Zoids Wild Hasbro releases

[Maethius]

Having to deal with safety concerns in different countries makes a great deal of sense. I know Nerf has altered their products over the years so that one gun is acceptable in multiple countries. I have seen some really great customs, too! I wish I could afford to jump into them.

[Zarwolf]

Has anything at all emerged yet about when these are likely to be released, and in which countries etc?

[Snowflake]

25 dollars? For these little things? No way

[Hanyoutai]

It's less than their retail price in Japan (3000 yen compared to $25 for Wild Liger). Small kits closer to $9 ~ $12 iirc. Of course, whether you wish to pay that for Wild kits in general is personal preference, but it'd be cheaper than ordering from Japan for those who want them.

[bladeligerzero94]

Is it me, or is Hasbro starting to turn into Bandai America?

[JES]

I read rumors a while ago, but this is the first official confirmation I’ve seen that Zoids is returning to the US. Is there any release date set yet?

It’s pretty cool that they went with illustrations for the box art, like Zelve and Yuiji Kiada (probably spelled the latter incorrectly).

And not that I want to be that one greedy weasel among us, but is there any word on the HMM models being distributed here as well?

[Hanyoutai]

According to TakaraTomy's 2019 Financial Report, they are planning to air and distribute Zoids Wild in the UK and the US during Fiscal 2019 (which in Japan, ends at the beginning of April 2020).

There has so far been no word about Kotobukiya. Licensing issues may keep them out, but we don't know for sure yet. However, since their Zoids Wild kits are not expected until 2020 ~ 2021, it would be a very long wait to get HMM Wild kits in the US.

[Zarwolf]

Any Zoids release in the UK again would be fantastic news!

[JES]

I was actually kind of hoping that Takara Tomy might want to take advantage if the brand recognition, and release at least the models that are anime relevant. Maybe Kotobukiya could get one of the major local companies like Testors to do the distribution. Let’s face it: HMMs aren’t want Hasbro’s clientele is looking for, and they’d probably find s way mess it up anyways.

Though yeah, for Zoids Wild, I’m probably going to want to get the more detailed HMMs over the motorized ones. It would probably be less expensive if I picked them up from a local hobby store though. I’ll probably get the less expensive Hasbro kits first, because I need to practice inkwashing and clear coating.

[Hanyoutai]

With the target audience being kids I don't think brand recognition will make much of a difference for the UK/US. Most brand recognition there seems to be coming from 18+. The kids will know it from the show that'll be airing, so the kits released will be anime relevant for our region.

Though from my understanding, the Koto / Hasbro issue is less of a problem of Hasbro not liking competition but more an issue of the US' demand on rights holders to defend their IP in the region. I don't remember all the technicalities (it was gone over in the Zoids discord forever ago) but the idea was that if you don't, you run the risk of losing your exclusive right. Granted even the courts seem to be uncertain about where to draw the line. I'm also not sure how much those kinds of laws differentiate between age groups. They may not care if model kits are for X age group or another.

That doesn't mean Koto and Hasbro won't eventually be able to work something out, though. It'd be cool to see Koto Kits in the US. They have an online shop, just not one currently distributing Zoids.

Moto Wild kits have lots of small details, so are great for practicing in the mean time~

[fpjonesiii]

I'm hoping we get some info on these soon, like price and roughly when they're planned to release.

Would be cool to see Hasbro and Koto work out some kind of deal to release the HMM kits outside of Japan, though I don't see it happening. Even with the new show on the way, I don't they could find retailer support for more expensive kits.

[Phenotype]

This is interesting. I honestly wasn’t expecting Zoids to return to the US. I’m surprised nobody in this thread considered that maybe the mold changes were for structural improvements and not safety concerns? Either way, it’s nice to see them making a return. I might even buy one or two.

[Hanyoutai]

I think that's because the Wild Kits don't really have structural problems. You can pick them up and bang them against the table without breaking the limbs or weapon mounts, and there's a good number of videos showing harsh play by Japanese fan's younger children. With Hasbro increasing the age limit above what the kits were designed to withstand, it doesn't seem like a good reason for the changes.

[ultimateultrasaurus]

With all due respect, I beg to differ. I have seen reports about stressmarks when changing the weapons a few times and have also seen (with my own Gilraptor) that if you "press too hard" (mind you I am always patient and composed when building so didn't press that hard) you get stress marks.
Sort of like the Red Horn horn. ZW holes are sometimes triangular and the peg is round, so that might create stress..

Even though they are simplified I will have to get them as they do include the pilots... (and sort of different colors, all the darker grey is lighter) and do really like the boxart, but getting US releases would be more expensive than Japanese.

Hate to see what all the names will be though (even though the Japanese versions and pilots also have weird names

[Hanyoutai]

I've not been seeing any complaints in that regard, and haven't had the same experience, though if there's anything Zoids have taught me, it's that mileage varies drastically between users.

My Gilraptor has no stress marks, built by someone with no prior experience. It didn't show any after weapon tests either, using old motorized kit weapons and the Beast Liger ones (same tests done with Gabrigator, WL Evil, and Gannontoise). For clarity's sake, I took mine out and tried to bend some of the armor and pegs. No stress marks, so it seems more than capable of withstanding an older kid. If I tried any harder it would be intentionally trying to damage the kit, which is a separate matter. If it makes any difference mine is the 1st release. Subsequent releases changed the red. Perhaps it does not hold up as well?

Aside from that, the damage caused by constantly swapping weapons isn't part of the structural integrity of the kit, in the sense of requiring drastic mold changes to the body. I'm referring to the kits ability to hold together during a play session. Stuff like Wild Liger's blades can come off easily, but the kits are very resistant to breaking. Anything can break, but with videos abound of kids smacking them into the ground or dragging them around by their weapons, which would've broken on older model kits, they seem quite sturdy. Certainly enough for ages 8 and up. It's a big step forward from older model kits that broke often.

Where abouts are you located (country wise)? The Hasbro kits will likely be heading to the UK as well (scheduled for around the same time as the US release in the next few months). Hopefully somewhere at least less brutal on shipping will get the kits in. I'm most curious about if Wild Liger's name will change.