𓅇 Chase J 𓅊 - lv 33 🍜🐲

I have been using my models as my little treat for writing; finish a scene, get to spend more free time on this (I am at a particular part of the revising stage that Really Sucks lol) The head/chest had been done for awhile and I'd painted the translucent parts before, but that was awhile ago.

I painted the green green-er and the blue blue-r. I'm really happy with how deep blue it turned out. I've made a fair number of HMM kits by now, and you can really tell which ones were made at the start of the series life, because they got some weird/bad design decisons. Like the bottom connector for the side mane panels or the tail joints for the Liger Zero. the shin/knee armor connector joints also suck majorly, too, but that's not relevent for this model lol

I don't have a full inventory of all of my models, but I think I might have the most liger zeros?

• HMM Liger Zero X (seen here)
• HMM Liger Zero (regular)
  • HMM Liger Zero Panzer Unit
• bootleg transparent Liger Zero Jaeger (that is currently wearing the Panzer armor lol)
• the ridiculous $400 die cast Liger Zero action figure
• Hasbro Liger Zero
  • Hasbro Liger Zero Panzer Unit

I have multiple blade and shield ligers, of course, that just happens in this fandom lol. But Zero is probably the single "species" I have the most things of. I think as a kid it was my favorite zoid, but as an adult (who has interacted with all the other media) idk which is my favorite now. I like a whole lot of different designs for different reasons!

But yeah I thought I was done with this but as I was cleaning out the box and tossing the empty spures I found the sheet of waterslide decals. there wasn't a guide on where to put them in the booklet so idk if I'll do them or not.

Next will be the Shadow Fox; I want to paint it gold but I'll have to think of what I'll do with the other parts! But I'll work on a phoenix first (its one of those models you get at the craft store that are ostensibly for dioramas) so that'll just be painting, no assembling of stuff.

This is the Kotobukiya Highend Master Model Fang Tiger from Zoids Wild!

For some context: Tomy/Hasbro is the regular manufacturer for "regular" Zoids kits. Which, since they are for little children, are very easy to put together and also motorized. All the pre-Wild lines only walked forward (and also were very loud). They also required you to cut parts off the frames, which is kind of a lot to ask for for little kids (but I had a lot of fun with!)

Zoids is a weird IP since a lot of Americans my age are familiar with it because of the anime on Toonami, but almost all of the models and a high percentage of the anime never made it here. It's also litterally impossible to legally get the older shows anymore. Even though there was no more anime or manga, they kept making kits for older (Japanese) fans.

At some point, Kotobukiya got the rights to make the Highend Master Model line. There's something like 60 different models, and many have lots of variations (different colored plastic, different accessories, additional decals etc). And here is some deep Chase lore but I started getting into them when I was uber-unemployed and needed something to look forward to. But it was hard to justify buying these $60-$200 models when I had no job. Especially when it felt a lot like I was kinda spinning my gears in the past instead of moving ahead.

Then Tomy said oooo we got a big Zoids announcement. Aren't you excited. And it was something to actually look forward to! And it was essentially an entire reboot of the franchise. New anime, new manga, new merch, and an entirely new type of Zoids. These were smaller kits that were designed to be easy for kids to put together. But! They each had this gimmick called the "wild blast" which was a weapon that would "unlock" and automatically trigger as it walked.

The anime wasn't the uhhhhhhh greatest, I'll admit, but the models were a lot of fun and something to always look forward to. The Wild Liger is the MC's Zoid, and the Fang Tiger is the mentor character's. The MC's Zoid is always a liger, and the sabertooth was the villain's/rivals.

I am definitely annoyed by Koto (and Tomy tbh) pretending that Zoids Genesis doesn't exist, since the Zoids in that generation are really different but also really cool. Like a moose and a peacock. They have started making kits from Wild, and this one has been sitting on my to-do pile for Awhile. And, even though the "skeleton" of the Fang Tiger is exactly the same as the Wild Liger's, it's been so long since I built the liger that I didn't remember any of it lol. It was a fun and enjoyable build.

So what you see in pics 2 and 3 is the "wild blast." There's this blue fire effect on their eye when they do that and it matches their pilot but I really don't care about the humans in the Zoids lol. The final pic is where it's on my shelf right now, along with the HMM Wild Liger and two of the Tomy "villain" Zoids from Wild: the Gilraptor and the Death Rex. The latter is the big bad's and it was the model to get for Christmas the year it came out. They're both custom painted they're not supposed to be those colors lol. The Gilraptor is supposed to be Red Eyes Black Dragon themed lol

The BANDAI SPIRITS Chogokin RZ-041 Liger Zero finally came in! The poor mail carrier had to bring the big box up to my apartment lol

I don't talk about Zoids much on this blog, but, I love them!!!! I had some of the 1/72 Hasbro models as a kid and watched the show all the time. There are....a lot of Zoids on my desk right now. And a lot on shelves. And some more kits sitting at my craft desk that need to be put together. Do not ask me how much I've spent on them.

If you saw the anime on Cartoon Network in the early 00s, it was probably the one starring this guy, the Liger Zero. That one was more of a sports anime where they'd fight in competitive matches. The Liger Zero, diegetically, was special because it was "alive"/sentient (while the other zoids were more like cars) and it has the Changing Armor System, which means you can make it nekkie (as you see in pic 1) and change the armor (the white stuff). In the anime that let it be flexible for various situations. That concept kinda came back in Zods Genesis (god I wish there was an HQ sub version).

Anyways! This one is a die-cast action figure (instead of a plastic model you put together). I don't see a scale on the product info pages but it's probably 1/72, it's about the same size as all my other ones. It's super heavy and has all these joints and these nice details. Every time they make a new, more modern version of a model, they add little touches to take advantage of the new materials or detail level.

Like this one has the off-white details, the extendable claws, the spinning caps, and THE DEW CLAW! I don't think they've ever had a dew claw on a zoid before. This one also has an LED in the cockpit so the "eyes" light up. It cost a lot of money (32000 JPY PLUS shipping, which, holy hell) but this is a limited product that they're doing for the 40th anniversary. But I'm so happy with it. I need to find a good place for it in my room.

Is anyone else into zoids? Does anyone want to get into zoids? Let me get you into zoids, please.