Hooben 1/16th scale Cromwell & Merkava announced
 

Wow, hope it’s real!

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...7b81a67f59.jpg


https://www.hooben-shop.com/collecti...yTejjjSgYgwsT0

There was disscusion about it somewhere here ;) It's too good to be true, that's why I will wait until it appears in "normal" shops. Preordering in Hooben is NOT a good idea :D

Never ever order direct from Hooben, especially 'advance order', you will never see the item. There is a reason I stopped handling them years ago, although they studiously ignore my 'remove me as a vendor' emails. Regardless of what their sight says, ETOArmor does NOT and will NOT handle their product in any way, shape or form.

Given the reviews of the Hooben Sherman, I think it would be prudent to let caution have full play.

Mal

Hence my comment “hope”. The second Easter egg is that there’s a Merkava on the way as well...

Put it this way - between $398 preorder and $468 after, I would rather spend $70 more and buy it later than risk $398 and not get anything at all. But that being said, they have been a little more consistent of late seemingly having delivered on a few of their 1/10th scale offerings.

Well, at least there is a chance for real model not only renders like Clark :D

There is that... :)

I'm sure along those lines Heng Long has sold a lot of T-72s during the time Waltherson's has delayed their release. I've taken a few chances over the last few years with "new" stuff. I guess part of it is I have delayed on things that get discontinued and then have to pay more (to find on Ebay) or not get the thing. Hooben has made good on some of it's recent promises although I think their execution and delivery has been poor overall. I think they have gone from trying to sell to enthusiasts to trying to sell to the bulk public more like Heng Long. I would love a Cromwell, but I'm on the fence about this one. In one respect I don't trust Hooben, but I would like a Cromwell. If the render is close to accurate then it looks like a decent depiction of the tank. I would think I have the ability to fix any issues with the tank, but if it's a specialized part that breaks I just worry about trying to get a replacement from Hooben.

The Merkava was also mentioned and they have a pre-order for it on their site also. That is another tank I wouldn't mind having, but would I want to take a chance on Hooben? If I decided to I think the Cromwell is the better bet as it is cheaper and for some reason all of the cool features on the Merkava are listed as "optional".

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...f3a8589c9b.png

Yea another POS from Hooben.
Here is my Hooya. The top half of the Hooben Fury put onto a Tamiya chassis.
The internals are all proprietary and not interchangeable with HL or taigen. It is well detailed and scale in appearance. The only visual draw back is the fender gusset triangles instead of the bracekt supports.
The chassis was the real fail. Good trannys, I mean good. But crappy plastic sprockets, and phillips screws visible holding the wheels and bogies together. The huge issue, plastic wheels rolling on plastic axles. That means they eat each other to death. Combine it with a plastic softer than that of the HL Sherman and eventually disaster strikes your little 350 dollar toy. Fsttanks and I bashed this thing around and then it became a battler for my son. A small stick got into the track and snapped the rear idler right off.
That basically killed it. I didnt warrant the crappy chassis the work of putting a tamiy idler on it so it eventually rose from the ashes on a whole Tamiya chassis. Hence the name.
I hope Hooben has improve their running gear quality.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...e85f7ec6e6.jpg

With the Merkeva listed as a metal chassis, I am in on that. I can fix the wheels if they are plastic on plastic. I have the urethane Merkeva kit and man, I sat down for a couple weeks and figured out what it would take to make the chassis RC. Too much really. Pershing trannys and out drives, Cheifton track and sprockets, P4 idler wheels, home made tortion bar system M41 shocks. Yeah I drew it all up and i figured that some day in my retirement i could build it...... Then I learned Henglong has one in the que....And I can say that as there are other people that know about it now.

I think I would take a chance on a HL Merkava before a Hooben one just due to the fact HL parts are readily available after a short time.

That is true, so far though, the Hooben tanks look so much better. And HL Merk is vaporware, theyve been holding onto it for a while rather than produce it. So I may go for the hooben and take a chance. A metal chassis goes a long way. Mabye they learned from the Sherman fail....

I'd be a lot more excited if it wasn't from hooben. My rule with them is, never buy anything from them until you see at least three other guys on the Forum that have bought the tank and are happy with it. Their reputation is just way, way too bad for anything else.

I hate that Hooben never shows any interior pics of their tanks. The guts are just a guess...

Well considering the preorder price and their reputation, I rather pay $70 more later on than lose $398 outright.

Rich,

That "metal chassis" is classic Hoobenspeak for thin stamped lower hull & nothing more unless you want to count the fasteners. Perhaps they've learned from past mistakes & have changed but I'll bet anything that chassis is 3DP like everything else they've been releasing lately.

As I posted below on RCTW regarding their Cromwell, I'm certainly in no rush & am happy to wait for Haya or someone else to come to market. Tomas from Warprints is following with a Cromwell once he completes his current 1/6 Hetzer. Believe he plans to offer in both 1/16 & 1/6 scale so there will be other options not too far ahead.

Before parting with your cash, I'd suggest getting some more details with photos to back it up. This example of their track tensioner & that resided behind the broken idler says it.

Chuck


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rcu...cf17b404a5.jpg

Im almost ready to throw my money at it. I can do most anything with a tank. I think I know what Im getting into and would much rather budget 450 rather than nearly 600... So I may just go ahead and pull the trigger. Like I said, I have the urethane kit I blew a ton of money on and decided I could make it rc, but I dont think I will live that long lol

Just saying but before you part with any money, I'd recommend reaching out to Tomas & ask when he expects to have his Cromwell ready. You can reach him here as well on his Warprints FB page.

As a cost reference his 1/16 Hetzer kit sells for 310€ so would expect Cromwell would certainly more given its size & scope.

https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-...-1-16-kit.html

I want the Merkeva, not the Crommwell.

This is done in South Korea, the master asks for a lot of money.
my friend 5 years ago bought, remade almost everything that was on the case.
This is how it looked after the alteration ...

Yes ill wait seen it first on FB said the same thing there plus show me a youtube video of it a walk around of it and see what is said from who here gets one first .

Both of these vehicles would be fantastic additions adding some variety from the fairly standard MBTs and WW2 vehicles we have thus far, but given how much waiting I'm already doing for some fresh hulls I'm definitely going to be waiting to see these get out into the wild.

Like, I'll probably just wait to see if the Clark Cromwell happens (and the Walterson's T-72 lol). I'm betting Haya will have their Centurion out before people get solid reviews on either of these Hooben offerings, and since HL has been seemingly focusing on upgrading their internal components and parts I'm betting we won't be getting any new hulls from them either - but I'd much rather get a Merkava from them, because as someone else pointed out at least spare parts for HL tanks can be found everywhere (and now they do things like metal suspension arms and easily-found metal wheels with bearings, so)

I'm at least happy to see new hulls coming into existence because if nothing else it'll potentially push other manufacturers to put out new stuff but yeah just, gosh. I cannot trust Hooben because for as long as I can remember being into RC tanks (so like, back to 2010 or so?) I've heard about how much caution one needs to have with their products.

I will be keeping my fingers crossed for a Merkava. Would love to have one in my inventory but knowing Hooben quality can run the gambit from good to horrible I will wait to see one in person before committing.

Funny to know that Merkava was on the initial list at the very beginning along with an M1 Abrams. I still have Feng's proposal for me to invest in his tank scheme back in 2004. Instead of profits or dividends, he offered to pay me back in discounted kits that I'd then have to compete in the market against other distributors/dealers. :confused: :rolleyes:


See they also announced it available in 1/10 for the mind-popping $1608 presale / $2528 MSRP price point.

Oh and another thing - keep in mind the limit for raising a PayPal dispute is 45 days.

This will make one want a Merkava even more. (wow)