Finally, information about the upcoming Zoids Core Box has dropped! An article was posted by Tower Records, a popular store for Japanese media. The box is scheduled to release mid-to-late December for about 27,500 yen. It's available on Amazon JP as well. Don't forget to factor the AZ Death Saurer into your budget schedule, as it releases only a couple weeks before the Zoid Core box! So, without further ado, let's get into it!

 Zoids Official Fan Books Reprint: Volumes 1 ~ 4 are being reprinted as part of this box!

 Zoids OFB Volume 5! The original story published through CoroCoro and other media is being compiled into a new Zoids Official Fan Book volume 5, which is suggested to contain new information about the story that we've never seen before! It'll also include diorama style images to match the other Official Fan Books, such as this image which is a recreation of the events in the second Official Fan Book EX.

 AZ-02EX Liger Zero Ray Gregg Spec. (Republic Color): The kit being released with this Zoid Core Box is the blue Liger Zero piloted by Ray Gregg. For those who aren't familiar with the battle story, he was one of the most important characters of the NJR era (what this box is based on) and important to the story's conclusion. The kit will come in a blue color, while also including a Ray Gregg pilot figure.

 Panoramic Seismosaurus Poster: A poster originally released through CoroCoro is also being reprinted! It's a neat one to have. The poster is quite small height wise, but still neat. At least, if it's printed at the same size.

 Perfect Visual Clips: Are making a return! This was a DVD in the old Core Box containing commercials and promos. Now, NJR era commercials will be accessible through a code found in the box.

 Big Zoids Expo 2023 Archive Footage: Footage of the Big Zoids Expo will be released in a 3D AR-style format.

 Over the last day or so the AZ-07 Death Saurer has gone up for pre-order! You can find it on other sites, too, not just on Amazon Japan. This kit is scheduled for a late November release for a retail price of 33,000 yen (though many sites are getting it for closer to 27,000) and what a beast it is. There's an overwhelming amount of information to cover on this thing, so let's get started.

 First, the product page. This is the largest product page we've gotten for AZ kits yet, and wow does it go into detail. There's tons of concept art images displayed, discussions about the development process, and beautiful images compiled into a huge gallery. This kit looks amazing. Another concept art image was shown on Twitter a while back.

 Now let's talk features. The AZ Death Saurer comes with a seated Prozen pilot as well as a standing one. Standing pilots are a nice addition for the AZ line. It also comes with a standard pilot, to be seated in the cockpit in the stomach. The Zoid design is updated with more realistic details including a more dinosaur-like posture, the body raised off of the ground, etc. The hydraulics of the legs all move as the Zoid does. It contains LEDs in the core and the Charged Particle Cannon. The Charged Particle Intake Fan has an option part to change it into the Charged Particle Converter as seen in the anime. There's a forward-leaning firing pose meant to mirror the anime.

 The kit also has a Display Mode, which allows you to display it with the LEDs on. This is an awesome idea that I'm really excited about, and will make enjoying the kit so much easier. I've been keeping the AZ kits on my desk, with batteries alternating between my favorites just to swap them on every now and again. I have so much appreciation for the engineering of these kits, as well as how up front staff is about the development process (which is always a fun read.)

 * Some details in this news post have been updated to fix mistakes.

- PV Video

 TakaraTomy has announced a brand new portal site! This is a place to find all the newest information of Zoids, from products to events. This is an exciting development as it implies there's a lot more to come.

 Speaking of that, as of the Death Saurer, the "AZ" in "Anniversary Zoids" has become "Advanced Zi" with Death Saurer listed as the forerunner. What does this mean going forward? It certainly sounds like there might be grand things in store for the Anniversary Zoids, which have been my personal favorite Zoids products to come out in almost two decades. I greatly look forward to seeing where they go in the future.

 We've missed some updates for the Liger Zero Phoenix along the way, too. This post from Zoids Official shows off the BLOX joints, which look quite nice. They also included a neat detail that the armor piece on the face is split into two parts, so you can make it into the white-armored version from the anime or the black-frame version from the original model kits. As a reminder, this kit is up for pre-order in late September for 17,600 yen (tax included.)

- Review Video

- PV Video

 The Liger Zero Phoenix has officially gone up for pre-order! This kit is scheduled to release in September for 17,600 yen (tax included.) It's now up on the TakaraTomy Mall and the usual sites, so be sure to check your favorite stores for an order page. They also introduced it with its own special preview (shown below), which exhibits the various weapons (well, most of them-) of the Fire Phoenix.

- Liger Zero Phoenix PV

 We continue to receive updates on the Anniversary Zero Phoenix. First on the list is a image showing off the flapping wings. Apparently, when connected to the Liger, the Phoenix's wings will flap up and down. Second, the kit will come with adaptors to attach the Zero armor from the AZ-02 Liger Zero. This includes a white canopy part so that you can recreate RD's Liger Zero from Zoids Fuzors, which had white around the ears instead of black. Last but not least, the separated Fire Phoenix (which, by the way, is looking much snazzier in color) will be able to flap its wings when pressing a button on the neck. This is interesting, as we've not had any mechanical non-motorized features in a while.

 Takara Tomy has released the first image of the AZ-07 Death Saurer, along with a nice little teaser video! This variant looks amazing and the posture leans into its dinosaur class. The kit is scheduled for fall of this year, with pre-orders scheduled for April, sooner than we would've anticipated.

- Teaser Video

 Zoids Official has posted the exciting reveal of Project D! First teased in June, we've been waiting to see what would come of this mysterious project, and here it is! Though we've only got a silhouette to start with, it's exciting to see the A-Z Zoids expanded to something outside of the feline genre. I'm sure we're all excitedly waiting for more news!

 Many fans have been wondering what happened to the AZ Liger Zero Phoenix. It was revealed in the first teasers of the AZ line, but Shieldy and Saber jumped the line. Well, Zoids Official finally posted a prototype preview of the AZ Liger Zero Phoenix! We'd heard that it may be complicated to make this Zoid walk in an earlier interview, with all of the added weight, but it seems they've made some good progress. Compared to the original motorized design, the Phoenix armor has been slimmed down a lot, giving it a more streamlined appearance. The kit will also include the option to build the armor into the Fire Phoenix itself!

 Since then we've seen the first full color preview and a look without the armor on. The product info on these images clarifies that the Liger Zero Phoenix has a different gearbox shape from the normal Liger Zero. Because of this change, some connection points differ from the standard Liger Zero. This means that the Phoenix isn't compatible with the AZ-02 Liger Zero. Though this kit doesn't include the base Zero armor (which normally wouldn't be compatible for the same reason), it does include adaptors if you want to transplant armor from an AZ-02 Liger Zero.

 Finally, after so many years, we're getting a Raven specific Saber Tiger! This kit was announced back when the Shield Liger was announced, and we've gotten plenty of images showing off the Raven paint scheme. The kit comes with the same snarling face option parts as the old MPZ, as well as an unpainted Raven and Shadow figure. It's scheduled for release in July for 12,100 yen (tax included.) Its anniversary page can be viewed here.

- Product Review

- PV Video

- Commercial

 The AZ-04 Shield Liger, themed after Bang's Shield Liger from Chaotic Century has been up for pre-order for a while now. It's scheduled for a June release for 11,000 yen (tax included). Like the other A-Z Zoids, it comes with an unpainted pilot figure of Bang, Fine, and Zeke. We've also got some preview videos for it!

- Product Review

- Commercial

 Zoids Official posted a custom of the AZ-01 Blade Liger, based on the Blade Destroy, which featured in Zoids Official Fan Book 2. They did an excellent job with this customization! In addition, the Blade Liger sold so well that it's already up for a rerelease, scheduled to be released again in March.

 The AZ Shield Liger received its own promotional video, this time animated from the perspective of Raven analyzing the Zoid from his Saber Tiger. This was a fun take on the existing promo video style, and it's nice to see the Tiger running around.

- Video

 Zoids Official has confirmed that the AZ-01 Blade Liger, the first Zoid of the series, will be reissued! This is exciting news for folks who didn't get it the first time around, as we all know how much merch is closing in on the wallet right now! Pre-orders are available on the Takara Tomy Mall and the kit is scheduled to release in late March of 2024.

 Though not necessarily news, Zeros have just started shipping out. Product sample photos were posted recently. For those who are expecting Ligers, remember that batteries for the LED claws aren't included by default, so be sure to pick up some LR44s if you want to test out this feature right away.

 A video was posted by TakaraTomy for the AZ-03 Murasame Liger. This shows off the gorgeous colors of this kit. The video uses a finished example (custom detailed) but the color shift as the product turns is incredible. If this is in the physical kit, it will be the first Murasame Liger to actually attempt to come close to the anime colors, with former products being straight blue or seafoam. The video also gives us a good look at the chrome plated Murasame Blade.

- Video

 With the upcoming AZ kits, an article has been added that provides machine translations of Hobby Watch's interview with Takashi Nakase, one of the leading developers of the Zoids franchise. This interview goes into detail about the choices made while creating the AZ-01 Blade Liger, challenges and goals from a toy manufacturing perspective, and discusses upcoming products! I've also went through and added direct links for some of the interviews buried in magazines and such, so you can now find them directly from the Articles page.

 Photos and product information for the AZ-03 Murasame Liger have dropped! Several details have been pointed out about the kit over on Twitter. The Pile Bunkers on the front legs are movable. The eyes and core have LED lights. The cockpit has been modeled after the anime, including a forward-leaning Ruuji figure. The Murasame Blade, which will be chromed, features a telescoping joint and can extend to both sides, unlike the former motorized kit, where it could only extend to the left as part of the spring-loaded gimmick. This kit is scheduled to release in Late January 2024, for 14,300 yen (tax included.) An article from Dengeki Hobby features some additional photos. Earlier on, we saw a teaser of the Murasame Blade which, aside from having the script normally seen along the edge of the blade, also features the 'Murasame' kanji at the base of the blade! Other prototype shots included a face view, a 3/4 view, and a shot with the blade extended.

Bikkuriman Collab

 On April Fools, Zoids Official also posted about a collab with Bikkuriman, a product line from Lotte that focused on collecting stickers that are typically packaged with wafer snacks. During this announcement they mentioned a sticker that showed off Murasame Liger and Super Zeus, Bikkuriman's mascot character. Looks like this sticker will be packaged together with the AZ-01 Murasame Liger when buying through TakaraTomy Mall!

- Review Video

- Preview Featuring Ruuji's VA

 Zoids Official has announced that the RZ-007 Shield Liger and the EZ-016 Saber Tiger will be released as part of the Anniversary Zoids line! Once released as the Masterpiece Zoids, these two kits saw significant price increases after their short release period. We currently don't have any additional information on them, but it's a welcome rerelease, especially for the Saber Tiger, which has ranged from 250 ~ 400 USD over the years. We do not yet know if they will include all original features, but it's currently speculated that they'll lose the roaring features from the previous release. I'd love to see them released in anime colors, though, and will await further information!

 There were various posts going over the now-released AZ-01 Blade Liger. People have started posting their built photos, and this model is gorgeous. To start off, Hobby Japan posted a beautiful painted sample article featuring this kit, as well as a short video. Zoids Official posted an image of a customized Blade Liger based on Arthur Borgmann's destroyed Blade Liger. This image also showed off Arthur's acrylic standee, sold at the traveling Zoids Exhibit! Next, Hobby Watch posted a nice article regarding the Anniversary Zoids. Last but not least, a video was posted by Plaban Gunpla Build Ch featuring a custom painted Bladey, which Zoids Official showed off.

 Zoids Official has announced the early planning sketch for the AZ Liger Zero Phoenix! This Phoenix has quite the glow-up, with careful attention paid to make sure the BLOX parts look more proportional on the AZ base than they did on the old motorized version. One big difference is the more seamless integration and design of the cannons, which are both substantially longer and lower-set than the old version.