TORRO Leading the RC Tank Market

[Saxondog]

Seems for the last year TORRO has taken the lead in new products,better products and they continue to offer exceptional tanks. But the one thing that has not really happened is a drop in the sales prices.

Not sure what is driving these high cost,but thought it worth discussing. I also notice they have 4 separate classifications or categories for their line of products.

Professional edition appear to be the top of the line Metal enhanced King Tigers,and Tigers in several options.

Hobby edition (This seems to be a line of Custom Airbrushed Armor)

Play edition (this class has 2=1/16 scale and several 1/20 scale tanks)

TORRO Edition,which seems to be the standard line of Heng long,Mato,Matorro under the TORRO BANNER.With upgraded batteries and metal gearbox's yet these also all seem to be Air soft versions.

What really made me take notice is the fact that Heng Long Premium does not offer these products,and few are offered by Matomart in Canada?

Are we seeing TORRO taking over the RC TANK MARKET as the industry leader? With the new electronics and the metal parts they are very high quality offerings.

So is this the beginning of the end of Tamiya dominance? Compare the King Tiger metal edition to the Tamiya King Tiger, which is the better tank? Excluding the electronics is the Tamiya a better tank? Certainly their are some simularities,but the differences seem to favor Torro as a higher quality offering?

So what do you guys think?
http://www.torro-shop.de/index.php/cat/ ... ZEUGE.html

http://henglongpremium.com/ http://www.henglongtoys.net/eng/main.aspx

[Inflatable]

No idea about sales, but if you take a Torro King Tiger Professional Metal Edition and swap the HL RX-18 electronics with i.e. Elmod + better speaker and 2.4Ghz remote, I think you have a very good combination of a metal running gear and arguably the best electronics for the same money a Tamiya Full Option kit will cost you.. The wooden crate it comes in makes transport easy and is a nice display aswell..

I also have a Torro Professional Metal King Tiger.. I swapped the soft metal gearbox with a steel one and I have a Beier soundmodule + Visaton 10W speaker right now to improve sound.. But I will most likely upgrade to Elmod + 2.4Ghz remote later to make to tank better in control.. The RX18 control is ok, but the ride outside on grass etc is not the best (with turns it's not smooth) and the 27Mhz remote losses contact to much for my liking.. The Elmod upgrade is not cheap, but worth it I think..

A possible downside is that metal is harder to modify then plastic.. The turret has no zimmerit on it while the (plastic) hull does.. The rear plastic mudflaps brake off easy and the front ones are not moveable etc.. Also if you want to play IR-battles it's better to have a lighter tank.. Bassicly it all depends on what you want out of a tank I guess..

[ruben2005]

i say combine the two tank all metal tamiya elecs now thats a tank i would buy

[mustclime]

Well I for one have never seen a torro tank and the members of the club I am in have a ton of tanks. From what I have read, the guts of their tanks are not well received.


Has anyone noticed the pic of the new heng long production turret king tiger is the VS 1:24 tank? and I have yet to see the hl sherman, some claimed they would be out by may.

[superguybrett]

I also purchased a torro proffesional king tiger, and love the quality of it.
I have just purchased the new control system from WDM's, and plan to zimmerite and repaint at some point in the future, but agree that tamiya need to start worrying about other makes, as they are rapidly catching up with them, and the huge amount of plastic and huge price put me off buying one as i don't do ir battles, but love rampaging through the woods with my mates with mine and really like the weight of it.

[FreakyDude]

Well I want to throw my 2 cents in on this one.
Question 1- How are we measuring this? New models, Price, Quality or all of the above.
If all of the above we need to come up with a consensus on what value means to everybody.
I for one prefer metal motors, gears and running wheels but the rest in plastic is fine. Once its painted and weathered you can't tell plastic from metal if a tank just sits there

Question 2, Which market? The NA market is dare I say it different from the European market I think. Specific areas for instance want Centurions, Challengers or leclercs, while in Canada Leopards, Rams and grizllleys are wanted yet in the US the biggest wants might be an Abrams, Chafee or M103.

I personally think the hobby is being driven by the small shops around the world that see a growing fan base and are trying to capitalize with new product for upgrades and conversions.

Tamiya is still number 1 in sales I would bet.

[Saxondog]

One detail I failed to list is the new motors, 8500 RPM and they state more torque,they do not specify if that means a change from 3-pole to 5-pole type motors, but that would seem to be the best way to increase torque.

"Built-metal gears with ball bearing durable gears and a better translation for more power 2) 8500 U / min . Motors provide with improved torque, a more accurate, realistic and ruckelfreiere control."

[superguybrett]

I agree that Tamiya are the top selling company, but they are slightly overpriced in my opinion as other companys are really starting to produce some excellent tanks with quality getting better all the time at a much cheaper price.
My friend who got me into this hobby has a tamiya king tiger and he was amazed at the quality and detailing on the torro, at a few hundred quid cheaper, which will make hobby more available to people. He even calls my king tiger big momma cause of the weight, lol.
Heng Long have come a long way in few years with quality, and with Taigen, torro, now all doing some really nice peices, my 2 nephews now have a hl tiger 1, and eldest has just spent his birthday money on a taigen metal tiger.

[mustclime]

I used to say tamiya tanks were overpriced.....then I bought one used and tore it apart and put it back togather....imo you get what you pay for.....sit down and run through the mods you need to do to make a tank do what you want it to, then stick prices onto those mods( I mean the real prices, not the prices you tell everyone.) and put the tanks side by side....

[Reaper332]

I have 2 tamiya KT's and a H/L Kt with a torro lower hull and I would have a Tamiya any day of the week the H/L KT now owes me $800 plus and it doesnt have metal track but is running Tamiya electronics and I am yet to buy a battle system for it. Now I can get a Tamiya KT delivered to my door for $675 and with a couple of upgrades its still a nicer tank then the H/L. Thats just my opinion of course and everyone is different in what they want and what they need, I used to think H/L 's or Torro tanks were the way to go but not anymore they end up being as dear or dearer then a Tamiya.......