The Mini-Z Buggy is Kyosho’s off-road branch of the Mini-Z family — a full-size-buggy-styled 1/28-scale chassis built for jumps and looser surfaces, not the tight indoor carpet tracks the RWD and AWD touring chassis are tuned for. This is our first coverage of the platform, built from Kyosho’s 2026 catalog.
What the MB-010 platform is
MB-010 is Kyosho’s dedicated Mini-Z Buggy chassis — Kyosho’s own pitch is a car that’s “drivable in a wide range of places” and works “both as a first R/C car and as a second car.” Unlike the RWD/AWD touring chassis covered elsewhere on this site, which are built around tight, low-grip indoor carpet, the Buggy line is framed around open space and jumps.
It’s built with genuine buggy mechanicals rather than a scaled-down touring-car layout: 4WD driven through a gear-protecting slipper clutch, and fully independent double-wishbone suspension on oil dampers at all four corners. Kyosho calls out high chassis rigidity and dust resistance as design goals, backed by a sealed gearbox that keeps dirt out of the important parts and a spec sheet that runs to 15 bearings — more than you’d expect at this size. The steering servo uses a 7-step gear train for torque-rich, linear handling, and the front suspension arms carry roughly a 10-degree skid angle specifically to help the car ride up and over rough terrain instead of digging in. A drive-shaft coupling is built in despite the size constraints, and the chassis has a manual adjustment volume, standard, for the sensitivity of the separately-sold gyro unit set (MZW711) that helps keep the car stable.
The current lineup
Kyosho’s 2026 catalog shows two ways into the platform:
Turbo Optima Mid Special — the readyset
No.32096W is the ready-to-run entry point: a white-bodied Turbo Optima Mid Special buggy with the MB-010 chassis, motor, and radio gear already installed. It carries the full MB-010 feature set above — slipper-clutch 4WD, double-wishbone oil-damper suspension, sealed gearbox, 15 bearings — and runs a conventional 130-class motor rather than a brushless system.
MB-010VE 2.0 SP — the brushless chassis set
No.32294 is the step up: Kyosho markets it as a race-optimized brushless-motor version of the platform, sold as an SP-spec body-and-chassis set rather than a bare kit. What “SP” actually buys you, per the catalog, is a set of reinforced drivetrain parts that ship as standard equipment instead of an aftermarket upgrade:
| Part | Part No. |
|---|---|
| Front Joint Kit Set | MBW034 |
| Rear Joint Kit Set | MBW035 |
| Reinforced Diff Assembly | MDW028 |
| Gyro Unit Set 2.1 | MZW711 |
That last line matters if you’re comparing the two: on the readyset, the MZW711 gyro unit is a separately-sold accessory (the chassis just has the mounting and a sensitivity dial ready for it); on the VE 2.0 SP, the same gyro unit ships installed as standard equipment, alongside the reinforced joints and diff.
Technical data
| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Overall length | 167mm |
| Overall width | 106mm |
| Overall height | 68mm |
| Tread (F/R) | 89mm / 89mm |
| Wheelbase | 115mm |
| Tire diameter (F/R) | 37mm dia. × 13.5mm width (front) / 37mm dia. × 18.5mm width (rear) |
| Motor | 130 class |
| All-up weight | approx. 200g |
Option parts
Kyosho’s current MB-010 option-parts list, as shown in the 2026 catalog:
| Part | Part No. |
|---|---|
| Universal Swing Shaft | MBW023C |
| Adjustable Linkage Set | MBW021 |
| Aluminum Oil Damper Set (4 pcs) | MBW036B |
| Under Guard & Ball Stud Wrench | MBW033B |
| Ball Diff Set | MBW028B |
Buggy vs. the road Mini-Zs
The Buggy is a noticeably bigger, sturdier machine than the touring chassis covered in our other Mini-Z guides. Its 115mm wheelbase is longer than the RWD/AWD touring chassis’ 94mm standard (98mm on “LL” setups), and at 106mm wide and roughly 200g all-up, it’s built with more track width and mass to shrug off landings than a car meant for smooth carpet. That’s the whole point of the chassis — it trades some of the touring cars’ low-grip-carpet precision for a wider footprint, taller stance, and suspension travel built to survive jumps.
Where it fits in the Mini-Z lineup
Kyosho’s current Mini-Z range splits into three chassis families: RWD (MR-04/MR-04EVO2), AWD (MA-020/MA-030/MA-030EVO2), and the Buggy (MB-010/MB-010VE) covered here. The Buggy is the odd one out mechanically — it isn’t part of the sensored-brushless XSPEED 41/56/85 ecosystem the touring chassis share, running its own 130-class or dedicated brushless setup instead. See our Mini-Z motors guide for how that ecosystem works on the touring chassis, and our transmitter compatibility guide if you’re adding a Buggy to a garage that already runs Mini-Z on-road and want to know which radio gear carries over.
Specs from Kyosho’s 2026 catalog.
