RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Ouch!!

Pretty much standard fare for Tamiya pricing, but it should be an accurate model. The way I see it Tamiya sell to Tamiya fans, people question why they cost so much, but look at it frpm Tamiya's perspective. If they dropped the price by 10% would they sell the same number or 10% more, probably the same number. 20% maybe they would sell 10% more etc etc.

It makes more sense to them to sell to a known volume of buyers than to sell the same number at a lower price. Interestingly they have lowered the price of their other RC categories over the years, but the tanks have remained pretty much static.

Interesting as from January 2016 Axells put his prices up by 5% and the jagdpanzer was said to be the same price as the panzer IV. It's now €125 more.

It'll drop after the initial 'buzz', kind of like the new T55 will be sensibly prices after release.

I had a feeling it would be in the £700 bracket well done TAMIYA all the lower hull works been done so just a new top. Seams a tad expensive wouldn't you say!!.Brian...

It would be great if Tamiya would release a cheaper version of the kit that doesn't include the electronics. I'm a big fan of their models but the DMD is old tech and there are some better options on the market these days.

It's interesting how things have developed over the years, we can now buy tanks without electrics and install our own, but it's been a long process. The Tamiya electrics used in the newer tanks are of a different design, but don't offer improved functionality, and knowing what these boards cost to manufacture, it makes more sense for them to install a £10 (if that) board in a tank and add £110 to the price. The rest of the tank is pretty much moulded plastic, which is pennies. There is no difference between a plastic Heng Long tank and a plastic Tamiya one in terms of materials, except maybe a few bearings that cost them pennies. Another example is the Tamiya IR apple, probably way less than £3 worth of materials, sold for £90?

The real cost to the manufacturers is the moulds, they cost a lot of money to design and manufacture, and they don't last forever. That said, the cost of designing a mould 20 years ago would have been many times what it costs now, due to advances in technology and manufacturing processes. Things 'should' be getting way cheaper, Heng Long have proven that it can be done, so have Hooben, Mato etc. Mato are producing 100% metal tanks for less than Tamiya's plastic ones?

The one thing that has always puzzled me is that they could all reduce costs by using existing lower hulls, and producing variants by creating different upper hulls, they would drastically reduce their development costs. There are numerous tanks that share the same lower hull, so why not manufacture them? It makes perfect sense to me, but I can't for the life of me figure out why they don't do it.

If I were to enter the Model Tank manufacturing business I would concentrate my efforts on making Metal reinforced Hulls for all the commonly available Plastic Tank bodies,
Look how many of us fit our Heng Long Tiger 1 bodies to Taigens metal hull.
If someone could get past the problems of Patent infringement there is money to be made and it would make a lot of us very happy.
Shaun.

Hi All,
So Axels are selling them for €776+post that €12.50. So not far short of £700!!!. That's on pre-order... So as I said this is another Sherman M51 just a new top hull. Brizo...

Just short of 800 quid makes that $1600 here plus the postage !
Heeeelllllll no !!

Yes Mr Bix well over the top yet again from tamiya .Brian...