COBI Tiger II Königstiger Sd.Kfz. 182 Set 2685

COBI's Tiger II (Sd.Kfz. 182) Königstiger is a 1:28 model of the German heavy tank, built from 1,571 blocks, with two crew figures.

The name is a species, not a rank

Officially the tank was the Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B, inventory number Sd.Kfz. 182. Königstiger was an informal name, and English speakers have been mistranslating it ever since.

In German, Königstiger is simply the everyday word for the Bengal tiger, the large tiger of India. There is no king in it. Allied troops translated the parts literally — American soldiers especially called it the King Tiger, the British often Royal Tiger — and the literal version is the one that stuck in English, even though a German reader hears an animal, not a monarch.

The tank first saw combat in Normandy in July 1944 with Heavy Panzer Battalion 503, and on the Eastern Front in August 1944 near the Vistula.

In the COBI range

Set 2686 is the prototype King Tiger V2 at this 1:28 scale. Set 3113 is the Königstiger at 1:35, set 2732 at 1:48 and set 2808 at 1:12.

Specifications

Pieces: 1,571 · Figures: 2 · Scale: 1:28 · Age: 10+