The last five MAN SX45 trucks ever built went to the British Army in 2019 — radar platforms, of all things, on a £2.6 million contract that closed the production line for good. The real 8×8 is out of production. Our 1:64 version of it is not, and after a week of playing with the sample I think truck collectors should pay attention to this one.
First, decode the name
"RMMV" stands for Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicles, the joint venture Rheinmetall and MAN set up in 2010 — Rheinmetall holds 51%, MAN 49%. The SX itself is older than the JV: it descends from the KAT1 trucks the German army ran since the late 1960s, and the SX generation went into service from the late 1990s. Built in Kassel and Vienna, it was the truck you bought when roads stopped being a guarantee. Armies in Germany, the UK, Denmark, Austria, Norway, Sweden and Malaysia ran SX and its sibling HX series — the UK alone ordered over 7,000 of the two families from 2007 onwards.
The SX45 8×8 we modelled carries up to 14–16 tonnes of payload on eight wheels, powered by a 10.5-litre MAN D2066 diesel making 440 hp through a six-speed automatic. Road speed is electronically limited to 90 km/h, which tells you what the customer cared about: the spec sheet is full of numbers like fording 1.2 m of water without preparation, climbing 60% gradients, and working from −32°C to +50°C (with an arctic kit, down to −46°C). Radar units, command shelters, antenna masts, missile launchers — the SX carried the heavy, awkward things that fighting vehicles couldn't.
One honest note: we couldn't verify which exact launcher system the model's tube cradle references. The SX45 served mostly as a radar and shelter carrier, and the four-tube cradle on the model resembles the style of mount used on heavier rocket carrier trucks. If any reader knows the specific system, write to us — we'd rather correct the article than guess.
The model, hands on
The model, hands on: our 1:64 MAN SX 8×8 diecast truck is $24.99, in two colors: military green (KC036) and desert yellow (KC037). At 1:64 it sits in the same footprint class as our 1:64 USMC MTVR MK23, but the silhouette is completely different — a tall, flat-sided MAN cab with visible steps, then a long equipment body and the launcher cradle behind it.
Three details earn their place. The launcher elevates — the four-tube cradle tilts up on its mount, so you can pose it stowed horizontal or raised for action, and the tubes have ribbed reinforcing bands moulded in. There's a spare wheel stowed behind the cab, which photographs well from the rear three-quarter angle. And the tires have genuinely deep tread, unusual at this price point, where most 1:64 trucks get smooth plastic donuts.
The body is diecast metal; the launcher tubes and some underbody parts are plastic. That split is standard for the class — when we previewed this truck in October we didn't know the split yet, and it matches what buyers of the MTVR found. Colin, who bought the MTVR, put it well:
"Good quality truck with a nice amount of attention to detail. I think the body is metal and the wheels under side and removable top are plastic. The truck seem a bit bigger than your average hot-wheels. making it easier to modify or paint." — Colin, five-star review
Fair warning, borrowed from another 1:64 buyer: "The side mirrors are extremely fragile." That was sanket waikar's four-star note on the MTVR, and it applies here too — the mirrors on our SX sample are the same scale-tiny. Pick the truck up by the body, never by the glass.
How to display it
The obvious play is a convoy line: the SX next to the MTVR, maybe the 1:72 M1A2 Abrams a step back for depth, all on one shelf of our tactical vehicles collection. The two-color choice matters more than usual here — green reads "Bundeswehr in the field", desert yellow reads "deployment", and a mixed line of both looks better than four of the same.
Here's the thing about the real truck, though. MAN stopped building the SX in late 2017. The final five delivered to the British Army in 2019 were the end of it. Whatever SX trucks are still rolling are aging out, and mainstream diecast brands mostly ignore the type — you can get a hundred Hot Wheels semis and very few 8×8 tactical trucks. This is one of the few ways to put one on a shelf.
We keep the desert yellow one on the workshop windowsill, tubes raised. Somebody asks about it almost every day.
