Zoids and Stuff » huge

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.

GRZ-002 Gil Vader

RCM — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:25:11 +0000

Box damage, half price, woot! That and finally being able to do the awesome swap would have been good news enough, but it turns out the original color scheme is pretty wicked. I never knew the purple parts had a metallic flake finish. A-and the clear red is beautiful.

HRZ-001 King Gojulas

RCM — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:41:36 +0000

Perhaps you’ve heard of the quality control issues with the King’s motor. If not, let me tell you: BEWARE! Many people are reporting that their motors do not work properly or at all, right out of the box. A sampling of problems: head won’t turn, arms won’t expand, motor won’t turn off, lights don’t work, purchase of kit didn’t make me more popular with ladies…

Mine seemed ok at first, but then after construction, the lights quit working. I took everything apart and looked inside the motor, wiggled things around, and no luck. Since I had the motor open, I decided to try and disable the “screaming” function—a horrible grating gear that sounds a lot like a dino roar. After some trial and error I managed to do that, and keep the arms in order (everything’s connected), but then I noticed the head wouldn’t turn. I thought I broke it until hearing complaints from others—I didn’t run the motor much before disabling the “screamer”, since I live in an apartment and it was late at night.

I tried tinkering around a bit more, and finally got fed up, because even if I did fix everything else, I was still stuck with nonworking lights. So that is why King Crapulas is getting the boot.

Update, the distant future: Back in November 2010, Zoidmagnite fixed it. The lights are now LEDs too. The arms are still a little odd in huggy mode (when I compare it to other pics/videos), but I’ll take “mostly” fixed over “completely screwed” any day.

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 (see #16)!

RZ-055 Mad Thunder

RCM — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:30:33 +0000

Having a name that is also a description for the side-effects of chili, Mad Thunder is from the golden age of ginormous zoids, reissued for the NJR in early 2002. Having the same colors as the OJR, there was much rejoicing in the land. The computer screen was made from part of a Zoids 2 sticker.

GZ-018 Gildragon

RCM — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:24:53 +0000

The reissue no one thought would happen. The stickers were a lot higher quality than usual—very thin and nicely trimmed. That didn’t stop me from messing up the cockpit one TWICE, though. Check out my cat Dora hanging out on Gildy’s shelf.

Last 4 pics: While most people prefer the original Gilvader’s colors and horns, I really like the white/blue. Just in case anyone hasn’t seen Gildy with the old horns, here ya go.