Kabuto is the main antagonist of the Cars Toons episode Tokyo Mater. He is a Japanese drift racer that Mater races against. He also makes a cameo appearance in Cars 2.
Tokyo Mater
Stripped Kabuto
When Mater reaches Tokyo he runs into Kabuto who challenges him to a drift race. After Mater gets modifications Ito-San tells them that they must race to the top of Tokyo Tower, and the winner will be crowned "King of all Drift Racers." He also tells him that the loser will be stripped of all modifications. When the race begins, Kabuto tries to cheat his way to victory by constantly pushing Mater away and when that doesn't work, he summons his ninjas to attack Mater. Fortunately, the ninjas are all defeated by Dragon Lightning McQueen. Mater soon catches up to Kabuto and he furiously pushes him off the Tokyo Tower, but Mater catches onto the top of the tower with his winch, hauls himself back up and wins the race. In the end Kabuto is stripped of his modifications and is last seen being laughed at by his own ninjas and several other cars.
Cars 2
Kabuto with Yokoza and others in Cars 2
Kabuto makes two cameos in Cars 2, first when Lightning McQueen is driving through Tokyo with Mater and his team, and then at the welcome party for the World Grand Prix.
Kabuto is seen with all his known modifications, even though he is shown to have lost them in Tokyo Mater. This could be seen as evidence that the events of Mater's story were made-up and did not actually happen (it can be noted that Tokyo Mater is the only Cars Toons episode in which Mater fails to efficently prove his story was real). However, other suggestions include that it could be another car that looks like Kabuto or that he got his modifications back shortly after if the story did happen.
Trivia
- He was designed to resemble Boost.
- Kabuto is the name of the traditional Samurai helmet.
- When stripped of modifications, Kabuto resembles a Honda NSX.
- Kabuto has green eyes in Tokyo Mater, but in Cars 2 his eyes are shown to be brown. It's possible that Kabuto was wearing green contact lenses in Tokyo Mater, and that being of Asian origin, brown is most likely his real eye color. His Cars 2 die-cast does not take this difference into account as it always has green eyes.
