Post by Deadborder on Aug 17, 2006 17:57:15 GMT -5
Preamble:
One of the more interesting (and freaky) Zoids news items of 2006 was the sudden appearance of Power Mammoth and Power Mantis in stores in England. These two, erm, odd Zoids were known only from a pair of photos in a now-infamous Hasbro Catalouge, leaving a lot of people puzzled to their true nature. However, as thye never reached American stores, it was generally assumed that they never reached production.
And then they suddenly showed up. And, as a result, I had to have them. My love of whacky Hasbro Zoids know no limit.
So heres the question - just what are the Power Zoids? Are they Blox, or Zoids or some freaky hybrid of the two? Or are they something else entirely? After building one of them, I can say that the answer is "yes".
Overview:
Power Mantis comes on six frames. He's moulded in light grey, light blue, purple and clear red with blue plugs. Its worth noting that the light blue and purple match to no other Zoid I've ever seen - unless the Blue is something obsucre like OJR Shield Liger Blue or somehting like that. He also comes with two bright red caps, two blox (one grey, one silver), three rubber bands, a blue pilot (One of the most sharply moulded pilots I've ever seen), labels and instructions.
The lables deserve a bit of a mention; while most of the stickers are genrric NJR ones, two stand out. The first is the NJR Guylos Logo, giving the Zoid a defitne affiliation. The second is a "PZ-102" type number. As Power Mammoth has a "PZ-101" number, its a fiar assumption that Hasbro was starting their own numbering system for these, erm, unsual Zoids. (I suspect that if it ever reached production that the enigmatic Power Kong would have been one of these Zoids, with the number PZ-103)
Construction:
Okay, enough pontificating. Let's build this bizzaro bug. Time to open up the instructions and go to work on what promises to be a very unique experience.
OH DEAR GOD! MAKE THE HURTING STOP!
Ahem. I'm good now. Really.
The Power Mantis' construction is unlike any Zoid I've ever seen before. Really. It's not quite a Blox and yet, not quite a Zoid, rather beign somrwehere between the two. Allow me to elucidate.
The Zoid does not have a motor. Despite containing Blox, they are not an integral part of its construction. Instead, it is built around an integral action feature, and its parts are designed to accomidater and work with it. Rather the using regular caps or Blox plugs, the Zoid uses purpose-designed pegs that both hold it together and provide articulation. Designed in various sizes and lengths, the pegs have several differnt fuction. Rather cleverly, they are designed to look like regular caps.
The construction is suropisingly invoilved for a non-motirised Zoid with a large number of interconencted bars and shafts, held together by the aforesiad ingenous pegs. The instructions alone are enough to make one recoil in horror until you realise just how much everything holds together. Then it all looks good, even if you'll end up wishing you had a couple of extra hands.
The Blox are kind of redundant - they jsut sit on the back and don't do anyhting that a purpose-made part couldn't have done. I kinda wonder why they were included at all. My only possible theory is that Hasbro wanted to make the Power Zoids cross-compatible with existing Blox.
Gimmick:
The main point of the Power Zoids was to incoperoate action features into Blox. Or at least, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it. Power Mantis' rather elaborate construction is based aorund its gimmick, which begins to make sense once you put it all together. In essence, the whole Zoid is based around this mechanisim.
Pressing down on a tab under the Zoid's tail causes the upper body to thrust forweards while the arms extend outwards as if to attack. A rubber band "Snaps" the Zoid back into position if released. Its simple, but rather effective, and the motion isa suroisingly smooth. Certainly, Power Mantis' claws look like they'd hurt.
There is a secondary gimmick; each of the back legs has a rubber band attatched to it that snaps it back into place when pushed. The result is that the leg gives a backwards kicking/clawing action.
Oddities:
Many Zoids, especially whacky Hasbro variants, are prone to differnces between the model and the photos on the box. Power Manits is no excpetion. And while I know this doesnt effect the overall ratign of the model, since I am pedantic I'll list them all anyways.
The only obvious mould differnce is the arms and claws - the one on the box has a lot less detail then the actual model does. The clear parts are al ighter shade of red on the box, while the caps are grey rather then red. Most interesrtingly, several parts are differnt colours to the final model, while other parts from the same frames remain unaltered. Most interestingly, one part (a section of the hind leg assembly) is two differnt colours on the box.
So that's the Zoid. Question is, how does it stack up?
Bizzaro Good:
Okay, let's not beat around the bush here. Power Mantis is weird. No, better still, he's unique. There's no Zoid like him, and even his closest relaitve, Power Mammoth, is quite differnt both in construction and style. That alone is enough to get some degree of "good", but there's more.
Power Mantis has a suroisingly high amount of detail, especially when compared to other Blox. More inrterestingly, a lot of the parts are "double sided" with details on both outside nad inside parets. compare to many other Zoids who have "gappy" parts of them, especially on reverse or interior sides. P-Mantis, by comparison, has a lot of interior detail.
The main gimmick works surpisingly well with rather smooth motion in both attack and recoil actions. Building it is just an added level of satisfaction.
The head is porbably the best on any Mantis Zoid. The "eyes" are esepcially appealing, looking halfway between insect eyes and some sort of aircraft canopy. They also look very good when held up to a light. The rest of the Zoid has a semi-skeletal look to it, reminsicent of the Whiteheads.
Bizzaro Bad:
The gimmick for the hind legs is only mediocre in its exocution; its rather easy for the rubber bands to pop off, and very hard to get them back on. Furthermore, the kick motion is far from convincing.
The Zoid also seems to lack ranged weapons. The only wepaons visible are a small gun on the back, and a double-barrled wepaon on the tial which could alsao be a booster or smoke dispenser or something. Its followng on a tradtion of mantis Zoids that either are under-armed, have all their wepaons facing backwards or both.
Bizzaro Ugly:
Not too long after they came out, the E-bay asking price for this guy hit fourty to fifty pounds. Yes, pounds, baby. That's INSANE. And that was when there was some stock. If one were to crop up now, expecually with the Japanese collecotrs still hungry for their flesh, I have no idea how much it would go for.
So all up, I like htis guy., He's a weird little critter, but at the same time very unqie, distinctive and, above all else, enjoyable. And he's alsdo the ultimate expression of the Freaky Hasbro Variant.
Rick R.
