Tanque

I ask the question as rhetorical. Public or private? I suspect Tamiya is a publicly own shareholder company, perhaps it's private I don't know. I'd be curious to know if the Heng Longs, Mato, Wusan, Trumpeter, Imex are publicly owned or private. I suspect privately owned companies are able to move faster than a publicly owned shareholder company that has to explain profits/ losses to their shareholders. I may be way off
base but I believe the type of company has something to do with it. Even a private company has to turn a profit but has less people to explain to. All of the firms I mentioned may well be subsidiaries or affiliates
of larger parent companies.

Smaller one or two man firms can pretty much do what they want as long as they remain independent and have enough for R & D and food to live on...although perhaps not in that order

Update- I just read Tamiya is a privately held company. So much for that theory.

Jerry.

FreakyDude

All the Tank manufacturers or brands as far as I know are privately held.

TheBennyB

Not sure about that. The IS-2 release wasn't that long ago. Won't be long before we see a rehash of that as well I'm guessing. Tamiya still releases NEW models though not on a timely
manner we'd all love. I agree on supporting all makes and models and this sherman does look interesting, but I'm still a little hesitant on all that weight with the same tired gearboxes
for a heavy IR battle weekend.

YHR

IF this is aluminum cast then it might not be that heavy.

Pah co chu puk

I think the all metal one would make a nice collector piece. if it is aluminum, then it will last for many years.

FreakyDude

Cast aluminum will be heavy enough, No doubt they will melt scrap aluminum down to save material costs. I can't see them using aluminum given the shortages for the material right now.
But then again its china, I have seen metal automotive parts come from there that are ridiculous low priced. Its almost like the government is paying the companies to make the parts.
Anyway I am going to give a few of these tanks a go and see how they fare

Tanque

Die cast aluminum could be wafer thin; remember it's done under pressure. My type of aluminum casting, sand casting produces heavy castings as it relies on gravity and the fluidity
of the molten metal to flow into the mold cavity and thin parts aren't typically produced that way.

Jerry

tomhugill

I've seen 8kg quoted as the all in weight.

Strato50

Yikes that's more than my metal Tiger, but I think between the standard ratio gears & smaller Sherman sprocket it will still be pretty nimble.

karel47

my tamiya's are also between 8 to 10 kg so I don't see problems n this way ... but hold your horses when announced a few months ago itwas stated that poeple could build in the electronics they want to, I looked the pics thouroughly fron the open hatches there are not seen any electronics into it ! clarks mfu is announced but do these models have traverse, rotating or lifting gun or ha ve a choise to build into ??? so many questions so little answers

• Usual turret rotation and gun elevation options
• Easy, tool less upper removal

​have you read this it says options

I they turn out good at reasonable prices I wait for the wolverine M10 and the achilles from mato

ausf

As Jerry pointed out, Tamiya is a privately held company. 1/16 RC tanks is entirely a pet-project of Shunsaku Tamiya. If you accounted for sales in their departments, from a business standpoint, we wouldn't have a hobby today becuase Tamiya wouldn't make them and then there would be no knock-offs. In his book, the Tiger I holds a special place in his heart, but the 4WD racers saved the company. Military models remain a big part of their business, but a 1/48 Fiesler Storch is much more important to their bottom line.

Mr. Tamiya has retired to an advisory position, once he's gone, I doubt we'll see any new tanks. No one buys 1/16, if they did, the Kubel would still be on shelves. They make plenty in 1/72, 1/48 and 1/35.

As Dan stated above, Tamiya is the yardstick, and it's always hammered on price, so any commers should be compared on that alone. This Sherman, as was the Taigen, will always be looked at that first. If you don't want to be compared to Tamiya, release something Tamiya hasn't. No one compared Xion's Kettenkrad to Tamiya. And apparently, no one but me and Rivetcounter bought one either, so they're no longer in production.

YHR

I have heard that the RTR Sherman will be available from Mato with Clark electronics C/W servo recoil, servo bbl elevation, and the Mato 2.4 gHz hobby grade radio.

You can get this three ways

No electronics
HL electronics
Clark electronics with all the servo stuff for recoil and bbl elevation.
Opening hatches
Scale handgrabs

Mato appear to have pulled at all the stops on this one. Exciting for me is that means Mato will be building servo recoil and elevation mechanisms that a guy will be able to purchase for other projects. These are still in China, and the electronics development is no doubt why this tank was delayed.

I am looking forward to the M36 and the M10 as well.

With all of the above, this is a hobbyist tank built for us . Murphy, like Mr Tamiya has a passion for tanks. We can be thankful for these guys, because without them our options would be slim to none. I don't know the guy behind Taigen, but it appears as if that is another guy that has a passion for tanks.

Now if we could just convince this guys to talk to each other and not duplicate releases!!!!

However I believe everyone wants to have a Tiger and a Sherman in their lineup

.

Panther F

Come on man. Barrel... just 3 more letters so we know EXACTLY what you're talking about.

We KNOW you're not talking about a barrel of oil being elevated, huh?




Jeff

YHR

LOL, old habits

Panther F

I'm not trying to be the spell police (and I wouldn't start with you) but if you want to be taken serious...





Jeff

Cruiser133

I have wanted a Jagdpanther for a LONG time, but the reason I have not bought one yet is I cannot afford a Tamiya and I just will not buy an alternative if Tamiya makes one. I too have supported the others if they make a model that Tamiya does not have. For instance, I have a Taigen, Hooben, Mato, Matorro, several HL's, Profiline, Juckenburg, Asiatam, ect. Again, all stuff Tamiya does not make and I think in the Hobby World, I am not alone. Tamiya IS the bench standard. Like YHR stated, I wish the other manufactures would talk to broaden our choices since it seems Tamiya is slow to respond....

YHR

LOL


There are creative writers and then there are editors. As grammar and spelling seem to be a moving target historically( even more so today with text to text spelling) no point losing too much sleep over it.

I type fast and have fat fingers, Even if I get the spelling right half the time the fingers are striking some other key on the keyboard

You are right though. To be taken seriously grammar and spelling are important. On this forum, I respond quickly and only proof what I have written when I see it quoted.

Panther F

Same here... thank gawd for automatic spell check!

But still the same, we are not the only ones that read these threads. I've seen people commit on FB (uh, that's Face Book people) that they read on RC Universe something and I KNOW they are not members here. LOL


Just trying to add a little polish there Dan. Forgive me, okay? It won't happen again!


BTW... how is that SU-85 project coming along?




Jeff

karel47

tamiya have lately done some nice projects on 1/16 like the suberb JS2 one of their best yet made ... what will be the next step forward ... still WOII like a hellcat or more modern like their leopard series ... in a few years we will know ... until then we can dream and debate over it

YHR

I actually purchased the Taigen metal T-34 hull for it. Just waiting on that to arrive.

Panther F

Really? Did you give up on the WSN/DT set up for the lower chassis?

I'm still working on mine.




Jeff

YHR

Well I used that for my '42 76mm, but I thought I would give this Taigen set up a try. I have to reward them with my wallet for the effort they are putting in.

Lord Haw-Haw

I hope all these Sherman's and with the Brad Pitt movie coming out soon will draw more people to RC tank'ing. ...Filling the pockets of suppliers and funding some more obscure tank types.

clarkmodel

I will film a Mato M4 battle with Tamiya Tiger 131 video when Mato M4 sample arrived.

In IT world, we usually don't take customer relationship, so I can not comment on this.

Regards,
Clark