Wheelie Good Fun
POPPIN’ WHEELIES WITH TAMIYA’S COMICAL AVANTE
Poppin’ Wheelies With Tamiya’s Comical Avante
Some of my favorite memories as a kid are of the weekend RC parking lot races at my local hobby shop. The mixed smells of motor cleaning spray, overheated Nicad batteries and greasy double cheeseburgers from the burger stand next door was what greeted me every Saturday. It was RC heaven.
This was during the mid-80s, a time of frequency crystals, mechanical speed controllers and Tamiya’s RC golden age. Up until this time, hobby-grade RC seemed to be relegated to the more adult realm of the hobby world. RC was either too expensive or too complicated for young kids such as myself to get into. That is until Tamiya came in and redefined the hobby.
THE NAMESAKE
From the 80s straight on through the 90s, Tamiya rolled out RC kit after RC kit, each one becoming instant classics. Most any RC enthusiast can name off five or more kits from that era. Grasshopper, The Hornet, The Frog, The Lunchbox, Hot Shot, Black Foot, I can go on and on. The one that really flipped my lid was the Avante.
The 1988 Tamiya Avante is considered one of the most over engineered RC cars of its day and perhaps, thirty years later, today as well. It looked more like a F1 car crossed with a jet fighter than a dirt-thrashing buggy. It was love at first sight. I was lucky to score one of these 4WD wonders back when it was first released and it quickly became the centerpiece of my many pre-teen obsessions. Being a fan of the design for so long, how could I pass up the newly released Comical version? Spoiler alert, I didn’t.
GETTING COMICAL
The recent releases of Tamiya’s Comical series kits have been an onslaught of RC wheel-popping cuteness. The barrage has been non-stop, first came the Comical Grasshopper followed by the Comical Hornet and then the Comical Frog. Now Tamiya has released the pinnacle of 80s excess, reimagined into a cute egg shaped form, the Comical Avante.
This release is different from the previous 2WD Tamiya Comical offerings in that, like its namesake, it is equipped with a 4WD drivetrain. Thankfully, due to the elder’s predilection for mechanical troubles, the similarity with its older brother stops with its name and looks. This Comical version of the Avante is meant for pure fun and is designed to be much simpler and way more robust.
THE GF-01
The Comical Avante is based on the GF-01 chassis, which offers a full
time gear driven 4WD transmission. The GF-01 serves as the base for Tamiya’s Toyota Land Cruiser Pick-up and Heavy Dump Truck kits. The Comical Avante is an offshoot of those, which uses a variant chassis called the GF-01CB.
The GF-01CB chassis features a robust and high torque gear drive that transmits power to the front and rear wheels by mounting its motor in the center of its monocoque frame. The sealed frame-integrated gear case keeps debris such as sand and pebbles out.
Its independent double wishbone suspension is equipped with Tamiya’s ubiquitous CVA oil dampers. The suspension arms are purposely created to have a wide track so that the Comical Avante does not tip over easily. For those who wish to, the mounting position of the dampers can be adjusted, expanding the range of settings. The buggy rolls on ST block bubble tires, which have an aggressively grippy stepped block pattern.
The mid-motor, four-wheel drive kit is quick and easy to build and shouldn’t be a problem for youngsters or those who have grown up in the age of RTRS that may be intimidated by building their own kit. This is definitely a good beginner’s kit to tackle.
“The GF-01CB chassis features a robust and high torque gear drive.”
Like with Tamiya’s other Comical releases, the Avante comes with an equally cartoonish driver figure that fits right at home under its clear canopy. Although this is an assembly kit, it is a simple build and the body comes prepainted in the Avante’s iconic metallic blue color. Just add decals then paint the figure and you’re good to go.
MODIFIED
The Comical Avante, coupled with its cartoonish body, has a high profile that gives it a very tall appearance. Although it may not make much performance sense, I like to see vehicles, even buggies, with a lowered stance. I simply think they look cooler lowered. So I set out to lower this kit a tad and give it an even wider stance.
I achieved this by replacing the suspension arms with ones from a Tamiya WT-01 chassis. Because the WT-01 uses a similar overall architecture as the GF-01CB, its arms were able to fit without any modification. The wider arms necessitated extended steering linkage in the form of 3x71mm-threaded shafts, also from a WT-01 chassis, as well as longer drive shafts that are sourced from a Tamiya Hot Shot.
Other upgrades include a full set of Fast Eddy Bearings ball bearings and a Tamiya Torque Tuned motor. Finishing off the build, I installed the included Tamiya TBLE-02S ESC as well as a servo and receiver by KO Propo and paired it to my KO Propo EX-2 transmitter.
Powering the Comical Avante is a long-run 5,000 mah
NIMH six-cell battery made by Maxamps. The battery seems to run forever, which is a far cry from the limited five-minute runs I got from Nicad’s back in the day. Maxamps builds their batteries to order, using the freshest cells for your custom ordered battery. I must admit, that the performance difference is noticeable.
DRIVING IMPRESSIONS
The Comical Avante is a wheeliehappy buggy with ultra grippy drive characteristics. I noticed on asphalt it’s almost hard to drive due to its propensity to wheelie, but on grass and other loose terrain however, it really comes alive.
The super low and wide stance of the modified Comical Avante changed the driving feeling of the buggy so that its lower center of gravity made it less wheelie happy and more manageable over its stock form when negotiating sharp turns, especially when going over bumps at speed. Please note that the term “speed” is used relatively speaking.
It’s not all that fast, but if you want to go faster a brushless motor can help you out.
The four-wheel drive transmission and aggressive tires gives it a ton of capability to crawl and jump over just about any obstacle in its way. It does want to rear up on its hind wheels at a moment’s notice however, so care should be taken when driving if you don’t want to end up upside-down. That said, the cartoon buggy is clearly a load of fun to drive.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The looks it gets at the racetrack and local park are proof enough for us that RC newbies as well as seasoned pros all seem to love driving and even simply watching the Comical Avante toot about. If you’re in the market for a fun kit for yourself or a youngster to build and play with, consider Tamiya’s Comical Avante or any of their other Comical buggies for that matter. Trust us, you’ll be all smiles if you do.
Tamiya Comical Avante MSRP: $260 tamiyausa.com