RE: A new Heng Long T-99 Tank?
This issue you will see time and again on hobby forums, be they 1/35, 1/16 or 1/6 is people complaining about companies not releasing certain products, because they are sure they will be popular. Judging by how many people are on the forums, active people not the lurkers you will find the numbers are not very high.
I've mentioned this over in the UK forums and the problem is thus, if all the hardcore hobby poster on these boards bought one tank you would be lucky to make a production run, let alone cover tooling for Heng Long. So the usual comes along, not another Tiger, King Tiger etc etc. Out of all the tanks, the Tiger and its parts sell the most, it makes business sense therefore to develop parts or even new and improved Tigers.
The other issue is of course, many people who say they want something then don't buy the item. It is easy to say you want it, it will be popular but it becomes a different story when someone has to shell out the $200 odd for that tank.
For smaller companies, such as Hooben, whose production runs are in the 100's and not thousands it becomes possible however the cost goes up as a result and continues to rise if my latest quotation from Hooben is anything to go by.
Regarding the new Heng Long tank, I will be stocking it in small numbers and I am sure it will be popular. The front glacis shape and detail looks very familiar and so no doubt the tank will be good for conversion companies seeking to change it to current Russian armour. Secondly as a modern tank is is likely to be a quite a big toy and big equals good for many buyers. Larger tanks give the feeling of getting more for you money, kids like big toys and big guns (and so do I) and it will look good next to the 1/16 Abrams on the shelf.
For various Asian countries the economy is weathering quite well, domestic purchases of luxury items in China is soaring. That includes toys. So a tank serving in the PLA is probably a very clever investment for them. They already do a small scale Type 90 tank so technically they could easily produce a larger tank the problem is it would probably be less popular than many others with the exception of Japan.
Pah co chu puk has a very good point, you can't really release too many different tanks because eventually you will have to retire some of the less popular tanks as it will be too expensive to keep the tooling and production up for them. I am surprised they haven't already but if they did it wouldn't be the original Panther which is still a popular tank.
Regarding the political side of it, what a lot of Chinese factory labourers are paid would constitute as slave labour by western standards. Especially when you consider the long working hours.