Wozwasnt

Take a look at the [link=http://www.tankzone.co.uk/cart/hl_panther.htm]Tankzone[/link] website to see what sort of prices we're expected to pay. £129.95 for a SS Panther with metal gearbox. My way you can have it for £90.

I live in the UK where petrol/Gas is $9 a gallon.

BIGMIG

All I can say to that is---ooooooOOOOccCCCCHHHHH-----BIGMIG [&o][&o][&o]

bravo_2_zero

I did that with my Bulldog. I bought a £50 ( $100 USD) sound/smoke tank then bought a metal upgrade kit which included gears, motors, wheels and tracks. all in all set me back £115 ($230). To be honist A LOT of non-sound/smoke tanks here in England on Ebay have gone over the £50 mark because of xmas demand ( bidding) but you can buy SS models 'buy now' for cheaper. It's just idiots who who bid up the prices pay the most in the end.

BTW i just bought a Hobby Engine leopard 2 A6 tonight for a snip £15.59 yeh i know they are toys at the side of Heng Longs but for £15 it's worth a punt.

BIGMIG

Hey don't blame you for buying one of the cheapie one's at all,I'm going that way my self at this point for some static models.They still look like tanks,even kind of run like tanks.I can buy them cheaper than some small scale kit,and plan on painting them the color I like.You might even be able to up-grade it into a little better model if there's room to do it. Good luck with the little guy----
BIGMIG

jonnymorris

In the UK a basic Non S&S tank costs £100 (US$200) from my local model/toy shop, this is normal. From eBay the same Non S&S Tiger costs the best part of £60 new with postage (US$120). S&S Tigers on eBay may be more towards the £80 mark with postage (US$160). Some people sell nicely painted and cosmetically 'authenticated' new tanks (these are all HL btw) but they start at about £80 and go upwards from there, they don't have any metal parts on them. This is just what I have observed in the past month or two on eBay UK. Some times a private seller will sell a modified tank, depending on who's bidding it can be a bargain or not.

I bought my slightly broken second-hand Non S&S Tiger for £23 with postage (US$46), I have since purchased metal suspension mounts (£12), metal arms (£12), and just now a full proportional speed, sound, and smoke upgrade kit with joystick and transmitter board etc (£40 with postage from Germany).

Total cost - £80 (US$160). I would barely have S&S for that if I had bought new from eBay, as it is I will have a strong and moderately waterproof tank with the latest S&S kit.

When I've finished putting all that lot in I'll be ready for the next upgrade... metal tracks, gears and drive wheels! This lot will probably set me back £60 if I can broker a deal with a good eBay seller. I'm not afraid to spend so much money on a plastic tank, it's a hobby to me after all and I am selling unwanted junk on eBay to pay for it so it's all good as far as I'm concerned. If a hobby is worth doing it's worth doing well!

I suppose the smart buyer might try to import a new S&S tank from the US, but there's a chance it will be stopped at Customs and taxed, and the shipping will be quite hefty (negating much of the savings). I don't think HL tanks are quite as popular or upgrade parts as readily available here as they might be in the US, they're probably more popular in Germany as that seems to be the best place I can buy major upgrade parts from.

While your opinions may be valid for the US, I don't think they're quite so pertinent for other countries. [8D]
And besides... isn't half the fun in upgrading?

Tanxalot

£15.59??????????????????? I'm gutted!! Where do you guys manage to find these bargains??? Been looking at one of these for a while now, and the cheapest I have found has been £75 + postage.....£15.59???!! Rats!![:-]

PS, Only jealous really, nice find!!

bravo_2_zero

the sellers mistake mate, he listed it under car parts , for real cars I recon he listed it with the key word Tank and the car part section poped up and he just pressed apply.

Tanxalot

Very well done. Just goes to show that you need to be VERY careful when pressing buttons!!
If you are going to do a full mod on this, could you keep us posted please? Cheers.

Apologies for hijacking the thread.

gyrate

i removed the speakers from my tamiyas so i can run extra batteries in them. i could care less about smoke and sound. i want to be out there and run that thing for 2 hours.

this thread makes me want to buy a non smoke and sound tank because i never use these features anyway


people enjoy the hobby in many ways. some like to simulate battles, others like to trash stuff, others like to make them shelf queens and detail them out. i like to run mine in realistic terrains..

if it wasnt for HL half the tankers wouldn't even be here.. the marui ones are much better though

jonnymorris

In fairness though, the non S&S tanks only have two speeds so it's worth upgrading for that extra bit of control and realism, that's the main reason I'm doing it.

jonnymorris

I saw one of these on a market stall for about £20. Looks like the same size as a 1/16 Tiger.

pzrwest

If you don't want to use the S&S just turn them off.

blitzkrieg65

S & S Board is more proportional, a better board with addition of heat sink if you are adding weight, plus it has a much longer radio signal range, and like pzrwest said you can turn off the sound and smoke!

The Blitz

swathdiver

This post needs a bump, look at the newbies suffering because of it... [:@]

The_Stuff

and they need to ignore gyrate's post. non S&S have 2 speeds and you cant change the crystals!!

wackywheelz

...especially when he's talking about Marui (1/24) - everyone knows the 1/24 Heng Longs suck, the 1/16 is in another league altogether (much better).

There is no point getting non-S&S (2-speed) if you can get the S&S - the benefits and added features far outweigh the slight price increase - S&S tanks well and truly whoop non-S&S in terms of control, non-S&S are very abupt, jittery and just not worth the effort (unless you already have S&S components or aftermarket boards to fit it)

doghandler

Valid points from all. I guess if you asked One Hundred people why they bought a Heng Long tank of any description you would get One Hundred different answers. I bought my Tiger 1 Smoke/sound because it was cheaper than a Tamiya, plenty of scope to upgrade, and the end result can look the dogs dangly bits. Another example is that I took out the flashing M/G light as i thought it looked cheap and nasty, some would argue differently( guaranteed).

lonewolf1300

If you are in the uk try Howes models for reasonably cheap hl tanks, £49.99+£13 for a brand new s+s tiger1.
and £47 for a set of metal tracks and metal gearboxs together as a kit that includes postage!!!!!!!!!
getting nearer state side prices but for how long dont know......................
i started with a tiger upgraded got another from rctank.de with metal tracks etc, got a pershing which i am at present fitting metal tracks to and a walker bulldog. all been modded with muzzle flash LED yellow, MG flash LED yellow, moved on/off switch to loaders hatch,i am spending my kids inheritance but i cannot help it its addictive. you get a scale model, which you can make look great and it is driveable.
TAMIYA is the rolls royce of tanks but you pay rolls royce prices here in the uk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


like it has been said this is a creative hobby ENJOY !!!!!!!!!!!!!

brel

I bought a heng long s&s tige tank because it was ready to run and a lot cheaper than the Tamiya tiger, i hvae put in metal gearboxes wheels and tracks plus some other stuff and I am in the process of moving the switches from under neath the tank

Panzerfaust77

Living in the UK is incredibly expensive. These prices are about accurate from my experience. We're just suckers who are used to being ripped off. Also beware of 'postage costs'. A lot of ebay sellers make a huge markup by hiding their profit as 'shipping'.

Now, given these are all HL prices, imagine what we are expected to pay for Tamiyas!

Generaljumbo

I totally agree that we are paying too much, is there anything we can do?[>:]

I picked both my HL's from ebay, granted they're both non s&s but i hope, over time, to rectify that.

I would like to add that without this site and the members on it, it would not be possible so many many thanks in advance

swathdiver

Vote the socialists out!

Generaljumbo

I accept the idea but have you seen the competition???[][][]

doghandler

Let's get former prime minister Margaret Thatcher onto bringing the prices down On Heng Long tanks here inthe U.k. As you can see she's a suporter lol.

gww

Since the majority of the price difference is related to the commercial organisations doing the selling, rather than excessive sales or import taxes, I can't quite see how this would help. Minor additional point that our current government is only socialist (Labour) in name, and is generally somewhat to the right of M Thatcher on most topics. With the current exchange rate, it can be cheaper to buy from dollar areas and personally import (even paying those evil socialist sales taxes and duties ).