Everything Else

This one came with the Japanese game Zoids VS (for Gamecube). It has lots of custom stickers, as well as two different colors of caps—blue and orange. The only problem is that half of the orange caps are discolored, due to poor mold cleaning!

Back when this set came out (late 2002, along with Redhorn and Deathsaurer), it was quite a big deal, especially for clear-obsessed me. Now, with Hasbro’s holotechs, and the Genesis DVD set limiteds, it’s almost commonplace. I still love them, though. (These were never officially known as “crystal” zoids, but the name stuck.)

As if the crystal Molga weren’t enough, they made one of Red Horn too. There was also a crystal Death Saurer, but that one required too much shelf space, and way too much money.

I have never managed to get good pictures of this one until now, and even then I only got a couple. The black and dark metallic green are hard to capture. Also: if you can, replace the default silver cockpit with a black one; it looks much better that way.

This one came out in 2003. The preview pics for it were a lot shinier than the actual product, which partly inspired my Giga custom. Limited Buster Cannons (Blox CP-G) SOLD SEPARATELY!

Thank goodness for reissues of clear blue 1/24 scale goodness. Expect a mini-me shot with the Command Zoid version whenever I find where I stashed the damn thing.

This is an odd bird. For its alternate mode it splits into a weapon (giant shuriken!) and armor for Murasame Liger. Since I don’t have a Murasame, I’m trying to think of customizing ideas…

TDP Deadborder reissue! Hoorj! I always thought this one was ugly (in a bad way), until someone on Pheno’s Forum (username of Deadborder, oddly enough) posted a review with good pics. Then I was swayed. I am glad I got this one, because for such a small guy it sure has a lot of detail and layering. Also, the stickers were so sweet I had no choice but to apply them.

I went the longest time not liking Geno Saurers, but then I finally came to my senses. I got this one about a year after it came out, when they miraculously became affordable to the masses (Thanks, Toy-Wave!). These guys aren’t really white, but more of an off-white “bone” color that my camera—awesome as it is—can’t seem to capture. This was part of the limited set for the 2005 Dinosaur Expo at the Tokyo Science Museum.

Another Horn! This is part of the limited set for the 2005 Dinosaur Expo at the Tokyo Science Museum. There was also a Snipe Master, Genosaurer, and Raynos in this set.

A cute mini-me of Shieldy, now in Blox form! This was a birthday present from WIKD, much appreciated! As you can see, painting will be required for maximum coolness. There were some stickers meant to go over the fangs, but that doesn’t seem like as good as painting, so I’ll just hold out.

In celebration of Toys R Us Japan’s 15th anniversary (October 2006), Tomy released an entirely clear Gojulas! The gearbox, battery covers and even the light are all clear. Best of all, I get another clear pilot, which means another mini-micronaut! I wish the original Z-point giveaways (don’t call ’em crystal!) were this complete in their clearness. Proper pics to come (someday) are finally here. Last three are keychain LED-enhanced!

MIB for now and (probably) ever. A sequel to this box set would have been nice, but instead we got the Monthly Zoids Graphics series. If you can find those, you win!

MIB for now and (probably) ever. Before this one there was a “Helic Memorial Box” with the first five whiteheads, but I never picked that one up, since I already have about a billion of each of those kits. All of these box sets were limited, and that set was a Toy’s Dream Project limited, making it like a double limited—i.e., I should have grabbed one. ANYWAY, this set has my favorite whiteheads.

Thousands of years ago, a prophecy foretold of a “holotech” Liger Zero. Some even claimed to have seen them in stores, or even to have purchased one, but in the absence of photographic evidence, such people were branded as liars and heretics. Then, in late 2007, Liger Red Hiou was revealed—a holotech liger, but the armor was clear PINK! I think this could be the best Liger Zero ever.

This was part of a set of limiteds sold at Wonderfest ’08. The other was Molga, which I desire greatly straight-up HAVE. These sold out in seconds, and hit obscene prices on Yahoo Japan (made even more obscene with the Dollar being down the crapper). BUT, Toy-Wave had the Gator on sale a few weeks ago, so patience and despair won out, for once! Since Gator’s legs and inner frame are on the same sprue, they included an extra of that sprue for the dark legs/green frame combo.

The other limited from Wonderfest ’08, and another lucky catch from Toy-Wave. I didn’t know until recently that there were two shades of armor—black and wonderful wonderful gunmetal grey. Blacklight pics to come are now up, of course.

TakaraTomy commemorated the 10th anniversary of the anime by releasing more anime-accurate versions of Ban/Van’s Shield Liger, and this hella sweet Kong belonging to Schwarz/Schubaltz.

Making my own swap was not enough, once I saw the clear green motor and black inner frame. I also finally found a semi-good deal on ebay (although everytime someone buys one, the NEXT one he lists costs $10 more to ship).

Due to a lucky find from a US shop, the inflated prices of Rebirth zoids, the horrible exchange rate, and shipping costs, I somehow managed to get this LIMITED version for about as much as the regular version would have cost me. This was supposed to be one of those “faction switch” limiteds, but it came with the regular sticker sheet, so it’s still an Empire model despite its bright Republic color scheme.

In other news, Valga reminds me of an updated Robocaterpilas.

Reissued by Wave, and nearly identical to the OJR, but much much cheaper (at least when it first came out). This one is near impossible to shoot, as you can tell. I’ll try to get the lighting up action sometime soon. Watch out for sunlight, as this one likes to turn yellow (GRRR).

I had an OJR, got tired of it (and needed money), sold it, regretted it, then got this bargain priced reissue. The original had magenta caps and blue clear bits. Earlier this week I finally summoned the energy required to do the panel lining and detailing that was so badly needed. Before, the undercarriage was just a solid lump of grey, and you couldn’t see any of the details. I also broke out the weathering markers to dirty up the armor, and hide the fact that it was starting to show sun-discoloration.

Well, I had to build it!

Part of garage kit company Wave’s set of 24-scale OJR reissues. It comes with some extra pieces to make “full armor mode”, as well as a build-it-yourself 1/20 unpainted pilot. A few months before this one came out, Toy’s Dream Project also reissued Deathpion, with the original cap and lens colors (blue-purple and clear blue, respectively).

This one’s mostly MIB—my OJR version is borrowing a couple pieces right now. Priorities, you know. They’re identical, except for the clear parts (orange here) and caps (grey here).

There’s only one thing you can say about the color scheme: they sure are some colors. Whoever owned this kit before me was the worst applier of stickers ever! I had to get rid of 2/3 of them just to make this guy presentable.

This poor guy’s been in contruction limbo for years. When I first got it (back in 2003), I used the white armor for a plastic swap but didn’t touch the other parts, so it’s never been built stock until very recently. Unfortunately I also gave the armor a terrible panel lining job, which has taken an eternity to undo (Model Master brand dried paint solvent and a ton of q-tips and toothpicks eventually did the trick).

Now that I’ve finally gotten around to building this guy, I noticed a weird thing with the piece that controls head movement—it was too tall! The right shoulder armor also had a molding change that made it impossible to fully mount the rocket launcher without some hefty trimming, but all is now well.

As you can see by the sprue scabs, I was excited and in a hurry to build this one. UGH…

It’s not just an inter-net browser, it’s a (sweet) recolor of RZ-046, Shadow Fox (NJR). For this series, it has changed factions, which means evil green eyes! Pics #7 and #8 show the “hidden” windup key and where it goes, and #11 shows the weapons mount, which is adaptable enough to accept almost any other zoid’s guns. Whoever owned this before me had some interesting theories on panel lining, but thankfully they left the stickering to me.

You wouldn’t think these colors would work, but they do! I thought the enormous cannons (CP-10) were kind of silly, so I tried some alternatives (the original Saly missile launchers, and CP-09).