Get Serious With The 4WD Tamiya Comical Buggies

Paul Onorato May 31, 2021 Stories

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The Tamiya comical series of vehicles is evergrowing and have become a big hit among RC fans. They are a clever amalgamation of a super fun to drive chassis and some of Tamiya’s iconic old-school buggies. Tamiya kicked off this series with a selection of 2WD buggy offerings that included the Comical Hornet, Comical Grasshopper and Comical Frog. Now it is time to get serious with the 4WD Tamiya Comical buggies that boost not only performance, but also the cool factor. These are the two newest Comical buggies, the Comical Avante and Comical Hotshot which are coupled with the ingeniously engineered GF-01CB four-wheel-drive chassis.

Following we will share with you some info about these new 4WD Comical buggies. Along with touching on the chassis and bodies, we will show you some of the Tamiya Hop-Up option parts that that you can add onto these fun-packed buggies. Some of the option parts will boost overall speed, while some improve handling and others will increase durability. Depending on what your goal will be with the Comical 4WD buggies will determine what hop-ups you choose.

Get Serious With The 4WD Tamiya Comical Buggies — Tamiya Comical Avante #58678

Both the Comical Avante and Comical Hotshot come as an assembly kit where you put it together following Tamiya’s easy-to-follow instruction manual. Just take your time during the build, thoroughly read the manual and you will end up with a perfectly built Comical buggy. To aid in the build, Tamiya includes pre-painted polycarbonate bodies for the Avante and Hotshot. The iconic metallic blue is used for the Avante and the Hotshot is shot with Tamiya’s PS-2 Red to mimic the original Hotshot color scheme. There are some steps still required to complete the body like trimming it out and adding the stickers.

Differing from the Hotshot, Tamiya includes a driver figure for the Avante since the original also had a driver. The figure is a newly designed version that has the ideal look to complement the comical motif. You are also given the option of building the figure in a few different variations like with or without the visor or chin guard and there are even a choice of eye stickers. This allows you to customize the figure any way you want. The finishing touches are molded hands to grip a molded steering wheel.

Example of the possible driver variations.

Figure shown with hands on molded steering wheel.

Each of these comical buggies are further detailed with large spring supported front bumpers. Mounted in between the tires are side guards and tall flags that are used on all the comical vehicles. The difference being the actual flag used for the specific vehicle. For example the Avante uses checkered flags. At the rear you will find dual faux, megaphone-style exhaust pipes with taillight buckets that can be illuminated with optional LED lights. That last part and one that adds to the fun factor is the wheelie bar. Mash the throttle and these comical buggies will pull the front wheels off the ground and ride on the rear wheels and wheelie bar.

The heart of the Comical Avante and Comical Hotshot is the chassis which is an adapted version of the GF-01 which has been used on previous Tamiya models. For the 4WD comical buggies, it gets the GF-01CB designation. This chassis has a pretty wild design where the four wheels are not driven by a belt or shaft, but rather a series of gears. Mounted in the center is a 540 brushed motor that powers this unique drivetrain setup. The gears are sealed in a gearbox that is integrated into the frame of the chassis to keep the inner workings protected from dirt and debris and provide a rigid platform for the GF-01CB chassis. In order to help the handling stay smooth in the corners, Tamiya employed 3-gear, bevel differentials for the front and rear wheels. Both the Comical Avante and Comical Hotshot are spec’d with ST block bubble tires with a stepped block pattern that are wrapped around two-piece plastic spoked wheels.

At each of the corners, you will find 4-wheel double wishbone suspension that uses lower H-arms and a fixed upper link. Providing stability are plastic body oil-filled shocks that are mounted between the lower suspension arms and integrated shock towers. Steering is controlled by a servo that is mounted on the left side of the chassis with an adjustable link that actuates a center bellcrank that in turn controls two adjustable links attached to the steering knuckles.

TAMIYA HOP-UP OPTION PARTS

Following are a list of some of the available Tamiya Hop-Up Option Parts that are direct bolt-ons for the Tamiya Comical Avante and Comical Hotshot. We separated the parts into three categories to help you choose which ones will best suit your needs: Speed, Handling and Durability.

Hop-Ups for Speed

Hop-Ups for Handling

Hop-Ups for Durability

ADDING OPTIONAL LEDS

LED Light Unit (TLU-01)—#53909

The Tamiya LED Light Unit does not fit in any of the three categories we specified below however it is too cool not to mention. We love the look of functioning lights on our RC vehicles and Tamiya makes it easy to add this option to the Comical Avante and Comical Hotshot. Pick yourself up this Tamiya LED Light Unit and install the LED lights into the included light buckets. This set makes it possible to have lights for the front and at the rear since it includes two pairs of LEDs (two 5mm white and two 5mm red). Additionally, the light unit is equipped with eight connecting ports which allows up to eight pairs of separately available LEDs to be connected.