Heng LongGerman Tiger 1 Radio Control Tank with BB, Smoke and Sound

My daughter insisted that she wanted a radio controlled tank. After hunting around a lot to find something, I finally went with online recommendations and bought this Heng Long model. It arrived fairly quickly and came in a much larger box than I expected. My daughter just about exploded with excitement when she unwrapped this at christmas and we proceeded to sort out the radio control and batteries. I had initially purchased a radio chip (more about that later) before so she wouldn't be disappointed and have to wait too long to play with this.The tank is excellent quality, it really is. I was very surprised how good this thing was and the extra options of metal gear box and tracks makes a wonderful addition. The reason for purchasing the radio chip was that when we received the model and I inspected it and checked it was functioning, I just had to get another one for myself. So, separate radio chip to make sure the signals wouldn't interfere.The gun fires small plastic balls, these are loaded in through the upper hatch. You need to be careful if you purchase more to make sure they are the same size, otherwise you run the risk of jamming the mechanism and that can be a real pain to fix and not for the faint hearted or mechanically challenged.The smoke generator for the exhaust was a nice touch if a bit smelly and worked just fine, smoke belching out of the back of the tank as it ran along made it feel more like a tank than a toy. The gun is a sod to aim, so very much point and pray, which makes the target a bit of joke, it's difficult to hit the thing when you don't have a sight to aim with. Oh well, adds to the fun in a way.When she was running the tank in the grounds at her grandmother's we discovered that turning resulted in one of the tracks coming astray. Whether this is historically accurate I don't know, but it was a bit of a pain. I finally figured that the screw securing the wheel was coming astray. So, a very slightly larger screw and some blue lock and it stayed in.It would not be an understatement to say that my daughter had hours and hours of fun with this, she took it everywhere if we were going out. Running it around while my wife walked the dog was a favourite. It is a slow model, so no worries about it getting away from you and it handles well for straight runs and turns, behaving quite nicely and you can lose yourself a bit in the way it moves.That it arrived assembled, painted and ready to roll was a huge bonus as it meant she got to play with the thing pretty much immediately, and we had a fair amount of entertainment facing off with both tanks and trying to ping a BB off the opponent.The small bottle of smoke fluid that comes with this doesn't last long when running the tank, but it doesn't evaporate either, so will sit in the tray until the next time you turn this on. If it does run out, I have found that you can use the same fluid used in fog machines. Presumably that's what is in the initial bottle as it looks very similar.As far as my daughter was concerned, best gift ever and even several years later she still plays with it and it holds a prized location on her bedroom shelves.Best purchase ever. Most fun toy ever. And, if you look after it, it will run for years of fun. We purchased two of these in 2010, and they are both still operating, making smoke and noise every time they're used.Well worth every penny.

Come on Dad you know that you really want this but it's so expensive and is it going to fall apart after a week? Well you are right you really do want one of these and I'm really glad that I bought this one for me...I mean my son.It's great fun. It's really controllable, the transmitter works wonderfully and the firing mechanism and the smoke coming out of the exhausts are just brilliant. I've weathered mine with some humbrol enamal paints and it looks great. Don't worry about the power of the bb shots. I don't think they're powerful enough to go through the cat and if you don't trust your eight year old not to shoot you in the eye you can turn it off independantly with a little hidden button.Will it fall apart? At first the driving wheels for the tracks were a little loose but it was no problem as the tank is quite well made and you can just prize off the hub? cover and tighten the screw back up. Ive not had a problem since. Stack some playing cards up put some airfix soldiers on top and shoot the hell out of them and PLAY WITH YOUR KID like we used to play before computer games made the family disfunctional! No really these are great fun, indulge yourself!

Great tank works well apart from the smoke that doesnt work at all

Unpacked the tank and was impressed with the detail. It looks great as a scale model. Unfortunately, as reported by other users, the remote was dead on arrival so the tank could not be used. Hard to believe the quality control can be so bad!! Having had my appetite whetted, I have ordered another one, assuming that eventually I will get a working unit. Fingers crossed.... but I am relieved I read other reviews, because I intended to give this as a present, and would have been very annoyed to find it didn't work. So be warned - try it before you give it! Because it didn't work I can't give it more than one star - wasting time, costing money with return postage - they should test the stuff before sending it.

Unfortunately the wheel was faulty and came off due to a lose nut. This happened only 5 minutes into using it. However, I must say, the seller was fantastic and offered us a refund once we had returned it...

I recently received the tank for my son's christmas/birthday present but when opened it and got it up running, it would not move obviously the receiver wasn't getting the message from the transmitter. We found out that the receiver chip hadn't been put in right, when that was sorted the tank now works.The receiver chip is located under the battery pack in the tank.

This was a Christmas present for my grandson. He loved it and everything worked well without any problems. He took great delight in shooting the BB balls at his dad and they can sting a bit, so I'd take care if you're giving it to a child and perhaps have pets in the house that might get caught in the crossfire. The sound, actions and smoke worked well. My son, who is a bit of an expert when it comes to radio control, said it was very good value for money.Delivery was very quick and it was well packaged. Very pleased with this purchase. Thank you.

Love this RC Tank. Works great. Smoke generator is a bit noisy but keep sound level up and it's hardly noticeable. Don't even need to be painted if you like it as it comes (I like it in this grey) battery lasts about 20 mins of continuos use but longer lasting batteries are easy and cheap to buy. The standard charger is the only drawback as it does not auto switch off and has to manually be turned off at four hours as battery should be fully charged t that time. I brought an NiMh longer lasting battery and better NiCd/NiMh auto charger for less than £20.