Zoids and Stuff » Customized Zoids

Abandoned ideas (2003–05)

RCM — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:03:23 +0000

Being abandoned swap ideas, all I have are the crappiest pics imaginable. Actually, 6–14 aren’t totally abandoned. I’m hoping that posting these horrible ancient pictures of awesome swaps will shame me into taking better pictures. Seriously, my phone has a better camera than the one that took these.

1: A Merda with a Seismosaurus gunner seat for a head. I ended up using the gunner seat for the Helcat MK-II custom.

2–3: A very black Geno Breaker. I painted some extra Breaker parts I had, and put them on a Geno Saurer I used to have (I sold it before I got around to taking any pics of it).

4–5: Techno Zoids Kong and Deadly Kong. It wasn’t as cool as I hoped.

6–8: NJR frame plus PK armor plus Techno Zoid’s motor equals a very very red Kong.

9–11: Take the above, and use Yeti armor instead, and you get… Rescue Kong!

12–14: This was my favorite until Karl’s Type. NJR armor plus PK frame equals a very dark Kong. All the different gunmetal shades here are pretty sweet. If I had an OJR MK-II (which had truly black armor), I could combine it with the Schubaltz inner frame (also truly black) and make a “none more black” one that would be impossible to photograph.

From an old magazine

RCM — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 20:05:08 +0000

I have no idea where these came from or what the deal is. Someone sent me a few pages from an old (80s) Japanese magazine, and these were on one of the pages. I imagine it was some kind of contest. I also totally forgot to repost these when I moved everything to WordPress.

Brass pilot

RCM — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:27:16 +0000

Blast from the past! A guy named Card (from the Zoidfans Yahoo group made this back in 2003. I forgot about it until just recently (March, 2011) when it fell out of a Zoid I was about to sell. It looks almost exactly like a chrome pilot, but it has an actual weight to it. When you drop it, it goes “clink”!

Horn Swaps

RCM — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:35:07 +0000

So far, all I have here is Dark Horn / Green Horn. I used to put the black parts from an NJR Red Horn on Dark Horn’s armor, but trying to get pictures was impossible. Not enough contrast. This would have also looked a lot better if the Dark Horn parts didn’t have those distinctive stickers.

2007-11: Berserk Poryzoid

RCM — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 19:51:10 +0000

I’m not sure if I ever finished this. The build’s done, but I’m really unhappy with the paintjob, because pink is the most difficult/uncooperative color to work with. I’m also unhappy with the fact that it has fallen off the shelf and broken SEVERAL times. Like it’s against the law to paint one of the king badasses of zoids in these colors.

ANYWAY, the story behind this one is that it’s an evolved form of the Poryzoid I made earlier. Because that’s what ~~pokemans~~ pokezoids do, right? The blade arm was inspired by this super limited CAS resin kit that I have no chance in hell of ever getting. Story-wise, maybe a Blade Liger got in the way and absorbed into the “evolving process” (which you can NOT watch on youtube). Gunbluster too, with those egg beater replacements!

I will try and take more pictures before the damn thing just explodes.

Gilvader/Gildragon

RCM — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:21:21 +0000

I’ve been wanting to do this swap ever since the dawn of time—aka, when that other guy did it. It needed a bit more contrast, so I kept some of the silver bits instead of doing a full swap.

Iron Kong (Karl’s type)

RCM — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:28:19 +0000

TakaraTomy commemorated the 10th anniversary of the anime by releasing more anime-accurate versions of certain kits. One of them was the Iron Kong of a certain Germanic colonel who likes gatling guns. The upside: a clear green gearbox, and inclusion of the super ultra mega rare CP-A1 (a sprue of connector parts that lets you affix CPs to Zoids they were not meant for). The downside: too flippin’ expensive, and I don’t like how high the gatling mount sits (neither of which will stop me from trying to get one).

Since I’ve had a PK for a while, I thought I’d try to make my own, via the magic of plastic swapping. I also had a spare hacked CP-03 I didn’t feel guilty about hacking up, since it was already in bad shape, so I thought I’d take a stab at a slightly better gun mount (though still pretty half-assed.)

Update from the future: Well, I got one. How did I do?

2008-05: Um, Hammer Sapper?

RCM — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:43:48 +0000

I’ve wanted to try this on my Holotech Spinosapper‘s saws forever, but was afraid of messing up. Then I found a backup. I think I did ok, even though it doesn’t look so hot up close. At least the effect was as cool looking as I had hoped. To add some contrast to the Hammer Rock, I borrowed part of a red clamshell cockpit.

2008-08: De-chromed pilot

RCM — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 02:25:19 +0000

After seeing these strange pilots in an auction, I wanted to see what was underneath the chrome of my own Robo Strux pilots. Along the way I discovered that a little bit of acetone (nail polish remover) can make a gold pilot silver (pic #1). A lot more plus some scrubbing will strip the chrome off—mostly. There are some tiny bits that won’t come off no matter what. I also think the acetone stained this guy a little.

Underneath this one is the milky semi-opaque plastic of the Ghost Zoids, but I’m not sure if that’s the case for all RS pilots. Plus, I stripped an OJR pilot long ago, and it had pink plastic underneath, so who knows what’s under the various other releases’ chrome pilots.

2008-03: Bio Raptor Commander Improvements

RCM — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:33:01 +0000

Recently I discovered a set of stickers for giving Zakus shiny mono eyes. Turns out they also make good raptor eyes. To add to the effect, I drilled a hole in the head, and put a piece of fiber optic inside, so light could shine through. Another quick and dirty mod is to use the tip of a mechanical pencil for the gun barrel in the mouth.