One of a kind tanks

This is the first tank in history: it was developed by the Brits and sent to France to fight during WWI. In order to smuggle it to France, the Brits had to disguise the shipment from German spies. Therefore, they put it in a huge box marked “St Petersburg” as its destiny and "Tank" as the content. The Brits actually wanted to say “bathtub”, but it would not translate well into Russian. Hence, all these weapons started being called "Tank".

F-17 – this is a French tank built by Renault in 1917, which gave form to most tanks built until today. It was the first tank with an armament in a fully rotating turret, and its configuration with the turret on top, engine in the back and the driver in front became the classic one.

This is the only collection of Japanese tanks of WWII in the world, as all others were destroyed as part of the Japanese armistice.

NK101 - Only prototype ever made of a mine detonator built by the Germans, which more resembles a Star Wars spaceship. After being captured, the Russians tried driving it over mines in Kubinka to see if it would actually work. Turns out it didn't, and the test crew got badly injured.

Karl – This is a huge German mortar which was used to attack fortresses and cities up to 6 km away, like in the battle of Sevastopol in Russia and to crush the uprising of Warsaw. Only six were ever produced and were always used in pairs: this one belonged to Adam and Eve. The ammunition weighed 2 tons, and the crew consisted of over 100 people since it had to be dismantled and reassembled every time it was moved.

Maus – is the heaviest tank ever, and was built on Hitler’s request by Ferdinand Porsche at the end of the war. Only two were ever made and were destroyed as the Soviets invaded Germany. The Soviets then took the pieces from both destroyed tanks, and built this one. The Maus would have needed special rail cars designed for its transport, and it was too heavy to cross any bridges so it would have been made to submerge for river crossings. In fact, it was so heavy (160 tons) that the Soviets first built the tank where it currently stands, and then built the building around it.