Anyone know? And how does Mato fit into it? Curious how the relationships go.

Matorro will use more reliable electronics. Some have said that the Sturmtiger uses different material for the tracks.

To answer in a more general way, Mattoro is a separate factory than Heng Long, but they also act as a trading company, as many Chinese factories do, & consume a lot of HL's production. Mattoro is a toy manufacturer who started supplying their own aftermarket upgrade accessories before moving forward last year with 1/16 tank series that HL was not developing. Essentially they are competitors in the toy market but in RC tanks, they compliment each other.

Whether or not there is any appreciable quality difference is debatable. I've been told by several who bought the Matroro Stumtiger that they paid far too much compared to what their HL tanks. The new King Tiger may be a different matter, but I'd wait to see what WSN's pending release goes for before ponying up the $$$.

PERSONALLY I'M NOT TOO IMPRESSED WITH MY STURM TIGER COMPARED TO MY HL PURCHASES, I'M PROBABLY LUCKY IN THAT I BOUGHT A HL TIGER, PERSHING AND BULLDOG WITHOUT ANY REAL PROBLEMS BUT THE MATTORO TANK WON'T FIRE OR THE GUN TRAVERSE UP OR DOWN. IT LOOKS FINE, MOULDINGS LOOK OK BUT IN HINDSIGHT I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT A PANZER III. I HOPE THE KING TIGER WHEN IT COMES OUT WILL BE BETTER QUALITY.

Random google search brought this old thread to my attention, thought I'd post in case anyone was still wondering.

It's now well known now that Matorro prices themselves high but provides an inferior product when compared to a regular Heng Long S&S tanks (as has happened with the Sturmtiger then King Tiger)

Lets hope they lift their game in future, or drop their pricing... you can't give ¾ of a Heng Long for 3x the price!

wow, blast from the past. Thought someone actually used the forum search function.