A couple days ago Hobby Watch posted an interview with Takashi Nakase of Takara Tomy, a key figure of their Zoids projects. This interview also included our first look at the AZ Death Saurer kit in motion, with a video of its motorized walking features. The interview is full of interesting details, a few of the talking points being:

• When they first started talking about the next kit to commercialize, both Gojulas and Death Saurer were recommended. Ultimately, Death Saurer was chosen for commercialization.
  
  
• The interview contains numerous pieces of concept art in a nice, clear viewing size as well as a photo of the prototype.
  
  
• Advanced Zi will continue as a model kit series, and they're considering many different options. For example, they're obviously looking at popular antagonist Zoids, but also as kits that didn't get a chance to appear in the animes of the past.
  
  
• They've also expressed interest in tackling some of the wind-up Zoid designs, with the idea that they'd be reimagined and released under Advanced Zi as now-fully-motorized kits instead of relying on main spring power.
  
  
• The closing statement included a vague mention of exploring new categories of products, so we'll see what comes later! This is an interesting note since they have a section for various 'brands' on the new website that currently only holds AZ. (This is purely speculative, but it's fun to think about what might come next!)

 After the interview, they posted a commercial of the kit that recreated the classic advertisement from its original release! Just tonight, a Review Video was also posted featuring Zoiko. This shows us more of the finished product and its motorized features, including the Display Mode, and gives us our second look at a size comparison. This new comparison seems to place it at about the same size as Death Saurer (it appears smaller in the video because it is leaning forward for its firing pose.) One thing I quite liked about the video is the inclusion of the old motorized kit, showing off how various sections have been updated in design. This highlighted lots of details I hadn't noticed before.

- Advanced Zi Commercial

- Original Tomy Commercial

- AZ-07 Review Video

 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

 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

 So, yesterday morning Kotobukiya held a livestream to introduce the upcoming HMM Guysack. The video is worth a watch because man, the articulation that they managed to squeeze into this tiny little bug is impressive. All of their recent kits have been, really. Aside from that, though, there was a lot of interesting discussion going on during the stream. This is all relying on machine translations, so please take with a huge grain of salt.

 Exhibition!
 Kotobukiya will be holding an exhibition in Japan on February 12th, starting at 1pm. Here, they're showing off displays and all of the recent HMM artwork in beautiful quality. This comes one day after Wonder Festival.

 Upcoming Releases!
 They've announced that the next two kit rereleases will be the Lightning Saix MPV and the Berserk Furher Repackage! As someone who hasn't picked up the standard Saix yet, this is tempting.

 New Releases!
 Aside from that, Kotobukiya announced its intention to release the RMZ-012 Guysack, the original OJR! This is a nice surprise, as the OJR color schemes have always had a classic funkiness to them. Pre-orders are expected to open in July as a Kotobukiya Shop Exclusive with its final release planned sometime in Spring 2025. This kit will include clear colorless parts in addition to the orange pieces. If you want the red canopy pieces you'll need to pick up the upcoming Guysack (the first release) being released in July of this year. It's currently expected to be the same price.

 Updates!
 The Salamander they hope to release sometime around or after Summer of next year. It's about the height of an Iron Kong, but has a huge wingspan.

 Fun Facts!
 Apparently when they chose Guysack, they were choosing between it and Helcat, the top voted small Zoids.
 Death Saurer scored the highest in the end-of-year survey this year! The hype surrounding the AZ is real.
 Apparently Redler and Raynos have roughly tied in votes over the years

 

Economic Decisions For Small Zoids?

 Kotobukiya took a few minutes of the stream to discuss the current economical climate of producing these kits. This weighs in especially hard with small kits like the Guysack. Small kits are harder to produce because the profit is quite small compared to something like a Liger kit. They still have to pay for brand new molds, which are quite expensive, but the kits sell for much less. This leaves Kotobukiya often asking themselves about the feasibility of continuing to release small Zoids. Like the Rev Raptor, they are calling for people to order the Guysack to help them determine if it is a worthwhile endeavor.

 This conversation got pretty in depth. They mentioned that a major factor of current Zoid prices is that the average wage where the kits are produced has doubled in the past 10 years. The kits have been struggling to maintain their current production cost, and are finally reaching the point of inching upwards in price. We've seen this in kits like the Red Horn (6800 yen, tax not included) to the Red Horn MPV (9,240 yen, tax included) and Fire Fox (4800 yen) to MPV (6000 yen ish.) They threw out some calculations of what kits would cost to produce today. While some are reasonable (Command Wolf Repackage from 4800 > 6800 yen) others were surprising. Dark Horn, originally 6800, was estimated at 18000 yen if they had to start from scratch.

 To Molga or to Molgas?
 This line of questioning brought up an interesting question. In the past, Kotobukiya released Molgas in a two pack, with different variations. These Zoids are small, they should be cheap, theoretically, but with production costs climbing, staff asked what people thought of releasing them in a different way. They estimated that the cost of producing the Molga & Molga Canory (formerly 4200 yen) would be around 6800 yen now without tax, so if it were released again, it would be released as an MPV at the new price.

 This brought up the question of what people would think if the MPV were released as a single Molga (not a two set) with the weapons of all three variations included, like the Command Wolf Repackage? The full set would contain the Canory Unit, Anti-Air weapons, and Carrier equipment, and would shake out to roughly 6000 yen. There's still a lot of support for releasing the two Molga sets, even at the increased price, and Kotobukiya was clear that this didn't mean they wouldn't release the two-packs anymore. However, there are still many '1 Molga' releases we could have. Rokurou, what with the other web comic Zoids released over recent years, and the NJR color scheme to name a couple.

 It was an interesting stream, with interesting questions and insights. These dilemmas are also why we haven't gotten Gilraptor yet, which was estimated to cost 20,000 yen to produce in the current climate. I look forward to seeing where Kotobukiya goes, and I hope they can continue to attract good sales through these difficult times.

- Guysack Stream

 The Model Kits section is receiving some updates after a long time. The Yuji Kaida Fire Fox page has had all of the images updated and also gotten some minor tweaks to the review. I've wanted to do this for some of the older motos for a while now. Even after all these years, they're still my favorite kits.

 A review has been added for the MPZ Shield Liger covering the plethora of motorized actions. Joining it is a review for the Tomy Blade Liger, featuring a pre-owned Bladey. Please note, that this review is for the MPZ Shield Liger released in 2016, NOT the upcoming Shield Liger, which features anime colors.

 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 posted several more videos from HAL, a 3D & animation school. Each one featured Zoiko, a mascot who originally came out around the time of the MPZ Kits, and has returned for the 40th anniversary promo videos! You can view them here: Link Link Link

 TakaraTomy's Youtube Channel has posted a video report of the Big Zoids Expo! Though the event is now over, it was a heck of an event. It's nice that the company has chosen to archive it in video form.

- Report Video

 When Hunter Wolf MPD was exhibited at the Big Zoids Expo, it was in front of a screen featuring a promotional video. This has now been posted online, along with a look at the weathered model kit by SigemikanZ and a dedicated Collaboration Page containing lore content!

- Video

 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 posted a new video featuring Zoiko, the mascot of the MPZ Zoids. Along with this they've announced that they'll be sharing the highest nominated student videos on their channel soon. For those of you who aren't familiar with HAL, it's a university that focuses on 3D modeling. You might remember some of their videos being shared a while back.

 Last night Kotobukiya hosted a live stream where they built an HMM König Wolf. A straight build, with no trimming of parts, was accomplished in just two and a half hours! We're seeing a big simplification of parts in newer Kotobukiya designs. Different people have different views on this, but personally, I love this. I haven't had the time to build HMMs in a long, long while. The idea of being able to build the HMM Wuf in a day, without having to spend literally all day doing it, is so exciting. This will also be a blessing for customs.

- Build Stream

 We have another wave of Zoids Episodes! In Genesis, this is the episode where we meet Kotona and her Zoid, the Rainbow Jerk. Matu over on Twitter, apparently part of the animation team in the earlier and later episodes of Genesis, gave their perspective of this episode.

- Zoids Chaotic Century Episode 10

- Zoids New Century /ZERO Episode 4

- Zoids Fuzors Episode 4

- Zoids Genesis Episode 4

 The next wave of Zoids Episodes are up! Since these expire week to week I'm going to limit the number of news posts displayed on the front page to only be what's still relevant, so that the front page isn't flooded with 'video no longer available.' Please also note that I'm posting these once every series has updated, so by the time you see this news post, there's only a few days left to watch some of them!

- Zoids Chaotic Century Episode 9

- Zoids New Century /ZERO Episode 3

- Zoids Fuzors Episode 3

- Zoids Genesis Episode 3

 The next wave of Zoids Episodes have hit Youtube, but I'd really like to talk about Fuzors! Fans who saw the earlier western release of this series may remember the underwhelming feeling. Fuzors isn't to a lot of people's taste. However, when the series aired in Japan, it had tons of differences, from changes in lighting effects to a copious amount of redrawn frames. Surprisingly, the entirety of Episode 2 was remade to be much darker in aesthetics and theme, really upping the visual impact of this battle. I highly recommend watching at least this one, to see the one episode you might've missed when watching the Western Release!

- Zoids Chaotic Century Episode 8

- Zoids New Century /ZERO Episode 2

- Zoids Fuzors Episode 2

- Zoids Genesis Episode 2

 Zoids Genesis Episode 1 is now available on Youtube! Aside from that, GowTohgetsu over on Twitter posted a nice high-quality image of Ruuji's Village, which has appeared throughout various articles and media relating to Zoids Genesis. In the Twitter thread they also discuss a staff member's perspective of the series and the decisions made for its world setting.

- Watch Zoids Genesis

 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

 As part of the Zoids 40th Anniversary Project Zoids Official has announced that it'll be posting the first four animes online! This includes the classic Zoids series, Zoids New Century /ZERO, Zoids Fuzors, and Zoids Genesis. These have mostly started airing already, and will be publicly posted on the TAKARATOMYHOBBY youtube channel! Only the first episode is available for a longer span of time. Otherwise, each episode will be available for 1 week, until the next one 'airs'. We'll try to stay on top of posting here when new episodes are available. For those curious, Zoids Official has said they're working on making the series available in more countries, but this may take extra time, so please be patient as they jump through the technical hoops!

 As they've been posting more about the upload date of each series, they've also been posting some nice high-quality art, starting with a Bang image. Otherwise, each series has been posted with its blu-ray box character art, including Chaotic Century, New Century /ZERO, Fuzors, and Zoids Genesis. Chaotic Century has been airing for a bit now, but we'll post what's currently available. As a final note, voyager_vision on Twitter, who seems to have worked on some of the anime storyboards, posted images of the covers!

- Chaotic Century Episode 7

- New Century /ZERO Episode 1

- Fuzors Episode 1

 In a surprising turn of events, Zoids Official has posted a teaser for some upcoming content. It's too early to know what it is for sure. Could be new products, could be the series airing on TV in Japan again, or could even be a new animation project. Whatever it turns out to be, the teaser certainly sparks the imagination for many older Zoids fans!

- The 40th Anniversary Progress!

 We've got months worth of content to go over, so there's going to be some older stuff as far back as September (like this post). Don't be confused if some of this looks oddly familiar!

 To start things off, this video was released by TakaraTomy, looking back over their 40 years of history with the Zoids franchise. It shows glimpses of the various toy brands, and commercials.

- Video

 The HMM Redler Zenebas Empire Ver. has just been released in Japan. The Guylos Empire Ver. is scheduled to release next month for 5,800 yen, so let's go over some of the posts covering these kits over the last few months. There was a livestream for building the Zenebas version which also showed off the Guylos Version box art. There's also some out-of-the-box photos. A post by Mercy Rabbit over on Twitter discusses thoughts on the box art concept. A recent LABO article also discusses the model kit.