The weekend before my birthday, my fiancée invited me over so we could celebrate a little early.

My actual birthday fell on a weekday this year, so I figured we’d have a nice dinner, spend some time together and call it a night.

Apparently, I severely underestimated this woman, because waiting for me was a full-blown surprise party.

And not just any surprise party. A Jollibee-themed surprise party.

I’ve always loved Jollibee, so seeing my friends there, playing games, eating together and generally celebrating another year of my existence was something I genuinely never saw coming.

Everyone also came bearing gifts and because my friends apparently know exactly what kind of person I’ve become, two of those gifts were related to the increasingly dangerous amount of tiny plastic cars occupying my life.

We’ll talk about one of them today. My first VZ chassis, Iron Beak Japan Cup 2026.

Now, I haven’t followed Tamiya events religiously to know enough about what happened at this year’s Japan Cup. but I do know one thing.

This thing looks incredible.

Up until this point, I had never owned a Tamiya with a body this aggressively yellow. And not just yellow, but neon yellow!

Just imagining this thing sitting beside all the regular plastic bodies in my collection already made me excited.

Then there was another little detail printed on the box. VZ Chassis.

Finally. Another chassis I could cross off the list.

I’d never built a VZ before, so immediately the usual questions started going through my head. What’s different about it? What’s Tamiya changed this time?

As soon as we got home, I opened the box and spread everything across my desk and I just had to admire it for a second.

The box really does not prepare you for how bright this body is in person.

It looks like it should glow in the dark.

Pair that neon yellow with the almost translucent smoky-black cowl and I was already imagining what the finished car would look like.

And then I saw the wheels.

I always love it when Tamiya goes a little extra with these special editions especially when the wheels gets more attention.

The white Tamiya Mini 4WD lettering and little racing flag are completely unnecessary. which is exactly why I love them.

But before I actually started building, there was another birthday present that deserved to make an appearance.

One of my best friends gave me an all-in-one screwdriver set with basically every screw head a budding Tamiya collector could ever need.

Until now, I’d been using the same little screwdriver for practically everything. It worked. But this? This felt like an upgrade.

And I couldn’t have picked a better chassis to christen it with.

Because the VZ might be one of the easiest chassis I’ve assembled so far.

It’s also one of Tamiya’s newer designs, and after building everything from Super 1 to Super II, AR, MS, MA and FM-A, I could really feel how much thought had gone into making this thing easy to live with.

It still has that familiar rear-motor silhouette I’ve come to associate with something like Super II, but everything feels refined.

One tiny thing I immediately appreciated was the hinged battery holder.

I’ve always worried about losing those little removable pieces whenever I open up one of my cars. On the VZ, it stays attached.

Tiny detail. but somebody at Tamiya thought about it.

And I appreciate you, random Tamiya engineer.

Then I discovered my favorite part.

The bumpers come off.

After building so many chassis where those structures are simply part of the chassis itself, seeing pieces of the VZ detach immediately got my builder brain going.

Different setups.

Different parts.

Different configurations.

Things I haven’t even thought of yet.

I already love the black-and-yellow combination this particular kit came with, so I’m not planning on messing with it anytime soon. Thanks again for this kit Val.

But knowing that I could make these changes? Dangerous information.

And just like that, a few minutes later…

I genuinely stopped here.

Because look at it.

The Iron Beak already looked so good without anything on it.

There was something understated about leaving the body completely clean, which is a ridiculous word to use for something this aggressively neon yellow.

And that smoky, semi-transparent cowl? Chef’s kiss.

You could see just enough of the yellow underneath it to make the whole thing look more interesting.

For a moment, I seriously considered leaving it exactly like this.

But applying stickers has always been part of the building process for me.

It’s that final step where a pile of plastic pieces finally becomes the car on the box.

So eventually I gave in. Sticker sheet came out and…

Yeah. No regrets.

Looking back at that weekend, though, this build means a little more to me than simply crossing VZ off my chassis list.

I had an amazing birthday. My fiancée somehow managed to organize an entire surprise party without me figuring it out. My friends showed up. We ate Jollibee, played games, laughed, and I went home with gifts that showed just how well the people around me know me.

And now one of those gifts sits in my collection.

My first VZ and a Tamiya that will probably always remind me of my 30th birthday.

Not bad for a little neon yellow car.

Although…

I did say two of my birthday presents were going into this journal.

The other one is a very different kind of Tamiya.

But we’ll save that for the next chapter.

Historian’s Note

By Entry #12, finding a chassis I’ve never built before is becoming a little harder.

That’s probably why the VZ was so much fun.

After getting comfortable enough with Super II to practically speedrun my last build, I got to open another box and start asking questions again.

Why does this come off? Why is this hinged? What could I put here?

That curiosity is pretty much what started this entire journal in the first place.

The difference now is that this car also came with a story before I even built it.

Thanks, Val for this Kit

Thanks Gab for the new screwdriver

And thanks to everyone who made 30 a pretty damn good birthday.