Manufacturers of RC Tanks

[StuG Life]

Hi, I'm new to the hobby. I've been looking for a Jagdpanther RC tank. I noticed there is Heng Long, Mato, Torro products. In some cases, it looks like different companies are selling the same products. Do these companies have partnerships with each other? Are some company's products upgrades of another company's basic model? Please let me know. Thanks.

StuG Life

Carl

[Kaczor]

It's complicated. Heng Long, Mato, Torro (Taigen) are all Chinese companies. As you know in China "intelectual property" is somewhat fluid term Today those are separate companies, sometimes making similar but not the same models. Some parts are exchangable but not always.
Heng Long - mostly plstic models with options to upgrade some components like tracks and wheels to metal.
Torro (Taigen) - more metal parts, better suspension than HL.
Mato - "all metal" which means cheap aluminium alloy.
Tamiya - Japanese company with very good quality kits (you need to assebly them) also most expensive.

In case of Jagdpanther I would choose Torro/Taigen as it's have nice torsion bar suspension and metal part out of the box. Heng Hong JP have crude spring suspension and it's all plastic. Tamiya Jagpanther is great but two or three times more expensive than Torro.

[thestig]

Hi StuG Life.

I own tanks made by Heng Long, Taigen/Torro and Tamiya, though none are the Jagdpanther. That being said I totally agree with Kaczor’s comments.

Personally I like Taigen’s products. and they would be my first choice.

With the offerings available today I don’t know if there is a “bad” choice.

Have fun with whatever you purchase.

Thestig
Aka Frank

[HERMAN BIX]

Inline with Mr Stig, these days there’s not really a bad choice, although some would say that new Hooben are trying very hard to achieve that
Taigen for me would be the #1 preference but ultimately, there is nothing that cannot be changed to suit your needs or improved to be as good as any other brand.
Let’s be honest these things spend most time as static models until they run for a bit, so if done right they all look the same anyway!

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Carl, not the cheapest, but the best for the money is the Taigen or Torro Jagdpanther. I prefer the more premium Taigen as an out-of-the-box runner because it is more rugged than the HengLong version and has pretty good sound. Unfortunately, the Jagdpanther is now sold out in the US and many versions are sold out in Germany (I hope to be restocked as the economic effects of Covid diminish).

If you make a choice of a Jagdpanther from wherever, you might want to check back here on RCTW before buying. There's a lot of experience folks here. (In fact, I have lots of experience buying )

Here are some URLs with information about the Taigen/Torro Jagdpanther:

The manual that comes with the Taigen tank: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0449/ ... 1597519544

A video about Taigen/Torro electronics and sound (which I like), available separately, but already installed in all new Taigen/Torro tanks for the past three or four years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtxaYCl ... e=youtu.be

Here is Imex/Taigen, the US importer (with links to the sold out Jagdpanther ): https://www.taigentanks.com/

Here are links to the Jagdpanther at three firms in Germany from all which I have bought with fine service:

https://heng-long-panzer.de/en/1-16-RC- ... country=US

https://www.rctank.de/JAGDPANTHER_10

https://www.torro-shop.de/1-16-RC-Jagdpanther-camo-IR

[Soeren]

What they said. Unfortunately the Tamiya Jagdpanther is not available anymore. If it was, I would say get that. The Taigen has an ok lower hull, but the top is the same as the HengLong and that piece is so wrong in a lot of places. You don’t get a good gun movement, i.e. elevation or traverse and that will eventually annoy you. Trust me.
So you could either start building things yourself or you better take the Taigen Panther.
Either way, Trumpeter is doing great 1/16 scale static models that would be enormously helpful when you want to super detail your tank one day. Even if you don’t plan this yet, there might come the day…