Zoids Official Fan Book Volume 4 Chapter 5 is now available! In this chapter, Death Saurer watches TV two emperors confront one another as the darker context of Prozen's ambitions come to light. What does this mean for the rise of the Neo Zenebas Empire?

 One chapter may seem like a short update, but don't worry, the next should be up within a week or so. I just wanted to push this one alongside these updates because it was already done.

 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.

 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

 Throughout the NJR era, artist Tanimeso was in charge of a wide variety of Zoids art visuals. With the announcement of the Chogokin CAS they posted a Twitter thread showing off some of their art in beautiful digital quality, including the Liger Zero CAS girls, box art, character art, and game art for the old Zoids Dash game (cute and obnoxious platformer fun, highly recommend if you're into platformers), sketches, and more.

 Mercy Rabbit, the key artist for the HMM kits as well as many old Zoids artworks has also started a thread where they share many of their Zoids Generations artworks. Here, Mercy talks about the specifications that went into Midori's design and the history of the Zoid characters and products. Mercy also posted about the old (out of print) Murasame Liger T-shirt, which was a blast from the past! I remember wanting this so bad back when Genesis was airing~

 Customizer SigemkikanZ has been posting more images of high-detailed Zoid customs, including the Murasame Liger seen in the 40th Anniversary Key Visual, the Death Rex that was used in some of the Zoids Wild promotional material, and a shot of Wild Liger and the Death Rex.

 Hey guys! I've been gearing up for a cross-country move happening in the middle of the year, so updates have been quite slow. I've still got some updates being worked on, but they're not ready to push yet, and meanwhile official news is heaping up! So, today we're going to do an infodump on what's been going on these last few months, just to get it all organized into one spot. There's a lot to look forward to!

 Perhaps the most exciting thing to note is the announcement of the Large Zoids Expo 2023!! For those who aren't aware, the Large Zoids Expo was possibly the largest event ever held for the Zoids franchise, and it's now being revived in 2023 for the Zoids 40th Anniversary, boasting to be the largest Zoids event ever yet again. I talked about the former event over on facebook when the traveling exhibit was announced, but to simplify, the event featured tons of products, announcements, prototypes and early concept sketches, Zoids statues, a life-size silhouette cutout of the Seismosaurus, exclusive merchandise, and more. The event doesn't have much information yet, but updates will continue to be posted on the Expo Twitter Account, which has so far been covering the traveling exhibit.

 An announcement video was posted for the event, but not much information is given. However, we do get to see Perfect Human Katayama introducing a full scale CG Murasame Liger as he talks about the features of the upcoming Anniversary kit!

- Announcement Video

 The Expo isn't the only curious teaser, however. A second teaser, featuring a hollowed out street melted away by, presumeably, a Charged Particle Cannon has been posted! There's one Zoid that I'm sure will jump to everyone's mind~ For now, we are awaiting more information.

 The traveling Traveling Exhibit has been going for a while now, and man, the amount of products coming out of this is insane. Acrylic Standees from every anime and a wide variety of other products. Some have been surprising, such as standees featuring battle story characters (Arthur, Ray, Anna, and Wolff, featuring their existing art), or standees of Bio Tyranno and Volcano showing them in a cel-shaded style instead of their typical fully 3D look. There are so many products to cover that I don't know if it's feasible for a news post, so I'll work on a dedicated page for this event soon.

 There are several posts covering the event and its displays. Part of the event was a series of dioramas featuring anime scenes reimagined through model kits, including a rather impressive Hover Cargo. There were plenty of products, and some character cutouts. Even a bit of concept art.

 Some of the products specifically shown off on Twitter, including character acrylic standees for Arthur, Ray, Anna, Wolf, Bit, Zero, Zoiko (Who was the twitter mascot during the MPZ days!), an Irvine Eye Mask, T-Shirts including a Geno Saurer and a Blade Liger shirt, a 40th Anniversary Stainless Steel Mug, a Rainbow Jerk Fan themed after its tail feathers, a Fiona/Fine Mug, and a Postcard Set. A lot of products are to be expected, such as the standees and can badges, but some of them are also just really cute ideas, such as Irvine's Eye Mask and the umbrella that looks like you're looking out of an E-Shield Generator at the Saber Tiger.

 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 several collaboration projects, including Zoids x Patlabor, another mech series! For this collab TakaraTomy will be releasing the Hunter Wolf Metropolitan Police Department Spec.! We're awaiting further information.

 The second collab will involve Shirakami Fubuki, a Japanese Hololive Vtuber! Zoids Official has announced a Gatling Fox for this collab, but we don't have much information yet.

 The final collaboration announced is Zoids x Fist of the North Star, a Japanese manga/anime series. The Zoid announced is the Wild Liger Kokuoh, named after a massive black horse ridden by Raoh. We don't yet know much about this kit.

 When Stand River was hosted I was, unfortunately, rather busy handling things offline. There were a few new kits announced though, and the first one we'll be mentioning is the HMM Guysack!

 This kit was announced to have a Normal version and a Heavy Armor version. Many of us grew up with the Zoids anime series, so to us, the most recognizable Guysack is the Heavy Armor version, which will feature additional tail armaments including additional weapons, radar, and a gun seat, as well as featuring an angular cockpit and tanks on the sides of the body. This will likely reuse the same whitehead style cockpits already established in the Godos variants. The Normal Type featured in the battlestory used the more rounded cockpit, simpler tail equipment, and what looks to be an additional cylinder/gun/missile on the sides.

 While fans of the series had many ideas about what might be announced or revealed at Stand River, nobody was expecting this one! Kotobukiya announced its intentions of making and HMM Salamander, an absolute monster of a flying-type Zoid with a huge wingspan. Though we don't have any pictures of this kit or its overall design yet, the Salamander is already packed with details, so we're looking forward to seeing what liberties they take with its design. Hopefully it has better luck than the MSS Salamander!

 Kotobukiya has announced an upcoming HMM Redler BC, which will be packaged with the Booster Cannon CP! When the HMM Redler variants released, a lot of people turned a curious glance to the lack of clear colorless parts, which have become a standard of most Kotobukiya releases. Well, now we know why! This combined variant will include the clear colorless parts people have been hoping for. This kit will be a Kotobukiya Shop exclusive.

 After the initial release of the HMM Gojulas, the next release was the Ogre, followed by the Gunner. The original Gojulas itself, however, never actually received a rerelease. Kotobukiya has announced that they'll be rereleasing the limited Gojulas Marking Plus Version!

 The HMM Green Horn pre-orders are well underway, with the model kit expected to release in October of this year for 12,000 yen (13,200 with tax.) The kit is estimated to have 400 ~ 600 pieces, and will include new frill pieces and the new updated version of the Attack Boosters (which will be releasing as a separate CP as well, scheduled for October at 2,400 yen.)

 In addition, Kotobukiya posted a LABO Article going over this kit. For those who aren't aware, the Attack Boosters are based on the Delusional War Record (web comic) appearance, where the Horn was equipped with Attack Boosters as an equipment test. "Wouldn't boosters be useless on a Horn?" Not if you need a durable Zoid to make sure they don't blow up first! The blog points out the Anti-Charged Particle Shield Generators that replace the frill pieces, the additional tail parts, the new composite sensor on the back, and the variety of connection points that the Attack Boosters use.

 During their discussion of the Attack Boosters, they mention that there were two reasons for remaking this equipment. One was to introduce additional connection points, allowing them to be installed to more than just the Blade Liger. The second was to remove the seam lines in the top of the booster cover, while also redesigning the internal mechanisms. In doing so, they reduced the restrictions on how much the part could move and reduced the risk of parts breaking. The boosters can open wider and have additional movement points (diagonal or horizontal deployment). Both the AB and the Green Horn AB will come with clear colorless parts in addition to the clear colored pieces.