Zoids and Shit

HMM-002(ltd) Empire Command Wolf LC

RCM — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:04:10 +0000

Well, Irvine’s gun has never looked better. Empire Command Wolf LC was the second limited kit from the HMM line, released summer 2007. It is a recolor of the regular Command Wolf, but it also includes a new weapon—the long range cannon (like Irvine’s variant in the NJR). It sold out quickly, teaching a valuable lesson: if something’s limited, don’t hesitate! I hesitated, so I had to pay a lot more on the secondary market.

HMM-002(ltd) Empire Command Wolf LC (Build Review)

RCM — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:02:42 +0000

What to glue, what to paint, check it out, check it out!

General tip:
Apply the stickers as you complete each piece, instead of waiting until the kit’s finished. It is much less tedious this way! A-and: don’t work in a carpeted room, if possible. There are some really tiny pieces that can be lost easily. Every time I dropped a piece, I ended up crawling around for an hour until I found it again.
Sprues:

A lot of sprues are duplicated (4 of sprue G, for example), which saves on production costs, but also means you need to pay attention when building. Once I accidentally made three left legs and had to pry some pieces apart (dangerous, since most pieces want to stay stuck after assembly).
Head:

The teeth are part of the main head assembly, and thus unpainted. You must paint them, or your woof will look bland. For the Empire woof here, I went with silver.
“Bust”, as they call it:

Glue that peg, or else it will stay stuck in the leg’s polycap, if you ever need to remove them. For the rest of the “bust”, some detailing will work wonders. I used a foil sticker and green Sharpie for the chest light.
Waist hoses:

Glue them on this end, since this piece gets a lot of strain and they’ll pop out if you don’t.
Waist connection:

An interesting thing with the wolf is that the head and waist are connected by a “spine”, and then the chest attaches to that spine piece.
Waist and tail painting needed:

The shock absorbers are one piece in gold plastic, so some silver helps out. The tail piece is not even that lucky, so break out the gold as well as the silver.
Gun mount:

Depending on which way you face it, it will mount the default guns, or the Irvine gun. Also, gold and silver detailing is recommended on the hydraulics.
The big gun:

This is the big feature of the kit, and BE CAREFUL with piece O-1. The part where it goes into the main gun is the most fragile piece ever. “Luckily” mine broke in a way that’s not so visible. I’m afraid to even glue it, since the dab of glue would be even bigger than the break.
Leg and foot details:

The ankle hydraulic is tiny, but detailing is worth it. The leg one is gold only, so get out the silver.
Paint those feet:

Since the feet are on the same sprue as all the hydraulics, they’re stuck in an Empire-inappropriate gold. Thankfully some primer and Tamiya Gloss Aluminum spray saved the day.

Vol. 7 Sea Panther

RCM — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:51:51 +0000

Sea Panther (poor romanization for Panzer?) is one of the most anticipated reissues in the Graphics line. It pretty much sold out instantly, leaving lots of people in the lurch, preorders be damned. Thankfully they’re doing another run in December, but those could go just as quickly. And with good reason: Sea Panther has never been reissued, and the original is hellllllla rare. The mechanism is totally awesome—it rolls along, while all the legs move about creepily. For being one-piece legs, the movement is nice and fluid. The bonus “present” in this set is the gun sprue from Remodel Set No. 1.

The only bummer to be found: if you like applying stickers, you will be saddened by the quality of the foil sticker sheet. I ended up using stickers from spare OJR sheets.

2008-09-08: In the pipeline…

RCM — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:28:05 +0000

~~Zoids Graphics Sea Panther~~
HMM Molga/Molga Canory (a twofer!)
~~HMM Empire Command Wolf (got this last year, only started building it recently)~~

…some time after 9/26 (when I get back from vacation), that is, since I doubt I’ll get anything done this week. Also when I get back, I hope to have figured out some way to do box pics without them looking like crap (crap = lens distortion).

Armored Gator

RCM — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:46:58 +0000

Another bonus from brother WIKD, thanks! Lighting was against me with these pics. The background is all weird, but the Gator’s colors are pretty spot on. Which is frightening. The upper parts do have a nice metallic sheen to them, though. I’m going to try a swap with my other ’gators, because I think either of this one’s colors would work with a more neutral one to contrast.

Storm Sworder Jet

RCM — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:46:46 +0000

The sticker sheet had a ton of stickers with black print… that were to go on a black zoid! Luckily, I had substitute stickers to apply.

069 Seismosaurus

RCM — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:38:27 +0000

This wasn’t an official Hasbro release in the US (though a few people have ultra-rare prototypes), but did make its way to the New Pacific Release. I ordered mine from the Philippines. I stole one of the gunner seats for my Helcat custom, but it’s otherwise complete. The tail mechanism is quite clever, with a string/pulley system. I have no idea how to take good pics of this one. For not having much bulk, it still manages to be the longest zoid ever at well over 30″. This is probably a job for joiner stylee!

HMM-002 Command Wolf (One Year Later)

RCM — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:27:51 +0000

One year later, and I’m finally finished. All the time I was putting off doing stickers, I was also bothered by the ham-fisted panel lining job this poor guy got. My previous gold and silver markers were a piece of crap, so I redid the teeth and hydraulics too. Either this project was cursed, or HMM kits really don’t stand up do disassembly, because I broke three pieces AND lost one. I replaced the lost one (a cap-like piece that holds the shoulder armor on) with a leftover Armored Core weapon. Just what the crap it’s supposed to be, I don’t know.

UPDATE 9/08: I found the lost shoulder cap!

2006: Gojulas HT (TRU Japan 15th ann.)

RCM — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:20:25 +0000

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!

ZED-4 Dark Horn

RCM — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:51:22 +0000

This is the only ZED I have, because 1) they were overpriced, and 2) it’s a Dark Horn. I managed to find this one for cheap on YJ, but after all the middleman markups it came to about retail. Damn. This one’s a windup, so at least it didn’t cost over 6000 yen (about a million US dollars in today’s economy). Anyway, it looks to be about 1/200 scale, is mostly pre-built (you add the weapons), and comes with three TINY pilots. Sadly it does not glow in the dark, but you can’t have everything.