I find all the past hoopla regarding Hooben bringing ground breaking 1/16 tank models to market rings a little
hollow.

Their website is a shambles, links are non functional and there is precious little information on either the English or Chinese
versions ( I asked colleague to look at Hooben's Chinese site for me).

In today's world a company's website is a large part of their customer facing presence.

Hooben's at this point does not promote a level of confidence.

Just my 2 cents.

Jerry

As far as my order goes(T-55) Shirley emailed me yesterday and said it was going to ship out this weekend, and that she would give me tracking info on Monday. Whats weird is that they are sending me the floor model they usedat the Nuremburg Toy Fair.....fine by me as I could care less, but that really makes me wonder if they even have any kind of production going on? I want the Elefant as well, but I'm not gonna send Hooben anymore money when it takes 3 months to get a tank and a floor model at that....I told Shirley that I wanted an Elefant as well but to only email me for paymentwhen they actually have them in stock and ready to ship...</p>

Not a good sign.

Yeah, really. Making people leery of you before the first tank goes out isn't a great start.


- Jeff

In some countries the web is not the god of sales, take Belgium for instance most of the model and book shops hear do not have a web site or even an e-mail address if you want anything you have to actually go in the shop to buy it, so do not be alarmed if another country doesn’t follow your buying habits, though I do have to say Hooben are dead in the water unless they sort out there marketing plan

I agree in part with what you say Riv; nothing speaks like brick and mortar. However, any 'new' company no matter where
they hang their hat better get on the eBiz bandwagon or the sales will go to those that do AND maintain a global presence.
Like it or no that is just the way the modern world works.

Small niche businesses that serve a special or exclusive clientele probably can get by with local or commissioned work but
not a toy company whose product line is supposed to be for Joe and Josephine Anybody; you've got to "get in front' of
him or her. No better way these days, and best bang for the buck is the web.

And yes I am a programmer!

BTW speaking of websites do you know what became of the UKTC's website? haven't been able to find it in some while...

Jerry

If that "floor model" turned out to be the only one ever made, do you realize what it would be worth? Heck, as it is, it's serial number one, that's pretty cool all by itself!

well there is that "diaper box" guy in China who got a kit version a few months back so mine would probably be #2...lol. but i agree, thats why I don't give a rats butt if I get a floor model...

There is one in Holland too, confirmed, with a master builder.

Jerry, I agree with what you are saying but I also think there biggest down fall will be the amount of setbacks they have had with release dates and the fact that the T55 is now well over a year late.

AS for the UKTC forum well the guy that hosts the site from his own server lives in Luxemburg and this is a classic example of different countries ways, he has moved house and gave his telecoms company 5 weeks notice now in England your new connection would be installed on the day you moved hear in Belgium that could take up to 3 months depending on which of the two providers you use Luxemburg though a different country is very similar in it’s ways

Hallo,

I ordered one ages months ago (when I read an email here that someone in Hooben had written the T55 is ready now), paid by Paypal, and then the delivery excuses started and each time it was in another month, in another month...

Anyway to cut a long story short I asked for a refund and the money was there the next day cheerfully refunded.

My opinion is that these people are honest but not very well organised.

Cheers

AL

with my experience with them on model submarines, I can't agree more with Alan that they are indeed honest but ineffective in doing business / production. Nevertheless, I won't be too worry aboutmy long waiting for my pre-paid T55 order. I just got used to .....

About 1 and a half years back, Feng revealed to me that they are going to explore into the 1/16 R/C tank market. By then I warned him to watch out for their marketing position.... having Tamiya in above and HL at the lower end its not gonna be easy ... Anyway, Feng is very confident about it and lets see how it comes out.....

For about US$140, you get a metal chassis, metal gun barrel, lots of PE and a tank that hasn't been released in 1/16 scale before... I'll keep waiting....

This is really very dissapointing , because I was really looking forward to getting one of these. I really hope that HL or even Tamiya would start to follow the trend of younger crowd would really like to see some modern armor. But we can't even get them to make the tanks a great percentage of us want (IE) some British or Italian or even Japanese armor. TOO HL and Tamiya or anyone else. PLEASE MAKE SOME MODERN ARMOR.

Well to keep it in perspective, these are purely leisure items. We, certainly myself, can live without them. In contrast to what was available when I first began in this hobby many years back today's wide array of existing offerings ( of both primary models and accessories ad nauseum ) are happy times...

As an aside I emailed them several times about ordering their T-55 and have yet to receive a reply.

I personally won't judge Hooben, it isn't my place, however on the surface they seem to be having a devil of a time getting traction on their armor product product line. My hope is that available resources are engaged developing production rather than their website...

Hopefully we'll hear some positive news in the coming months.

Jerry

Guys, if you had any knowledge of Feng & Arkmodel, you'd know this is exactly how he's been running things since he opened up his shop years ago. I've given him my share of advice & suggestions as how to grow his business & passed on several investment opportunities including this new AFV line. I'm not the only one on this forum who's tried to work with him so I guess we'll see how it all works out. He'll either eventually get it right or simply remain another small Chinese boutique manufacturer like he's been in ships & subs.

Herrmil,
since you know Feng, can you explain his logic? I just don't understand how he(Hooben/Ark) keep pushing these things and taking money for them,yet there's no proof whatsoever of any kind of production as well as HUGE delays in promised deliveries?.... How long does he think he can get away with this before he's just a cautionary tale in the hobby world..?</p>

Out of pure guess, my personal impression with Feng is he is more of a modeller than a business man. Heratherhas more fun in making new toys (like we do...) but reluctant to do the hard work ofrealising his prototype into a production. Production management is a problem too.... thats why we have to wait..........</p>

Or perhaps he was just raising funds to travel to a toy show last month: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confidence_trick

Wouldn't surprise me lol...he'd be better off to build a bunch of models and sell them piece-meal as he finishes them rather then promising mass production he can't deliver on....Just a note: Shirley emailed me lastWedensday saying that my T-55 was gonna ship out this past weekend. I have sent 4 emails since thenasking for an update/tracking information, and low and behold my emails are going unanswered all of a sudden...hmmm. I told her march 31st was my time limit, if I don't have it by then I wanted a refund(3 months is long enough to wait)........she did say if I didn't get it by end of March they would refund my money..............we'll see I guess...

I believe CMPANG hit it squarely on the head - Feng really needs to hire a competent manager to run his business so he can devote time to new product development & setting up a stronger system of quality & production control. Besides the constant delays which seem to affect everything coming out of their shop, its the lack of QC thats most troubling, whether its related to missing parts, poor molding - GRP hulls are supposed to be their specialty..., poor instructions, lack of drawings, etc.. can be found on almost every model boating forum.

Regarding your T-55, I'd start posting your concerns over at RCTANKHQ since they appear to be Hooben's head cheerleader at the moment.

Just did...lol!

for once in a while back he got too many complaints about the lack of English instruction manual in his 039 submarine kit and asked me to do the translation . I did the translation and can't be certain if it is indeed included in their kits now.....