Wow, where was I in the '80's when these babies came out? Obviously not in Japan. I have been interested in Zoids for some time but never bought one because they were too expensive. Lo and behold, Tomy is reissuing many of the Zoids and even creating some new ones! Don't look for them at your local hobby store, they are currently sold in Japan only. Thankfully the wonders of the Internet also allow us to mail order these straight from Japan as I have been doing for many months. Since smitten by the Zoid bug, I've also located some vintage 80's Zoids at decent prices and have built a few of them. They are remarkable kits going together extremely well. They are all animated kits, some are battery powered and some have windup motors. The linkage of moving parts is really amazing engineering, they are marvelous to watch.
UPDATE 11-25-00- my Zoid collection is growing faster than my updates! I have many more Zoids than I've shown here including a growing population of vintage Zoids. I will endeavor to update my site to show all these treasures and will also come up with a more suitable format so you can tell the difference between vintage and new, custom and stock Zoids.
UPDATE 01-10-01- My Zoiding has come so far since I started collecting about a year ago. Thanks to my friends in the ZoidFans eGroup (see below), collecting Zoids and sharing stories has become a real addiction! Tomy is still cranking out the new releases with no end in sight, excellent news for us all!
UPDATE 09-03-01- my Zoids collection continues to grow and is pretty staggering at this point! I never thought I'd collect as many as I have, but the Zoid collecting bug is not to be denied. Many thanks to Mark Mizuse, my good friend in the Philippines, who has been instrumental in helping me get so many awesome original Japanese release Zoids- thanks Mark!
Click >>HERE<< to bring up the list of Zoid pages in the left frame.
Links
Zi craft union An excellent custom Zoid site that hosts work from all over the world! A truly incredible array of work that must be perused by any serious Zoider!! Some of my work is featured although it is far eclipsed by other pieces on the site. This site will eventually replace Workstation HOSO which will allow HOSO time to pursue his fine CGI work.
ZOIDS Hokanko This cool Zoid site is run by KAMISAMA, the person responsible for the infamous Japanese Zoids web ring! He hopes to expand the ring to include other language sites soon.
Workstation HOSO This fantastic Japanese site has the most incredible array of customized Zoids featured, you must check it out. Two of my Zoids even made the grade onto HOSO's site, check them out on page 7!
http://www.artvilla.com/wakefield/zoids/ If you've got to see more of these awesome machines, check out John's Zoids page. He has plenty of pics and info, plus links to all the other cool Zoids sites out there!
Jeff's Robots This is one killer site that deals mostly with robots, but also has some cool older Zoids. Check out his awesome robot mpegs!
Zoids and other model news, click <<HERE>>
We have an International group of Zoiders that participate in an eGroup mailing list. There's a lot of great info and camaraderie, so get on over and sign up now (it's free). Click the link below.