#redmutant

[444namesplus]

Agnèse Alanny Anique Axelia Bodega Béanue Charce Cheina Chrion Claine Claula Colied Corich Cyrith Dianzo Emmaga Emmard Evione Fabean Fabine Floise Flouis Frandt Frarle Freina Friste Gabieb Gaétia Georey Georis Geritz Gerste Gilhel Gilyne Gitise Gus-pe Gélène Harand Heilia Heinad Heinra Helaus Heline Herich Jandra Jeanda Josier Julese Juline Justia Justin Jörgel Klaule Kurane Lierin Loisel Lucian Lydiel Lydise Lütona Magnès Manlor Massan Meinah Milors Minrid Mirène Monike Monine Muntia Mélian Mélène Océdra Olanna Othene Ranuen Redmut Renang Rolaud Roline Romara Rorger Régitz Shelie Sigitz Sonine Stimie Svelle Svenne Thilie Tobery Tomine Udomen Ulinah Vérier Wigitz Wolgan Wolian Xenick Xenine

Audelvied Audonifer Aulinerta Aumenjane Bastinath Beriamick Berisance Cheroline Chrichrie Clainaude Colfrandt Colfriste Corenièle Corgabery Corielger Cécilinra Delgettel Dianlonia Doladiesl Eingériel Elsarille Emmagance Essabritz Fanniette Fermilise Florgebke Frankarle Garinrick Gebhancen Genalvale Georinale Gerielian Gothéraul Géradriko Géraliant Haelmured Haettelke Hancietin Hanpathéo Heidolgeb Hubermata Imorguelm Ingeorein Irgermild Jocenista Jocéciste Joharanne Joselydin Juliertie Jus-petth Jérômedel Katrudemi Lanichèle Lastrient Laulaulie Lianuelle Lienriana Lorgerice Louistéph Lukevinna Lémictore Manmarles Mariedien Marisèlen Marlheile Marnhomar Maromadie Marstelle Martalber Maximonra Miedriete Milbelyne Miliedild Minemmene Mélilheli Nicharona Niennanny Niquelyne Ranmarise Redildert Rolgessig Roliolaus Romaricel Rémichein Settschel Sichiline Sicolgaël Stelganer Stéphilie Sveslauke Udelgernd Uliedagot Valouenie Virgertin Volivicka Walphande Wiegaétie Élinhelle Éliquelke Émichelle

First list has names 6 letters long. Second: 9 letters long. Together they can form a 69 fullname. Nice.

[redmutant]

You can wear the badge if you feel the symptoms of the virus to warn others. Or just use it as a suvinir from this difficult time. You can attach a magnet to it and hang it on the refrigerator. Insert a pin or Velcro and attach it to a friend.)

Model: https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-covid-19-badge-magnet-116973

[everyzoid]

PZ-002 Serpent

And here we have the second and final power zoid, Serpent. Like Tank, Serpent was never released in Japan and it also has an incredibly bizarre design. Whereas Tank was a sort of hybrid of a battering ram and a duck, Serpent is a sort of rickshaw/dragon design. Additionally, Serpent is the first “empire” zoid released so far. We’ve seen zoids in the grey/red empire color scheme before, but those have been recolored versions of existing zoids released in lines after 1985. Serpent, on the other hand, hit stores in 1983, making it the first actual Zenebas zoid introduced. Finally Serpent is rated at 372 mph, making it by far the fastest zoid so far, beating out Gurantula’s 205 mph by a significant margin. 

As for the design itself, well....I’ll say the Zenebas Empire deserved better for their first zoid. I came to appreciate Tank over time, despite the fact that it’s essentially a car and not a mech, but Serpent has all of the flaws of Tank with none of the redeeming goofiness. It just looks bad, like something cobbled together out of leftover parts or other, better zoids. The two massive wheels, the odd swept-back neck, the tiny arms (?) on the front all together look just ungainly and unfortunate. 

Like Tank, Serpent came in a few color variations. The US release had came with either green or brown wheels, seemingly at random. The European release had grey wheels and a slightly lighter red. The US release came with the same style of republic stickers as the other zoids so far while the European release was the first zoid with empire stickers. Also like Tank, Serpent was only released as part of Power Zoids line. While I appreciate these early stabs at a battery-operated zoid, they represent a sort of evolutionary dead end for the line. Very shortly we’ll be seeing the first proper motorized zoid which will instead scale up the type of design we’ve seen with the windups, rather than making them these strange wheeled monstrosities. 

I really don’t like Serpent much at all. Still, rating it is quite difficult. I find it’s design to be far inferior to the other zoids so far, including its republic counterpart, but I also find it to be far more striking than some of the later designs which can trend towards the generic. In that sense, I can feel comfortable awarding Serpent a 1/5. The worst we’ve seen so far, but probably not the worst we will see. 

[beat-mesa]

@redmutation

hey

[everyzoid]

RMZ-004 Gurantula

Hell yeah, now we’re talking, I LOVE mechanical spiders, to the point where I will defend Wild Wild West on the basis that it has not one, but TWO robo-spiders in it. Gurantula, the spider in question today, is the first zoid that wasn’t a part of the Mechabonica line. While it reuses a lot of same design elements from the Mechabonica line, Gurantula introduces one of its own with its long, slender, curved legs. The molded legs of Gurantula are a far cry from the basic grey ones of its predecessors and works to make this design look more “complete” than them, feeling the most like a cohesive design. The cute little hunchback body with the cockpit mimics the segmented body of a spider and the guns under the chin (20 mm Maxter Beam Cannons, the Zoids Wiki says) remind me of a spider’s pedipalps. 

It’s unfortunate that spider zoids are so rare then, considering how nicely this design turned out. Among arachnids, scorpions will turn out to be better-represented in terms of variety of designs. It’s a shame really, as scorpions are nice, but I’d love to see a big tough spider zoid. Still, Gurantula is a very cute little design that immediately communicates what its supposed to be. I suppose I never really appreciated it much before, but looking at it now it’s probably my favorite arachnid in the franchise and one of my favorite early zoids.

I also love that this zoid is supposed to be so fast. The info on the back of the box states that Gurantula is capable of moving at 205 mph which is far faster than most zoids, even Lightning Saix, which is well-known for speed. We won’t be getting there for quite a while. I love the image of these things skittering back and forth, zipping past Mammoths and Bigasaurus. Clearly Gurantula was intended to be a scouting zoid and I am in love with the idea that Republic engineers chose a spider for their fastest design.

Like Glidoler, Gurantula saw a couple of varations on the standard design and BOY there are a lot of zoids starting with the letter “g”. A cursory count indicates that about 20% of all zoids have a name starting with “g”. Things are pretty-front loaded though as so far 75% of the zoids covered have a “g” name.

Anyway, Gurantula was released unchanged in the Spider-Man and Zoids line under the name Spiderzoid. Also I kind of just dropped “Spider-Man and Zoids” in there without elaborating. For the uninitiated, Spider-Man and Zoids was a comic series that featured stories from both properties. The Zoids storyline then led into Zoids comic that ran with the original European release. It’s sort of a precursor to the OER and depending on how you count it, may be a part of the same line.

It was then rereleased in the form we see above in the main OER as Tarantulon, which is a much more sinister name. Like Terrared, Tarantulon was made a part of the Red Mutants faction and given an appropriately evil color scheme, along with swapping the cockpit to the empire standard. While I like the chunky and pleasant appearance of the Republic cockpit, I have to admit Tarantulon has a sleek and cool appearance. It seems pretty obvious though to make the spider a villain; putting it in the “hero” faction is subversive in a way I appreciate. Tarantulon was released in the Robo Strux line unchanged, which was a short-lived US version of the OER line. This version was called Legz and I can’t believe how much I hate that name. 

Next there’s the Zoids 2 release, and now I have to talk about Zoids 2. So, between 1990 and 1999, there weren’t any new zoid models coming out of Japan, with the original line having ended in 1990 and the new line not starting until 1999. Zoids 2 was a European line, later released in Asia, made of designs from the OJR recast in absolutely TERRIBLE colors. Seriously, that’s the only real defining trait of Zoids 2: everything looks terrible and cheap, with every zoid having either silver or gold chrome parts. This version is still called Tarantulon and like, if you told me this was a knockoff made for a dollar store I would believe you. The choice of white, yellow, black, and silver chrome looks like Tomy wanted to make a quick buck and had plastic left over in those colors.

But I can’t hate it! It’s the worst, just the worst, its cheap and tacky and somehow looks so much lower in quality than the other releases, despite the fact that it’s the same mold. Compare it to the picture of the OER Tarantulon above! And still I love it for how bad it is. There are only 16 kits in the Zoids 2 line, but I intend to savor each one like a fine scotch. Just stare at that image for a few seconds, take it all in. They only get worse from here.

There’s actually another variant on Gurantula, but it’s a significant enough change that I’m going to give that one it’s own page, especially considering that I have already written way more about this little wind-up spider than I had intended. It’s also one of the last zoids released, currently numbered 198 out of 201 on my list. We’ll get there eventually. I’m a big fan of this guy though. He’s cute and sleek and is probably the first zoid to not feel totally out-of-place when put next to later models.

I like to picture a Gurantula out in the desert on a scouting mission, its pilot resting against the leg, taking a drink from their canteen. 5/5

[everyzoid]

RMZ-002 Glidoler

Alright, so now we’re getting into it. Here we have the second zoid, and already I’m having an issue ordering these things. I said Garius was first, but there are some people who consider this the first zoid instead, as there is apparently some evidence that I have never seen that Glidoler was released before Garius in the Mechabonica line. But who cares, right? Garius feels more like the original zoid and when they were released in the OJR release in 1983, Garius was RMZ-001 (Republic Motorized Zoid-001) and Glidoler was RMZ-002, so that’s what I’m going with.

Either way, Glidoler, or Mechatoros, or Terrazoid, or Terrared, is definitely the first flying zoid, and weirdly it’s supposed to be a duck. At this point of course there is no precedent for what animals flying zoids should be based on, but the line would pretty quickly settle into a standard of basing them on pterosaurs, with very few exceptions. I’m not 100% sure, but I think this may be the only zoid based off a bird. 

Probably the most striking thing about Glidoler is the design similarities to Garius. Both have the same skeletal grey frame with blue and black accents and the same white cockpit. Glidoler and Garius, along with eight other small windups that released around the same time, are commonly referred to as whiteheads, for obvious reasons. 

I doubt if the reference is intentional, but Glidoler is one ugly duck. It looks appropriately primitive for the original aerial zoid, but it also looks like it would never fly, let alone at MACH 2.3, as it apparently can. Zoids tend to have small wings in comparison to their size, but Glidoler’s are absolutely tiny, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a plane that is taller than it is long. Like, maybe, MAYBE it sort of.....tilts? forward as it flies? And the wings rotate and the cockpit pivots so its all in line? But also it’s got that air intake on the front that would then be pointing downward, so who even knows. 

This Glidoler is accessorized with parts from the Zoids Remodel Set, which is a set of guns that can be equipped on the white head zoids. Glidoler is sporting two cannons on the sides of it’s face.

This angle also accentuates Glidoler’s most distinctive feature, it’s large....feet? They move up and down as the zoid moves, imitating a sort of walking motion, though the actual motion is provided by wheels. I wouldn’t have guessed unless I had read it, but apparently those are supposed to be pontoons, allowing Glidoler to land and take off from water, like a real duck. It’s an appropriate design decision that makes Glidoler feel more duck-like. Most of the time zoids really only inherit their shape from the animal they are based off, so it’s nice to see a touch like that so early in the line. 

Glidoler is also the first zoid to have major color variations. I don’t intend to attempt to cover every variation of each zoid, as some zoids have frustratingly numerous variations (I’m looking at you, Molga), but I’ll look at some interesting/important variations. The one above is Terrared, which is our first zoid from the original European release (OER). Zoids had a story behind it, which we will talk about in more depth later, but most international lines totally ditched this and just released kits with nothing connecting them. 

The OER release was a major exception to this and was released along side a comic series, giving this line more story than even the Japanese lines. Instead of the Helic Republic and Zenebas Empire, the OER zoids were divided into the heroic Blue Zoids and the evil Red Mutants. Terrared here is clearly a Red Mutant and the cockpit traditionally used with early Republic zoids has been replaced with the one associated with early Empire zoids. It looks appropriately menacing. It’s the only change to the design, but it serves to make Terrared look less silly than Glidoler, though a change in cockpit is hardly enough to fix its weird design. The color scheme is a bit on-the-nose, but giving zoids individualized color schemes, rather than coloring them based off their faction wouldn’t become a thing in the OJR line either until later. It seems the decals in this kit have been printed with different graphics and I quite like the look of the silver on the pontoons. 

Glidoler was also released in the American Robostrux line, which kept the OER factions, now called Blue Guardians and Red Mutants, though this line was very short-lived and didn’t carry over any of the story from the OER line. This release was only available through mail-order and wasn’t named. It appears to be the same kit as Terrared, although it has been recolored to be a Blue Guardian. The colors here are similar to the original Glidoler and look appropriately heroic while being less bland than the original coloration. I’m not sure about the decision to maintain the orange though. Due to the darker colors, the orange stands out more and seems more out of place than on Glidoler. The new decals indicate that they tried to lean into it, but I just don’t feel great about a blue/green/silver/orange color scheme. 

Like Garius, Glidoler is a nice little set that, taken in the context of later zoid models, feels appropriately primitive. However, while the goofiness of Garius’ design worked in its favor, I feel like it hurts Glidoler as I have a hard time imagining this thing flying through the air, let alone faster than sound. It has the same dorky appeal as the other white head zoids, but Glidoler is one of my least favorites of that group. It’s just too awkward and weirdly proportioned. 

I like to envision a retired combat pilot, living on a farm, crammed into a cockpit, teaching their child how to pilot a zoid by dusting off the old Glidoler they keep in the barn. 2/5