RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I like this new edition of Tamiya..!


_______________

Stella (2005) wrote:
Michael: Hey, guys, check it out. The
expanding
spring batons.
(Pause…)
Michael: And numchucks.
David: Sweeeeet.

Hi chaps

I to have seen the "Tiger 131" and to be honest it just confirms to me that Tamiya have lost the plot big time

The thing that really bugs me is the price of Tamiya tanks now - O.K. - so they throw in a metal gun barrel and some PE grills, but you are probably still looking at £700-£800 I reckon when this thing gets over here, and you are still going to need to spend another £200-£300 pounds to fit all the bits it still does not have...

I used to have nothing but Tamiya tanks, but now I have not a one (other than the Pershing DMD/MF-03 units in my 1/6th Stuart) - I have become an unashamed Torro/Taigen/Heng Long convert

Take my Torro King Tiger Professional Metal Edition - 90 percent metal (see my previous posts for all the goodies you get with this puppy ) - and it cost me £499.99 (inc. the wooden travel crate).

The only thing that my old Tamiya KT had over this one was a better sound system, but as a detail model it couldn`t hold a candle to the Torro (again costs - the Tamiya cost me £635 - but because Tamiya had not upped the detail since they released the thing back in the 80`s, I had to spend another £250 to get it somewhere near acceptable).

I know there is the argument that you spend the cash, so suck it up etc. - but that one only goes so far these days - I think that most modellers want and expect more for the asking price

Maybe a bit late to react on this topic, but I couldn't resist.....Just ordered one, 512 euro's isn't a bad price when I read your reactions on this thread.....

Grtz, John.

LOL at the tamiya haters....I decided to get into IR battleing a year ago. I bought a HL king tiger and a dbu2rc and a set of matomart 3:1 gear boxes....that put me "in the game" for about $350 US......but I quickly found out "in the game" = another target for guys that have much better sorted tanks.....things you should think about before you start hating on tamiya....
1) the tamiya panther and m26 are the 2 best out of the box fighting tanks there are on the market. If you upgrade them by replacing the wheel bushings with sealed bearings and put in some high tq motors...forget about fighting a heng long, these tanks are very fast and glitch free. The high tq motors and wheel bearings reduce the battle damage slowdown by a half so you are about as slow as a heng long tank with no hits.
2) Tamiya pretty much do not glitch....I have 2 hl king tigers and a tagin tiger and they will glitch on you.....whats a glitch? Well when you are in a battle jumping in and out of cover( lots of full foward and full reverse), the dbu2 or 3rc has a bad habbit of shutting down and ether not fireing or loosing functions like turning the turret. You can clear this by powering down but your battle is over. I am pretty sure these are just a result of the little rx18 just getting over loaded....between the big batteries, big motors and running a dbu....the rx18 is just tossing in the towl.
3) I like how people go on about the "full metal king tiger".....all you have to do is toss all of the electrics and buy all new guts...Oh and you should put Zimmerit on the turret as the hull has it.....This tank is a joke if you want to battle it, what do they weigh? 18-20 lbs? It will be a moble pillbox like my 18lb tagin tiger is. I guess its fine for driving around the yard and upsetting the dog but for me that gets a little old after a while.
4) the sound system in HL are junk....no way around it, it does not even sound like a tank...my E50 with a dbu3rc and a bendi sound card is much better but not nearly as loud as a full volume tamiya. Elmod tanks sound great but they are not cheep ether
5) Hl recoil.....really? Its backward and the track recoil is just stupid and it tears up gearboxes. I hate hl recoil.
6) track tensioners? Real tanks have them for a reason, hl's need them.
I could go on but whats the point?

Hi there

I do not consider myself a "Tamiya hater", as you put it, having at one time owned the Tamiya full option tanks myself - four of them to be exact - the Sherman, Tiger I & II plus the Panther G.

A couple of points there on the Torro Professional Metal Edition KT - as I actually own one - it does not weigh 18-20lb, it comes in at 10lb (remember its 1/16 scale ) and it has the heavy duty 3:1 reduction gearboxes which are built like brick privvies, so goes as well if not better outside or in than my old Tamiya KT did, so enough of the "mobile pillbox" argument

The recoil is the same as my old Tamiya KT, as in gun barrel recoil plus hull recoil, which is a little sharper granted but I cannot see it wrecking those brick privvies anytime soon.

As far as the sound system goes, yes it is big fat granny pants compared to the Tamiya sound system, but this is no longer my main concern (and this is the point I feel you missed) as I now run 1/8 and 1/6 tanks, with the 1/16 stuff either there as table dressing or for the great unwashed to have a play with while I`m banging off pyros with the 1/8 Mark-1-Tanks Tiger I.

In other words, my requirements have changed, and as far as I could see I was merely giving an honest experience/opinions having been on both sides of the fence, so to speak...

I suppose the whole Tamiya/Heng Pong debate is a bit like which calibre is best, 7.62mm or 5.56mm

To resurrect this thread....
I have been looking at the markings on the real Tiger 131, using wartime photos that are in the museum and available to Tamiya or anybody else.
This kit doesn't have markings that match exactly. There should be a cross on the rear wall, the crosses should all have black outlines, the red digits should be in a different font. Tamiya have copied what's in the museum now, rather than doing the research.
I also wonder why they put headlights on the model. The real Tiger 131 shows no sign that it ever had headlights.

David