Thanks to Zoids Official we got to see our first product photos of the AZ-01 Blade Liger! This is certainly a cool development on the original Shield Liger. The kit was also on display at Takara Tomy's Hobby Expo, where people could stop by and take a look at some of their upcoming products. At this exhibit, the AZ Blade Liger was on display next to the original Tomy Blade Liger. Hobby Watch took a variety of photos of this exhibit.

 

 Zoids Wild NFT Arena has been posting frequent idle animations of the various Zoids that'll appear in the game, including Blade Liger, Beast Liger (+ Running Animation, Fang Tiger, Wild Liger, (+ Running Animation), Hunter Wolf (+ Running Animation), Cannon Bull (+ Running Animation), Knuckle Kong (+ Running Animation), Gilraptor (+ Running Animation), and Sonic Bird (+ Running Animation.

 

 Kotobukiya has posted the final product pages for the HMM Redler "Zenebas Empire Ver." (February 2023, 5800 Yen), the HMM Redler "Guylos Empire Ver." (March 2023, 5800 Yen), and the HMM Zoids Customize Part "Booster Cannon Set" (March 2023, 2200 Yen) ! Scheduled for early next year, they're already available for pre-order in most stores.

 On top of the product pages, Kotobukiya also live streamed a first look at the two Redler types, exhibiting their articulation. It was quite impressive to see how many points of articulation there are, as well as how well hidden the joints are. There's so much to these kits that doesn't quite get noticed in still photos, so I highly recommend checking it out!

 As a final note, Kotobukiya has announced a reissue of the HMM Shadow Fox Marking Plus Ver.! It's scheduled for April 2023, at a price of 5400 yen.

- HMM Redler Video

 

 Zoids Official has tweeted their first News Bulletin regarding the 40th Anniversary Project. To our incredible surprise, the announcement is the revival of the MPZ series! At least, of the frames and concept. These new kits, labeled under the "40th AZ-01 ~ 03" registration number are planned to begin in Autumn of this year (October, specifically.) The first video down below is the teaser posted on their account, which will begin the celebrations for the Zoids franchise's 40th anniversary!

 The last MPZ kit released was the Saber Tiger, which was released in March 2016 for 14,040 yen retail. We can expect a moderate price increase due to the global situation. However, these "more realistic" kits are a unique reimagining of the original Tomy motorized series. A lot of insight went into their design, and I highly recommend looking at one of the videos for the series, which was posted in April 2015. It will be the second video below.

- 40th Anniversary Project 1st Preview!

- Original 2015 MPZ Design Interview!

 

 The first of the 40th Anniversary Zoids is the Blade Liger! Staying true to the video's announcement "The culmination of 40 years of Zoids - Evolved ligers are here now!!", the first of these kits will evolve the former Shield Liger design into this iconic Zoid. The Blade Liger looks robust on the Masterpiece frame, and is scheduled for October 2022. This will be the first kit using the MPZ frame to be released in years!

 

 The second anniversary kit is, of course, the Liger Zero! With an all new design, this kit is scheduled for 2023. So far we've only got the wire frame look, but at first glance it appears to be using a highly modified version of the MPZ Shield Liger frame while remaining quite true to the original Liger Zero. Especially by MPZ standards. The MPZ-style caps will be a distinctive feature on this kit.

 

 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.