Dash Yonkuro Review

This was certainly an experience.

Dash Yonkuro tells the story of the Dash Warriors and their rise to the top of the Mini 4WD championship facing all sorts of colourful rivals along the way.
Our team consist of the following.
Yonkuro is the passionate leader, takes things really seriously with the charisma to back it up often dashing into battle without thinking, also voiced by Son Goku.
Tankuro is the large support often the one to back up the others.
Shinkuro is the rich kid with all the tools you could possible get and a bit full of himself.
Punkuro is a hapless nerd who dons rock makeup to increase his confidence.
Rinko is the lone female of the team and acts as the heart as well as the moral support.
Kaidanji is Rinko's older brother, an ex Formula one engineer who was supporting Yonkuro's father in the Hell Rally before injury forced him home and does his best to keep Yonkuro and his team going out of respect for Yonkuro's father.
Among toy anime this is the only anime to remember that it's a toy anime. While there are exaggerated actions at times it doesn't take away the fact that these Mini 4WD cars function the same as in real life, there's no realistic Holograms, Mystical Beasts or Robots with enough power to level a skyscraper, these cars run and break as if they do in reality and it's properly explained so any kid watching can actually do this in real life and not be let down by your marbles not turning into dragons or not summoning a real Dark Magician Girl.
Even the Dash Warriors function as a proper team and their rivals are more than just the evil team, they have morals and beliefs as well and it's not uncommon to see good sportsmanship between them. These types of anime can easily be dragged down by the need for the protagonist to pull the plot forward but Yonkuro does actually manage to step back and let his team help and even accept proper guidance from their coach even if he does look like a grizzled retired robot pilot from Getter Robo.
Think the only dub is in Malaysian and Indonesian so don't expect it in English.
Fun fact, this was Hiroyuki Takei of Shaman King fame's first job as assistant to the mangaka Zaurus Tokuda and would later continue the manga after Zaurus' death. Although Zaurus had very little restraint in putting himself in the manga and anime.
Final Verdict: This is the best toy anime ever created, it remembers it's a toy first and showcases all the functions of the Mini 4WD without fabulous secret powers and very minor exaggerated actions. At the end of the day the cars are to quote Woody "A Child's Plaything" and it succeeds well before the likes of Beyblade, Bakugan and Yu-Gi-Oh existed.

End