Originally posted by DrDea The Chinese have a serious penchant for ripping off patents.Ask intell.or check any Tom Clancy novel.he always hes a chapter dedicated to Chinese ripoffs of US products.
Originally posted by Meatwad So how'd you come along on the repairs? Get it back working?
Originally posted by DrDea LOL Hiya Furball...Hows life treatin ya?
Originally posted by Yeager What if Alqaeda orders a bunch of those and arms them with nuclear pellets?Then what??
Originally posted by BlueJ1 After the smell of burnt skin filled my nose I decided to take a break.
The members of MaruiTankGroup (MTG) have a good collective experience on how to avoid frustrations in their purchases. Some of the lessons learned are:(1) The Heng Long tanks have a high rate of defects. Some of them are user fixible, some requires an exchange with vendor. Choosing a HL seller with good after sales service is paramount for most buyers. The best built HL is the 1:16 scale Pershing. It made many structural improvement over the earlier Tiger in the lower hull that makes it sturdier. The suspension is a better design too.(2) Many Ebay sellers who charge low tank price and high shipping cost are to be avoided. The shipping is NON-REFUNDABLE. When you add the return shipping and the second shipping charge from the seller, an exchange usually cost much more than buying a new tank outright. (You are fine if you get a good HL. You are out of your money if you get a defective one. Their prices are NOT always competitive.)(3) Over the years, MTG members have found two vendors that offer satisfactory customer service and consistently competitive prices. They are usually cheaper than those Ebay sellers charging high shipping. They both have Ebay store too.MatoToys-CanadaToyEastMatoToys ships from and to Canada and has a reasonable (not perfect) return policy. Return shipping and 15% fee is required. They pay the replacement shipping. (Check their shipping cost and return policy if you want to buy from Ebay.)The cheapest Heng Long price are usually from RaidenTech, with little customer service. They will exchange a defective tank if you pay one way shipping. They charge $10 shipping per tank and do not sell at Ebay.RaidenTechRecently, several Yahoo vendors also start selling identical items as RaidenTech and used the same pictures as in the RaidenTech site. They have the RaidenTech watermark on their pic at the beginning, but changed the watermark later. Among them are Egrandbuy, zhobby, etc.This list is by no means exclusive. We also got good services from Backyard Armor, Hobbylink Japan, Stellamodels, AsiaTam, Imperial Model Shop, Hong Kong Cowboy. Share your experiences, good or bad, here.(4) All 1:24 scale HL tanks are of questionable quality. If you want this scale, buy VS Tank which cost only 20-50% more and their products are much more reliable.(5) The best HL tanks are the 1:16 scale, smoke and sound version, Pershing and Tiger. They have the German designed RC electronics with a 8-steps pesudo-proportional controller. The S&S tanks are much more drivable than the older non-smoke tanks. The non-smoke version Pershing and Tiger are good for true proportional RC conversion if you can get them cheap ($60 or less shipped.) The HL Panther is a PANTIGER, a hybride of a Panther upper hull sitting on a early Tiger lower hull. It is good only if you can replace the low hull by extensive mod.(6) Another good quality 1:16 scale RTR tank is the WSN T-34/85. It has gun recoil and flash instead of Airsoft gun. Compared to the latest HL, it is better in detail, lower in price, but not as sturdily built. More suitable for pathed ground or indoor.
