After receiving a couple of 1/24 VsTank IR battle tanks, I started thinking about getting one that would shoot. I almost ordered an airsoft VsTank a couple of times, but the push button controller always kept me from clicking on Confirm during the order process. After looking (very) briefly at getting a Tamiya I started researching the HL's, and thought that even with some of the problems they might still be worth trying for the price point they're at. After reading speedythecat's excellent review of the Pershing, and seeing the new Super Version available at Mato Toys, I finally had the incentive to get off my wallet and ordered a Tiger in desert camo. I also picked up a container of Crossman 4000 BB's from Canadian Tire, going under the assumption that this should last me for quite a while.

After waiting impatiently for a week everything arrived this morning, and I wasted no time in getting all of the parts and pieces out of the box and onto the bench. I immediately slapped the battery onto my Triton charger and got it going, and then started inspecting and reading. Overall I was quite impressed with the Tiger and the individual item details like shovels and cables are very well done. The camo paint is smudged in a few spots and there is some oil and/or dust on different areas, but for the casual user like me the factory paint job is more than good enough. Of slightly more serious concern was the commander's hatch that wouldn't close completely, which seemed to be positioned just barely incorrectly. I was able to flex the hinge just a bit and wedge a tiny shim in behind it, which was all that was needed to get it working properly.

After this I read the manual and figured out which switch, button and lever did what. I added 2ml of oil to the smoker, poured some BB's down the hatch, installed batteries in the transmitter, set the volume control to the center and...waited.

And waited. And waited.

After waiting about 5 minuted longer than I thought I'd be able to, and seeing that the battery had taken 1000mah, I pulled it off the charger and stuffed it into the belly of the Tiger. Switching on the Tx and then the tank gave me flashing headlights, and I pushed the little key button and was greeted with the really cool engine starting sequence. It sounds like a cross between my old Chevy 350 with glasspack "mufflers" and my Cat 3208 diesel V8, but specifics aside it just sounds good. After moving all the sticks a bit to confirm that all was moving correctly, I pushed the left stick forward and fired my first BB...about 45 degrees to the left of where the barrel was pointed. Another shot went the same way, and the third went pretty much straight but hit the floor very close to the tank. Hmmmm, this doesn't seem right. I turned everything off and looked at the barrel and saw that the hole in the muzzle brake appeared to be slightly off center. I carefully hand turned a one size oversize drill bit in the brake, started everything up to try again and voila! Every shot went where the barrel was pointed, and flew about 25 feet before disappearing into the dirt (the advertised 25 meters might be just a bit optimistic).

With the gun test out of the way, I started driving around and suddenly remembered to look for the smoke. Not seeing any I reached under the tank to turn it on, and when things became quieter I realized it had already been running. I could hear the air pump/bellows, and noted a slight burnt odor but I never saw (and still haven't seen) any smoke. Bummer. But I was still able to drive and shoot, and was merrily driving around the shop and over phone books when the right track slowed considerably until it was barely turning. Double bummer. Realizing I needed to learn how to take this apart sometime, I figured out how to disconnect the tracks and get to all the screws, removed the upper hull and started snooping around in the gearboxes. It looks like one of the side frames wasn't punched correctly, and a bushing for one of the metal gears couldn't seat far enough in and was causing the gears to bind severely. With a little prying and flexing I was able to get things more or less realigned temporarily, and upon reassembly all was working as it should be once again.

So after my first day I'm pretty happy with this purchase, as aside from some fairly minor items it works basically as advertised (except for the smoke). For a non-tinkerer type that had these problems they might have been quite disappointed though, so beauty once again is in the eye of the beholder.

A couple of questions for you vets:

a. How tight should the tracks be? It feels like they are plenty snug and could use another link, but I see no way to adjust them.
b. How are the drive wheels removed? I'll need to remove them to pull and fix the RH gearbox, but don't see what holds them on the axle.

The sprockets are somewhat of a pain to remove. First you have to pry the center cap off the sprocket. This is the little button that has what looks like 4 lug bolts. Inside of there should be a phillips screw. Remove that, and then pull or pry the halves apart. Once the halves are apart you then have to pry the inner sprocket off the axle shaft. Some come off easy, others are bears.


My plastic tracks were kinda tight as well. With the metal tracks I was able to add a link because they had sent 4 etras with the set. I'm not sure what the actual tension should be, but I have read that one side usually has one more link than the other.


Couple of questions for you.
1. What exactly comes metal on the Super's? I read that they have the transmissions, but was wondering if anything else was metal.
2. Can you take a few pics and post them for us. I want to order a Tiger and Pershing Super, but would like to see a few better pics than Mato had posted first.
3. Are the road wheels really covered in rubber?
4. Mato's listing has an operating passenger listed. What is the passenger all about?
5. One more....The listing for the Tiger says that it has functioning brake lights. Does it?

Ah, excellent instructions on removing the drive wheel...that'll be tomorrow's project. As for the questions...

1. The only metal that I've seen are the gearboxes/transmissions. Everything else is plastic.
2. I'll grab some pics tomorrow, both exterior and interior once I open it up again.
3. The road wheels are plastic all the way through. The outer edges are simply painted black.
4. The "passenger" is the upper half of a tank commander that can be placed in the same hatch as the BB's are poured into.
5. No functioning brake lights, only headlights. Actually, no lights of any sort on the rear...painted or otherwise.

More to come also as I get some more time on the sticks...

Finally got around to taking the Tiger apart again and getting a few pics.

In the overhead view the little wedge I had to put behind the hatch hinge is visible, and in the pic of the LH gearbox the misaligned gears and the incorrectly installed center bushing can be seen.

Hope this helps for anyone thinking of getting one of these.

Great review Grain! The only differences I can see between the normal and Super versions is the metal tranny gears and bushings, and the 2000mah pack over the old 1700. Is that correct? I've been thinking about getting one of these to go with my Pershing. Kinda sounds like they had a little false advertising deal on the rubber coated road wheels. I also noticed a few "new" details Mato's site said the Super models had, and my non- super s & s pershing already had most of those things. Kinda confusing.... which is probably how they wanted it, LOL.

Yep, that's about it, and although I'm sure they are excellent upgrades I'm not sure they make this into a "Super Version".

Once they get the smokers to consistently keep working for more than a few minutes and the guns to actually shoot 25m then these would definitely live up to the advertising and could hold the Super title.

I hear ya! Well, my Pershing s&s shoots 75 feet every time and once in awhile breaks 90 feet, but from what I've read that's the exception and not the rule. I was mainly asking because Mato sells the super for Like 104 shipped and I can get the Pershing or Tiger S&S versions from Raidentech again for $79 shipped. I don't know if I could get $25 differnece out of the metal gearboxes because I haven't had any problems or wear with my nylon gears, and I use my GP3300's so the battery isn't that important to me. To read Mato's site, they lead you to believe it's 10x better equipped. I don't know what happened to the rubber wheels, and as I said before, a lot of "new" things the super has, are things the S&S already had. Disappointing.... I'm glad you took the time to write the review because when I go to buy a second HengLong, it's hard to decide when you're not sure what the differences are. Thanks for your help!

with the mato discount,i bought it at US$87 shipped.i am located in Toronto.