Evo Striker

[dropbearsau]

I'll be honest, normally I don't like the concept of "custom" zoids. I don't like seeing often rare or sought after zoids being hacked apart and then glued onto the parts of other zoids, leaving a small pile of destroyed zoids behind. I've got nothing against people who do those kinds of customs, it's just not my thing, you know?

Anyway, a few weeks ago I pulled my old zoids out of the bottom of my wardrobe for the first time in about 4 or 5 years and found the only two blox zoids I owned; a Leostriker and an Evoflyer. I had originally bought them because I liked the design of Leostriker Ultimate and I wanted an Evoflyer to go with my Gairyuki. Over time though the two blox zoids kinda lost their appeal. Evoflyer reminded me way too much of a rat or a weasel and otherwise just looked awkward in both modes, and the Leostriker looked like the love child of a lynx and a gorilla and had pretty much zero neck movement which bugged me. So for a few days I pulled them apart and put them together again numerous times, and finally settled on this design:



I call it the Evo Striker. I don't think of it as a fusion because, to be honest, I don't actually like the concept of fuzors. To me it's a bit more like a derivitive of the Leostriker and a bit of a chimera. I originally tried to use as many parts of both zoids that I could but it ended up looking very bulky and kinda silly.



Evostriker is one blox longer than Leostriker was, Which I think makes all the difference. I clipped the large wing parts from Evoflyer because they had a habit of colliding with the guns in an earlier version of Evostriker.



I didn't have enough ball-point blox connectors left over for the hip joints, so with much hesitation I cut the "finger" bits off Leostriker's un-used front paws and glued the remaining ballpoints to a blox for a solid mounting point for the legs. The bit on top of the two rear-most blox is the only part I used that didnt come from Leostriker or Evoflyer. It's one of the wing piece connectors from Hien.



And here is the basic parts breakdown. I decided to glue the torso, cockpit and shoulder parts together because the inherent flopy-ness of the blox was driving me nuts. The smallest feather parts are glued to the shoulder ball point connectors and both blox to strengthen the whole torso and prevent the shoulders from wiggling around. 

It's only a simple little mod but I really like it. Now I just gotta find something to do with the left over Evoflyer bits...

[Reno_Tarshil]

I like it. Simple and effective.

[Chuckles]

For the record, not all customs involve cutting and gluing. There are actually some very impressive works out there that have been built with nothing more than creativity and unmodified parts.

That said, your Striker is a nice first pass. Keep working on it; we'd love to see how far you can go.

[dropbearsau]

Thanks guys.

Oh yes, I'm aware of some great customs out there that don't involve hacking zoids up. A while back I saw a "Command Sniper" made from a silver armored HMM Command wolf, a Leostriker and a rifle barrel from a Gundam (I think, I'm not well-versed in mechas outside of zoids so I'm not sure) in place of the Leostriker's tail blade. There's also some amazing repaints out there (a white, blue and gold Command Wolf AC comes to mind). I do appreciate the work that goes into building a zoid completely from scratch, I'd just rather not see zoids cut up.

As for doing more stuff like this, I can't really see myself doing any. I'm a bit short on money and I can't see it improving any time soon. The most I can see myself doing is buying some random blox parts and making something out of the leftover Evoflyer parts. Besides, I like most of my zoids the way they are.

[Reno_Tarshil]

Blox and Neo-Blox Zoids can provide you hours upon hours of customization.

[dropbearsau]

Hah, I don't doubt that. Where do you get your blox zoids from? I've been looking on ebay but they're often a bit expensive for my taste.

[Reno_Tarshil]

I got all my blox zoids back when Zoids was still making zoids, off of toy websites and ebay.

[Snowflake]

very cool! and you're right, it is a definite improvement, something that wouldve made a good kit on its own. unfortunately with the blox they were almost like.. purposely holding them back to encourage customizing
but yeah they are kind of floppy

[Maethius]

I really like the design! Hm. I suppose my customs do involve a little bit of hacking and gluing... but, yeah, I can certainly see your point! (if it helps, I usually don't use a rare or complete Zoid in my customs... I use really common ones or those I bought that were broken or partial kits)

[Reno_Tarshil]

Really Maethius? I figured you picked up a zoid peice and the custom magically appears.

[ligerzilla2014]

^I always thought he used the Force to simultaneously combine every part like a Jedi constructing a light saber.

[dropbearsau]

Thanks guys! @ Snowflake; yeah, i don't know why this isn't an "official fusion" because it seems to work really well, and the different colours of the original zoids con't seem to clash much at all. I actually think that Evoflyer's grey feathery bits work better with Leostriker's blue bits and Leostriker's white/lavender bits work better with Evoflyer's blue bits.

@ Maetheus; that's fair enough in my book. If it's already broken or in just random bits I don't have any issue with it. Not that I really have the right to judge.