On January 19th ~ 20th TakaraTomy will be holding assorted Zoid events at the World Hobby Fair. The first of these is the Zoids Wild Large Renovation Lab, where a larger than 1/1 scale Death Rex will appear! (a cardboard cutout most likely.) The large Wild Liger statue will also make an appearance.

    At the renovation lab, kids who enter the event can build a Kabtor (Rare White) Arashi Ver. Zoiders in elementary school will construct the Zoid at the event, then be given the Arashi Ver. stickers to decorate it with. Afterwards, they'll be able to choose from one of three weapons (Bazooka, Middle-Range Gun, or Gatling Gun) to install to it. Finally, if users take a photo of their Zoid at the special diaroma displayed in the booth, they'll receive a small Arashi figure as a free gift.

    The booth will also have a freely playable trial of Zoids Wild: King of Blast, the upcoming Nintendo Switch game. Participants can play as any Zoid in the game, and all in game Zoids will be unlocked for the event (though not all color schemes will be available.) People who play the game will receive a Zoid Fighter License of the Zoid that they used, with up to 10 varieties to collect. At the King of Blast Special Stage participants can participate in game matches. Mr. Takei will be participating to tell players the best way to defeat certain Zoids (on the first day at the Tokyo venue.)

    There'll be a special stage held at the event with a number of activities. The first stage will be the Modified Zoids Challenge, where Mr. Katayama will hold a workshop course on customizing Zoids, and even a corner where participants can actively participate in modifying their Zoids!

    A third stage, the Zoids Wild Quiz & Janken (Rock-Paper-Scissors) Tournament Stage, users can participate to win assorted prizes.

    During the event they'll also be showing off a Zoid not yet released! This is probably the Dimepulsar, but could possibly be some of the others we've seen teased. The event will also contain a massive diaroma that was used in the shooting of Eastern Front.

    Episoze, a group that strives to provide 1 minute videos introducing hobby, model, etc. products did an article on the Wild Liger, along with their accompanying 1 minute video. They did a 2nd article and a second 1 minute and 1 second video featuring the custom "Sword Claw Liger."

    TakaraTomy also posted some silly videos, including a raptor race, a raptor free-for-all, this filtered Wild Liger video, and this March of Grachios.

    There's also an article by Takashi featuring an interview with Hirate and Katayama, and their visit to the TakaraTomy office. The article talks about the evolution of Zoids, and many of the nostalgic points of the original series. It even features some concept art and rough conceptual prototypes of the Zoids Wild model kits.

    Lastly, in early November, Zoids Wild was featured on "Kawaii JAPAN-da!!", a program that talks about pop culture in Japan. This included a photoshoot with the Wild Liger, the most popular kit of the series at the time.

- Model Kit Feature Videos

    TakaraTomy is constantly releasing new videos to show off different aspects of the Zoids Wild kits. First we have a video for the Awakened Wild Liger and Death Rex. Then a build video for the Dimepulsar, where you see it built, a rundown of stats, and its Wild Blast! Some of these videos also include customization options for that particular Zoid, including adding the Gilraptor weaponry to the Dimepulsar. There's also a tweet of this Raptor.

- Build Instruction Videos

    Its been a while since we posted, and there is so much content to cover, that we'll have very little site updates for now! Sorry about that. I do hope to cover most of what has happened in the Zoids franchise over the last 2-3 months, though. Buckle up, this is gonna be a long update!

November Model Kit Summaries

    November saw the release of 3 new Zoids. The Stegosage, Gusok, and Awakened Wild Liger.

    Gusock: The Gusock is a small windup Zoid, and skitters along at a decent pace, as seen in this video. It can also be curled into a ball and rolled across the table, seen here and here. This Tweet by Zoids Official shows off how the Gusock can equip the blades of the Stegosage, which is possibly the best looking parts swap we've seen from this series.

    Awakened Wild Liger: Zoids Official showed off how nice the Awakened Wild Liger can look with some simple panel lining. This kit also came with a special booklet, the Zoids Wild World Guide! Which seems to include profiles, comics, etc. SakuraIbuki over on twitter posted a speed comparison showing off the difference that the 1.2x motor makes. The basic walking and Wild Blast were shown off by Zoids Official.

    Stegosage: The third and most notable Zoid from November was the Stegosage. You can see a size comparison between this large Zoid, and the medium and small kits of the month here. You can also see its walking animations and wild blast here. It's a great looking kit!

- December Model Kit Summaries

    December saw the release of the Death Rex on the 8th, and at the end of the month, both Hunter Wolf and Catalga! Although Death Rex was heavily covered leading up to its release, TT still posted an image of feeding time.

    Hunter Wolf: The second new Zoid was the Hunter Wolf. While this uses the Wild Liger base, it takes quite a few liberties to create a newly designed wolf-type Zoid, including longer legs. Something that inadvertantly makes it appear much larger than the Liger. You can view its basic walk cycle here and its Wild Blast walk cycle here. The Hunter Wolf has two Wild Blast modes. One with the equipment facing backwards, to act as a Sonic Booster, and one with it facing forward to be used as an actual weapon. Finally, an introductory video was posted here.

    Catalga: The third kit is the Catalga! This Molga redesign has been significantly sized up to become Zoid Wild's primary transport Zoid. The kit comes with a trailer and even some rubber 'ropes' to tie down the cargo.

    Zoids Wild: King of Blast is nearing release! We've had a lot of screenshots, including the box art, as well as gameplay videos. Another screenie here. The game is scheduled to be released on February 28th, for 6,458 Yen!

    Famitsu posted an article going over some screenshots and the added armor. It seems each Zoid has several different color schemes, with most of the main cast so far included in the game. It also seems that the game names a number of color variations, but not all. So far we have variations like Wild Liger Blade, Raptor Forest, Fang Tiger Blaze, and Death Rex Origin.

    A free trial of the game is now available in the Nintendo store, and the game is also available to purchase for pre-loading. It's also worth checking out the official website which has updated quite a bit (WARNING: Flashing videos in the background.)

- Wild Liger: Evil Armor

    The game will come with a pre-order bonus of the Wild Liger "Evil Armor." This is the armor specifically (see the bottom left image) and does not include the kit, so you'll need to purchase a typical Wild Liger to use it. TakaraTomy posted a nice picture here and a video of the kit here. The Famitsu Article listed earlier also shows off the Evil Armor in game, along with what appears to be box art.

    Like most early purchase benefits, the Evil Armor is "while supplies last." This means that you may or may not receive it when buying the game. There was also a gameplay video floating around, but it was pulled, likely due to the inclusion of Spideath and its pilot, which weren't officially announced at the time. Amazon has already announced that their listing may not come with the armor, even though it lists it in the name. This is likely true for all stores.

- King of Blast Trailer

Free Trial Version: Gameplay

- Zoids Wild Special

    On January 5th, in place of the Zoids Wild weekly episode, they aired a special. This special had guest stars from Sky Peace, a popular youtube channel in Japan, and the artists for the third opening of the Zoids Wild anime. The set included a full lineup of 2018 Zoids Wild Kits displayed in the background, along with a Battle Card Hunter arcade console in the background.

    The special consisted almost entirely of clip replays. A segment dedicated to Wild Blasts from the show, and a second segment replaying clips from the episode that goes over Penne's history. They also showed off the Wild Liger Sky Peace Edition (more info below) and a clip of King of Blast, the upcoming game for Nintendo Switch. This showed off two new colors for the Death Rex, a purple, and the Death Rex Origin. It also showed off the Fang Tiger Blaze, a blue variant.

    Animareal posted an amazing poster, which was also featured in December issue of CoroCoro Comic. Excellent shots of these appeared on the official twitter accounts, showing off the different models used in the poster. Some additional photos, including wonderful outdoor shots, were posted by the modeler, SigemikanZ on Twitter.

    Death Rex: Link, Link
    Gannontoise: Link, Link, Link
    Grachiosaurus:
    Kabtor: Link, Link
    Scorpear: Link, Link
    Wild Liger: Link, Link, Link
    Group Shots: Link, Link,

    During November ~ December there was a Z Cap Campaign, where buyers who purchased more than 3,000 yen worth of products at select stores would receive a set of stickers, with either Supreme Yellow (transparent) or Death Metal Silver caps. The stickers were for the Wild Liger (seen here on enterpuraizu's twitter), Death Rex, and Grachiosaurus. This campaign is now over.

    This month, starting on January 15th, there's a new campaign. It's coupled with CoroCoro Comic, where users who bring in a ticket sold with CoroCoro February 2019 issue can exchange the ticket for a set of Fang Tiger blades, the Twin Fang. This is to make the Fang Liger, a Zoid that has already appeared in the comics and arcade game. You can see some images from CoroCoro here.

    The ticket also covers a set of Supreme Gold caps, which are a solid gold color.

Twin Fang & Z Cap Video

    Over the last month or so, Wendy's held a campaign where patrons could receive some Zoids Related items. This was primarily geared towards the First Kitchen Stickers and was limited to Japan. There were other benefits, however, ranging from smokey fries to a Zoids Wild fast food paper bag. It's amazing to see Zoids branching out into such promotions again! Zoids Official even posted a nice dinner photo with Wild Liger and Gannontoise~

- First Kitchen Stickers

    These special stickers included decals for the Wild Liger, with four different sets. The sheets also included small stickers of the Zoid characters themselves. A good example can be seen here. Some people have posted photos of the stickers actually applied to the Zoids, which can be seen here, here, and here. You can see a shot of all four sets, along with the bag which had Wild Liger on one side and Gilraptor on the other side here. The stickers included a QR code that could be scanned to enter a lottery for the First Kitchen Colored Papers (below.)

- First Kitchen Colored Paper

    By buying the relevant meals, buyers would receive a sticker sheet. The QR codes on those sheets could be scanned to enter a lottery for Zoids Wild colored paper with images of the characters and a First Kitchen logo. There were quite a few of these, so we'll link to the full size images below.
    Arashi, Drake, Gyoza, Onigiri, Penne

    There are quite a few new things for the anime, including new renders posted online, new opening/ending, etc. For now, let's go over the anime renders posted on the Zoids twitters! Spoilers ahead!

    In the character category, we have images for Rayu, Gyoza's little sister. Then Truffle, the pilot of the Stegosage and final member of Death Metal's main four.

    Next up is Soufflé, who along with her brother cared for a Raptor Forest type, affectionately known as Rain. Soufflé is actually played by Shoko Nakagawa, who is the artist for Zoids Wild's ending theme, Blue Moon.

    Next we have Hermit Mushi (Mushi meaning insect), an old Zoid master claiming to be 500 years old! This old man was responsible for teaching not only Bacon, but Gallagher as well. Arashi goes to learn from this master, but has doubts upon realizing he's mostly just an old pervert. One that his Wild Liger can't catch, but nevertheless! He is played by Kappei Yamaguchi.

    We also have one of Gallagher's lacky, Shallot, who is often at Gallagher's side. Here's Foie Gras as well, one of Death Metal's elite four and pilot of the Knuckle Kong. He's played by Rikiya Koyama, and has a lot to do with Penne's mysterious past.

    Last but not least, we have a render of Salt, pilot of the Hunter Wolf who first started showing up in a serious capacity last episode. Salt will be voiced by Yuma Uchida.

    Also not sure where to put this, but TakaraTomy posted some silly cartoon Zoids around the holidays. Link, Link, Link, Link, Link

- Zoid Anime Renders

    We've gotten tons of anime renders for the Zoids, so we'll just roll through them in somewhat chronological order. Knuckle Kong, Sauce's Kabtor, Gusock, Gusock's Wild Blast, Death Rex's Wild Blast, Stegosage, Catalga's Wild Blast, and finally Hunter Wolf's Wild Blast.

- Concept Art

    A new concept art has been posted for the Triceradogos, showing off both its bone and armored form. The concept art showed a sleeker, more streamlined armor design, with very little of the bone frill still showing on the armorless form.

- Zoid Wild New Opening

    On January 12th, Zoids Wild aired with a brand new opening! This opening is Sky Flight, by Sky Peace, a popular youtube channel in Japan. This is their second single, with CD releases coming up soon! We've posted about that above. Congratulations to Sky Peace!

- Zoid Wild New Ending

    It's not just a new opening that aired on January 12th. The new ending, Speed Up by the Taiwanese boy band "noovy" aired last week as well! An article from Music News notes that Speed Up is their first anime tie-in song, an exciting new development in their career. To celebrate this new step, the band members went out and purchased some Zoids Wild kits; their first Zoids in years~ It's an exciting quarter for the two groups to gain some more recognition.

- Other Music News

    Jaejoong's hit song "Defiance", the second opening for Zoids Wild topped the charts for JAPAN Hot Animation's Top 10, with a significant distance between it and the second place song. Preorders for those singles came out quite a while ago.

- Twitter Icons

    Zoids Official posted a few icons for people to use around twitter~ The icons include: Arashi, Bacon, Death Metal, Drake, Gallagher, Gyoza, Ikadzuchi, Onigiri, Penne, and Sanratan.

- Blu-Ray Volume 1 Release & Benefits

    Volume 1 of the Zoids Wild Blu-Ray set has released, and along with it, some additional products have been revealed. These are benefits from purchasing either a single volume or a full set from specific stores. For now, in this tweet you can see the bonuses that come standard with the Blu-ray. The book is short, only a few pages, but includes character profiles, etc. You can see images of everything included, including the discs here.

    Full set bonuses mean ordering the entire set in one purchase.

Amazon:

    - Volume 1 Bonus: Round Badge
    - Full Series Purchase Bonus: Canvas Tote Bag (Image unavailable)

Animaru:
    - Volumes 1 ~ 5 Scene Postcards (Featuring anime screenshots)
    - Full Series Purchase Bonus: Wild Liger Original T-Shirt

- New Wallpaper

    A little while ago, the official Anime site held a vote for your favorite character and Zoid, with the two winners getting a special wallpaper. The Zoids ranked from 1st ~ 5th: Wild Liger, Fang Tiger, Death Rex, Catalga, and Gannontoise. The characters ranked: Arashi, Bacon, Penne, Gallagher, with Drake and Sanraton tied for 5th. Voters would be able to receive prizes, with 1 person receiving an autographed blu-ray (Vol. 1) and 5 other voters receiving a signed copy of the Zoids Wild manga (Vol. 1). The resulting wallpaper can be seen on the page.

    A brand new arcade game, known as Zoids Wild Battle Card Hunter has been announced! This game will be launching on January 24th at various arcades. The game will have a collectable card game tied into its functionality, with over 60 cards ready to launch alongside the game. There's a ton of screenshots, including some from mantan-web, and Hobby Japan. The Official Website has the most comprehensive information, including a ton of card images. We'll try to cover all the details below.

- Game Functionality

    Battle Card Hunter is first and foremost an arcade game. You can get 1 play for 100 yen (tax included). A single game is estimated to be about 8 minutes long, and the game is designed for a single player. You start the game by opening an "Adventure Map". Here you'll see information on the different battle stages and locations, and can select one of them to start a Zoid Battle.

    When entering battle mode you can select 3 Zoid Cards and challenge the enemy team's 3 Zoids, using a primary and two support Zoids. You can modify your game strategy using various Support Cards. Occasionally a boss battle will appear, as well as the game's original legendary subspecies of certain Zoids, adding some surprise to the gameplay. Battle appears to depend on how quickly you can adjust the buttons and levers to make your attacking and defending moves more successful. As expected, there's a Wild Blast gauge that fills up throughout battle.

    When the battle is over, you enter a Zoids Card Excavation Mode. Here you'll see a display of hidden Zoids, along with an excavation radar. When you unearth a particular Zoid, it's distributed as a physical trading card, which you can use in the next battle via QR code.

- Card Game Tie-In

    Over 60 cards have been prepared for the launch of the game. Not only do these tie into the gameplay, but are physical, collectable items earned by playing the game. Quite a few were already shown in online sales after an early access gameplay exhibit held last month. The cards come in five rarities: Wild Rare, Super Rare, Rare, Normal, and Secret Rare. The Secret Rare supposedly uses concept art by Tokuyama Mitsutoshi, one of the creators of Zoids. The cards also include a Team Point (beside the rarity marker). When your team reaches a value of 15 ~ 20 points, you'll receive additional bonuses!

    You'll receive the Wild Liger as your first game card. There are two main types of cards, Zoid Cards and Battle Support Cards. Zoid Cards are the zoids that you use in battle. The ecology of the Zoid is written on the Commentary Log Card. Battle Support Cards change certain aspects of battle in your favor.

    There are also two types of "Log Cards", which include "Commentary Log Cards" and "Adventure Log Cards." Adventure Log Cards include information about the world of Zoids Wild.

    There are already two limited edition cards that've been revealed. The Fang Liger, a limited from CoroCoro Comic (February issue), and the Wild Liger Evil, which is bundled with the Nintendo Switch game "King of Blast."

- Adventure Guide

    Additional products such as the Card Album Adventure Guide have been developed to support the game. This is a card album specifically for organizing your Zoid cards, providing a sense of completeness to those who wish to collect all that they can.

    You can get additional treasure maps to piece together using the Treasure Decription Refills, which will be distributed at over-the-counter campaigns and events. These clear sheets overlay across the maps on the cards, marking a small symbol in a specific area. You can compare this location with the Adventure Map in the arcade game, obtaining special items as you go.

- Sebuca Card

    A limited edition Sebuca card is being released for 500 yen, featuring an image of the Wild Liger. Playing with this card provides a lot of additional benefits. For one thing, you'll be able to make your own avatar, selecting the sex and appearance of your character, including different clothes and hairstyles.

    Second, the progress of your adventure can be recorded, allowing you to easily resume progress. There may also be additional enemies to face in certain locations. You'll also be able to record the (Kizuna?) level of your Zoids. The higher their level, the more power is released with their Wild Blast.

    Lastly, when playing with Sebuca cards, you may receive additional Treasure Maps. These can be used to uncover additional items in the game.

- Starter Set

    Aside from buying the Adventure Guide, you can also buy a Starter Set for 900 yen, which comes with a limited edition Sebuca card along with three limited edition Zoid cards (Scorpear, Gannontoise, Triceradogos), all Freedom Group Versions. You'll also get one refill for your Adventure Guide. If you have this set you can jump right into Battle Card Hunter.

- Commercials

    The game was revealed with a commercial, featuring RAMAR. There's a good reason that this may sound familiar; they're the artists of Wild Flowers, the original opening for Zoids Chaotic Century / Guardian Force.

    On December 14th, TakaraTomy published a video called ZOIDS WILD Eastern Front. This dark, gritty promotional video took a lot of people by surprise, and is worth a watch. It's part of Zoids Wild Battle Wars, which refers specifically to a series of diaroma style images created using customs of the Zoids Wild line.

    The video was directed by Taguchi Kiyotaka, who has worked on a wide variety of series. Two major players of the Tomy team during the NJR Days, Yutaka Tajime and Takashi Nakase were credited as planners for the video. Shuu Katayama, the current figurehead of Zoids Wild even made an appearance, voicing "Soldier B."

    During the holidays, CoroCoro published a video in which they made a beautifully crafted chocolate Death Rex! Though the incredible beast was not long for this world.

    TakaraTomy is holding its first Zoids Wild custom contest for residents of Japan, from January 31st ~ February 28th. Participants can create customs, then take either photo or video of their creation through the ZFX feature of the Zoids Wild app. They can then submit them to twitter under one of three hashtags: One for children, one for parent/child teams, and a general division for adults. Some of the prizes are simple, like additional ZFX Effects, and some left entirely ambiguous. More details will be announced later.

    Please note that this contest is for residents of Japan only, although there is no limit to the number of entries a person can post. Entries are expected to be new photos, not previously published ones. Winners will receive a notice via SNS. Prizes are expected to be sent out mid-April 2019.

Employee Only Custom Contest

    Around the same time as this announcement it was revealed that TakaraTomy had their own employee custom contest, where participants and their families could create custom creations to be displayed in the building. Preceded only by this adorable Christmas Death Rex. They've posted so many creations (and continue to add more) that I'm not sure where to begin. So, link spam.

    Link, Link, Link, Link, Link
    Link, Link, Link, Link, Link
    Link, Link, Link, Link, Link
    Link, Link, Link, Link, Link
    Link, Link, Link, Link, Link
    Link, Link, Link, Link, Link
    Link, Link, Link, Link, Link
    Link, Link, Link,
Model Kits Official Zoids Wild   2019-01-08 03:00:00

    CoroCoro has continued its habit of posting last minute drawings from the manga artist on their website. This was skipped over for the special, understandably, but there are plenty of others! Let's see... Gallagher and his Death Rex, Gannontoise Wild Bike Version, our team dressed up in Death Rex Costumes, Death Rex eating some zoids cookies, Gallagher not pulling off the Zoid plushie nearly as well as Caviar, Salt and Hunter Wolf, Christmas Liger & Rex, Arashi, A fancy Death Metal Catalga, and finally a nice game of jenga~

    The second volume of the Zoids Wild manga released on December 29th, 2018. It includes Chapters 1 ~ 8, the short "Arashi and Liger" that featured in the Awakened Wild Liger's booklet, and a Zoids Wild special from CoroCoro Comic that included talk about the model kits. The book also had some of the images that've been featured on the CoroCoro site as part of the last minute drawing campaign. A teaser page for Chapter 9 was also posted on twitter.

    The latest CoroCoro silver-peel limited is the Awakened Wild Liger: Guren Version! This Liger uses the Awakened Wild Liger as a base, which sports an improved motor with 20% higher speed than the normal model kit. The Guren replaces all of the blue parts with translucent red. It retains the gold chrome blades and gold painted claws/teeth, which are also seen in the upcoming standard Awakened Wild Liger.

    Animareal, responsible for the beautifully realistic Zoids: Field of Rebellion artwork has returned to render the Zoids Wild Death Rex! It's fantastic to see this group returning. The image was in celebration of the Death Rex's major reveal in Episode 13. A short ad using the image has started airing in Japan on billboards, etc. to hype people up for the model kit release.

    A ton of photos were posted by the modeler, SigemikanZ. This kit looks amazing up close, where you can see all of the tiny details. We'll link all of the relevant tweets below, with the last being a picture from the Anime Zoidswild channel.

     Tweet 1     |     Tweet 2     |     Tweet 3     |     Tweet 4     |     Tweet 5

    All of this Death Rex celebration follows the Christmas Toy Tradefair, where TakaraTomy showed off their new Death Rex! Along with the September and November/December release kits. Even Hunter Wolf was there, although photography wasn't allowed for the kits not yet officially announced.

    Following these celebrations, they've also posted a teaser of the October 2018 issue of CoroCoro Comic. This shows the Death Rex right before it's about to wake up. The anime twitter has also given us the stock anime images of the Death Rex.

Death Rex Video Reveal

    With hype around the Death Rex building, TakaraTomy has also put out a promotional video, which illustrates some close up views of the model kit. This longer version, seen on the CoroCoro Youtube Channel hints at a reveal coming up on October 15th. This will likely be a full reveal of the model kit, but we'll see!

    In last week's episode of Zoids Wild (episode 12) Gallagher showed up on his own special color Gilraptor. This Zoid looked familiar. We saw a custom of it at the initial press release sitting in the back of the display, ridden by its pilot. Although it was shrugged off as a random custom at the time, perhaps we'll get to see this Zoid in the future! A teaser of this Zoid, which first premired in the September/October issues of CoroCoro was posted online. The manga version has the middle claws replaced by giant spikes, frequently used for stabbing people.

    Lots of images for Zoids Wild! For anime renders we also have the Catalga, a transport Zoid that'll haul others behind it much like the Gustav. It's the first revamped old world Zoid design, based on the Molga base. A recent tweet has also gathered up anime images for the Raptor, Knuckle Kong, and Triceradogos. The Raptor is a new image we haven't seen before.

    We also got some concept sketchs, the first being of Caviar hugging his crocodile plushie, which he cuddles with every night! The second is a Grachiosaurus early design concept. It seems that earlier on in the design process, the Grachiosaurus had bones located at the base of its neck to help support the weight.

    There've also been a couple new images in the collection of pre-episode airing sketches on the CoroCoro website! This is well worth checking out. The images are drawn by the Manga's artist, and there's even articles with the staff of Zoids.

    TakaraTomy has posted a video illustrating some other ways to combine Zoids Wild kits. This time it's a little more coherent, with the Kuwaga being the best of the bunch. The kits are designed to combine using common pegs. This is our second video example, but a recent booklet called the Book of Adventures has surfaced. It not only shows off example customs but also a couple of screencaps from the upcoming Switch game.