ORIGINAL: thecommander
It is very rare to see a TBU apple for sale. We ahve a huge parts excahnge at Danville but apples are a rarity. The bases are sold separately as are the emitters and the holders. I have not seen Tamiya sell apples separately. Bases are about $30 at a AAF Tank Museum and the IR emitter about $10(?). Most guys keep one or two for spares. FYI....Impact apples and bases are NOT intrecangable with Tamiya. They look exactly the same but are of different proportions. The apple and base MUST match. The IR emitters are interchangable however.
Correct, the apples & bases are slightly different, thanks to PantherF for the below photo of that difference showing the apples.
The left apple is Impact's, while the right is a Tamiya, & as one can see, they are similar but certainly not the same.
But dang, if the 5 pinout on them is the same for the direction the apple needs to connect to their respectives bases (I thought they were), they look SO close it almost seems like one could use a little blade, some cutting &/or regluing, & the Impact would fit a Tamiya base if that was all you had to use it with at the time.
I can't recall where either, but I thought I did read on some forum where the Tamiya apple will actually fit onto the Impact base, not perfectly, but well enough to use for battle? I could be absolutely wrong on that one though, so don't blast me for mentioning it
~ Craig ~