I agree. Two examples of producing something very few want, and have little hope of returning an investment.

This hobby is very small, and I agree with what most have said about the ROI. We are very lucky to have guys like Murphy Ma(Mato), and obviously few others who actually love tanks, and are not totally focused on the ROI..

Lets be fair and honest. The T-55 is not a bad model, but the one I received had some terrible sprues. Some parts were almost unusable. Word gets out, and problems like that can hurt sales. In a small market that is bad news.

The formula for being succesfull in this market is this.

You must have a passion for Tanks, because the reality is ,the same money invested in another project will generate a better ROI. If ROI is your only focus, you can stop reading now.
WWII and tanks with a battle history are the most sought after.

Choose a model of tank that has a chassis that can be reuissed on mulitiple releases.

M4
PZ III
PZ IV

The above chassis can be used for many variants. The running gear, and electronics can be shared reducing design and manufacturing costs.
Produce a quality item but don't go overboard. Current Heng Long quality on the plastic, running gear and electronics is fine. Remember the price point.
Careful attention to scale.


Here are some of the flaws that have hampered sales of recent tanks. Here is my review of some of the tanks I have purchased.

I'll start with my favorite.

Mato

Sherman

Transmission cover. needs to be redone to have a better scale appearance. THis could have been done better. I have redone this and there is room to have done this correctly from the get go.
Electronics. Questionable reliablitiy, no IR upgrade option.

Other then the above this is a great little tank. Throw in an RX 18, and you have many options. I doubt Mato is too upset with the sales numbers on this unit. There are a lot of them around even with these flaws..

Metal Tiger.

Needed to be equipped with an electronics package. A Rebadged RX18 would have worked.
Should have fixed the Heng Long flaws on the turret. It is in a price point where people are more demanding.

Hooben

T-55
Good design. Poor execution. Many kits were sent to market with sprues that were so badly formed, they were almost unusable. Luckily the chassis and suspension, along with the major plastic components are very good.
Questionable electronics. Are they availabe or aren't they???? A little pricey if you need to throw in Tamiya electonics. Again they would have been better off rebranding the RX 18, and using that as the electonics package and keep tthe entry price down.

Heng long

KV 1
Panther

Good tanks. Not much to complain about, and they represent a good value.

Tamiya

Not much to complain about either. (Lets' just pretend the upgunned Sherman didn't happen) I just think they should rethink their marketing strategy a bit. People are interested, and people are swimming around the bait, they just aren't biting. Tamiya needs to do something to jig the bait a bit. There MRSP is too high. Nobody buys them at that price, even the diehards think that is unreasonabe. So why hold firm to it. They are basing their price point on old economics. Stock takes up retail shelf space. A 1/16 scale tank eats up a lot of it. A retailer wants at least 40% ROR. THis markup on an item this costly is just too much for the consumer to bare. These kits sit around on shelves for years, and retailers simply don't want them. They would sooner have 6- $150 helicopters on the same shelf space so they can make their 40%. So that is what they do. Tamiya are quite aware that 1/16 scale tanks are not something that retailers and distrubutors are ordering, and that is why sales seem so slow.


All 1/16 scale manufactureres need to understand the market better. You don't need flashy box art to catch a person's eye. Clear see through packaging is a waste of time when people are buying online. Online retailers warehouse stock these things, and none of them are looking for a 40% RTR. So face the facts and listen to what the market is telling you. We want afforable quality. So what are you going to do to provide that? Loose the box art and fancy packaging. It is an unneeded expense in the market you are selling to. Realize that the majority of your 1/16 scale product will be sold though online retailers. Your big fancy boxes are not taking up valuble retail "Show space"


There are things companies can do to make there own success.

Current Heng Long quality for the base tank. IF I was Heng Long I would be talking to Darkith about coming to an agreement to incorporate his design into the next RX 18.
Reduce packaging costs. (Tamiya has the most to gain by this. Those fancy boxes, with the see through packing is not only expensive to produce, but expensive to ship as well. Total waste of resources in this market) All tanks use the same cardboard packing.( THink Amo boxes here boys. A Brown cardboard box with the tank model stenciled on it.)
Pick designs that have legs, as I mentioned above. Shemrans, PZIII,IV, with all the stug variats. The T-34, and possibly the British Cromwell(Comet) would give you the option to produce a lot of variants based of a single mechanical chassis and design.
Package them efficiently and compactly to reduce shipping costs
Develop you own line of upgrade parts for enthusists. Wheel bearings, better gears, electonics battling options, etc, need to be part of your marketing strategy. Sell a fully functioning base tank at a cost of about $275, and then provide a path for people to upgrade the heck out of it. This they will do this willingly at their leisure in a time frame they can economically manage.

It is easy to blame the market and the consumer. Far better to listen to what we are saying

Here is an example of what I am talking about

Base tank. MSRP $275

A RTR Heng Long PZ IV /Stug/ PzIII/ Stug/ Sherman and variants, Cromwell of Variant with nylon gears, and plastic track.
Shipped in a Brown Cardboard box with the words of the tank model stamped on it.
An electronic package that basically is an RX 18 with a DBC3 technology merged into it.( Making it totally Tamiya compatible)
A 2.4 GHZ receiver with four channel radio.( Spekrtum have these on their low cost Parkflyer airplanes.)

Up grade path

Wheel bearings. $50
Adjustble idlers $50
Brass gears like the new Mato Tiger 2.0 gears $80
Benedini TBS $125
Tamiya type apple. $50
Metal Tracks $80

The company that produced the above would do well in this market I think. THe prices I have used are reasonable and the technology readily availble to produce a profit. The base tank is more then the current Heng long offering, but you get more. You reduce production costs by simplifying the packaging, you broker a deal with proven Technology, Darkith and Spekrum to provide an overall better quality tank. Benedini works with the DBC3 technology and the standard hobby radio, so it is just a plug in option to give you quality sound that surpasses current Tamiya sound .
Tamiya apple is the defacto standard, but realistically they can be produced and sold with a good profit margine for less. Impact is doing it now.

If I had the time to manage a project like this that is the path I would go. You produce a good entry level product to get people into the game, and then you provide a proven upgrade path for them to take that allows them to have a fine RC tank. All in, the cost is about the same you have to pay for a Tamiya now, but if you followed the upgrade path you would end up with something better.

Heng long has proven that you need an entry level to get into this hobby. Half of us, or probably even more, wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for Heng Long. Yes I agree Heng Long is a toy, and to get it to Tamiya standard you have to spend Tamiya type dollars, but that is the reality path that a large portion of this market take. So someone needs to see this reality and produce a product that fits the need.

Tamiya is not doing it with their expensive all or nothing approach, and Heng Long isn't with there Toy tank approach. Instead you have a bunch of dedicated tankers and cottage industries all working alone to produce products we all want and need. However this is costly and inefficient. There is a better way.