Centurion Mk. 5 by Tongde

[RichJohnson]

Ok, Haya markets henglong, Haya and torro (aka Taigen in the US) rc tanks.
some of the tanks are made by Haya. The chiefton and the centurion are made by Haya and only available from Haya.
the other tanks they just market. In the US Torro is sold under the Taigen name from taigentanks.com and motion Rc Carrie’s them under the Torro name as well, which is weird….
the Haya brand centurion sounds like it’s our of your price range since it’s a lot more than the TD but the guys that have bought them have claimed they are much better quality though I have not seen one myself.

[tank_me]

Haya tends to be more expensive due to lower volume than even Hooben, but the difference is Hooben seems to 3D print a lot of parts while Haya uses injection molding like Heng Long. It costs a lot of money to cut injection molds for making tanks. Haya also has better customer relations than Hooben. I haven't bought the Haya Cent, but I wouldn't hesitate to do so. A lot of the parts in the Haya are compatible with their HL counterparts. I do own the Haya Chieftain and the Cent is supposed to be better than the Chief due to lessons learned from Haya's first tank production efforts. Louis from the RC Tank Regiment site in the UK is building a Sho't Kal from a TD Cent right now. He's a stickler for detail and the TD Cent supposedly is running with slightly less ground clearance than it should if that matters to you. He does improvise a solution on the suspension to make the TD Cent ride a little higher.

[keilau]

@RichJohnson and @tank_me, thank you for the very up to date information on the RTR Centurion Mk5 tank. It is very interesting to read your insight. I want an UK RC tank very much, but not the Challenger II. I decide to wait a while for my next tank purchase.

The Haya Centurion sounds beautiful, but is more expensive than I want to pay. I am uncomfortable about the Tongde product line's future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ9swZImB54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXy1n55RCgg

It is not my original intent. But I am very proud of my 2005 Snow Leopard turned Pershing. With the recent electronic and metal upgrades, it looks and runs as well as a new Professional version HL Pershing.

[RichJohnson]

I dont think you have to worry about the future of tongde.
They have several more tanks listed as coming out and are fully behind improving flaws that are found in their products.
I myself have bought a couple hooben low run tanks and have bought spare parts for what I know I will need some day like extra track and sprockets.
I am also heavily into Tamiya brand shermans and they were discontinued. Having several of them I decided to stock up on the wear items like tires, tracks gear box kits etc etc. I bought up over 1k worth of parts to keep my tamiya sherams running for decades to come. But now with my 3d printed HVSS suspension kit for henglong shermans and my soon to come T23 76mm turret none of that tamiya stuff will really every be necessary as the henglong runs just as good and has more robust tranys.

[HDMM]

Looking good SoCalBobS, I ended up getting one of these as well. Took a chance and ordered it from the Coolbank Model Store on Aliexpress, Shipping was only like $22 (it is on all his tanks) so I saved over $100 from the DKLM price (because of high shipping) and got it in 20 days. For the price difference I figured I chance it, tank came in good condition as well, was worried about breakage.

[HDMM]

I dont think you have to worry about the future of tongde.
They have several more tanks listed as coming out and are fully behind improving flaws that are found in their products.
I myself have bought a couple hooben low run tanks and have bought spare parts for what I know I will need some day like extra track and sprockets.
I am also heavily into Tamiya brand shermans and they were discontinued. Having several of them I decided to stock up on the wear items like tires, tracks gear box kits etc etc. I bought up over 1k worth of parts to keep my tamiya sherams running for decades to come. But now with my 3d printed HVSS suspension kit for henglong shermans and my soon to come T23 76mm turret none of that tamiya stuff will really every be necessary as the henglong runs just as good and has more robust tranys.

No wonder I can't find any parts LOL!!! 🤣😅😆

[SoCalBobS]

Looking good SoCalBobS, I ended up getting one of these as well. Took a chance and ordered it from the Coolbank Model Store on Aliexpress, Shipping was only like $22 (it is on all his tanks) so I saved over $100 from the DKLM price (because of high shipping) and got it in 20 days. For the price difference I figured I chance it, tank came in good condition as well, was worried about breakage.

Very good info re shipping. Thanks!

[keilau]

The Coolbank Model Store have the TD Centurion Mk5 metal version for $271 including 3 weeks shipping to my US address. The plastic version is $160 shipped.
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804927140380.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.608c38dac DfIxW&mp=1&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
The Tongde tank has no higher quality metal upgrade options. Based on my TD M60A1 experience, buying the metal version is the better approach.

The mid October price from Coolbank Model has changed, increase to double of the prices above. Did anyone order the Centurion Mk5 during the low price period and receive the RC tank?