RE: Are Tamiya tanks relevant at their cost?
In my opinion, the answer depends on what you want to do with them.
I have been using mine at Danville Battledays for the last 2 years.
For most of that time I only had one Tamiya Pershing with a 5000 battery.
I could battle for 8 hours on Friday, 10 hours on Saturday, and 6 hours on Sunday, with one tank!
Of course there were 1 hour breaks for lunch/dinner and recharge.
I have yet to have a problem, not a single thrown track or gearbox issue.
There are guys who run highly modified HL tanks at the battle days, and they do great.
However, I have never seen one go a whole weekend. They are much more commonly rotated in and out of action.
So, I think a Tamiya is totally worth the money if you are going to regularly battle with it.
It becomes harder to justify if you are building a shelf queen or the occasional backyard battler.
Just my opinion.