Post by Andy F² on Feb 16, 2006 14:32:12 GMT -5
Since no-one else seems to have reviewed this bizarre duo yet I thought I'd give it a go.
...what do you mean you misread the title?
Rainbow Jerk Wind
Quite possibly the most unfortunately-named Zoid in existance, Rainbow Jerk Wind is also one of the most realistic bird-type Zoids to date (second only to the regular Rainbow Jerk who doesn't have silly little thusters on its wings). It makes up for its lack of motor with some fairly decent articulation and interesting features - it has joints in its feet, knees, hips, neck and beak whilst the tail will fan out when raised and the wings will raise and extend when the neck is pulled forwards. Oh, and it has a dang cool box to boot - I felt bad opening it.
The metallic purple is a nicer and more accurate rendition of a Peacock's feather colours and Rainbow Jerk's silver has become an interesting metallic pearly white. Whilst Rainbow Jerk's body has changed from a gunmetal colour to metallic purple, the gold remains the same and the tail feathers are still transparent purple which looks great when held up to a light.
Aside from its colouration and the Kotona mini figure (sadly lacking Ruuku), Windy Jerk's main selling point is the inclusion of the Power Up thrusters. Unfortunately, in my opinion this is Windy Jerk's only downside (apart from those near-impossible-to-fit eyes!); they're big, they get in the way of the tail feathers, they do nothing to compliment Rainbow Jerks design and they still don't match the colour scheme. What's more, they're hollow and feel decidedly cheap.
The good
Design, colouration, Kotona mini figure
The bad
The eyes are hard to fit, the beak likes to fall off (although not as much as my Fire Phoenix's), possibly the wing Dancers
The ugly
Nothing much.
Conclusion
Highly recommended
Lanstag Break
Having still not bought a regular Lanstag, I could justify spending the higher-than-normal price for this little fella. I regret every penny.
Being a Gravity Zoid, I never gave it much attention for fear of it being some Hasbro leftover that Tomy got hold of. Upon building it, however, I found I was very wrong - this is clearly the product of a different design team. For starters, it's the biggest of the Gravity abominations (standing taller than Murasame Liger) and has lots of little touches that left me thinking 'this could have been good' (for example, the shield has nittle nubs around the inside that lock onto a gear fixed to the axles to make it spin). So far so good.
The colour scheme is one of this Zoids many downers. The first step in the instructions has you building the head and neck and on doing so I thought the pearly metallic white, jet black, silver and neon orange might actually work. But then came the body and the legs and I realised how horrible it was starting to look. I don't think even Tilly will like this one.
The nature of Lanstag's design means it has to be as light and free-moving as possible; unfortunately this means the legs are hollow single pieces which for something of this size looks terrible. I don't doubt that Lanstag would have been ten times better if Tomy didn't have to work the Gravity gimmick into the design.
So what does it do? Once you've stuck it all together and ripped the ripcord, ol' Gravity Moose here will stagger forwards in a gait not dissimilar to command Wolf. Careful - if you rip it to fast it will just fling itself over sideways and lay there merrily flailing its legs. Aside from this, the neck is jointed at the body and at the point it joins the head, the antlers are sort of spring-loaded so that you can put them into the open position and they will close when you move the head down (unfortunately, this can't be done in reverse so you have to reset them each time you wiggle its head), and as mentioned earlier the shield will spin while in motion but this doesn't seem to fit onto the gear too well so it's a bit temporamental (it's paint job is very sloppily done aswell and lays too thin on some areas).
Then there's that awful lance thing; to load it you push it into a socket and to fire it you push it out again. Whee. The lance itself is hollow and doesn't lock into place properly so it wiggles about and looks decidedly floppy.
And now we move onto the extras. There's the little Re Mie figurine which is actually pretty cool. She's very nicely detailed, has a proper base and even has little panties on if you feel like taking a peek. Then there are the Twinkle Breakers - to be honest I thought they looked kinda stupid and out of place so I took them off and fitted one segment onto each of Rainbow Jerk's wings for a cool Storm Sworder impression. Lastly thee's the 'Fully Roasted Ending' audio CD which is traumatizing to say the least.
Conclusion
You want a conclusion do you? Well to sum it all up, no-one can put it better than my mom: "My opinion of you has fallen, that looks cheap and tacky."
Avoid like a particularly nasty plague!
...what do you mean you misread the title?
Rainbow Jerk Wind
Quite possibly the most unfortunately-named Zoid in existance, Rainbow Jerk Wind is also one of the most realistic bird-type Zoids to date (second only to the regular Rainbow Jerk who doesn't have silly little thusters on its wings). It makes up for its lack of motor with some fairly decent articulation and interesting features - it has joints in its feet, knees, hips, neck and beak whilst the tail will fan out when raised and the wings will raise and extend when the neck is pulled forwards. Oh, and it has a dang cool box to boot - I felt bad opening it.
The metallic purple is a nicer and more accurate rendition of a Peacock's feather colours and Rainbow Jerk's silver has become an interesting metallic pearly white. Whilst Rainbow Jerk's body has changed from a gunmetal colour to metallic purple, the gold remains the same and the tail feathers are still transparent purple which looks great when held up to a light.
Aside from its colouration and the Kotona mini figure (sadly lacking Ruuku), Windy Jerk's main selling point is the inclusion of the Power Up thrusters. Unfortunately, in my opinion this is Windy Jerk's only downside (apart from those near-impossible-to-fit eyes!); they're big, they get in the way of the tail feathers, they do nothing to compliment Rainbow Jerks design and they still don't match the colour scheme. What's more, they're hollow and feel decidedly cheap.
The good
Design, colouration, Kotona mini figure
The bad
The eyes are hard to fit, the beak likes to fall off (although not as much as my Fire Phoenix's), possibly the wing Dancers
The ugly
Nothing much.
Conclusion
Highly recommended
Lanstag Break
Having still not bought a regular Lanstag, I could justify spending the higher-than-normal price for this little fella. I regret every penny.
Being a Gravity Zoid, I never gave it much attention for fear of it being some Hasbro leftover that Tomy got hold of. Upon building it, however, I found I was very wrong - this is clearly the product of a different design team. For starters, it's the biggest of the Gravity abominations (standing taller than Murasame Liger) and has lots of little touches that left me thinking 'this could have been good' (for example, the shield has nittle nubs around the inside that lock onto a gear fixed to the axles to make it spin). So far so good.
The colour scheme is one of this Zoids many downers. The first step in the instructions has you building the head and neck and on doing so I thought the pearly metallic white, jet black, silver and neon orange might actually work. But then came the body and the legs and I realised how horrible it was starting to look. I don't think even Tilly will like this one.
The nature of Lanstag's design means it has to be as light and free-moving as possible; unfortunately this means the legs are hollow single pieces which for something of this size looks terrible. I don't doubt that Lanstag would have been ten times better if Tomy didn't have to work the Gravity gimmick into the design.
So what does it do? Once you've stuck it all together and ripped the ripcord, ol' Gravity Moose here will stagger forwards in a gait not dissimilar to command Wolf. Careful - if you rip it to fast it will just fling itself over sideways and lay there merrily flailing its legs. Aside from this, the neck is jointed at the body and at the point it joins the head, the antlers are sort of spring-loaded so that you can put them into the open position and they will close when you move the head down (unfortunately, this can't be done in reverse so you have to reset them each time you wiggle its head), and as mentioned earlier the shield will spin while in motion but this doesn't seem to fit onto the gear too well so it's a bit temporamental (it's paint job is very sloppily done aswell and lays too thin on some areas).
Then there's that awful lance thing; to load it you push it into a socket and to fire it you push it out again. Whee. The lance itself is hollow and doesn't lock into place properly so it wiggles about and looks decidedly floppy.
And now we move onto the extras. There's the little Re Mie figurine which is actually pretty cool. She's very nicely detailed, has a proper base and even has little panties on if you feel like taking a peek. Then there are the Twinkle Breakers - to be honest I thought they looked kinda stupid and out of place so I took them off and fitted one segment onto each of Rainbow Jerk's wings for a cool Storm Sworder impression. Lastly thee's the 'Fully Roasted Ending' audio CD which is traumatizing to say the least.
Conclusion
You want a conclusion do you? Well to sum it all up, no-one can put it better than my mom: "My opinion of you has fallen, that looks cheap and tacky."
Avoid like a particularly nasty plague!
