Boxart (Mini-F White)
Boxart (Jordan 191)
I’m on the roll to review more classic Tamiya Racing line and it’s still another Mini F1 line featuring The Ayrton Senna McLaren MP4/7A and Jordan 191! Mini F1 is a series of mini racing cars introduced by Tamiya in December, 1991. It was introduced during the Formula One racing boom in the same year. The Mini-F cars in this review were based on licensed Formula One cars from the 1991 and 1992 seasons. They have a rear-wheel-drive drivetrain rather than four-wheel-drive. Exclusive to this line-up is the Mini-F Chassis, the series was discontinued 3 years after its introduction. Tamiya would later release limited edition, decal-less (due to licensing issues) Mini-F Finished Models in 2006. In this review, the boxart came from Finished Models number 3 which has white colored the body shell. The Mini-F White is a Mini-F car released by Tamiya on December 20, 2006. It was the decal-less version of the McLaren MP4/7 Mini-F car. The body shell had been fully repainted resembling the famous Ayrton Senna’s McLaren MP4/7A. Yeah, this one was repainted according to the actual body shell mold from the original boxed of McLaren MP4/7 released by Tamiya in 1992 but, with slight alterations to make it more real life accurate. The McLaren MP4/7A (MP4/7A) was McLaren International’s Formula One entry for the 1992 season, and a follow-up to their successful MP4/6 from 1991. MP4/7A used the MP4/6 chassis, now designated MP4/6B for slightly modified front wing aerodynamics, for the first two races of 1992. The all-new MP4/7A was expected for the Spanish Grand Prix, the fourth race of the year. As for Jordan 191 (191), was a Formula One car designed by Gary Anderson for use by Jordan Grand Prix in its debut season in 1991. Its best finish was in Canada and Mexico, where Andrea de Cesaris drove it to fourth place at both races. Driving the 191 at the 1991 Hungarian Grand Prix, Bertrand Gachot took the fastest lap of the race, the kit’s box artwork indicated the car belongs to Andrea de Cesaris and the kit’s product numbering is 28005 and was released in 1992 by Tamiya. Unlike MP4/7A, 191 comes with regular Tamiya Mini 4WD styled boxart which the contents came up preassembled, and was done according to the boxart manual with slight alterations as well. Well, it’s time to unbox this!
Contents 01
Contents 02
Finished Model contents only consists the kit fully assembled and customized. MP4/7A comes with 1 body shell with the rear wing and all tuned up Mini-F chassis and a pair of Gold Power Champ Batteries. While 191 contents was already fully assembled so, it only comes with 1 body shell with rear wing and a regular Mini F chassis.
Model Kit Preview
Front, Back, & 2 Side View
Upper (with/without body shell) & Bottom View
Rear View 01
Side Front View
Rear View 02
Mini-F Chassis (Tune Up)
Mini-F Chassis (Tune Up)
Front Wing’s bumper hook peg holes
The MP4/7 features the low-height, open-wheel body design that is mostly shared with other Mini-F cars that were based on Formula One cars. The body shell is pretty similar to Ferrari 642 which have long side fairings but, still reveals the battery interior briefly. The roll structure was done similar to 642 as well but, slightly higher, while the rear wing corner tip was done a bit blocky, the front panel was build standard and slim but, it has large and wide front wing and the cockpit part has the non-removable driver figurine. The body shell is mainly in white with red accent following McLaren’s Livery. Various sponsors, including Marlboro, Shell, Honda, Good Year and Courtaulds was printed on the body shell using waterslide decals and the finishing body shell was also added with glossy effect to make it look realistic. Well, the slight alteration of this MP4/7 is swapping McLaren logo with Marlboro brand logo, whereas the original boxed kit, Marlboro logo was removed and substituted by the McLaren logo. Without the body shell, the Mini-F Chassis features a one-piece chassis frame, with the usual rear-motor and mid-batteries setup, but longer compared to a Mini 4WD chassis. The underbody of the chassis is mostly flat, with the front wheels and front driveshaft being supports by the fixed, sandwich frame. It has the rear-wheel-drive drivetrain, with gearing is similar to the bigger 1/10 scale R/C F1 cars. Unlike Mini 4WD you can clearly see the whole gears attached but, like Mini 4WD you can also change the gear setup and make any kinds of tune up whatever you wish. The motor was mounted onto the rear with the motor mount. The chassis’body attachment method is similar to those in Mini 4WD cars, with the Mini-F car’s rear spoiler doubling as a body catcher. The unique part of MP4/7 body shell is there’s 2 peg holes on the front wing for attaching that bumper’s hook, not sure why they added this but, without bumper hooks that peg holes looks kinda ugly. It’s like we’re not allowed to display this without bumper set. The main dish of this MP4/7, it’s chassis was equipped with Mini F-1 Competition Parts, they are diff wheel set and functional steering set paired with the Mini-F1 hard compound slicks for diff wheel set and soft compound slicks for functional steering set. These wheel set are yellow colored, while each compound tires got their own decal which printed with white “Tamiya Mini F-1” and their respective tires name. The interesting part of functional steering set, we can slightly move the front wheels right/left, which allows running much more smoother in turn track. The chassis’s default bumper is now replaced with Mini F-1 Down Thrust Roller and Bumper Set, while the gear and the motor was replaced with High Speed Gear Set and Torque-Tuned Motor for Mini F1. The new bumper got slight different color which is a bit brown compared to the rest of the chassis as well as new looking roller set made for safer race performance, High Speed Gear contains dark brown colored pinion gear and yellow colored spur gear and Torque-Tuned Motor got orange colored top valve while the tube part was added with “Mini F-1 Torque-Tuned Motor” decal. It’s chassis also came with the Gold Plated Terminal Set as standard. And the reasons of making this tune up is because I want to follow how the boxed MP4/7 got it’s own side box tune up but, I gotta tell you that hunting these optional parts are one hell of a work! It took me 3 years to get this completely done. For that Gold Power Champ batteries aren’t actually part of this tune up but, someone complained on how I’m not complete on finishing the overall tune up of actual side box. Good thing I still have my old batteries stored since more than 20 years ago so, the batteries are out which they cannot run anymore but, atleast still good to see them mounted in the chassis thanks to that eye catching chrome gold color.
Model Kit Preview
Front, Back, & 2 Side View
Upper (with/without body shell) & Bottom View
Rear View 01
Side Front View
Rear View 02
Mini-F Chassis
The 191 also shares the same low-height, open-wheel body design with the other Mini-F cars, the car also has the raised nose but that lower than the Benetton Ford B192’s body shell. The body shell is quite identical to Footwork FA13 Mugen Honda one which build to have slight round side fairings but, still retain some blocky shaped parts and there’s no battery cover, while roll structure is shown to be protruding which nearly covering driver’s upper head, while the rear wing’s corner tip was done to be blocky but, mainly on the very rear part. The front panel part was made to have standard look but, sleeker build while the front wing is raised for it’s raised nose. And the cockpit part has the non-removable driver figurine except the head part. The overall body shell color was two-tone green and blue with green dominates the body. Various sponsors, including 7-Up, Fujifilm, Brooksfield, Ireland, Ford, BP and Good Year, can be found on the body shell. The body shell was also added with glossy finishing making the kit looking realistic. This 191 sponsors were added by using stickers and waterslide decals, and it was equipped with the gun metal, medium diameter Mini-F wheels paired with the Mini-F slick tires, standard motor with light green pinion gear and light gray colored spur gear and bronze colored terminal set as standard.
Head Sculpt
Head Sculpt
Mini-F driver’s seat are shown open top without any canopy so, we can clearly see the driver figurine. The driver’s head sculpt (HS) details is shown wearing yellow colored helmet with black trim on the visor area. The driver was repainted representing Senna’s MP4/7A, which he’s donning yellow helmet and red racing suit. The overall helmet is yellow with green, white and black line as well as the various sponsors such as Marlboro logo on the center part of the helmet above the visor and Nacional logo on both side and below the visor. Once again, Archyd really nailed this one! I really like the result so far although the waterslide decals print did not really matched well on the color. MP4/7 cockpit features semi square shaped navigator which reveals the driver’s hands as well as steering wheel, and the driver’s interior is mostly black, while the seatbelt was painted black including the belt attachments.
Head Sculpt
Head Sculpt
For 191 driver’s HS is also the same like other Mini F1 driver figurines but, I asked Archyd to repaint the overall helmet into green added with black trim on the visor as well as face details. I know it’s not faithful to Andrea de Cesaris’s helmet since I’m also not familiar with him. The driver’s face is drawn to have large eyes and much serious than Senna one. 191’s cockpit was designed to have round shape which reveals the driver’s overall arms to his steering wheel. Also having black painted overall interior, while the driver’s seatbelt was painted blue with a little silver part and painted green racing suit which also representing De Cesaris getup in his 191.
COMPARISON
Comparison between the original real life Ayrton Senna’s MP4/7 01
Comparison between the original real life Ayrton Senna’s MP4/7 02
Comparing between the original Senna’s MP4/7, they overally identical since the kit was clearly based from MP4/7A but, some part had been rescaled to fit into the Mini F1 chassis. The original MP4/7 got larger rear wing and has no front bumper. Well, you cannot expect this line to be fully accurate since it was designed to run like Mini 4WD. If you want an actual replica, you can just buy miniature F1 car or other Formula One model kit.
Comparison between the original real life 191
Between the original 191, the body shell was also identical since the kit was directly based from 191 with the exception of several part being rescaled as well for Mini F1 chassis. I can actually ask Archyd to make this kit a bit more accurate from it’s wheelset and extended sponsor decal but, I wouldn’t go that far for this kit since I only want to follow how the Mini F1 suggested except driver part.
Comparisons
Comparing between both kit, 191 appeared to have large gap on it’s front side fairings which you can see it’s underbody. But, both cars still looked pretty nice side by side. Competition’s bumper set, wheel set, gears, rollers and motor are not the same like the original standard as they’re designed for tune up purposes for better performance.
Andrea De Cesaris, the man who has won more Grands Prix than anybody else in the history of Grand Prix racing without actually winning one of them.
Mini F1 Collections (All done by Archyd)
Man… I never thought I already done getting all Finished Model series repainted.
Happy as usual on how Archyd did this, another fantastic work! Getting Finished Model White was the hardest compared to the other 3 (Red, Blue and Yellow), probably due to it was based from MP4/7 body shell but, the actual boxed version is currently ultra rare and expensive… At this moment, there’s no finished model featuring 191 body shell but, unlike those like MP4/7, 642 and FW14, 191 are not that expensive but, that really depends on the seller since it’s still hard to find them in reasonable price. Since the discontinued series, the line became expensive and hard to find, there were actually several bootlegs released but, they’re also hard to find by now. I’m actually lucky enough to get these in reasonable price. And honoring the passing of the 2 Formula One racers, Ayrton Senna da Silva and Andrea de Cesaris. Thank you for all of your dedications for bringing spectacular performance on your Formula One race….
Ayrton Senna McLaren MP4/7A
Pros:
- Good details, repaint and waterslide decal work.
- Good for your collection display.
- Very convincing to Ayrton Senna’s McLaren MP4/7A.
- Can run like how racing Mini 4WD works.
- The tune up are likely made the car performance run faster and safer.
Cons:
- Very fragile.
- Paint app may rub off easily.
- Not recommended for racing due to the fragility.
Design: 3/5
Movement: 2/5
Small Parts: 0/5
Substance: 2/5
Accuracy sculpt: 4/5
Jordan 191
Pros:
- Good details and repaint work.
- Good for your collection display.
- Looking quite convincing to the actual 191.
- Can run like how racing Mini 4WD works.
Cons:
- Very fragile.
- Paint app may rub off easily.
- Not recommended for racing due to the fragility.
Design: 3/5
Movement: 2/5
Small Parts: 0/5
Substance: 2/5
Accuracy sculpt: 4/5
OMAKE:
Thank you for reading!
See you in the next review!
VioFitz 