Zoid.us is very proud to present this digital art gallery.
Featuring the work of a long time fellow Zoider know as
Captain
Crestco. This is an online gallery to celebrate his original (hand
drawn) works of art.
Please enjoy this Zoids filled gallery!
Please enjoy this Zoids filled gallery!
As always Zoid On, and Much Zoid Love. The above image was
requested by Zoid.us and features none other than Dead Border,
which represented day 0 of 2024 the "Inktober" collection
of the Zoids 40th anniversary, and was requested by Zoid.us.
Please be sure to drop by his instagram!
https://www.instagram.com/crestco273/
**ZOIDS: Chaotic Century**
I love Zoids and with this year ( 2024 ) being the 40th Anniversary of the
series, I want to use Inktober to pay
homage to my favorite franchise.
My goal is to cover all of the main anime and, if I'm lucky, some extras.
We're starting off with Van, Fiona and the Blade Liger.
These are the protagonists of the first anime, called Zoids: Chaotic Century
in the English dub since it was aired on
Toonami AFTER New Century Zero, which was just called "Zoids"
in English. As far as Japan goes, though, the Blade Liger is the real poster boy for the Zoids
Anime so the 40th Anniversary logo features
it instead of the Gojulas, Shield Liger or Liger Zero.
"Van and Fiona"
**Raven**
This is the OG of Zoids who has pioneered the trend of there always
being an
antagonist in the anime who rides a full metal dinosaur.
Raven in particular represents the opposition of the hero's world
view and to teach him
painful lessons to sharpen him into someone who has the
strength to fight for the world he wants to see.
The Geno Saurer, to me, is the face of the NJR.
It was the first completely original Zoid
to be created and ushered in a
new suite of design language for Zoids based around the understanding
of dinosaurs to be animals that were dynamic and active.
We can thank Jurassic Park for that.
"Raven"
**Zoids: New Century Zero**
This is MY JAM, my all time favorite anime. I grew up watching
Zoids on Toonami every day after school before
I did my homework. Bit Cloud and the Liger Zero are my childhood.
Liger Zero, in particular, is the best Liger.
The Changing Armor System gives it the ability to
transform into new versions of itself to adapt to different combat situations.
The anime provides us with the big three
( Jager, Schneider and Panzer ) but,
to all of us Zoiders, that's really only the tip of the iceberg.
Between Takara Tomy themselves and all of the fan communities,
the sky is the limit for the Liger Zero.
It can do and be anything. Unlimited Potential, baby.
"Bit Cloud"
**The Ultimate X**
I have a love hate relationship with the Berserk Fuhrer and, by that,
I mean he's EXTREMELY cool
but I really like him as an enemy Zoid.
It's not a Zoid that I would ever see myself wanting to pilot.
Berserk Fuhrer is the perfect rival Zoid.
Going as far back as my childhood, my brother really took a
shining to this Zoid and I still remember one
Christmas where we both got two big Zoids. My brother got the
Berserk Fuhrer and, for me, the Zoid was the Dark Spiner.
This was in the years where Jurassic Park 3
was still all the rage and Spinosaurus
was my favorite dinosaur. In that film,
this was the ultimate dueling pair.
Later in my life, I became privy to the world of online
roleplay where you could have real
Zoid Battles take place in your DMs with
people and that there were entire forum servers dedicated to this activity.
That was MY LIFE for a long time and I met a lot of people this way and my
favorite opponents were always in a Fuhrer of some form.
And who can blame them? The anime absolutely cooked with how they presented
the Berserk Fuhrer and the pilot being basically
your average Online Gamer kid was the cherry on top. Iconic.
The final battle between Bit and Vega is absolute PEAK ZOIDS.
"Vega Obscura"
**ZOIDS: Fuzors**
The 3rd Zoids anime is better than it gets credit for
, but let's just say the reputation it got didn't
fall out of the sky. Nevertheless, I love Zoids Fuzors.
I'll admit that I didn't watch very much of it on television when
I was a kid ( probably because of the
time slot it aired ) but, make no mistake,
the TOYS that came out to go alongside it? That was it.
The Zoids BLOX ( or Z-Builders, if you will ) are to this day still my favorites.
The very first Zoid that I built on my own without help from
my dad or my brother was the Mosasledge. So easy even
I can do it, right? Well after that I built the Unenlagia,
the Nightwise and the Leo Blaze.
I adored these Zoids, mixing and matching their parts to turn
them into whole kaiju or whatever monstrocities I could come up with.
They took the variability of the Liger Zero's CAS System and tripled down on it.
You don't even have to be stuck as ONE kind of animal with these new Zoids.
But it doesn't stop there. The BLOX can combine with the normal Zoids,
too, turning into weapon systems and even armor for them.
This is RD and his version of the Liger Zero.
When it combines with a giant Blox Zoid called the
Fire Phoenix, it becomes the Liger Zero Phoenix aka THE NEW BEST THING.
The Fuzors anime could have done better selling how cool
this version of the Liger Zero is but, luckily,
there was no shortage of video games to do the heavy lifting.
LZ Phoenix is SO cool. Definitely my favorite liger to this day.
"RD"
**Savage Hammer**
This guy is not my favorite antagonist but that's mainly because
his anime wasn't rolling out a lot of good character writing but the
potential WAS there and he is one of the more interesting people in his story.
He hates RD and wants nothing more than to humiliate him to get
revenge for losing to him. The big twist is that his boss actually
sabotaged his Zoid, leading to him losing.
He had been manipulated into hating RD. The anime does show
Blake to fight alongside RD to take down the real
crazies of the story in the end,
but I think they could have done more to show off Blake's layers.
He was always the strong, silent type ...until he wanted
to talk trash to RD. He likes doing that.
But GAIRYUKI?
Top tier Zoid. Makes Top 3 every time and has the other
two sweating bullets for their spots.
Anyone who knows me even a little knows how much I rock with this thing.
Take everything I said about Liger Zero Phoenix and
everything about the BLOX Zoids. Multiply it by 3 and wrap
it in a burrito to keep it hot.
I recently found out that the Gairyuki was a Zoid which Takara
Tomy designed as part of the 20th Anniversary of Zoids.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. FLAWLESS, SHINGING VICTORY DRAGON.
"Blake"
**Zoids: Genesis**
The fourth anime, Zoids Genesis, is the one that got away. It HAD an
English Dub get made and it was SUPPOSED to be a part of the
Toonami Jetstream online broadcast but, mysteriously, it never showed up.
I even met with the voice actor Darrel Gilbeau ( ENG Voice for Seijoru )
who confirmed to me that, yes,
it WAS a thing he worked on.
The theory is that it became lost due to copyright licensing issues between the
different entities who worked on distributing it?
Word is that some countries did manage to get it streamed out but many
others did not and there was no
DVD release for it. It just... disappeared.
So Japanese with Subtitles is the only reliable way to go and, to this day
, I have never watched it ALL THE WAY through but I have seen most of it.
It is definitely a much more somber anime than
Zero or Fuzors and has a whole 50
Episode run that is paced more like Chaotic
Century, taking time to build some good characters while also handling some
realistic politics behind the war that takes place. It's also the most fantasy
Zoids has ever been, too. I've heard people compare
Zoids Genesis to Avatar the Last Airbender and, honestly, the shoe fits.
Our hero is Ruuji and he pilots the
new Murasame Liger. Murasame is pretty unique.
When I first saw it, I called it a "Gundam Liger"
for how its armor is shaped and colored but, stranger still,
it has a literal Katana Sword that sits on an articulated arm. The engineering of the
Murasame Sword is VERY cool and original.
I guess, in the end, it's kind of weird that the Murasame
feels so high-tech and advanced but is
also oddly old-fashioned in a sense.
The setting of the Genesis anime is in
a post-apocalyptic Planet Zi where
humanity has been reset to a sort of dark ages.
The Zoids still exist and are equipped with weaponry
that makes them look fit for a DND Campaign.
It's a very different place to take Zoids that has a charm to
it that is probably not everyone's cup of tea.
"Ruuji Familon"
**Bio Zoid**
Zoids Genesis was unique for introducing the Bio Zoids. All of them were dinosaurs,
all of them were piloted by the villains of the story who were waging war
against the world and all of them had armor that was invincible
to all weapons except one; Metal Zi.
They are the reason why the other
Zoids are all using traditional weaponry.
The beams, lasers and charged particles of old don't work on the new Bio Zoids.
Also, interestingly enough, all of the older
dinosaur Zoids like the Geno Saurer
and Berserk Fuhrer seem to be extinct in the Zoids Genesis lore.
But this one here, the Bio Volcano, stands
heads and shoulders above the rest and is
honestly one of my all time favorite Zoids despite being SO unusual.
The usual Bio Zoids have silver armor but the Volcano sports a deep
crimson shell with violet crystal spikes jutting out of it in all directions.
It just looks like some kind of an evil dragon in such a cool way.
If the Bio Megaraptor was the Geno Saurer of
Zoids Genesis, this here is the Geno Breaker.
It is a Megaraptor type Zoid ( an old interpretation of the animal, it would need a redesign to be
consistent with what modern Paleontology says a Megaraptor looks like )
and is the first time that a rival character from an anime
pilots something that is not a Tyrannosaurus.
The pilot, Zairin, is a fantastic character and probably
the only one who can give Raven a run for his money. Unfortunately for him,
Zoids Genesis didn't get nearly the exposure Chaotic Century did so Raven
will always be ahead of him with popularity. BUT I'LL STAND BY HIM.
" Zairin de Zaltz"
**Zoids Wild**
After Zoids Fuzors got poor reception that put the franchise in a free fall and Zoids
Genesis did its disappearing act, things were quiet for a long time.
For 13 years, it seemed that the only people who wanted anything to do with Zoids
was Kotobukiya for their HMM Zoids line. But, one fantastic summer,
Takara Tomy announced that ZOIDS is back.
Zoids Wild made its dynamic entry in 2018 with the Wild Liger and his goofy rider Arashi.
This was supposed to be the grand rebirth of the franchise and, while it DID make it
state side ( check Netflix ), it suffered a lot and
was not able to live up to Takara Tomy's agenda.
It was different and a lot of people didn't like it. I did...until I didn't.
I have a love hate relationship with this series because
I wanted it to be so much more than it was.
It was too childish for me until it wasn't.
It had nuggets of really cool ideas sprinkled onto a cake
that could have stayed in the oven a little longer.
It reminded me the most of Monster Hunter Stories and How to Train
Your Dragon, both of which are excellent things,
which is why I was able to handle its radical changes as well as I did0.
I saw the vision and I liked where they were
going with it, I just didn't always get to enjoy the ride
because I wasn't the intended
audience for this new version of Zoids.
The Manga is really funny, though, having more freedom to really
LEAN IN to the weird goofy art style. It's aggressively different from everything before it.
"Arashi"
**Zoids Wild: Zero**
While the previous series was good with the kids, older fans of Zoids were put
off by just HOW different the new Zoids were.
The solution was to make Zoids Wild Zero. The reboot of the reboot.
Zoids are back to being big Mecha that people pilot from inside
of cockpits to engage in war with each other.
The characters are not all named after FOOD anymore, their designs are much more
conservative and the overall tone of the narrative is much less light-hearted.
The developers were going for a feel like it was spiritual
successor to Chaotic Century but using the Zoids Wild units.
I think they did TOO GOOD of a job, imitating too many of
Chaotic Century's original blueprints.
The main character, Leo Conrad, pilots the Beast
Liger which is an improvement of the liger from
Arashi's time that evolves into something called a Rising Liger
after being defeated by a Zoid called Genospino.
What's more, Leo befriends a young girl with no memories of her past
( who iirc IS AN ANCIENT ZOIDIAN ) named Sally.
Zoids Wild was supposed to be the one to bring the
franchise worldwide for a return to form
. It didn't exactly manage to do that but it
was a success in Japan and sparked a new generation of fans for the franchise.
It is a lot of things, but Zoids Wild was no failure.
I think this statement applies to Drake as well. He reminds me a lot of Blake with
his overall demeanor and his character story.
In fact, his Zoid, the Gilraptor ( named Ruin in the ENG Dub ) embodies the
combined traits of all the previous Zoids series.
Being a Deinonychus type, this is the second time a rival
character is piloting a Raptor instead of a Tyrannosaurus.
The new design philosophy of the ZW line features
bio mechanical skeletons that are very reminiscent
of the Bio Zoids but, in this instance,
the skeleton goes UNDERNEATH the armor and weaponry.
This feels like it comes from Zoids Genesis.
The Gilraptor's armor is a bright cherry red to signify that it's an
Imperial unit or, otherwise, a "bad guy" Zoid.
The head, shoulders and hips are all equipped with armor while the
rest of the biomechanical chassis is exposed for flexibility's sake.
It makes sense functionally to be like this but, when you look at it,
it does come across looking like a toy because of the
saturation of the armor. In this way, it reminds me of Zoids Fuzors.
The Blox Zoids, as cool as they were to me, were really good at looking
and feeling like the toys they are and the Zoids Wild kits followed suit there.
The Wild Blast and Death Blast gimmicks are
power-up forms that unlock the hidden weapons stored inside the bodies of the Zoids.
In the case of Gilraptor, specifically
, these are twin death scythes that fold out from the backpack unit.
The presence of this power in the anime is pretty reminiscent of how
Van and Raven would use their Organoids to
improve the strength of their Zoids.
The actual STORY of Zoids Wild is pretty loose. It probably
resembles Zoids Genesis the most with how
the heroes are trying to stop a rising superpower
but what really stands out is that the characters are organized into Teams.
There are no organized battles like New Century but the fact we have a
Team Freedom, Team Supreme and
Death Metal is reminiscent of the setup from that anime before.
This time it's just a lot more like gang warfare than
anything close to organized competition. It makes me
wish there could have been a couple more
teams to shake things up with clashing ideologies and agendas.
Zoids Wild caught a lot of flack for being so different from the
previous series but I think, on closer inspection, there's
a lot more familiar DNA in these Zoids than
people would like to give it credit for. Zoids Wild is still Zoids.
"Drake"
I think they overcorrected and ended up with an anime that is
honestly my least favorite of them all despite being the newest one.
It feels a lot less original than it should and the new
art direction led to them choosing a more classical
soundscape for the OST, with an OP theme that didn't slap nearly as hard as any
of the ones used for Arashi's story.
You can feel the difference when a chunk of the budget
isn't spent on the music alone, because Penguin Research
was throwing out banger after banger for Zoids Wild.
The character I decided to draw is Jo Aysel. She is not the main character
of the story, more comparable to Moonbay from Chaotic Century,
but she's the one who I remember most for her attractive design.
I haven't watched it much, but I do know she has a cute
personality to match. She calls her Zoid "Rap-Chan", after all.
"Jo Aysel"
**Zoids: Battle Legends**
Now that I was able to cover all 6 of the major anime, we can celebrate with some style.
From here on, you're going to be seeing more than just characters from the anime because
Zoids is a 40-year-old franchise and I am a big fan. It's time to REALLY get cooking!
Zoids Battle Legends is one of my absolute all-time favorite videogames.
Hard stop, bar none. It's a relic from the Nintendo GameCube
that I guarantee you is the reason I didn't forget Zoids.
There were a number of games from this era that loved to take the anime
and the surrounding media, smash them together
and really charge the imagination with
endless combinations of characters and zoids being thrown into the mix. On top of that, each
game would create its own cast of characters to add to the roster.
This is Kouki, lead character of the Empire Mission Mode campaign with his special Helcat Noir.
He is a new recruit to the Rottiger Team, a task force within the
Guylos Empire whose mission is to snuff out insurrectionists within the faction.
The game's story revolves around their investigation into a mysterious entity called Terra Geist.
"Kouki"
**Xenorex**
Zoids Wild ended with a whisper and, on its way out,
introduced my favorite new Zoid; the XENOREX.
This thing is absolutely wicked in all of the best ways.
It feels to me like a spiritual successor to the Gairyuki, being the
Helic Republic's shining light who rears its head
at the end of the war. Interestingly for me,
the Xenorex has attributes that remind me
both of my belvoed Blox and the Liger Zero at the same time.
Xenorex is canonically an extraterrestrial Zoid that
has a powerup called a Xeno Evolution System.
It is a medium sized Zoid but, after activating its power, grows into
a much larger unit. In this state, the Xenorex can be
equipped with special weapon units that are
reminiscent of the Liger Zero's CAS system.
It made its first media appearance in Zoids Wild Senki, a
YouTube Original anime that has 6 Episodes.
It was mysteriously cut short ( I think by Covid ).
On the the front of plot and characters, Senki doesn't have a
lot to show but it was jam packed with amazingly
animated fight scenes. Some of the best in the entire series!
Senki introduced the first two armor sets;
Xenorex Scissors ( a close-combat specialist equipped with
X-Breakers that make it effectively a Republic Geno Breaker )
and the Xenorex Buster ( basically LZ Panzer ).
So who's the kid? His name is Tetsuro and he's the
protagonist of the CoroCoro Manga titled Zoids Wild 2+.
It only has one volume, but the art style is the same as the previous Zoids
Wild series and is excellent at balancing insane humor with cool action shots.
Tetsuro is a member of the ZIB who secretly investigates
Zoid incidents. Basically Men in Black. In this world,
portals to another world have been opening up
and strange new Zoids like the Xenorex have been coming out of them.
A third armor set for the Xenorex came out as part of the Zoids Biographies line.
These limited edition units were mainly character
special models from the Zoids Wild Zero anime,
but the very last unit was called Xenorex Storm XA.
Based off of the Storm Sworder, this unit has massive wings to be an unit that can function both
in the air and on land much like the Liger Zero Phoenix.
"Tetsuro"
**The Battle Story**
The Zoids that I grew up with are actually the 2nd generation
of Zoids known as the New Japanese Release
( NJR ) that lasted from 1999 to about 2006. The Japanese versions of
the toys usually came with a lot of text on their boxes
detailing the lore of the war between
the Republic and the Empire. This is what's known as THE BATTLE STORY.
Though there was never an explicit adaptation of the Battle
Story in an Anime or Manga form, there are several
named characters and this here is one of the most infamous.
His name is Wolff Morua and he is the heir to the throne of the Empire.
He is a powerful warrior who splinters
the Empire to remake it for his own ideals, creating a third faction that overtakes
both the Old Empire and the Republic!
"Wolff Muroa"
**Kotona Elegance**
You know the trope of the IT GIRL? Tha
t hostess with the mostest that every girl wants
to be and every guy wants to be with? Well. You're looking at her.
Kotona Elegance from Zoids Genesis and her pretty bird the Rainbow Jerk. It's such a unique
Zoid, the only peafowl type to date so it's only natural that they give
her this banger of a pilot to help sell her toy.
And, speaking of toys, there are MULTIPLE figures of
Kotona and I have none of them. But, trust.
This girl has a NENDOROID figure. She's that big.
She's not MY favorite girl personally but if I tried to tell
you she was not the most popular one, I'd be telling a lie.
Maybe it's because of when Genesis came out relative to the Internet
and the people on it, but Kotona has the most Fanart
I've seen thus far so you KNOW I had to join the bandwagon.
"Kotona Elegance"
**The Red Comet**
Naomi Fluegel from Zoids New Century Zero is iconic as
hell and unforgettable. I almost chose
Pierce from the same series to be like a rival to Kotona,
since they both use flying Zoids, but I couldn't skip
NAOMI for this anniversary series. This is the first time I've actually
gone about drawing her and it feels really good to pull it
off because she really is one of my favorites.
Naomi pilots a signature Red Gunsniper and earned herself a
reputation as a top class warrior.
No one could get within 100 yards of her without being shot down.
It's nice for a Zoid like the Gunsniper, which is generally regarded to be
one of the weaker Zoids, to have an ace pilot behind the stick to
show off what it can really do when it is in the right hands.
Naomi was only defeated a total of three times, twice by main characters on the
Blitz Team and once through
underhanded means from the Backdraft Group. She leaves a lasting impression.
"Naomi Fluegel"
**Weasel Unit Total Assault!!**
...I think Leena is actually my favorite, guys.
She's such a terrible person and she's not even a very good Zoid
warrior but Leena is such a FUN character!
She is unapologetically overblown in every conceivable way.
"Leena Toros"
**The Backdraft Group**
Today was a bit of a bad start for me but I managed
to beat the odds and crank out today's
piece. It's a surprise even to myself because
this man wasn't originally on my list and here he is out of nowhere!
This is Polta of the Backdraft Group, a shady organization that breaks
the rules of the Zoids Battle Commission
to stage unsanctioned battles where the stakes are raised to insanity.
They're the main antagonists of Zoids New Century,
using primarily Imperial Units like Helcat and
Saber Tiger that are heavily modified.
As the show progresses, they bring out new units that weren't in the
previous anime like the War Shark and the Zabat.
Their pride and glory, is the invincible Elephander. It is one of only a handful of elephant type Zoids
and, in my opinion, the best one that we've seen.
"The Backdraft Group"
**Guylos Empire**
The Guylos Empire is a primary world power on Planet Zi, rivaled by the
Helic Republic in a bipolar world order. In the anime, Guylos
is largely depicted to be the bad guys in the narrative.
Their leader is a genuine villain who is at least implied to
be the aggressor in the war if memory is serving me correctly,
but Chaotic Century does make it a point to display that they're not all like that.
This is Karl Schubaltz, a decorated soldier of the Guylos army
that is just trying to fight for his country although he is well
known for piloting a signature
Iron Kong, Shcubaltz's first appearances show him in a custom Saber Tiger
with a unique code of paint a Gattling Gun on it.
Saber Tiger is another one of those Zoids that gets underrepresented in the Zoids media.
Sure we see them all over the place, but they're usually
serving as measuring sticks for another Zoid's power and
routinely being beaten up by all manner of Zoids.
There's plot armor and then
there's whatever the Tiger's having. I feel like the only time the
Zoid really got to shine was when Raven had one.
There was the Holotech Zaber in Zoids Fuzors but, in that
setting, it didn't feel right for the Zoid to be able to punch up on
Fuzors just because it could turn invisible.
When I was doing this series, I really wanted to showcase the Saber
Tiger vs Shield Liger rivalry but I didn't want to draw
Van and Raven more than once. Choosing
Karl allows me to pay homage to the Saber
Tiger with the suped up version of the
Zoid that comes with an adult soldier pilot who doubles as
being a very popular character.
Justice for the Tiger.
"Karl Schubaltz"
**Helic Republic**
The Helic Republic the major faction of the war on Planet Zi. I say major because it doesn't
splinter the way that the Empire does. Most of their Zoids use the colors
Blue, White and Orange so we can call them BLUE TEAM.
The Chaotic Century anime shows them to be the good guys
fighting against the warmongering Empire. In New Century Zero,
even though the war has long ended, the reigning Zoids Battle Commission has
a number of Republic units like the Ultrasaurus that appear like
heirlooms from the Guardian Force before them. In the Battle Story,
however, the Republic is painted with a little more moral gray.
This is Ray Gregg. If the Battle Story would get an anime, this would
be our main character for sure. He pilots the Shield Liger DCS-J
and is an ace pilot who has been awarded the title of Leo Master.
In the story, he goes behind enemy line with a squad and
discovers the Empire is cooking up trouble with some new Zoids.
His unit is discovered and attacked by the Empire! In the chaos,
Ray hijacks one of these prototype Zoids and pilots
it himself, retreating back to home base with
it and stealing it for his side. This Zoid is the Liger
Zero and becomes not only Ray's new Zoid, but a
shining symbol of the Republic thereafter.
The first episode of Zoids New Century mirrors this, with Bit inexplicably
being kidnapped by the Blitz Team's Liger Zero after he
compliments it for how cool it is.
"Ray Gregg"
**Mind Control**
Sometimes you will see Zoids from the Republic be used by the
Empire and vise versa. Sometimes it's a voluntary betrayal and other times
it is a case of confiscation of enemy tech. But whenever you
see THIS face, you can bet there's something fishy going on.
This is Reese from Zoids: Guardian Force. She's a twisted girl
who likes to see how other people respond to her mind games.
In some cases she has been able to manipulate people into fighting against their own.
Having taken over the mind of Karl Schubaltz, it was up to his younger
brother Thomas to stop him from enacting her plans.
"Reese"
**Command Wolf**
Irvine is THE GOAT. THE OG. He was the main supporting character to Van and Fiona who piloted
the Command Wolf. He was such a successful
character that he pioneered the trope of there always being a
supporting character who pilots Command Wolf. We saw it with
Brad of New Century Zero and then Helmut from Fuzors.
Genesis was the only anime to break this mold,
albeit with the mentor character Ra Kan using a different kind wolf Zoid.
People were surprised that I didn't draw Irvine with the Lightning
Saix because he is canonically the first person
to have piloted one, but this black and red version of the Zoid
is literally called the Command Wolf Irvine.
Irvine put this Zoid on the map and,
truly, one could say his version is more iconic than the base unit itself!
"Irvine"
Brad is iconic. He is the second main character to pilot a
Command Wolf. His version is the blue Command Wolf AC and
he uses it for most of the story until he comes across a
mysterious new Zoid called the Shadow Fox.
Now, while this has never been my favorite Zoid, I will say that the
Shadow Fox got THE single best introduction of any
Zoid in any series ever. EVER. They make this thing look
SO COOL and it's been everyone else's favorite Zoid thereafter.
The animation studio absolutely cooked, nailing every attribute of the Zoid's design and cleverly
creating scenarios to bring out its fuctionality in organic scenes.
We all know that the whole point of the Zoids Anime was to sell the toys but, man,
they really outdid themselves with the Shadow Fox.
"Brad Hunter"
**Ancient Treasure Zi**
I'd like to touch on Zoids Wild one more time. I found out today that the
English Dub for it IS NOT free on Netflix anymore.
They took it off and I actually feel bad about that because, now,
I'm not sure there is legal way to watch it anymore.
This is the fate of all the Zoids anime and, even though I
have a lot of complaints about how the English localization
team butchered so many of the naming conventions
for the sake of censorship for kids,
I'm especially sad that this has happened to Zoids Wild in particular.
In the original Japanese version of Zoids Wild, most of the
characters were named after food. Bacon,
Candy, Onigiri... TRUFFLE. There were only a few
characters who didn't; most notably
Arashi the protagonist, his rival Drake and
THIS GUY. His name in the original is Gallagher.
After some Google searching, I came to find he
was named after a comedian whose
signature routine involved him smashing watermelons.
That was a very creative way to subvert the naming convention.
He runs a criminal organization called the Death Metal Empire.
Gallagher and his subordinates have a very clear design
language based around heavy metal, punk rock and clowns.
It's a very specific iconography
with a name that references both the music genre and, well, the fact
that they're terrorists in a mech anime.
The translators wanted to soften it up from Death Metal to Dark Metal.
I think in the original version, the foot soldiers were referred to as
Deletors so, in the translation, they doubled down
and changed the villain names from foods like Caviar into
computer references like Malware. It was hit or miss but, for me,
the biggest miss was how they changed Gallagher himself.
His English name? Gigaboss.
Gigabyte + Boss = A major downgrade. The original name was clever and I
think held a much better presence. Hail Galagher, not Gigaboss.
Slap subtitles over Gigaboss.
I think Zoids Wild had a bad time with trying to get
a good footing overseas. It DID get toy releases
and it DID get an English version of the Switch
Game but that didn't seem to be enough.
Especially not with Covid destroying its chances to market itself.
Zoids have persisted for 40 years and many of those
years have been spent quietly building up for another try.
We'll be back one day and, until then, the series will live strong in the
hearts of those who have never forgotten them.
"Gallagher"
**Zoids: Generations**
Zoids Genesis never had a manga alternative but
there was this special visual novel that was part of
Dangeki Hobby Magazine called Zoids Generations.
It was later compiled together and released into its own book.
Though I own it, I haven't read through it yet with
a translator but it seems to parallel a lot of what Genesis did.
Bio Zoids are back at it but now with a hot new version of the Liger Zero called the
LIGER BLUE SOUGA to contend with and his even
hotter pilot named MIDORI to be the lead character of the story.
Liger Zero is my favorite Liger and you really can never have
enough armors for this thing. I honestly like the
Gosuko Myoko CAS a lot more than the Murasame Liger.
It's a lot more on the nose with the
Samurai motif in its design but that makes it more charming and really
leans into the theme that this era of Zoids was going for.
His colors are also so beautiful.
The Blue frame with the green caps is music to my eyes.
I actually DO have the model of this thing and Midori was the
first girl figure I ever got. The blade came to me b
roken and I have never fixed it, so I've yet to take any
formal photos of it so it's been collecting dust on my shelf. But it DOES look really
cool and is one of my centerpieces in my collection.
"Midori"
**Anna Thales**
She is another character from the Battle Story who is the childhood friend ( and love interest? ) of Wolff Morua.
Her Zoid of choice is the Death Stinger KFD, a heavily modified version of the original terror on 8 legs.
She has a few appearances in video games, most notably Full Metal Crash where she likes to pop up
in the tournament mode. It's a tough fight and she's really good at ruining my win streaks.
"Anna Thales"
**The Delusion War Records**
The Zoids Webcomic is a hidden gem of media. I've always known
of its existence but never got to see it when it came out
because it was only available on Takara Tomy's website and
I was a dumb kid with no idea how to get to it, let alone to translate it.
It was taken down decades ago and lives on in memory of those who actually saw it,
with a WIP partial translation on The Iron Bible.
It's a flash comic that I think has sounds and some animated
panels that come into frame like a PowerPoint slideshow. Groovy stuff.
This is Celica Lucraft and her Heavy Arms Konig Wolf. Iron Bible recounts
that she was meant to be the main character of the story but was ultimately
decided to be the support to a little kid character. Me, personally, I'm
all for a female lead if they build her right and give her cool things to do.
The Heavy Arms Konig Wolf comes with a DVD that I'm pretty sure HAS
the webcomic on it and, one day, that will be mine!!
"Celica Lucraft"
**Horror of the Past**
What kind of Zoids Anniversary would this be if I didn't
highlight the original villain of the anime,
THE DEATH SAURER and the maniacal man who
was so hungry for power that he brought this
legendary beast of destruction back to life to get it.
Chaotic Century is the first of the anime and it definitely shows its age
with the animation and the audio of the voice work, so it's never been my
favorite and doesn't have very many Zoids in it that I like.
Death Saurer and the Geno types that are derived from its DNA
are the exceptions to the rule and absolutely CRUSH every scene that they're in.
MAN was this a fun freaking drawing. I often use a mix of pencils and pens,
which really helped me to create the impression
of the Charged Particle Cannon.
" Gunther Prozen"
**Hope for the Future**
We've made it to the end of the road, this is the final piece of the Zoids
40th Anniversary Inktober Celebration.
Who is this girl and what kind of a Zoid is that?
This is Juno from the Gameboy Advance JRPG called Zoids Legacy ( Zoids Saga II in Japan ).
The Zoid here is not a Zoid in the typical sense.
It is a type of mechanical life form known as an
Organoid that can form symbiotic bonds with Zoids and people to
increase their capabilities with miraculous power.
This one is a rare Leopard type Organoid named Pulse.
Juno and Pulse are relics from Ancient times who, together
with the main hero of the story, unlock the power to save
both the past and the future from the forces of evil.
With their collective might, they inspire heroes from across time
to join their cause and fight to protect the peace of what is, what was and what is yet to come.
This franchise has existed for 40 years incarnating as toys that can amuse children with
a current of media that tells stories about them so compelling that even
adults relish in their lore. I am so proud to have been able to do this series
and I hope that these works of art will be remembered in the history of Zoids...
of the Zoids 40th anniversary, and was requested by Zoid.us.
Please be sure to drop by his instagram!
https://www.instagram.com/crestco273/
**ZOIDS: Chaotic Century**
I love Zoids and with this year ( 2024 ) being the 40th Anniversary of the
series, I want to use Inktober to pay
homage to my favorite franchise.
My goal is to cover all of the main anime and, if I'm lucky, some extras.
We're starting off with Van, Fiona and the Blade Liger.
These are the protagonists of the first anime, called Zoids: Chaotic Century
in the English dub since it was aired on
Toonami AFTER New Century Zero, which was just called "Zoids"
in English. As far as Japan goes, though, the Blade Liger is the real poster boy for the Zoids
Anime so the 40th Anniversary logo features
it instead of the Gojulas, Shield Liger or Liger Zero.
"Van and Fiona"
**Raven**
This is the OG of Zoids who has pioneered the trend of there always
being an
antagonist in the anime who rides a full metal dinosaur.
Raven in particular represents the opposition of the hero's world
view and to teach him
painful lessons to sharpen him into someone who has the
strength to fight for the world he wants to see.
The Geno Saurer, to me, is the face of the NJR.
It was the first completely original Zoid
to be created and ushered in a
new suite of design language for Zoids based around the understanding
of dinosaurs to be animals that were dynamic and active.
We can thank Jurassic Park for that.
"Raven"
**Zoids: New Century Zero**
This is MY JAM, my all time favorite anime. I grew up watching
Zoids on Toonami every day after school before
I did my homework. Bit Cloud and the Liger Zero are my childhood.
Liger Zero, in particular, is the best Liger.
The Changing Armor System gives it the ability to
transform into new versions of itself to adapt to different combat situations.
The anime provides us with the big three
( Jager, Schneider and Panzer ) but,
to all of us Zoiders, that's really only the tip of the iceberg.
Between Takara Tomy themselves and all of the fan communities,
the sky is the limit for the Liger Zero.
It can do and be anything. Unlimited Potential, baby.
"Bit Cloud"
**The Ultimate X**
I have a love hate relationship with the Berserk Fuhrer and, by that,
I mean he's EXTREMELY cool
but I really like him as an enemy Zoid.
It's not a Zoid that I would ever see myself wanting to pilot.
Berserk Fuhrer is the perfect rival Zoid.
Going as far back as my childhood, my brother really took a
shining to this Zoid and I still remember one
Christmas where we both got two big Zoids. My brother got the
Berserk Fuhrer and, for me, the Zoid was the Dark Spiner.
This was in the years where Jurassic Park 3
was still all the rage and Spinosaurus
was my favorite dinosaur. In that film,
this was the ultimate dueling pair.
Later in my life, I became privy to the world of online
roleplay where you could have real
Zoid Battles take place in your DMs with
people and that there were entire forum servers dedicated to this activity.
That was MY LIFE for a long time and I met a lot of people this way and my
favorite opponents were always in a Fuhrer of some form.
And who can blame them? The anime absolutely cooked with how they presented
the Berserk Fuhrer and the pilot being basically
your average Online Gamer kid was the cherry on top. Iconic.
The final battle between Bit and Vega is absolute PEAK ZOIDS.
"Vega Obscura"
**ZOIDS: Fuzors**
The 3rd Zoids anime is better than it gets credit for
, but let's just say the reputation it got didn't
fall out of the sky. Nevertheless, I love Zoids Fuzors.
I'll admit that I didn't watch very much of it on television when
I was a kid ( probably because of the
time slot it aired ) but, make no mistake,
the TOYS that came out to go alongside it? That was it.
The Zoids BLOX ( or Z-Builders, if you will ) are to this day still my favorites.
The very first Zoid that I built on my own without help from
my dad or my brother was the Mosasledge. So easy even
I can do it, right? Well after that I built the Unenlagia,
the Nightwise and the Leo Blaze.
I adored these Zoids, mixing and matching their parts to turn
them into whole kaiju or whatever monstrocities I could come up with.
They took the variability of the Liger Zero's CAS System and tripled down on it.
You don't even have to be stuck as ONE kind of animal with these new Zoids.
But it doesn't stop there. The BLOX can combine with the normal Zoids,
too, turning into weapon systems and even armor for them.
This is RD and his version of the Liger Zero.
When it combines with a giant Blox Zoid called the
Fire Phoenix, it becomes the Liger Zero Phoenix aka THE NEW BEST THING.
The Fuzors anime could have done better selling how cool
this version of the Liger Zero is but, luckily,
there was no shortage of video games to do the heavy lifting.
LZ Phoenix is SO cool. Definitely my favorite liger to this day.
"RD"
**Savage Hammer**
This guy is not my favorite antagonist but that's mainly because
his anime wasn't rolling out a lot of good character writing but the
potential WAS there and he is one of the more interesting people in his story.
He hates RD and wants nothing more than to humiliate him to get
revenge for losing to him. The big twist is that his boss actually
sabotaged his Zoid, leading to him losing.
He had been manipulated into hating RD. The anime does show
Blake to fight alongside RD to take down the real
crazies of the story in the end,
but I think they could have done more to show off Blake's layers.
He was always the strong, silent type ...until he wanted
to talk trash to RD. He likes doing that.
But GAIRYUKI?
Top tier Zoid. Makes Top 3 every time and has the other
two sweating bullets for their spots.
Anyone who knows me even a little knows how much I rock with this thing.
Take everything I said about Liger Zero Phoenix and
everything about the BLOX Zoids. Multiply it by 3 and wrap
it in a burrito to keep it hot.
I recently found out that the Gairyuki was a Zoid which Takara
Tomy designed as part of the 20th Anniversary of Zoids.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. FLAWLESS, SHINGING VICTORY DRAGON.
"Blake"
**Zoids: Genesis**
The fourth anime, Zoids Genesis, is the one that got away. It HAD an
English Dub get made and it was SUPPOSED to be a part of the
Toonami Jetstream online broadcast but, mysteriously, it never showed up.
I even met with the voice actor Darrel Gilbeau ( ENG Voice for Seijoru )
who confirmed to me that, yes,
it WAS a thing he worked on.
The theory is that it became lost due to copyright licensing issues between the
different entities who worked on distributing it?
Word is that some countries did manage to get it streamed out but many
others did not and there was no
DVD release for it. It just... disappeared.
So Japanese with Subtitles is the only reliable way to go and, to this day
, I have never watched it ALL THE WAY through but I have seen most of it.
It is definitely a much more somber anime than
Zero or Fuzors and has a whole 50
Episode run that is paced more like Chaotic
Century, taking time to build some good characters while also handling some
realistic politics behind the war that takes place. It's also the most fantasy
Zoids has ever been, too. I've heard people compare
Zoids Genesis to Avatar the Last Airbender and, honestly, the shoe fits.
Our hero is Ruuji and he pilots the
new Murasame Liger. Murasame is pretty unique.
When I first saw it, I called it a "Gundam Liger"
for how its armor is shaped and colored but, stranger still,
it has a literal Katana Sword that sits on an articulated arm. The engineering of the
Murasame Sword is VERY cool and original.
I guess, in the end, it's kind of weird that the Murasame
feels so high-tech and advanced but is
also oddly old-fashioned in a sense.
The setting of the Genesis anime is in
a post-apocalyptic Planet Zi where
humanity has been reset to a sort of dark ages.
The Zoids still exist and are equipped with weaponry
that makes them look fit for a DND Campaign.
It's a very different place to take Zoids that has a charm to
it that is probably not everyone's cup of tea.
"Ruuji Familon"
**Bio Zoid**
Zoids Genesis was unique for introducing the Bio Zoids. All of them were dinosaurs,
all of them were piloted by the villains of the story who were waging war
against the world and all of them had armor that was invincible
to all weapons except one; Metal Zi.
They are the reason why the other
Zoids are all using traditional weaponry.
The beams, lasers and charged particles of old don't work on the new Bio Zoids.
Also, interestingly enough, all of the older
dinosaur Zoids like the Geno Saurer
and Berserk Fuhrer seem to be extinct in the Zoids Genesis lore.
But this one here, the Bio Volcano, stands
heads and shoulders above the rest and is
honestly one of my all time favorite Zoids despite being SO unusual.
The usual Bio Zoids have silver armor but the Volcano sports a deep
crimson shell with violet crystal spikes jutting out of it in all directions.
It just looks like some kind of an evil dragon in such a cool way.
If the Bio Megaraptor was the Geno Saurer of
Zoids Genesis, this here is the Geno Breaker.
It is a Megaraptor type Zoid ( an old interpretation of the animal, it would need a redesign to be
consistent with what modern Paleontology says a Megaraptor looks like )
and is the first time that a rival character from an anime
pilots something that is not a Tyrannosaurus.
The pilot, Zairin, is a fantastic character and probably
the only one who can give Raven a run for his money. Unfortunately for him,
Zoids Genesis didn't get nearly the exposure Chaotic Century did so Raven
will always be ahead of him with popularity. BUT I'LL STAND BY HIM.
" Zairin de Zaltz"
**Zoids Wild**
After Zoids Fuzors got poor reception that put the franchise in a free fall and Zoids
Genesis did its disappearing act, things were quiet for a long time.
For 13 years, it seemed that the only people who wanted anything to do with Zoids
was Kotobukiya for their HMM Zoids line. But, one fantastic summer,
Takara Tomy announced that ZOIDS is back.
Zoids Wild made its dynamic entry in 2018 with the Wild Liger and his goofy rider Arashi.
This was supposed to be the grand rebirth of the franchise and, while it DID make it
state side ( check Netflix ), it suffered a lot and
was not able to live up to Takara Tomy's agenda.
It was different and a lot of people didn't like it. I did...until I didn't.
I have a love hate relationship with this series because
I wanted it to be so much more than it was.
It was too childish for me until it wasn't.
It had nuggets of really cool ideas sprinkled onto a cake
that could have stayed in the oven a little longer.
It reminded me the most of Monster Hunter Stories and How to Train
Your Dragon, both of which are excellent things,
which is why I was able to handle its radical changes as well as I did0.
I saw the vision and I liked where they were
going with it, I just didn't always get to enjoy the ride
because I wasn't the intended
audience for this new version of Zoids.
The Manga is really funny, though, having more freedom to really
LEAN IN to the weird goofy art style. It's aggressively different from everything before it.
"Arashi"
**Zoids Wild: Zero**
While the previous series was good with the kids, older fans of Zoids were put
off by just HOW different the new Zoids were.
The solution was to make Zoids Wild Zero. The reboot of the reboot.
Zoids are back to being big Mecha that people pilot from inside
of cockpits to engage in war with each other.
The characters are not all named after FOOD anymore, their designs are much more
conservative and the overall tone of the narrative is much less light-hearted.
The developers were going for a feel like it was spiritual
successor to Chaotic Century but using the Zoids Wild units.
I think they did TOO GOOD of a job, imitating too many of
Chaotic Century's original blueprints.
The main character, Leo Conrad, pilots the Beast
Liger which is an improvement of the liger from
Arashi's time that evolves into something called a Rising Liger
after being defeated by a Zoid called Genospino.
What's more, Leo befriends a young girl with no memories of her past
( who iirc IS AN ANCIENT ZOIDIAN ) named Sally.
Zoids Wild was supposed to be the one to bring the
franchise worldwide for a return to form
. It didn't exactly manage to do that but it
was a success in Japan and sparked a new generation of fans for the franchise.
It is a lot of things, but Zoids Wild was no failure.
I think this statement applies to Drake as well. He reminds me a lot of Blake with
his overall demeanor and his character story.
In fact, his Zoid, the Gilraptor ( named Ruin in the ENG Dub ) embodies the
combined traits of all the previous Zoids series.
Being a Deinonychus type, this is the second time a rival
character is piloting a Raptor instead of a Tyrannosaurus.
The new design philosophy of the ZW line features
bio mechanical skeletons that are very reminiscent
of the Bio Zoids but, in this instance,
the skeleton goes UNDERNEATH the armor and weaponry.
This feels like it comes from Zoids Genesis.
The Gilraptor's armor is a bright cherry red to signify that it's an
Imperial unit or, otherwise, a "bad guy" Zoid.
The head, shoulders and hips are all equipped with armor while the
rest of the biomechanical chassis is exposed for flexibility's sake.
It makes sense functionally to be like this but, when you look at it,
it does come across looking like a toy because of the
saturation of the armor. In this way, it reminds me of Zoids Fuzors.
The Blox Zoids, as cool as they were to me, were really good at looking
and feeling like the toys they are and the Zoids Wild kits followed suit there.
The Wild Blast and Death Blast gimmicks are
power-up forms that unlock the hidden weapons stored inside the bodies of the Zoids.
In the case of Gilraptor, specifically
, these are twin death scythes that fold out from the backpack unit.
The presence of this power in the anime is pretty reminiscent of how
Van and Raven would use their Organoids to
improve the strength of their Zoids.
The actual STORY of Zoids Wild is pretty loose. It probably
resembles Zoids Genesis the most with how
the heroes are trying to stop a rising superpower
but what really stands out is that the characters are organized into Teams.
There are no organized battles like New Century but the fact we have a
Team Freedom, Team Supreme and
Death Metal is reminiscent of the setup from that anime before.
This time it's just a lot more like gang warfare than
anything close to organized competition. It makes me
wish there could have been a couple more
teams to shake things up with clashing ideologies and agendas.
Zoids Wild caught a lot of flack for being so different from the
previous series but I think, on closer inspection, there's
a lot more familiar DNA in these Zoids than
people would like to give it credit for. Zoids Wild is still Zoids.
"Drake"
I think they overcorrected and ended up with an anime that is
honestly my least favorite of them all despite being the newest one.
It feels a lot less original than it should and the new
art direction led to them choosing a more classical
soundscape for the OST, with an OP theme that didn't slap nearly as hard as any
of the ones used for Arashi's story.
You can feel the difference when a chunk of the budget
isn't spent on the music alone, because Penguin Research
was throwing out banger after banger for Zoids Wild.
The character I decided to draw is Jo Aysel. She is not the main character
of the story, more comparable to Moonbay from Chaotic Century,
but she's the one who I remember most for her attractive design.
I haven't watched it much, but I do know she has a cute
personality to match. She calls her Zoid "Rap-Chan", after all.
"Jo Aysel"
**Zoids: Battle Legends**
Now that I was able to cover all 6 of the major anime, we can celebrate with some style.
From here on, you're going to be seeing more than just characters from the anime because
Zoids is a 40-year-old franchise and I am a big fan. It's time to REALLY get cooking!
Zoids Battle Legends is one of my absolute all-time favorite videogames.
Hard stop, bar none. It's a relic from the Nintendo GameCube
that I guarantee you is the reason I didn't forget Zoids.
There were a number of games from this era that loved to take the anime
and the surrounding media, smash them together
and really charge the imagination with
endless combinations of characters and zoids being thrown into the mix. On top of that, each
game would create its own cast of characters to add to the roster.
This is Kouki, lead character of the Empire Mission Mode campaign with his special Helcat Noir.
He is a new recruit to the Rottiger Team, a task force within the
Guylos Empire whose mission is to snuff out insurrectionists within the faction.
The game's story revolves around their investigation into a mysterious entity called Terra Geist.
"Kouki"
**Xenorex**
Zoids Wild ended with a whisper and, on its way out,
introduced my favorite new Zoid; the XENOREX.
This thing is absolutely wicked in all of the best ways.
It feels to me like a spiritual successor to the Gairyuki, being the
Helic Republic's shining light who rears its head
at the end of the war. Interestingly for me,
the Xenorex has attributes that remind me
both of my belvoed Blox and the Liger Zero at the same time.
Xenorex is canonically an extraterrestrial Zoid that
has a powerup called a Xeno Evolution System.
It is a medium sized Zoid but, after activating its power, grows into
a much larger unit. In this state, the Xenorex can be
equipped with special weapon units that are
reminiscent of the Liger Zero's CAS system.
It made its first media appearance in Zoids Wild Senki, a
YouTube Original anime that has 6 Episodes.
It was mysteriously cut short ( I think by Covid ).
On the the front of plot and characters, Senki doesn't have a
lot to show but it was jam packed with amazingly
animated fight scenes. Some of the best in the entire series!
Senki introduced the first two armor sets;
Xenorex Scissors ( a close-combat specialist equipped with
X-Breakers that make it effectively a Republic Geno Breaker )
and the Xenorex Buster ( basically LZ Panzer ).
So who's the kid? His name is Tetsuro and he's the
protagonist of the CoroCoro Manga titled Zoids Wild 2+.
It only has one volume, but the art style is the same as the previous Zoids
Wild series and is excellent at balancing insane humor with cool action shots.
Tetsuro is a member of the ZIB who secretly investigates
Zoid incidents. Basically Men in Black. In this world,
portals to another world have been opening up
and strange new Zoids like the Xenorex have been coming out of them.
A third armor set for the Xenorex came out as part of the Zoids Biographies line.
These limited edition units were mainly character
special models from the Zoids Wild Zero anime,
but the very last unit was called Xenorex Storm XA.
Based off of the Storm Sworder, this unit has massive wings to be an unit that can function both
in the air and on land much like the Liger Zero Phoenix.
"Tetsuro"
**The Battle Story**
The Zoids that I grew up with are actually the 2nd generation
of Zoids known as the New Japanese Release
( NJR ) that lasted from 1999 to about 2006. The Japanese versions of
the toys usually came with a lot of text on their boxes
detailing the lore of the war between
the Republic and the Empire. This is what's known as THE BATTLE STORY.
Though there was never an explicit adaptation of the Battle
Story in an Anime or Manga form, there are several
named characters and this here is one of the most infamous.
His name is Wolff Morua and he is the heir to the throne of the Empire.
He is a powerful warrior who splinters
the Empire to remake it for his own ideals, creating a third faction that overtakes
both the Old Empire and the Republic!
"Wolff Muroa"
**Kotona Elegance**
You know the trope of the IT GIRL? Tha
t hostess with the mostest that every girl wants
to be and every guy wants to be with? Well. You're looking at her.
Kotona Elegance from Zoids Genesis and her pretty bird the Rainbow Jerk. It's such a unique
Zoid, the only peafowl type to date so it's only natural that they give
her this banger of a pilot to help sell her toy.
And, speaking of toys, there are MULTIPLE figures of
Kotona and I have none of them. But, trust.
This girl has a NENDOROID figure. She's that big.
She's not MY favorite girl personally but if I tried to tell
you she was not the most popular one, I'd be telling a lie.
Maybe it's because of when Genesis came out relative to the Internet
and the people on it, but Kotona has the most Fanart
I've seen thus far so you KNOW I had to join the bandwagon.
"Kotona Elegance"
**The Red Comet**
Naomi Fluegel from Zoids New Century Zero is iconic as
hell and unforgettable. I almost chose
Pierce from the same series to be like a rival to Kotona,
since they both use flying Zoids, but I couldn't skip
NAOMI for this anniversary series. This is the first time I've actually
gone about drawing her and it feels really good to pull it
off because she really is one of my favorites.
Naomi pilots a signature Red Gunsniper and earned herself a
reputation as a top class warrior.
No one could get within 100 yards of her without being shot down.
It's nice for a Zoid like the Gunsniper, which is generally regarded to be
one of the weaker Zoids, to have an ace pilot behind the stick to
show off what it can really do when it is in the right hands.
Naomi was only defeated a total of three times, twice by main characters on the
Blitz Team and once through
underhanded means from the Backdraft Group. She leaves a lasting impression.
"Naomi Fluegel"
**Weasel Unit Total Assault!!**
...I think Leena is actually my favorite, guys.
She's such a terrible person and she's not even a very good Zoid
warrior but Leena is such a FUN character!
She is unapologetically overblown in every conceivable way.
"Leena Toros"
**The Backdraft Group**
Today was a bit of a bad start for me but I managed
to beat the odds and crank out today's
piece. It's a surprise even to myself because
this man wasn't originally on my list and here he is out of nowhere!
This is Polta of the Backdraft Group, a shady organization that breaks
the rules of the Zoids Battle Commission
to stage unsanctioned battles where the stakes are raised to insanity.
They're the main antagonists of Zoids New Century,
using primarily Imperial Units like Helcat and
Saber Tiger that are heavily modified.
As the show progresses, they bring out new units that weren't in the
previous anime like the War Shark and the Zabat.
Their pride and glory, is the invincible Elephander. It is one of only a handful of elephant type Zoids
and, in my opinion, the best one that we've seen.
"The Backdraft Group"
**Guylos Empire**
The Guylos Empire is a primary world power on Planet Zi, rivaled by the
Helic Republic in a bipolar world order. In the anime, Guylos
is largely depicted to be the bad guys in the narrative.
Their leader is a genuine villain who is at least implied to
be the aggressor in the war if memory is serving me correctly,
but Chaotic Century does make it a point to display that they're not all like that.
This is Karl Schubaltz, a decorated soldier of the Guylos army
that is just trying to fight for his country although he is well
known for piloting a signature
Iron Kong, Shcubaltz's first appearances show him in a custom Saber Tiger
with a unique code of paint a Gattling Gun on it.
Saber Tiger is another one of those Zoids that gets underrepresented in the Zoids media.
Sure we see them all over the place, but they're usually
serving as measuring sticks for another Zoid's power and
routinely being beaten up by all manner of Zoids.
There's plot armor and then
there's whatever the Tiger's having. I feel like the only time the
Zoid really got to shine was when Raven had one.
There was the Holotech Zaber in Zoids Fuzors but, in that
setting, it didn't feel right for the Zoid to be able to punch up on
Fuzors just because it could turn invisible.
When I was doing this series, I really wanted to showcase the Saber
Tiger vs Shield Liger rivalry but I didn't want to draw
Van and Raven more than once. Choosing
Karl allows me to pay homage to the Saber
Tiger with the suped up version of the
Zoid that comes with an adult soldier pilot who doubles as
being a very popular character.
Justice for the Tiger.
"Karl Schubaltz"
**Helic Republic**
The Helic Republic the major faction of the war on Planet Zi. I say major because it doesn't
splinter the way that the Empire does. Most of their Zoids use the colors
Blue, White and Orange so we can call them BLUE TEAM.
The Chaotic Century anime shows them to be the good guys
fighting against the warmongering Empire. In New Century Zero,
even though the war has long ended, the reigning Zoids Battle Commission has
a number of Republic units like the Ultrasaurus that appear like
heirlooms from the Guardian Force before them. In the Battle Story,
however, the Republic is painted with a little more moral gray.
This is Ray Gregg. If the Battle Story would get an anime, this would
be our main character for sure. He pilots the Shield Liger DCS-J
and is an ace pilot who has been awarded the title of Leo Master.
In the story, he goes behind enemy line with a squad and
discovers the Empire is cooking up trouble with some new Zoids.
His unit is discovered and attacked by the Empire! In the chaos,
Ray hijacks one of these prototype Zoids and pilots
it himself, retreating back to home base with
it and stealing it for his side. This Zoid is the Liger
Zero and becomes not only Ray's new Zoid, but a
shining symbol of the Republic thereafter.
The first episode of Zoids New Century mirrors this, with Bit inexplicably
being kidnapped by the Blitz Team's Liger Zero after he
compliments it for how cool it is.
"Ray Gregg"
**Mind Control**
Sometimes you will see Zoids from the Republic be used by the
Empire and vise versa. Sometimes it's a voluntary betrayal and other times
it is a case of confiscation of enemy tech. But whenever you
see THIS face, you can bet there's something fishy going on.
This is Reese from Zoids: Guardian Force. She's a twisted girl
who likes to see how other people respond to her mind games.
In some cases she has been able to manipulate people into fighting against their own.
Having taken over the mind of Karl Schubaltz, it was up to his younger
brother Thomas to stop him from enacting her plans.
"Reese"
**Command Wolf**
Irvine is THE GOAT. THE OG. He was the main supporting character to Van and Fiona who piloted
the Command Wolf. He was such a successful
character that he pioneered the trope of there always being a
supporting character who pilots Command Wolf. We saw it with
Brad of New Century Zero and then Helmut from Fuzors.
Genesis was the only anime to break this mold,
albeit with the mentor character Ra Kan using a different kind wolf Zoid.
People were surprised that I didn't draw Irvine with the Lightning
Saix because he is canonically the first person
to have piloted one, but this black and red version of the Zoid
is literally called the Command Wolf Irvine.
Irvine put this Zoid on the map and,
truly, one could say his version is more iconic than the base unit itself!
"Irvine"
Brad is iconic. He is the second main character to pilot a
Command Wolf. His version is the blue Command Wolf AC and
he uses it for most of the story until he comes across a
mysterious new Zoid called the Shadow Fox.
Now, while this has never been my favorite Zoid, I will say that the
Shadow Fox got THE single best introduction of any
Zoid in any series ever. EVER. They make this thing look
SO COOL and it's been everyone else's favorite Zoid thereafter.
The animation studio absolutely cooked, nailing every attribute of the Zoid's design and cleverly
creating scenarios to bring out its fuctionality in organic scenes.
We all know that the whole point of the Zoids Anime was to sell the toys but, man,
they really outdid themselves with the Shadow Fox.
"Brad Hunter"
**Ancient Treasure Zi**
I'd like to touch on Zoids Wild one more time. I found out today that the
English Dub for it IS NOT free on Netflix anymore.
They took it off and I actually feel bad about that because, now,
I'm not sure there is legal way to watch it anymore.
This is the fate of all the Zoids anime and, even though I
have a lot of complaints about how the English localization
team butchered so many of the naming conventions
for the sake of censorship for kids,
I'm especially sad that this has happened to Zoids Wild in particular.
In the original Japanese version of Zoids Wild, most of the
characters were named after food. Bacon,
Candy, Onigiri... TRUFFLE. There were only a few
characters who didn't; most notably
Arashi the protagonist, his rival Drake and
THIS GUY. His name in the original is Gallagher.
After some Google searching, I came to find he
was named after a comedian whose
signature routine involved him smashing watermelons.
That was a very creative way to subvert the naming convention.
He runs a criminal organization called the Death Metal Empire.
Gallagher and his subordinates have a very clear design
language based around heavy metal, punk rock and clowns.
It's a very specific iconography
with a name that references both the music genre and, well, the fact
that they're terrorists in a mech anime.
The translators wanted to soften it up from Death Metal to Dark Metal.
I think in the original version, the foot soldiers were referred to as
Deletors so, in the translation, they doubled down
and changed the villain names from foods like Caviar into
computer references like Malware. It was hit or miss but, for me,
the biggest miss was how they changed Gallagher himself.
His English name? Gigaboss.
Gigabyte + Boss = A major downgrade. The original name was clever and I
think held a much better presence. Hail Galagher, not Gigaboss.
Slap subtitles over Gigaboss.
I think Zoids Wild had a bad time with trying to get
a good footing overseas. It DID get toy releases
and it DID get an English version of the Switch
Game but that didn't seem to be enough.
Especially not with Covid destroying its chances to market itself.
Zoids have persisted for 40 years and many of those
years have been spent quietly building up for another try.
We'll be back one day and, until then, the series will live strong in the
hearts of those who have never forgotten them.
"Gallagher"
**Zoids: Generations**
Zoids Genesis never had a manga alternative but
there was this special visual novel that was part of
Dangeki Hobby Magazine called Zoids Generations.
It was later compiled together and released into its own book.
Though I own it, I haven't read through it yet with
a translator but it seems to parallel a lot of what Genesis did.
Bio Zoids are back at it but now with a hot new version of the Liger Zero called the
LIGER BLUE SOUGA to contend with and his even
hotter pilot named MIDORI to be the lead character of the story.
Liger Zero is my favorite Liger and you really can never have
enough armors for this thing. I honestly like the
Gosuko Myoko CAS a lot more than the Murasame Liger.
It's a lot more on the nose with the
Samurai motif in its design but that makes it more charming and really
leans into the theme that this era of Zoids was going for.
His colors are also so beautiful.
The Blue frame with the green caps is music to my eyes.
I actually DO have the model of this thing and Midori was the
first girl figure I ever got. The blade came to me b
roken and I have never fixed it, so I've yet to take any
formal photos of it so it's been collecting dust on my shelf. But it DOES look really
cool and is one of my centerpieces in my collection.
"Midori"
**Anna Thales**
She is another character from the Battle Story who is the childhood friend ( and love interest? ) of Wolff Morua.
Her Zoid of choice is the Death Stinger KFD, a heavily modified version of the original terror on 8 legs.
She has a few appearances in video games, most notably Full Metal Crash where she likes to pop up
in the tournament mode. It's a tough fight and she's really good at ruining my win streaks.
"Anna Thales"
**The Delusion War Records**
The Zoids Webcomic is a hidden gem of media. I've always known
of its existence but never got to see it when it came out
because it was only available on Takara Tomy's website and
I was a dumb kid with no idea how to get to it, let alone to translate it.
It was taken down decades ago and lives on in memory of those who actually saw it,
with a WIP partial translation on The Iron Bible.
It's a flash comic that I think has sounds and some animated
panels that come into frame like a PowerPoint slideshow. Groovy stuff.
This is Celica Lucraft and her Heavy Arms Konig Wolf. Iron Bible recounts
that she was meant to be the main character of the story but was ultimately
decided to be the support to a little kid character. Me, personally, I'm
all for a female lead if they build her right and give her cool things to do.
The Heavy Arms Konig Wolf comes with a DVD that I'm pretty sure HAS
the webcomic on it and, one day, that will be mine!!
"Celica Lucraft"
**Horror of the Past**
What kind of Zoids Anniversary would this be if I didn't
highlight the original villain of the anime,
THE DEATH SAURER and the maniacal man who
was so hungry for power that he brought this
legendary beast of destruction back to life to get it.
Chaotic Century is the first of the anime and it definitely shows its age
with the animation and the audio of the voice work, so it's never been my
favorite and doesn't have very many Zoids in it that I like.
Death Saurer and the Geno types that are derived from its DNA
are the exceptions to the rule and absolutely CRUSH every scene that they're in.
MAN was this a fun freaking drawing. I often use a mix of pencils and pens,
which really helped me to create the impression
of the Charged Particle Cannon.
" Gunther Prozen"
**Hope for the Future**
We've made it to the end of the road, this is the final piece of the Zoids
40th Anniversary Inktober Celebration.
Who is this girl and what kind of a Zoid is that?
This is Juno from the Gameboy Advance JRPG called Zoids Legacy ( Zoids Saga II in Japan ).
The Zoid here is not a Zoid in the typical sense.
It is a type of mechanical life form known as an
Organoid that can form symbiotic bonds with Zoids and people to
increase their capabilities with miraculous power.
This one is a rare Leopard type Organoid named Pulse.
Juno and Pulse are relics from Ancient times who, together
with the main hero of the story, unlock the power to save
both the past and the future from the forces of evil.
With their collective might, they inspire heroes from across time
to join their cause and fight to protect the peace of what is, what was and what is yet to come.
This franchise has existed for 40 years incarnating as toys that can amuse children with
a current of media that tells stories about them so compelling that even
adults relish in their lore. I am so proud to have been able to do this series
and I hope that these works of art will be remembered in the history of Zoids...
"Juno Hera"
Bonus Sketches!
2023 Womens March. 17 Leena Sketch
"2023 Womens March. 17 Leena trim"
"2025 MANuary III. Laon"
"2025 MANuary III. Salt"
"2026 Womens March IV. 17 Asuka Zoids"
"Manuary 2024 14 RD"
"ZF- Geno Nexus"
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