Tamiya’s new Fun-Vroom Mini 4WD is out, and with it, the new “EZ” chassis. It’s quite a bit different from previous Mini 4WDs, but it’s just as much fun.

I got this one from Plaza Japan. A couple vendors appear to have broken Tamiya’s street date, but I had to wait until after the release date to order mine.

Inside the box are the usual Mini 4WD parts: gears, wheels, tires, the body, stickers, and a manual. There’s no grease, however, which was a bit of a surprise to me. I’m not sure if this is because the gears are POM plastic and don’t need as much lubrication, but the machine seems to run just fine without it.

The transparent smoked-grey ABS chassis looks cool. I’ve seen some fears raised about its durability, so I’m hoping they follow this up with reinforced chassis or at least regular opaque black PC+ABS stuff that will last for high-speed bashing.

The axles are hex-shaped and much larger than the race cars, which means that wheel interchange will probably be an issue if you’re trying to modify these. Tamiya also sells the 15547 spike tires for this kit, which weren’t yet available when I bought mine.

The plastic driver figurine just snaps into the seat position. There’s no double sided tape needed, unlike the “animal” series Mini 4WD racers. That driver is roughly the same scale as the animals, though, which helps explain how Tamiya has been able to make a Kumamon version (which is coming out later.)

I don’t particularly like the default blue colour that this came with, so I wanted to paint it. Upon seeing the stickers have a significant blue background, however, I decided I’d hold off and just assemble the car as is so I could go play. When I paint this thing later, I will have to use a craft knife to cut out the blue portions of the stickers before applying them. I wish Tamiya didn’t have so much body colour in their stickers, but it does make them easier to put on.

It took about twenty minutes for me to throw the car together. The manual is pretty good, although I got confused about how to install the positive switched end of the battery terminal.

Hackability

The obvious first stop for anyone who wants to have more fun with the Fun-Vroom will be to swap out the motor. The standard dual-shaft Type 130 “Mini4WD PRO” motor is in use here, and you can easily pop in a Sprint Dash or similar. I bought a Torque Tuned 2 PRO motor with this kit, and I’m looking forward to trying that in dyno testing.

Fun-Vroom’s body is 130mm long, which makes it roughly the same as any other Mini 4WD chassis such as Super II. The body catch on the rear is a snap-on configuration, and is not compatible with the 90 degree twist connector on most of the racer bodies. I’m sure someone has already 3D printed an adapter plate to be able to use their beloved Tridaggers.

The chassis also has several unused mounting holes, which Tamiya says can be used to affix roller stays to. This would let you drive the Fun-Vroom on regular Mini 4WD racetracks.

Driving it

You have probably heard that the Fun-Vroom is pretty slow. This is because of the frankly ridiculous 50:1 reduction ratio, which gives it considerable torque for rock crawling.

On the stock dual-shaft white motor, I would say it’s well below “child walking speed,” which is ideal for offroading. Like I said, it does have a ton of torque, though, and will happily try to climb up walls.

Overall, climbing ability seems better than my Lunch Box Wild Mini 4WD. I wish it had a wheelie bar, too.

The EZ Chassis only has room for one AA battery, instead of two as with the race cars and Wild/Original Mini 4WDs. It still seems to have decent runtime regardless.

I had a lot of fun following this thing around outside while it climbed over rocks, barged through weeds, and fell into drainage culverts. Even though it got dead grass tangled in the axles, the grey POM catches holding the “diff covers” together were easy to remove and clean out, which is a big reason I don’t drive my Lunch Box Jr outside as often as I want.

Aesthetics

I don’t particularly like the whole “side by side” vibe of the Fun-Vroom. I would have preferred a more traditional offroader body, maybe even something like a pickup truck. Tamiya spent a lot of money on developing this chassis and drivetrain, though, so I’m sure that they’ll be coming out with all kinds of new bodies for it.

Conclusion

As a super-budget crawler, the Fun-Vroom is going to be really popular with a lot of folks who are tired of breaking their AliExpress RC cars all the time. And more importantly, I think their kids will really love it.

This would be a great car to pick for kids, especially if you don’t want to make the investment of buying a race track. I look forward to seeing what Tamiya does with it next.