Status: MERRY CHRISTMAS, ZM, 12/2009
Last Modified: 2009-12-18
First Posted: 2008-06-11
This is my favorite windup by far. Back when I got this (in 1999), they were hell of rare and I paid through the nasal passages. They pop up every so often, though.
OK, not so much a review as it is some highlights of the neato workings. This is because I’m lazy.
The clear plastic on this one was even more brittle than usual, and the pegs that hold the feets did not survive my last move without a dab of super glue. Still, Holo-fishy wins points for being the most “holotech’d” of the line (but it would have been nice to have smoky grey boosters too). As with all my holos, I had to get this from a contact in Australia.
There were two variants of this kit, but since I never look in the box, I keep forgetting which one I have. I picked it up in a tiny shop in Seattle’s Chinatown (ahem, International) district back in 2001 and haven’t had a chance to open it since.
Despite my initial hatred of all things Blox, I had to get this one right off, on account of my undying love of aquatic zoids. It sat in storage for years, until I dug him out with plans to raid his parts for my Killer Bee custom. Lucky for Mosasledge, his parts were not right, so he lives on. This one would look a million times better with panel lining and details painted on. I am adding that to my eternally long zoids to-do list.
I never liked this one much, because the big guns looked silly, but when I put on some smaller ones (off an Unenlagia), he grew on me. I’d like to do a custom using that head, but nothing comes to mind yet.
It would have been nice if the colors matched. I am hella going to paint these up. Someday. More pics to come. Also someday. You can affix this CP to Command Wolf, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
Another “swimmer”! Back in ’95, this one’s name was a source of endless giggles for my younger brothers. This one and Guysack…
A Zenebas “swimmer”. The tanks help keep it afloat, and a tiny propeller in back… propels it.
MIB for now. I built one a long time ago, but ended up breaking one of the legs trying to take it out of the socket (this is very easy to do), so I’m not in much of a hurry to build this one.
A big part of the Rebirth line seems to be re-tooling and updating old designs. This one takes Brachios and makes it into a plesiosaur, which in turn makes me very happy. In the ancient times (2001), a hobby magazine showed a Brachios-to-Plesio kitbash (one, two), so I’ve been hoping for an official bash for some time. In other news, Hydrazoid is sad at not being the coolest (and only) plesiozoid anymore.
The only bummer to this kit (besides not being a real swimmer) is that there are no eyes on the new head. The ones on the box are ’shopped. I cut off some extra bits from the purple sprue to make mine.
Mint in Box! I never thought I’d get this one, but somehow it was totally ignored on ebay and I got it for $36! See OER Hydrazoid for a built one.
And no one seems to like poor Hammer Head (inexplicably renamed “Sledge Head” by Hasbro) either! Well, I do. I took the bar that controls the “swimming” movement out of mine, so I could do a “circling around for the kill” pose. This is about as articulated as the poor guy can get.
As soon as I got theNJR Sinker (back in 2000), I made these swaps. I think I like the silver one better. Due to slight mold differences, the back vent piece is incredibly difficult to remove, post swap.
It really swims, though I’ve never had the courage to test it myself. The tanks have a piece of styrofoam in them to make them float (see pic #4). Known as RMZ-05 Aquadon (OJR), or Aquazoid (OER), or “frog looking thing” here.
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.
