The Avante Junior (アバンテJr.) is a Mini 4WD car released by Tamiya in 1989. It is based on the famous R/C buggy Avante by the same company. It is also the first to employ the Type-2 Chassis. There's also the Black Special version which is based on the same version of its R/C buggy.
Tamiya would later release the VS Chassis variant known as Avante RS on 2004.
It is featured in the manga Moero! Avante Kyoudai as Fuuta Ohzora's primary machine, which was joined by Avante 2001 Jr. later in the story.
General Info
The Avante Junior is the smaller sibling to its R/C buggy counterpart and feature the same body design, from color to decals. It is equipped with the newly-designed slick tires and large-diameter wheels. Unlike its R/C buggy counterpart, the wheels are white instead of yellow.
For the Black Special, it is colored in black and has different decals compared to its R/C buggy version. It comes with neon pink wheels.
The RS version lost many of the original decals and are replaced by Tamiya logos and 'RS' marks. It is also equipped with the VS Chassis as opposed to the Type-2 and is equipped with the chromed large-diameter mesh-type wheels akin to that of the RS variant of the Super Astute Jr.
About the Avante 1/10 scale R/C buggy
TAMIYA RC Avante (filmed in 1988)
The original Avante R/C buggy informercial.
Released in 1988, the Avante 1/10 scale R/C buggy is the most advanced R/C buggy to be released by Tamiya at that time.
It features the double-deck fiber-reinforced-plastic chassis supported by four independent, adjustable multi-link, double-wishbone suspension that has been matched with the aluminum oil dampers. The use of an electronic speed controller is required, a first for a Tamiya R/C buggy.
The 530 motor and battery are both placed in a longitudinal position on the left and right side of the middle of the chassis respectively. The motor is a Mabuchi-made Techni-Gold motor. There's a center differential which distributes torque to both front and rear differentials which then distributes power to all four wheels.
The Avante was intended to be more customizable than any other R/C buggy at the time. However, it suffers a lot of problems; The aluminum suspension and front knuckle parts are fragile, the front suspension can bottom out and its handling was subpar when compared to the other R/C buggies.
Tamiya RC Avante (2011)
The Avante (2011) informercial.
Tamiya would later release the renewed version of Avante in 2011 which fixed the aforementioned problems. Tamiya would later also release R/C buggy versions of Avante Mk.II and Aero Avante but they would use existing chassis models (the DF-03 and DF-02 respectively) and are based on the Mini 4WD cars of the same name.
Like its Mini 4WD counterpart, the Avante R/C buggy is also featured in the manga Moero! Avante Kyoudai as the R/C buggy for Shouichi Ohzora (Fuuta's older brother). Unlike Fuuta's case, Shouchi was forced to use the Avante 2001 due to a incident that severely damaged his original Avante R/C buggy, rendering it unusable.
Technical Info
Length: 128 mm (Normal/Black Special), 145 mm (RS)
Width: 86 mm (Normal/Black Special)
Height: 50 mm (Normal/Black Special/RS)
Chassis: Type-3 Chassis (Normal/Black Special), VS Chassis (RS)
Gear set(s): 5:1 and 4.2:1 (Normal/Black Special), 4:1 (RS)
Gallery
Boxarts
Trivia
- The Avante Jr. has the most variants and sucessors that were based on it.
- It is one of the two Avante Mini 4WD cars (The other is Aero Avante) that introduce the new chassis.
- It was chosen to be a cover car for the 2012 season of Tamiya Japan Cup temporarily before it was replaced by the Aero Avante.
- The later re-issues of the Avante Jr. has its decal design changed due to trademark issues. This is also true for its RC buggy counterpart.
See also
External links
- Avante Jr. on Tamiya official website
- Avante Jr. Black Special on Tamiya official website (Japanese)
- Avante RS on Tamiya official website