Hey folks,

Me and some buddies have been putting on tank battles at a local gaming convention for several years now. So far, we've been using Tamiya tanks, and letting anyone interested participate in a battle or two. Alas, this has been very destructive to the tanks (rookies who don't know how to drive). Even worse, the number of participants has dropped dramatically, because our playing field is outdoors. This year, we only had a handful of guests, and none of them joined the club. Next year, we will be moving indoors, but unfortunately there is not enough room for 6+ 1:16 scale tanks (driven by rookies) on the smaller indoor battlefield. Searching around, I found the VsTank Pro, the 1:24 scale IR battling tanks.

So I've got a few questions: how good are the VsTanks for smaller battlefields? Usable battlefield area in next year's convention will be a bit bigger than an empty two-car garage, broken up by buildings, trees, and other obstacles.

How reliable is their IR laser tag system? I've tried one other small-scale IR tank, and it had severe difficulties hitting another tank, even indoors with the IR emitter aimed directly at the target sensor. I hope VsTank Pro is a little more reliable than that?

How are the VsTanks on maintenance? With the Tamiya tanks, we spent an afternoon testing and tuning the tanks before the gaming convention, and another afternoon fixing them up afterwards. Would similar maintenance sessions be required with VsTank Pro?

What about time period? I'd like to try the modern era, but most of the other guys who help put this show on prefer the smaller tanks with shorter barrels that are found in the WWII era. How well do the modern tanks handle in close quarters, with their long gun barrels poking out?

I have also heard that VsTank will be releasing a spiffy new 2.4ghz radio for their pro tanks early next year. Will this increase the number of tanks you can run simultaneously? Will it be applied to all the tanks they're producing immediately, or will they only upgrade part of their lineup?

My last battle involved 8 Vstanks on a 15' x 30' battlefield. Anything smaller and we would have been bumping into each other.

The beam is pretty tight. You have to aim for the center of the tank to hit. Range is about 20-25' indoors. We didnt think it was a problem as most battles happen around the 15' range.

They are tough little machines. Very durable. No testing, no fixing. Thats why I love them. You may throw a tread on carpet with the rubber treads, but if you upgrade the tracks, the problem goes away. My only problem are the fuel drums on the back of the T-72. They will break when they get rammed. That being said, Vstank has awesome parts support. You can order parts from the VsClub and get them shipped for free.

I have all modern Vstank, but it looks like the WW2 range is gaining popularity. We do find that the barrels hit buildings a lot. Not a problem IMHO.

At them moment, you can run up to 13 tanks. Not sure about the 2.4ghz upgrade. I believe it will be sold as an upgrade. Maybe it will be stock?


They don't perform as well outdoors. The IR range drops to about 10' in direct sunlight. Add a circular sticker to the top and you can increase it another 2'. Run them in the shade and they have about 14' range.

My group has ages 7 and up, so these tanks are best suited for our needs. Again, no maintenance except battery charging (you will need 14 AA per tank)


Check out my Vstank Battle Vid [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBJNPFT5Zlo]Video[/link]