Following on from other recent announcements we get to hear about a new car & chassis type.  This new car is called the 'Raizzan' and is a GT/Super Car type body.  One of the main changes here is that it comes with a black smoked colour body and the optional body panels which result in a dual Translucent Black and Cherry Red  body.  There are other new features as well which are detailed in the description below I found, although this is possibly of course always open to change as the release approaches.

You may recall a little while back there was a discussion about display cases for our lovely little cars. Well at the time I sourced an acrylic case made specifically for the Mini-4wd's from Ali, it was as you'd expect flat packed, assembled fairly easy and looked reasonably ok. However coming in at around £25 delivered was quite a pricey solution just for displaying 6 cars.   So, I've still been looking and have found a possible alternative that is far more cost effective and actually is better in many ways. It is available on Amazon.co.uk and is designed originally to be used by cafe's etc... to display pastries etc... It has 3 shelves, plus the bottom of the cabinet so effectively 4 shelves. Each of these is big enough to house 3 Mini-4wd side by side facing forwards, and quite possibly 4 per shelf if placed side on and 2 deep. Of course in this configuration you may need something to lift up the two rear ones a bit so they are viewed better, but I've not decided yet. It also has a door with a handle which is held closed by miniature magnets. This cabinet cost me around the same as the one from Ali.   I've also enhanced it by adding some lighting, this is in the form of miniature LED lights which are contained in little chromed steel tubes. They are twisted to turn them on and off. To secure them in place I've glued some small Neodymium magnets to the top of the shelves (and top plate) and the magnets hold the lights in place below the shelf. This allows you to get them out easily to turn them on and off or if needed replace the batteries. This works very well and illuminates my beloved cars very nicely as you can see in the pictures attached. Hope this gives you all some ideas...

For a change I've got some new non-Tamiya Mini-4wd car kits to add to my collection.  These are generally special editions that are probably based on older Tamiya releases which have passed me by before I got into the hobby.  So although not genuine Tamiya's they 'do the job' at least for display purposes.  This time I have 6 new cars, 3 from Da Xing and 3 from Jiepen.  The Da Xing are usually pretty good quality so I have no concerns about those.  My experience of Jiepen is limited to one car in the past and although I eventually did build it correctly it was when I first started the hobby and the very poor instructions you get with the Jiepen kits did hamper my ability to complete it quickly.  Now I'm familiar with most of the Tamiya chassis types it should not be such a problem, but we'll have to see as the instructions have definitely not improved.  Instead of a booklet like you get with any other brand I've ever had all you get are sparse instructions printed on the bottom of the box with similar for the decals printed on the bottom inside of the box.  Not great, especially for beginners...

I've been after one of the speed checker units for a while now, partly so I can see how fast theoretically my cars are and what difference various upgrades to the drive train make to the performance.  This way in theory I know what to target when making new builds or upgrading existing builds as well as deciding on which chassis is most appropriate for certain circuits.

If you have visited my site before you will probably know I already have a truck in the form of the ''Sunny Shuttle", well unusually for me as I normally like sleek sexy looking cars I liked that so much that I decided to go track down its brother the "Jolly Joker".   This is fundamentally the same except it is in black instead of yellow and of course has a completely different set of stickers which are also metallic giving it a cool look.  The Joker I decided to modify and have changed the default wheels for a nice set of metallic green ones with super hard tyres, then added stays, aluminium rollers, brakes and mass weights.  The only one I haven't got fitted yet are some side weights, but this is because the body on the trucks is secured with clips on the side which form 'footplates' and these foul the normal size mass weights, so I'm waiting on some slimline weights to fit there instead.  Anyway pictures below, enjoy!!

As we all know finding tracks suitable for Mini-4wd in the UK is a nightmare.  Usually it involves importing from Asia where the tracks can be sourced relatively cheaply, but which carry massive shipping costs.

I've just added (and assembled) two new Da-Xing additions for my car collection.  These are more modern releases from Da-Xing and as usual are basically clones of existing Tamiya kits.  These were sourced through AliExpress.  The ones in question are the 'DCR-01 Purple Edition' and the 'Avante Mk.III Korea 25th Anniversary Edition'.

It seems that the new release announcements are coming thick and fast - probably due to Christmas soon to be on the horizon as there is a new version of the Santa Racer also...

Another new release coming from Tamiya and one I'll definitely be placing a pre-order for...

Here's an image showing the contents of the coming soon Avante Mk.III Nero Advanced Pack.  As soon as I am aware of it being available I will let you know...

There is a nice new limited edition release from Tamiya in the form of the Estoura Orange Special Edition details and images below - currently available from RC Jaz;

Just received today was my recent purchase from Plaza Japan, this was mainly upgrade parts intended for models that I will be uprating from their basic box stock status.  But, as I was ordering anyway I decided to pick up a couple of new additions to my car collection.  Prime model for many is probably the recently released "Japan Cup 2025 Cross Spear 01" as the JCup models are always popular.  This one has quite a funky colour scheme and I look forward to constructing this one as it's quite different and based around the popular VZ chassis.  If you're wondering, yes I did buy the 'Pig Racer' as I find some of the cartoon racers quite cute and it is still a full blown racer so win-win.  One thing I've not shown is I also got one of the Tamiya 'Pit Stop' carry cases, highly recommended, look for a quick review in the next few days...