| “ | Mini 4WD cars are not toys! They are racing machines! | ” |
— Yonkuro Hinomaru in Dash! Yonkuro
| ||
The Dash-1 Emperor (ダッシュ１号・皇帝) is a Mini 4WD car released by Tamiya in 1988.
It is featured in manga and anime Dash! Yonkuro as the primary machine for the protagonist, Yonkuro Hinomaru. It also features in the on-going manga, Hyper Dash! Yonkuro.
General info
The Emperor features the white, typical R/C buggy design bodyshell with red and orange stripes, as well as a blue canopy. On the front is a yellow mono-shock prop and a pair of upper arm props. There are headlight props mounted on the front side of the canopy while on the rear, there is a rear spoiler with a yellow 'DASH!' decal.
On the front is the CoroCoro Dragon logo and a decal with the numbers '496'.
The Type-1 variant comes with spiked tires while the Type-3 variant comes with high profile slick tires. The MS and Premium variants, however, both come with the large-diameter wheels paired with low profile slick tires. (The only difference being the wheel type: the white 4-spoke wheels on the MS variant and the metal gray 6-spoke wheels on the Premium variant.)
The Premium variant comes with metallic stickers.
In the manga and anime
Dash-1 Emperor as seen in Hyper Dash! Yonkuro.
Before the race against the thugs who were causing trouble around the off-road track that he and his friends made, Yonkuro was given a mysterious box by Mr. Sumeragi.
During the race, the thugs employ a dirty tactic by detonating bombs that have been buried into the race track beforehand. Yonkuro's Boomerang Jr. was severely damaged by the explosions but remembering the box that Mr. Sumeragi gave him, he opened the box and found that it contained the parts of his new car. Yonkuro had only assembled the new car's body and had his busted Boomerang's chassis recycled into his new car. Thanks to the new car, now known as the Dash-1 Emperor, Yonkuro and company won the race against the thugs.
The modified Dash-1 Emperor with MA Chassis.
During one of the races in the Mini 4WD Championship arc, The Emperor was struck by lightning at the last minute before it could cross the finish line. Mr. Sumeragi later have it repaired but it was busted again during the semi-final against the Emperor trio in the National Tournament, forcing Yonkuro to use the Great Emperor in the final.
The car was later rebuilt and used in the 2nd round of the Hell Caravan rally during the Black Mistral arc until it was melted due to the high heat of the lava race track.
In Hyper Dash! Yonkuro, the Emperor was, once again, Yonkuro's primary machine. It was used to race against the Dash Warrior members and, later, against Killkuro. However, the explosion caused by Killkuro's Night Seek Trigger had severely damaged the Emperor's chassis, forcing Mr.Sumeragi to replace the busted chassis with a new one (the MA Chassis) and modify the bodyshell to fit the new chassis. During the first race against the Dark Dominion in the castle, the Emperor was upgraded to Rise-Emperor thanks to the external parts provided by Shinkuro.
Technical info
Length: 127 mm (Type-1/Type-3), 152 mm (MS), 150 mm (Premium)
Width: 81 mm (Type-1), 86 mm (Type-3), 92 mm (MS), 97 mm (Premium)
Height: 53 mm (Type-1/Type-3)
Chassis: Type-1 Chassis, Type-3 Chassis, MS Chassis, Super-II Chassis
Gear set(s): 11.2:1 and 6.4:1 (Type-1), 6.4:1 and 5:1 (Type-3), 4:1 (MS), 4.2:1 (Premium)
Gallery
Boxarts
Images
Trivia
- It is the first Mini 4WD car to have more than one chassis variants.
- Although they share the same bodyshell design, the MS variant is not compatible with any shaft-driven chassis.
- It is the first to be not based on any R/C buggy that was produced by Tamiya.
- It is also the first to have the R/C buggy (albeit a Quick Drive 1/14 scale R/C buggy) based on the Mini 4WD car.
- It was chosen to be a cover car for the 1988 and 1989 seasons of Tamiya Japan Cup.
- In Hyper Dash! Yonkuro, much like the Dash-2 Burning Sun, the Dash-1 Emperor was seen equipped with the Type-1 Chassis instead of Type-3 Chassis. This is because both cars are originally made for Type-1 Chassis.
See also
- Dash-01 Super Emperor
- Dash-001 Great Emperor
- Liberty Emperor (Dash! Yonkuro)
- Dash-CB1 Geo Emperor
- Rise-Emperor
External links
- Dash-1 Emperor on Tamiya official website (Japanese)
- Dash-1 Emperor (Type-3) on Tamiya official website (Japanese)
- Dash-1 Emperor Special Kit on Tamiya official website
- Dash-1 Emperor (MS Chassis) on Tamiya official website
- Dash-1 Emperor (MS Chassis) finished model on Tamiya official website
- Dash-1 Emperor Premium on Tamiya official website