A (long) while back I was playing a game called Yakuza Kiwami. You play as a gangster that's been released from prison after serving a long stretch and slowly you get pulled back into the world of organized crime thanks to the magical powers of "unresolved business". The series itself is known for having some pretty fun mini-games that you can engage with in between gangster stuff and one of my absolute favourites is Pocket Circuit You get a tiny 1/32 scale car that you can modify with different parts like engines, wheels, suspension, counterweights and gears. When you've customised your car you pop it on a walled track, flick it on and watch it speed round the track. That's if it doesn't completely fly off the course because you customised it wrong. Going too fast can be a real issue in Pocket Circuit so balance is important. It's also pretty hilarious getting all tense watching them only for your car to fly off the track and into the sunset at the last turn I fell in love with the idea of this so I went on the wiki and checked it out. Imagine my absolute delight when I discovered this mini-game was based off an actual real life hobby! So I entered the world of Tamiya Mini 4x4... A deep dive into youtube blew my mind. Folks were taking these tiny little AA battery powered electric motor cars and modifying them like crazy. There were tutorials on how to "prime" your motor by submerging it in oil and giving it X volts for X time with precision laboratory grade power supplies. There were tournaments were the slowest car won because it was the only one that was able to stay on the track without attempting to launch itself into orbit. There were elaborate tracks with all sorts of loops and ramps and twists that just blew my mind I started looking up the kits and they were super cheap. Most were only about $20 AUD (converted from Yen/USD) and I thought "Oh my god I need to check this out". I went looking around and found.... Nothing Between town and the mountain I spent an entire trip back checking *every* model shop over 350 k's. Nothing. Crossed damn near half the state (I mean I did this twice a week at this point so *shrug*) and came up completely empty. Every person I talked to had no idea what I was talking about and kept trying to sell me a RC car. I got close to town and popped into one of the last shops on my list and got talking to the sales person behind the counter. Magically they had heard of them before and when I asked if they had any they laughed V: "Ok... No one's heard of these and you've got the giggles. What am I missing here?" SP: "As far as I know Tamiya can't sell them in Australia. They're kinda banned" V: "... Seriously?" SP: "They don't have a method for an operator to control them while they're in action and they can fly off the track at a decent speed. So according to the safety regulations around toys they'd be classified as an unguided projectile. Technically, weapons." V: "You're shitting me." SP, laughing: "Dead set." This revelation was simultaneously unbelievable and made total sense. Of course it would get dinged by the safety standards. But oh my god its a tiny model car that you can modify and customise and aaaaaah it looked so fun. So I focused on the 'would be' part Here's where things get a little bit interesting*. If Tamiya had submitted Mini 4x4 models to the Aus government to be approved for sale they would fail the approval process. Tamiya saw the writing on the wall and instead of submitting them for classification they decided "nah not worth the effort for a guaranteed no". That puts the cars in a bit of a grey area. They can't be sold in Aus because they haven't been approved and they haven't been submitted because they'd fail to meet standards. But they haven't actually been banned. So if they met the standards of a trusted trading partner of Australia... When common sense fails, we look to New Zealand Sure enough there's a thriving scene in NZ. They've passed classification as toys/model kits over there and can be sold freely. And because they're classified as toys in NZ they can be imported here as toys. Is it legal? Not quite. Is it illegal? Not exactly. It sits in that lovely little grey area where you hit "Buy Now" and spend about a week waiting to see if a detachment of customs officers knock on your door A week later and no knock on the door to report I had a delightful delivery waiting for me at a parcel locker They're entirely clip together kits. With a knife and a screwdriver you're flying along.No glue required woohoo! It comes with stickers (which I'm deathly afraid of putting on because I always mess up stickers), a painting guide and extra gears so you can shift the ratio depending on the track you're racing on. It was incredibly fun to put together and I got a few extra "tune up" packs (for like $5 each omg it's cheap) to modify it and play around a bit. It's a really strange little car and I'm deeply in love with it Now if only I had a track to run it on... *I should mention here that I don't have receipts for this. I checked it out a year or two back and most of the information I found was on forum posts and legal documents that got lost when I ditched Windows.