The official Mini 4WD Design Contest to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Mini 4WD Japan Cup organized by Tamiya has updated it’s information today on the official webpage. The contest is for applicants to design their own Mini 4WD car that can win up to 500,000 yen and their design turned into a commercial product. The timeline for the contest is the following:
Entry Period: April 17th through July 31st, 2018
Initial Judging: August 2018
Final Judging & announcement: September 28th, 2018 at the first day of the All Japan Model Hobby Show
In addition to the 1st place prize, there will be two 2nd place prizes with a 100,000yen reward and their design on display. The judges for these main prizes will be Nezu Kota & Takayuki Yamazaki.
There is also a collection of “Special Prizes” being awarded by additional judges, as listed below:
Hyper Dash! Yonkuro Award
Judge: Hiroyuki Takei
Prize: Mini 4WD design to appear in upcoming Hyper Dash! Yonkuro manga
Racer Brothers: Let’s & Go!! Return Racer!! Award
Judge: Koshi Toshihiro
Prize: Mini 4WD design to appear in upcoming Let’s & Go! Return Racers!! manga and a signed color sketch
Let’s & Go! Wing Next Racers Award
Limitations: Junior High School Students of younger
Judge: Kosa Tetsuhiro
Prize: 2 Mini 4WD cars and 2 full sized Mini 4WD cars and a signed color sketch
Applicants are restricted to residents of Japan, but you are allowed to submit up to 3 works per person with up to 4 images per work. Various other details, including the entry form, can be found on the official website.
One of Hiroyuki Takei’s first published works was his own design for Mini 4WD, even before he started creating manga! Many years later, after the success of Shaman King Flowers, he was offered a job to create a new manga in the Hyper Dash! universe, which he created his Hyper Dash! Yonkuro manga which runs in the quarterly manga magazine Corocoro Aniki. From the first volume of Hyper Dash! Yonkuro, Hiroyuki Takei included what his original design submission looked like (shown left). Leading up to a new Hyper Dash! Yonkuro release, he has previously posted alternate designs and colors for his own Mini 4WD cars.
