At the end of my last entry, I mentioned that the Iron Beak wasn’t the only Tamiya I received for my birthday.

Well, here’s the other one.

And if the Iron Beak felt like another step deeper into the world of Mini 4WD…

This thing took a hard left.

Every car I’ve built so far has been designed to conquer something.

Some want to blaze through a track at ridiculous Mini 4WD speeds. Others sacrifice some of that speed for torque, stability, or the ability to survive whatever obstacle gets thrown at them.

This one? This one just wants to have fun.

For this box, I have my friend Miguel to thank, although I’m pretty sure he got it for me at least partially as a joke.

But I’m genuinely stoked to build this because I’ve never had an EZ chassis before.

I’d seen these little Trail Mini 4WDs whenever I visited Brickyard. They always had their own little section, and admittedly, I never really gave them much attention.

They looked more like toys. They didn’t have the conventional “cool” factor I usually gravitated toward. No aggressive racing cowl. No ridiculous rollers.

I figured I’d eventually buy one when I reached the point where EZ was one of the last chassis types I hadn’t experienced. I just didn’t expect one to be sitting in front of me this soon.

Going into the build, though, the first thing that caught my attention wasn’t even the chassis.

It was the tires. These giant, spiky, bright blue things.

I got excited when the Iron Beak had writing on its wheels.

This thing showed up wearing cleats.

Sure, it’s probably not winning TMAC 2026 anytime soon but hey, it can go over rocks and mud like nobody’s business. Then there’s the chassis.

This immediately confused my brain. A double-shaft motor.

Up until now, I’d associated these with my MA and MS cars. Center-mounted motor, gears running toward both ends, two batteries and the whole midship setup I’d gotten used to.

Here was that familiar little motor inside this tiny thing.

Even the drivetrain looked strangely satisfying. The gears were laid out symmetrically, with the whole thing feeling like somebody had taken the basic idea behind those double-shaft drivetrains and shrunk it down to its simplest possible form.

MA/MS Lite.

And naturally, as I kept building, I started asking questions.

Where do the batteries go? How fast can this thing actually go? Why is everything so small? When do I build the bunny?

Turns out, I was about to get all of my answers.

Oh. There isn’t one.

This tiny chassis runs on a single battery tucked underneath the car which explained a lot.

It was also a little more annoying to access than the battery compartments I’d gotten used to, so I decided to put a regular non-rechargeable battery in there and treat it as a bit of a set-it-and-forget-it situation.

Then came the moment of truth. I switched it on and put it on the floor.

And well the box did not lie.

It moved at walking pace.

After spending so much time around Mini 4WDs that scream the second you switch them on, watching this tiny Easter car casually trundle across the floor was hilarious.

While it was slow, it ran over cables, rugs, and small obstacles just fine where a typical racing chassis would struggle. Take that, BMAX cars.

I spent a little while letting it wander around the floor before finally turning my attention to the other half of the build.
And this is where the Trail Mini 4WD became even more charming.

This might have been the easiest sticker job I’ve ever done.

No microscopic decals and no tweezers.

The stickers were big enough that I could basically just… put them on. What a concept.

But my favorite part was the actual body.

For the first time, I wasn’t building a cowl with a blacked-out windshield pretending there was someone inside.

There were actually people in this thing. Well, a rabbit and her eggs.

Which means, in a very strange way, this might be more of a car than any other car I’ve built so far.

All jokes aside, building this thing gave me a feeling I haven’t had in a while.

It felt like I was discovering Mini 4WD again. Twelve cars in, I’ve started to recognize the formula.

Two batteries. A fast Motor. A cool-looking cowl.

Sure, every chassis approaches those things differently. That’s a huge part of why I’ve enjoyed collecting them.

But the EZ chassis basically threw the formula away.

After spending so much time thinking about speed, stability, motors, chassis designs and which car can survive a track without launching itself into the nearest wall, there was something refreshing about building a Tamiya whose entire philosophy seems to be:

Just go and have fun.

Maybe that’s why this goofy little birthday present ended up being more meaningful than I expected.

Sometimes it’s nice to get off the track. Slow things down. And just enjoy the ride.

Thanks again, Miguel.

Turns out the joke gift was pretty damn good.

Historian’s Note

Before this build, Trail Mini 4WD was basically that weird little section at Brickyard I kept walking past.

Now I understand why it exists.

The EZ chassis isn’t trying to compete with Super II, VZ, MA, MS or any of the racing chassis I’ve built. It’s doing its own thing.

And after twelve entries of learning how Tamiya makes tiny cars go faster, my thirteenth taught me something completely different.

Going slower can be fun too.

Not everything needs to be a race.

Although I’m still claiming victory over the BMAX cars when it comes to crossing my rug.