You can certinally start your AFV 1/1 collection without importing a vehicle from accross the pond. Tanks are available here. OK, so they are expensive but you can get a halftrack from $6k up to $40,000 (restored with working quad .50) or a M-20 or M-8 armored car from $15k up to $45,000. All you need is a garage with space to restore and patience to restore and to find parts. Not impossible for the average collector. Some restores can take from a few years up to 10 years. Meanwhile, after getting it in running condition, you can have fun with it running around.
Half the fun of driving a MV is fixing it when it breaks down. One year, in a big Memorial Day parade, I broke down with my Command Car, (we had tried to do two parades 40 miles apart and pushed the car too hard) with some big politios in the back seat. I'm blocking the parade route and the car will not move. 15 NG paraders pushed me to the side while I waiting for my BIL, who was driving my M-37, to finish the parade to come back and tow me home. Problem with the rear "pumpkin". Two weeks later I found a whole rear on wheels and replace mine. Parts are always available. I didn't have the ability to replace the broken gears (or even to disamble the pumpkin), it was easier to replace the entire rear with the help of my two boys, ages 8 and 11 at the time.
I remember, when I broke down, a NG M-113 APC pulled up behind my CC and the Sgt. says "I'll push you". I explained that the back of my CC would be crushed by the M-113, as calmly as I could, and the Sgt. got the 15 bodies to push me to the side.
Some of my most fun was breakdowns by me, or my buddies had, including a Veteran's Day parade in Manhattan when our halftrack blew a head qasket and our WC-62 and my CC chain pulled the HT all the way back to Staten Island. Most of the way, with the big Dodge pulling the HT, we were afraid to stop and went through 50 red lights in Manhattan, with me driving fast from light to light and blocking intersections with the CC. Finally back on SI, we hit some big hills and the Dodge was overheating and couldn't get up the hills towing the 9 ton HT so I jumped out and hooked a chain from the Dodge and with the CC and the WC-62 in series, we made it up and over the hills pulling the HT. Fun.
I never restored any of my vehicles to pristine condition, just good enough to look good and to have fun.
TTT
Sometimes I am the windshield, sometimes, I am the bug.