Are Tamiya or Torro RC tanks better than Heng Long?

[tomhugill]

Tamiya has also discontinued most of their tanks. All of their current tanks are available from multiple other brands. If I'm going to super detail a tank, I might as well start with $300 tank over an $900+ tank.

This is my biggest problem with Tamiya - the lack of spare parts. Sometimes they are available on Axels at absurd prices. Especially since it's about RC models. If a mechanical part breaks, it's a big problem. And in the case of Taigen and HL you can buy every part of every model. Yes, the Chinese parts made of pot metal but you can buy them off the shelf in bulk.

Hmm I need some torsion bar bits for my metal kv-1 chassis and nowhere have them! Converslsy I've been able to get every tamiya part Ive ever needed!

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[Kaczor]

I need some torsion bar bits for my metal kv-1 chassis and nowhere have them! Converslsy I've been able to get every tamiya part Ive ever needed!

Yes, these elements are available mainly for Tiger I (but many are common between models), the best solution will probably be to buy a second KV hull that will be a donor of all the parts

[r32]

Tamiya generally supports their worldwide dealer network very well. In the early days, I assumed ordering from my local dealer would be more costly than buying online (who remembers Jasons-RC on eBay?), but when Jasons went out of business, I tried ordering from my dealer and found the prices weren't bad at all. Of course, there was a bit of a wait, say 2 months or so.

One of my recent endeavours involved buying a complete M551 Sheridan MFU and wiring harness to retrofit onto a HL Challenger 2. Costly as it was, I expected it to be worse.

And I am not sure that Tamiya's electronics are outdated is a fair comment to make - although I will concede that they are conservative. They have evolved from the two-piece, basically solid state DMD/MFU to combined single DMD T-07 for the Leopard, before going on to miniaturised microchip tech for the Type 10/Abrams that featured a 2 axis gyro and finally in recent times, DMD for the M551/Centurion that features an actual LCD screen with a user interface.

Unlike the rest of the competition, they have legacy to manage - because all their boards need to support the IR battling format, without upsetting the balance of the game rules. Given their 20 years doing this, I am personally happy with what they've done so far.

[Jofaur86]

Hello, I don't know if you are still looking for "Tamiya" module parts? but if you look in the sales section of this forum, there is a module for sale, otherwise in Germany there is "Modelbau-Seidel, cheaper than at Axels, but see for shipments, just for info.
viewtopic.php?p=366184#p366184
https://www.modellbau-seidel.de/index.p ... zteile.web

[ColemanCollector]

Perhaps one day I'll gird my financial loins and buy a Tamiya kit. The thought of building the entire tank end to end really appeals to me, but the Tamiya sticker shock doesn't.

I kind of get the feeling that with HL/Tongde/Taigen/Coolbank et al. upping their game, aftermarket components getting better and more sophisticated, and 3D printing making the selection of tanks broader, Tamiya is becoming less and less the flagship it once was.

Mike.

[MrChef]

Perhaps one day I'll gird my financial loins and buy a Tamiya kit. The thought of building the entire tank end to end really appeals to me, but the Tamiya sticker shock doesn't.

I kind of get the feeling that with HL/Tongde/Taigen/Coolbank et al. upping their game, aftermarket components getting better and more sophisticated, and 3D printing making the selection of tanks broader, Tamiya is becoming less and less the flagship it once was.

Mike.

This is precisely how I feel.

Now midway through my current Taigen build I have a bit of an opinion, but that's just that My Opinion. The Taigen Chassis is superior to Heng Long. Accuracy aside it's Much more robust and better build quality. If like my situation presented itself, then a donor Taigen tank mated to the HL TK 7.0-7.1 is quite a treat and the way to go. I'd definitely be disappointed though if I spent the money on a Tamiya and discovered similar detail issues that we all deal with and mod on lesser expensive models.

[Panzermechaniker]

Going to have to go against the flow here. While I hate the fact that Tamiya's old MFU and DMD boards are limited in function and truly insanely expensive to replace plus basically having to use the old and ridiculously expensive Futaba/Tamiya 4 channel radios with analog trim. I've built most of the WW2 Tamiyas. Pershing, Sherman and IS-2 are the ones I haven't. The Panther that you will never get to build believe me(it's a unicorn now) and the detail on it without the Aber kit is pathetic but it is the best running tank outside. The Tamiya Tiger was my first Tamiya build. Now after beating the hell out of one and the fun of totally rebuilding it I would love to build another new one from scratch with all the aftermarket stuff. I know all it's weaknesses and they are easy to fix building from the start. I'm loving the new 3D stuff with HL gearbox and servos for everything but I will also keep building Taigen Panthers with Clarks and custom servos. But to round it all out the 2 most fun tanks I own to drive are the Torro Sturmtiger and the plastic everything but gearbox HL Panzer 3 modified in the turret all to hell

[tankme]

Everyone at the local tank club loved my Torro Sturmtiger also...

[Rad_Schuhart]

plus basically having to use the old and ridiculously expensive Futaba/Tamiya 4 channel radios with analog trim.

This is not correct., sir. With digital programmable radios you can asign any switch for any function of your choice.

But even with the futaba radios there is no need to touch the trims if the electronics are smartly calibrated. I did both hundreds of times for people worldwide. Even the 20 eur hobbyking radios are fine (and better than the futabas) for tamiya kits.

Said that, I am the first that complains against tamiya. Overpriced kits, even more overpriced and hard to source spare parts, super dated electronics and more.

I do love building the kits though... but most are terrible dated. The sherman is using molds from 1975!

I found the king tiger the worst of the kits, and I regret buying it, even when it costed me 425 eur and sold the electronics for 350, so go and figure.

But yeah, selling the electronics was the point that made me getting more tamiya kits, big part of the investment was recovered.

At least when I got my kits they costed me around 400 eur each, including the Panzer IV

Id love to get a decent Tamiya T55 though... but of course the electronics would go untouched to Ebay.

[r32]

I’m a little puzzled by the comments of Tamiya being costly, when some of them like Tiger I and Sherman can be purchased for below US$600 before shipping from Hong Kong. Conversely, it’s the Chinese tanks that have crept up in price such that they start getting into Tamiya territory