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...

Plaza Japan is an excellent retailer based in Japan which offers incredibly good service and product ranges including a superb range of Tamiya Mini-4wd kits and accessories.  Please check out the Retailers page for more details.

It is a sad day that I have to report the passing of Sir Shunsaku Tamiya, the Chairman and Representative Director of Tamiya Corporation.  He left this world and our hobbies on the 18/07/2025, I'm sure his input and management of Tamiya will be missed.

There was recently a discussion on the FB group Tamiya mini 4wd UK about available display cases for Mini-4wd cars.  Having recalled seeing some on AliExpress and a lot of searching I managed to find the one I remembered.  As it looked reasonably good I decided to bite the bullet and buy one to see how good they are, what assembly is like and how well they display the cars.  There are various sizes available, but I decided to go for the one that can display up to 6 cars, each in its own section with a hinged door on the front to allow you to display or remove them with ease.  The 'kit' turned up today and I set to assembly, this was a bit of a guessing game as there were no instructions supplied at all.  In the pack (several layers of bubble wrap with outer thick plastic) you got the following;

Having found a new (to me) retailer in the UK that stocks and sells Mini-4wd kits I decided to buy a couple to test out the company for their service.  So I decided to purchase the Avante Yellow Special and Neo-Vqs models to add to my collection.  The Avante Yellow Special comes with a clear polycarbonate body and as you can see a white and yellow chassis (VS) with matching yellow tyres.  I doubt I will keep the body clear when I build this, but it is nonetheless an attractive model in any form.  The Neo-Vqs is fundamentally the same model that you get in the Neo-Vqs advanced pack but without all the 'hop-up' parts and uprated motor that you get in that kit.

A new race event has recently been announced by Jerome Tablazon on the facebook group 'Tamiya mini 4wd UK'.

Following the massive success of the 'Neo-VQS Advanced Pack which was based around the versatile VZ chassis (Tamiya part number - 95598)', there has just been announced the upcoming availability of the next in the range.