After well over a decade, the third kit will be the first-ever full size reimagining of the Murasame Liger! AZ-03 is scheduled for 2013, and sports an interesting aesthetic. With a much stronger MPZ influence the Murasame Liger will become even tankier than its initial 2000s release, which can be attributed to applying the Murasame Liger design over the MPZ Shield Liger frame. A detail I appreciate is being able to see the rotating caps through the ventilation gaps in the front of the Shoulder Armor.

 This is just the start of the 40th Anniversary of Zoids. With the way the teaser video is set up, we have to wonder, will Wild Liger also get an MPZ treatment? Will we receive a rerelease of the MPZ Shield Liger as part of the celebrations? So far we have kits set up into 2023. There's a lot to ponder, and we're excited to move forward and see what Zoids has to offer!

 It looks like Zoids Official has posted a rather intriguing promotional image, advertising the 40th anniversary of Zoids! This tantalizing teaser features a lineup of the Liger Zoids over the years. On closer look, they're customs of existing products, from HMM, to Genesis and Wild, and even the Hagane Works Blade Liger. The style closely mirrors the one used for the promotions of Zoids FOR, a former mobile game that received a lot of mixed feedback when it released following a hyper-realism image that bore little resemblance to the final game (even if it did get a really cool trailer.) That aside, the promotional artwork for FOR was gorgeous, and featured tons of realistic scenarios that we didn't often get to see. It's possible this teaser is even by the same group who handled the games' promo art, ANIMAREAL.

 With this in mind, we're all wondering, what does it mean? It's certainly possible this artwork will reveal another game project. Product anniversaries are big in Japan, however, and even if this specific art doesn't lead to something that appeals to you, we'll likely see multiple announcements leading into the celebrations.

 I'd also be remiss not to point out the absolutely beautiful logo, which is also the new profile pic of the Zoids Official Twitter. What an elegant design. As someone who got into Zoids during the CC/anime phase, I'm delighted to see that it features an anime-style Blade Liger.

 Let's sit back and see where this goes!

 Kotobukiya has announced a reissue of the HMM Storm Sworder! This iconic air combat Zoid will be rereleased in March for 9,680 yen retail (tax included). A pre-order link has been included down in our preorders table.

 A shocking new collaboration was announced between Bandai and Takara Tomy, which will result in a brand new Liger Zero action figure! For Takara Tomy's side, they're recreating the Mobile Suit Gundam "White Base" within the Tomica line. Meanwhile, Bandai is recreating the Liger Zero within its Chogokin line. Chogokin figures include metal alloy parts, and typically run in the higher price ranges. It's expected to be released sometime in 2023. The twitter account for Bandai Spirits posted a look at this figure, both with its final form, and with the fully-detailed armorless variety!

 An article on Hobby Watch showed off more images from the event, with the Zero in a leaping pose. Furthermore, they showed the interesting prototypes, which (from left to right) were the Initial Mechanism Trial, Appearance Trial, and Appearance / Mechanism Modification Trial, with the final result at the end. Mantan Web showed a second view of the kit.

- Dream Together

 TakaraTomy is collaborating with the vocational school HAL to create videos! In this project, student teams created a number of videos based on licensed series, all posted on the HAL Project page. It was interesting to see the different takes, with some students aiming for a more serious sequence of events while others enjoyed making some silly, light-hearted projects.

- Video 1

- Video 2

- Video 3

- Video 4

 Medabots S, a mobile game for the Medabots series, is collaborating with Takara Tomy to bring two Zoids Wild Zero inspired medabot skins to the game, Beast Liger, Genospino, Rising Liger, Fangtiger (themed after the Aldridge version), Fire Genospino, and Sniptera. The collab also includes character artwork of Medabots characters wearing Zoids Wild ZERO inspired outfits.

 In a rather unexpected turn of events, korean gaming company ACT Games will be launching an NFT-based Zoids Wild project. Western fans are quite adverse to anything block chain adjascent, and with the game relying heavily on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, obviously, reviews have been less than positive. For now, we'll just cover what we know about the game itself.

 Twitter account ZoidsWild (Wait, this name was never claimed before now?) serves as the game's official account, and they have a gorgeous promo video as their top post. This is the same style of video used for the Zoids Wild Infinity Blast opening, and it's well worth a watch, even if you're not into the game concept.

 Fans were apprehensive about the game's website in its earlier iteration, which featured mostly reused assets, such as loading screens from Infinity Blast falsely rebranded as "Concept Art" (it is not concept art for this game at all) as well as reused models and assets from the switch games. This shady opening didn't do the developers any favors, but it seems things are now moving along in full swing. The site also featured profiles for some of the associated cards, with animated Zoid images and basic stats. The nice part about this is that, while it's still reused data (mostly the existing profiles), it's nice to see them in English.

 The game was shown off at Licensing Japan, a large game licensing event, where various promotions were exhibited. The Teaser Clip confirmed that further asset reuse extended to the variations from Battle Card Hunter, such as the Spideath Dusk. While this is also somewhat controversial, it'll be interesting to see some of those BCH variants without lighting effects obscuring their true colors.

 Since then, the Twitter account has been introducing various Zoids that'll star in the game, including Rising Liger, Blade Liger, Beast Liger, and Wild Liger, with an additional concept video of the Wild Liger.

 Kotobukiya recently posted a look at the prototype for the HMM König Wolf, as well as the Redlers. The articulation on this kit looks superb, especially regarding cheek armor that now folds out to prevent obstructing neck movement and rotating ears.

 A recent LABO Article went into greater detail about these prototypes, and discussed some of their core features. In the mean time, the wolves, their associated CPs, and the Redler products have been on display in Japan for visitors to come and check them out. Details include:
 - Movable Ears
 - Rubber belts are used for the head and chest belts
 - The tail is articulated at the base as well as in the middle
 - The Dual Sniper Rifle has telescoping barrels
 - The Dual Sniper Rifle comes with several adapters, allowing it to be equipped to 3mm joints, and even to the old Tomy version.
 - The 5-Shot Missile Pods also include multiple port sizes, so they can be connected to standard 3mm hard points.
 - For the Heavy Arms, you must choose which had you want to build with it, since the belts run through the parts and it will be difficult to swap later.
 - The blog teases for us to look forward to other Zoids that have ranked high in the questionnaires!

 First, let's get to older news. As mentioned in an earlier post, Kotobukiya has had the HMM König Wolf and Redler on display recently, along with their associated Customize Parts. An article by Hobby Watch gives a good view of this display. An older couple of twitter posts also showed off a look of the out-of-the-box Shield Liger Marking Plus Ver., which comes in a box closer to Liger Zero size than the classic Shield Liger box.

 Other recent rereleases included the Command Wolf Repackage (February 2022), the Iguan Marking Plus (March 2022), the Gun Sniper Wild Weasel Spec. (April 2022), the Dark Horn (June 2022), the Berserk Furher Repackage Ver. (July 2022), Great Sabre Marking Plus Ver (July 2022), and the Pteras Bomber Marking Plus Ver. (July 2022).

 The HMM Liger Zero Marking Plus Ver. is scheduled to be rereleased in October, for 6,930 (tax included).

 The HMM Gojulas the Ogre is scheduled to be rereleased in November, for 32,780 Yen (tax included).

 The HMM Iron Kong Marking Plus Ver. is scheduled to be released in December, for 15,400 Yen (tax included).

 The HMM Geno Breaker Repackage Ver. is scheduled to be rereleased in Jan of 2023 for 11,220 Yen (tax incl).

 There was also a long-overdue LABO article introducing the Death Stinger ZS. This is such an interesting kit, color wise, and I highly recommend it. If you're concerned about the degree of green, it may help to know that this kit includes multiple colors for some of the sprues, allowing you to choose between green and red!

 Soon after, a second LABO Article was posted for the HMM Rev Raptor, which also included early concept sketches for the box art. The other concept shown featured the Empire's landing on Ergyle Beach, shortly after the Rev Raptors had taken care of the defense forces and, ultimately, their Gojulas.

 February saw pre-orders open for the Xenorex Storm XA, the final installment thus far in the Zoids Wild Biographies line. It also included the end of the Zoids Wild Senki storyline, which after the last episode, was transitioned into a web-story format and published on TakaraTomy's website. The kit was first teased in January, with a clear nod towards the Storm Sworder from Tomy's old Zoids line. Afterwards, the kit was posted to the TakaraTomy Mall for 4,400 yen (tax included), with a release date of July 2022. The story was published on its site page.

 Some tweets also showed off various combinations of the Storm parts with other Zoids. one showed a combo between the Storm XA, Scissors XA, and Buster XA. The wings can also evidently be used on the Burning Liger.

- Xenorex Storm XA Promotional Video

 Earlier in the year a collaboration was announced between Zoids Wild and Duel Masters! Duel Masters was releasing a Duel Masters Super Complete Works 20th Perfect Box. While this box contained mostly Duel Masters goods (3 a4 size books containing card catalogs and illustration collections, limited cards, autographed illustrations, a poster, and assorted gifts) the box also contained the Bolmeteus White Dragon model kit, which was a variation of the Xenorex with completely new (and limited) parts! The box was released on July 29th, for 28,600 yen.

 A dedicated page showed off most of the box contents as well as the gorgeous limited edition art for the Bolmeteus White Dragon. Zoids Official also showed off the special promotional page featured in CoroCoro.

- Bolmeteus White Dragon Promo Video

 The Three Tigers Legend is a series of promotional videos dispersed between limited DVDs that were included with the Brastle Tiger and Rayse Tiger, and the Zoids VS III opening. We previously did a splice together of all of these videos, trying to piece them into correct order. However, in a fascinating turn of events, Twitter blog After10yearsL posted videos of the Whitz Tiger, Rayse Tiger, and Brastle Tiger featuring brand-new scenes that were never included in the officially released media! Definitely check these out for some new 'Tiger content. A new splice-together with corrected scenes will be added at a later time~

 Professional model kit customizer Kyosuke Ozawa, who makes the customs for Zoids Wild EX-ZERO and the continuation of it has made a new Wordpress Blog called Leo Works! This site has photos of some of the customs that they've created in their career, while working alongside Hobby Japan, including some elusive ones such as the Cutter Berg Exclusive Gilraptor. Be sure to check it out!

 Kotobukiya's Shield Liger Marking Plus is now popping up for pre-order, retailing for 6,000 yen with a May release date. A recent LABO article talks about the kit. It'll come with new decals, including those from the Masterpiece Shield Liger. Clear colorless parts will be included in addition to the clear orange canopy and such. The kit will be released in newly molded colors, with a darker blue closer to the Tomy Shield Liger, silver claws and teeth, darker gray (nearly black) for the legs and gray for the body.

 Koto also announced a rerelease of their Dark Horn! The Horns really are a cool kit to build. It'll be released in June for 6,800 yen. Pre-order links have been added to the table at the bottom of the page.

 Back in November, Zoids Official teased a new Zoids Wild Biographies kit, which turned out to be the Rising Liger Panzer! The story is already up for this kit (in the link, it's in Japanese) and the kit is available for pre-order for 5,500 Yen (including tax) until January 31st. Since this is through TTMall, you'll need to use a proxy like White Rabbit Express to order. It's scheduled for release in late May 2022.

 Manga artist Ueyama posted sketches of the beautiful artwork used in the CC Manga's recent re-release! It's always so cool to see early-stage WIPs of artist's work.

 Stand River has concluded, and the battle ended in the Republic's victory, with 704 points to the Empire's 579. There were so many amazing customs entered into both sides, which you can view here. I highly recommend browsing through all of the pages, because there are some amazing gems hidden in there, like the Bigasauru Mk-2 and the King Liger inspired kits! I'll leave the news post containing a link to the stream beneath all of the announcements if you want to check it out.

 In a suiting turn of events, the first new Zoid announced at Stand River is the Shield Liger Marking Plus Ver.! Shield Liger was also the first HMM Zoid to be announced, and according to Koto's website, it hasn't been rereleased since the launch of the series in 2006. From first glance it looks like the MPV might be a slightly darker, richer blue, closer to the original Tomy motorized kit, but this is hard to confirm with photos alone.

2022?1???????????HMM?????RZ-007 ???????? ????????Ver.?
????????????????????!#?????#HMM???#??????·????? pic.twitter.com/IzUIziESuL

— ?????_??????? (@kotobukiya_p) December 18, 2021

 Fans have been asking for more flying Zoids for a long time, and Redler has been high on that list! Now we have official announcements, starting with the EHI-7 Reddra! This kit has a ton of seamless articulation, which adds so much personality to it. The default Reddra comes with two beam guns for the wings.

HMM????????EHI-7 ???? ?????????
??????????????????
??KOTOBUKIYA HMM ZOIDS EVENT???????????????????????????????https://t.co/WJce20C8a4#?????#HMM???#???????????? pic.twitter.com/Jsr0npPHYV

— ?????_??????? (@kotobukiya_p) December 18, 2021