Customer Reviews
Out of the box, the Panther G seemed OK. Upon powering it up, several things stood out in a bad way: First, sound is not authentic. Compared to Tamiya which uses actual sounds of an actual Panther, this HL was very toyish and inaccurate. Unfortunately, there's no way to load Tamiya's or your own sounds to make improvements. I also found that after buying four other tanks, four (Tiger 1, Panther G, Panzer IV, Sherman M-4) of the five I now own have the same two sound packages. (Tiger 1 and Leopard).
Overall, the Panther G moves OK when on a smooth floor, but nearly unmaneuverable on carpet (any kind of carpet) where it can barely turn. You find yourself going forward and backward with full left and right deflection of the stick in the direction you want to turn, but only getting small turns. The proportional drive feature is quirky, and the tank jerks and lacks smooth movements and acceleration (zero to full speed in .25 seconds and vice versa if you "floor it" or let go of the stick respectively). There are also several features that don't work in accordance with HL's instruction manual such as adjustments to the turret rotate speed. While it advertises 6 speed settings, mine rotates 360 degrees in 8.4 seconds in all 6 settings. When I asked HL about this, they said due to accuracy and authenticity (speed setting isn't available on an actual Panther), it doesn't work on their model. I laughed because rotating 360 degrees in 8.4 seconds is completely unrealistic for an actual WWII tank, not to mention the speed this model travels on it's highest setting (very fast).
Speaking of the turret, the tanks I bought came with the 360 degree turret gear and slip ring. Unfortunately, Toucan modifies the 340 degree gears by cutting additional teeth in them instead of manufacturing actual 360 degree gear rings. The teeth they cut manually are misshaped and don't mesh well with the teeth on the turret rotation motor. This sometimes causes the turret to slip/click when rotating through the 180 degree (rearward) position. I ordered and installed metal turret gears with bearings, and that made the turret travel much smoother, especially with some grease.
When I removed the metal tracks and wheels to paint them, I found that three of the bearings for the road wheels were missing. I also discovered 3 screws holding the bottom plate on the turret, and 9 stripped out hex screws holding on suspension arms, and that the plastic tow cable holders (part #12) were missing. I notified Toucan Customer Support and went round and round with them to try to resolve. They suggested that instead of using the included 2.5mm hex wrench, that I use a 2.0mm wrench because the 2.5mm was too big. I chuckled at their lack of mechanical knowledge and misinterpretation of the video I sent them of the stripped out screws and attempted to explain, again, that the problem was that the screw heads were stripped out, probably from over-torquing with a power tool during assembly at the factory. They eventually acquiesced on that point, but continued to delay and push back on sending the parts. Finally, I offered to buy two metal turret ring gears so they could ship the missing & damaged parts in the same box. When the box arrived, two screws and the bearing for my Tiger 1 was still missing. When I inquired, they said that the shipping cost for the parts would be more than the parts were worth, and if there was anything else I wanted to purchase so they could combine the shipments (and have me pay for shipping again). This time I refused and they finally agreed to send the last of the missing parts. Remedying problems should not be this hard or take two months to resolve.
Sufficed to say, dealing with Toucan Hobby was spotty at best. I'd ordered accessories from their US STOCK store in another purchase, and only received half the order. So there I was, a month and a half later, and still trying to get the products I ordered and paid for. Thankfully, there are other suppliers out there (e.g. DKLMRC) that have proven to be more reliable.
Other issues with the modified Panther G include: A) machine gun turret mechanism in the chassis was loose and needed work to tighten; B) Rusty drive shafts on the gear boxes which took polishing; C) several loose suspension arms which allowed the road wheels to castor and rub on each other; D) several loose screws attaching the road wheels while others were over-tightened; E) tank was not shipped in a plastic bag which allowed the styrofoam to rub some of the paint off the tank in several spots.
Love this panther tank. Well made and quite "heavy" with the metal road wheels. I painted the wheels, burnished the tracks and applied an European dust wash overall.
