaxial machine was completely absent and the 75mm was had the mg flash bulb in it. I had to ask them to add the mg, which they surprisingly did but they didn't connect it to the elevation.

Now is the even worse part, their customer service. It took a whole 6 months for the tank to arrive with their customer support constantly saying it would be dispatched in about 2 weeks. Once the pile of junk actually arrived and I discovered just how bad it was I immediately left a detailed review on their Facebook page listing everything wrong. Instead of trying to fix the issues they simply said that I must be wrong because other customers were happy, I don't believe that for a second, and only offered to refund me if I returned it undamaged, even though it was broken on arrival they did not offer any replacement parts or anything. So then I asked for a partial refund seeing as it was blatant lies and false advertising. They then just falt said that they would not help me at all unless I took down my review. Needless to say I ignored them and went straight to my bank. After I got a local RC shop to verify that they were indeed lying about just about everything and sending the full email conversations I had with Hooben to my bank they reversed the payment as Hooben never responded to them. So now I have a completey broken but free paperweight that is going to take a huge amount of work to fix

TL:DR Hooben are scammers and the E-100 and all of their other tanks look like more of the same, don't give them a penny. If you really want a Maus or E-100 etc go to Christian Ludwig, he makes great kits for just about everything and can even do custom stuff, I'm using his metal Panther upper hull for my Ausf D project.
Panther Ausf D (WIP)
Panther Ausf A mit Brückentafel (WIP)
Panther Ausf G (WIP)
Jagdpanther G2 (WIP)
Tiger II (WIP)
Pz.Kpfw. VIII Maus V2 (WIP)
Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf L (WIP)
Sd.Kfz. 234/2 (WIP)
Leopard 1A4/1A1A1 (WIP)
Turm III (WIP)
VK 45.01 (H) (WIP)
SCHWEREPANZER
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Re: Hooben tank models

Post by SCHWEREPANZER »

Not that I was thinking of getting it, but I think you have pretty much, and quite effectively I might add, written a good and accurate kit review. :clap:
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43rdRecceReg
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Re: Hooben tank models

Post by 43rdRecceReg »

If you look 'Hooben' up in the search' box, you'll find lots of references to the company and their models. Not all are quite as damning as STHV's. :shh:
The recent Cromwell has a fairly decent hull (alloy) and external detailing. It's less impressive, and very dated on the inside, however. The sound effects are mediocre. :/
One thing that is incontestible: the sky-high prices. :think:
Here's one account of Hooben's Cromwell's pros and cons
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28871&p=314340&hili ... ll#p314340
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please"- Mark Twain.
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jarndice
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Re: Hooben tank models

Post by jarndice »

STHV wrote:Avoid them like the plague. I own their Maus, it is by far the lowest quality and most overpriced piece of crap in my collection. Its construction is horrendous as it is held together by nuts glued to brackets on the inside, mine even had its convoy light held on with blu tac. The gearbox was broken on arrival. It was advertised as full metal but huge parts are plastic like the gun mantlet, shot deflectors, fuel drum, headlights (also broken on arrival) and all of the hatches and periscopes. I will have to replace the entire turret due to the front face being completely wrong with a flat bit at the bottom as well as the front and back plates of the hull because they are too small and leave large gaps in the tank.

Now for the really bad stuff. The gun elevation system was designed by a moron, it used a reasonably strong motor/servo with a steel gear that drives another gear made of the softest plastic imaginable and with no limit switch so the first time I tried it out the Steel gear stripped the plastic one bare. The turret traverse was advertised as 360°, it is about 320° as the turret has no slip ring for the wires and has been deliberately limited with micro switches (those would have been nice to have on the elevation drive). On arrival I physically could not open the hull roof to check the internals due to some of the bolts being completely covered in glue. The tank is neither the V2 or Kubinka hybrid and has details from both V1 and V2 spliced together along with being just flat out wrong this is because those idiots just copied a 1/35 scale dragon kit of the Maus, its blatantly obvious because that kit had the exact same broken details like the flat part on the bottom of the turret face. The sound system is horrendous, sounding worse than even the cheapest Heng Long. The FPV system was a lie, I was explicitly told by their customer support that it was 1080p, the camera is 720p and the headset is 480p. The coaxial 75mm has no function at all, no recoil at all. In a promotional video they even showed the coaxial machine was completely absent and the 75mm was had the mg flash bulb in it. I had to ask them to add the mg, which they surprisingly did but they didn't connect it to the elevation.

Now is the even worse part, their customer service. It took a whole 6 months for the tank to arrive with their customer support constantly saying it would be dispatched in about 2 weeks. Once the pile of junk actually arrived and I discovered just how bad it was I immediately left a detailed review on their Facebook page listing everything wrong. Instead of trying to fix the issues they simply said that I must be wrong because other customers were happy, I don't believe that for a second, and only offered to refund me if I returned it undamaged, even though it was broken on arrival they did not offer any replacement parts or anything. So then I asked for a partial refund seeing as it was blatant lies and false advertising. They then just falt said that they would not help me at all unless I took down my review. Needless to say I ignored them and went straight to my bank. After I got a local RC shop to verify that they were indeed lying about just about everything and sending the full email conversations I had with Hooben to my bank they reversed the payment as Hooben never responded to them. So now I have a completey broken but free paperweight that is going to take a huge amount of work to fix

TL:DR Hooben are scammers and the E-100 and all of their other tanks look like more of the same, don't give them a penny. If you really want a Maus or E-100 etc go to Christian Ludwig, he makes great kits for just about everything and can even do custom stuff, I'm using his metal Panther upper hull for my Ausf D project.
Oh I do dislike prevarication, For goodness sake man did you like it ??? :clap: :clap:
This summary alone is a very good reason for being a part of the Forum. :thumbup:
I think I am about to upset someone :haha:
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jhamm
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Re: Hooben tank models

Post by jhamm »

STHV wrote: If you really want a Maus or E-100 etc go to Christian Ludwig, he makes great kits for just about everything and can even do custom stuff, I'm using his metal Panther upper hull for my Ausf D project.
Christian Ludwig make only kits no RTR Modell, and believe me these kits need a lot of work!
From Hooben you get a RTR model..because not everyone is able to build a model without instructions.
Hooben delivers medium quality with a tendency towards poor quality - this seems to depend on the day.
One can argue about the purchase price, some find it too expensive, others don't care.
You have to want to afford a Hooben model.
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HERMAN BIX
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Re: Hooben tank models

Post by HERMAN BIX »

“You have to want to afford a Hooben model”

That is a very astute observation Mr Jhamm
I would say that if an expectation is set low with the understanding that you could have a less common model if you are prepared to put in a lot of extra work, then go right ahead ! 8O
I have an Elephant that I will convert to a Ferdinand which I expect is going to be a long and frustrating task, but, without the base to begin with the task would be bigger and even more frustrating :eh:
HL JAGDPANTHER,HL TIGER 1,HL PzIII MUNITIONSCHLEPPER, HL KT OCTOPUS,HL PANTHER ZU-FUSS,HL STuG III,HL T34/85 BEDSPRING,
HL PZIV MALTA,MATORRO JAGDTIGER,HL F05 TIGER,TAMIYA KT,HL PANTHERDOZER,HL EARLY PANTHER G,TAIGEN/RAMINATOR T34/76,
HL AN-BRI-RAM SU-85
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Xiaoshan_Sailor
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Re: Hooben tank models

Post by Xiaoshan_Sailor »

MY GAWD!!!! :haha: :crazy: :thumbup: That pretty much sums it up. :O :O :haha: :haha:

I live less than an hour from their "workshop" - I use quotes since its nothing more than an office/apartment setup - & have known their owner for close to 15 years. Have several tanks, the last being the Hetzer which is not as bad as the Maus but close in terms of problems encountered.

Toy grade early HL quality is what you can expect if you do plan to buy their products. Even the local hobbyists here in China deride their lack of quality & customer service which says a lot.

The only good thing I can say about Hooben is that they do think outside the box when it comes to new subjects. I would be tempted if they do eventually come out with the 1/10 Sd.Kfz. 251 that supposedly has been in the works.
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Xiaoshan_Sailor
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Re: Hooben tank models

Post by Xiaoshan_Sailor »

jhamm wrote:You have to want to afford a Hooben model.
Reminds me of the British & Italian sports car fetish I've had all my life: Austin-Healey, MG, Triumph, Fiat.. Guess masochism runs deep in all my hobbies. :haha:
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