Zoids x Monster Hunter Wild Liger Zinogre

Monster Hunter is back with another collaboration project with Takara Tomy. Following the Rathalos-themed Optimus Prime from the Transformers lineup, the latest crossover brings the franchise into the world of Zoids. This time, the recipient is none other than Zinogre, the fan-favorite thunder wolf wyvern, reimagined using the iconic Wild Liger body frame. Scheduled for release in February 2027, the Zoids Wild Liger Zinogre will be sold for for 7,000 yen.

Wild Liger Zinogre offers exactly what one would expect from a pre-assembled Zoids release: a mechanical interpretation of one of Monster Hunter’s most recognizable monsters. To help justify its price point, the model includes pilot-related gimmicks as well as LED lighting effects. The design itself appears to be a faithful fusion of Zinogre’s signature silhouette with the mechanical aesthetics of the Zoids franchise.

The recent surge of Monster Hunter crossover merchandise is interesting to observe. My impression is that Capcom recognizes the franchise is no longer enjoying the explosive momentum it had at its peak. While Monster Hunter remains a successful and highly recognizable series, it does not seem to command the same level of excitement and cultural presence that it once did. Expanding into collaborations and collector-oriented merchandise may be one way to maintain visibility and engagement beyond the games themselves.

As someone who once followed Monster Hunter passionately for a decade, I feel the series has gradually drifted away from many of the qualities that originally made it special. The modern entries have found a much larger audience, but they often pursue a different design philosophy from the one that drew me into the franchise in the first place. Unless Capcom ever decides to revisit that era through something like a proper remake of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, I will probably remain on the sidelines as a player while continuing to watch the series from afar.

Zoids Genesis Spark Fig Grande Kotona Elegance

 

Takara Tomy is not exactly known for its PVC figure lineup, but out of nowhere the company has delivered a tantalizing scale figure of Zoids Genesis heroine Kotona Elegance. Dressed in a ravishing swimsuit outfit, this entry in the Spark Fig Grande series fully embraces the appeal of one of the Zoids franchise’s most beloved heroines. Scheduled for release in February 2027, the figure carries a price tag of 22,000 yen.

Among the many heroines across the Zoids franchise, Kotona Elegance has always stood out as something of an anomaly in the decades-long mecha series. She is the kind of “perfect waifu” character design that feels as though it belonged in a major shonen or seinen fantasy title rather than a children-focused anime, which arguably left her underrated despite her popularity. Even so, Kotona gained a strong following during the mid-2000s thanks to her top-tier eye-catching design, often comparable to modern fan favorites like Reisalin Stout from Atelier Ryza.

In Zoids Genesis, Kotona is introduced as a member of a mysterious assassin clan sent to target the main protagonist, only to eventually join his group instead. While she never truly stood out as a frontline Zoid pilot as her Rainbow Jerk lacking the overwhelming combat prowess of machines like the Murasame Liger, she excelled in stealth and subterfuge. Without a doubt, this new scale figure from Takara Tomy is a prime example of a swimsuit waifu figure done right, featuring an attractive and well-balanced physique without going excessively over the top.

I still own her classic Max Factory figure, which remains one of Kotona’s best renditions to this day and has been sitting in my collection for years. It is definitely a figure I look forward to reviewing someday.

Diaclone Transformers x Zoids Synergenex Shield D Prime

 As a collector have you ever curious what happen if Takara toys lineup ever had any crossover which resulted in a High end collector item? Takara recently obliged to humor the idea by presenting Synergenex Shield D Prime! What appears as the hybrid of Transformers Optimus Prime and  Zoids Shield Liger is a High End Diaclone product that unifies Three of Takara Tomy popular mecha toy product. Scheduled for February 2026 release, Synergenex Shield D Prime will be sold for 38500 Yen Price tag.

Wonderfest Summer 2017 Highlights

 As usual i always do coverage about Wonderfest whenever they appear. Compared the one earlier this year, The summer 2017 doesn't seem as exciting to me as you see more of the Manufacturer's progress on their prototype from the Winter Wonderfest. As always only mecha related stuff that piqued my interest and stay away from moeshits like a plague. In any case Kotobukiya and Sentinel seems to fill my expectation again this time.

1/72 HMM Liger Zero Empire

 On this year's Winter Wonderfest, Liger Zero is one of the two products that caught my attention in Kotobukiya's booth and a while ago Kotobukiya have just released details for the product release. The kit will be slated for July this year and will cost around 5600 Yen without tax. Unfortunately Liger Zero Empire will be Kotobukiya Web product only which means importing would be inconvenient. Compared to the Regular Liger Zero, Liger Zero Empire is pretty much a carbon copy of the former with palette swap, a cool one nevertheless. In the series Liger Zero Empire is what happen when Zenebas Empire steal Helic Republic's tech and develop their own version of Liger Zero. Later on Empire did make their own CAS which Liger Zero X is one known variant. In Zoids Legacy, Zero Empire was one of the available CAS variant for Liger Zero and the easiest one to make. Statswise it is still the same with Liger Zero and have the same quirks as well. I guess if this kit sell good enough, Kotobukiya will likely release Zero X too.

Yami's Winter Wonderfest 2017 Highlights

Kinda late for one but here are some of the prototypes shown in the Event that i find noteworthy. This year's wonderfest got too many moeshit stuffs but at least the mechas are not dying yet. Firstly from Kotobukiya finally Raftclans is going to join the SRW plamo lineup which means one of my SRW kit wishlist ticked down and definitely keep a watch on it.

 While Frame Arms Girls seems to be the most selling Kotobukiya's lineup at the moment, Their HMM lineup will always be the best when it comes to quality and another 2 Zoids will join the lineup, Liger Zero Empire and Storm Sworder! With the empire side CAS coming out i guess Zero X will have a good chance to follow as well.

 I think the one who takes the crown for the best mecha lineup on this year's winter Wonderfest is Sentinel with their several toy lineups for several awesome under-represented mecha series. While we got Black Sarena and Baikanfu Toys before, it appears that Sentinel is going to one up Bandai with their prototypes especially Baikanfu which seems going to incorporate full fledged Pile Formation. Also it seems that we are going to get God Gravion complete with the gattai gimmick. Lastly that Mospeada power armor is going to be awesome. If the price for these prototypes are not too expensive i might be getting some of them.

Zoids Legacy

 Rewriting this article with updated screenshots from the game since i believe the series deserve some better treatment. This game was my gateway to Zoids series and I think i have finished this game like four times already both in emulator and back when i had GBA. While Zoids Legacy was riddled with plenty of bad translations it does not ruin much of the gaming experience.

 Some examples how terrible the translation work by Atari on this game, i think the worst one from what i recall is they translate 落ちろ! to simply "drop!" which just didn't make sense for the context

Early March Loot

 Lol what a way to celebrate my return to Beijing for the last time with Impulse spending on Taobao. For this time i bought myself Kotona Nendoroid, YS7 Adol Figurine and Volks A3 Type 00 A&R Takemikazuchi. Overall i got the price of the items on par with Mandarake's price tag which are still compared to buying from Mandarake when Shipping is taken on consideration since i only pay like 3$ for the shipping when i buy from China. I bought both Volks A3 for 220 RMB each which is around 3700 Yen which is really good deal for the Blue Takemikazuchi as it is the 2nd most expensive Type 00 after Yui's. Originally i didn't intend to get the White Takemikazuchi considering it was abit higher than the average price but bought on impulse anyway since i guess Ikaruga would be lonely without someone to boss around. Also i have been looking around for Adol Figurine but the only decent one i get is the UFO catcher grade figurine which got nice sculpt overall save for the face. It is hard life for collector when your favorite character is male since the Japanese figure market didn't make much of those most of the time. In any case it will be a while before i reviewed these items considering it will be like 4 months before i returned to hometown.

ZA 1/100 Mugen Liger

 Ever since i have watched Zoids Genesis i wonder if there will be some renewal in the series product by Tomy. It appears that Kotobukiya have released Murasame Liger a while ago in lineup called Zoids Aggressive which is a new Action Figure Lineup released by Kotobukiya. Unlike HMM lineup which are Plastic Models, it seems that ZA is a finished product, ready to play action figure and i guess the Zoids Genesis going to be the litmus paper for this new lineup. The ZA Mugen Liger is going to be released around middle of this year with the price tag of 6800 Yen. At first i was hyped to think Mugen Liger finally got a plastic kit since i think Mugen was the coolest looking out of Murasame Varients but it turns out to be Action Figure. While the product would be good nonetheless, i still prefer a Plamo since you can be proud with your own result of Labor so will be still waiting for a HMM instead. Mugen Liger was the final form of Murasame combining the strength of Murasame and speed of Hayate. Ruuji piloted this form nearing the end of the series facing the Genesis version of Deathsaurer. Personally i think Genesis got what it takes to be more than a toy commercial but i guess toy sales matters more. If these Murasame Liger Variants Action figure sold well i think we will see more premade Zoids action figure in the future.

Max Factory 1/7 Kotona Elegance

 While Zoids Genesis is rather disappointing at very least it got pretty good eye candies like Kotona and Reimi. Out of the two characters Kotona obvious got more figure treatment due to her voluptuous body and Max Factory created one of the best rendition for her on 1/7 scale. The figure posing on the chair is probably based on the illustration given by the famous artist Tony Taka on his doujin. In Zoids Genesis, Kotona Elegance is a zoids pilot from mysterious tribe that protects a great secret. She is very skilled in Assassination and carries lots of hidden weapons so she is kinda like Femme Fatale version of Fiona from Chaotic century. Kotona pilots bird type zoid called Rainbow Jerk which is specialised in Recon and aerial combat thus not as powerful as Ryuji's  Murasame Liger. Probably Kotona harbors some feeling to Ryuji which make her shota but probably she will let Reimi take Ryuji due to their sisterly relationship. Kotona is one of the more attractive female design out there though it was kinda a waste that she was used on kids series like Genesis.

Zoids Genesis

 Another backlog cleared from my constantly piling anime stash and glad finished the Series. Overall Zoids Genesis as kids anime is decent enough but as your regular stuff it is much left to be desired. The overall plot formula is based on previous Chaotic Century it is just that there are lack of the variations. The Dilga empire Zoids are really plain compared to Zenebas Empire as they only get 4 or 5 variants in the show which are basically more boring counterpart of Empire's Zoids. Even the  Zoids designs from protagonist that i find cool are only Murasame Liger and Sword Wolf. The sole redeeming point of Genesis for me is that it got good eyecandy Re Mii and Kotona and it is up to your preference to pick one. Worst part of the series is that the doesn't even get proper closure, i wished Tomy would have bothered to show the aftermath of the finale at very least.

 I think Genesis was intended to reboot the interest of the Zoids series through anime but i guess it failed at that considering Genesis was kinda in the part of twilight of 50 Episode anime shows that are used to promote toys as we don't see this type much anymore by mid 2000s. While the series is lackluster i would be happy to watch the series if i was a kid. If you are interested with Zoids series you can play Zoids Legacy game in GBA which is really fun but if you want Genesis stuff you can check SRW K and Zoids DS which are unfortunately still in Japanese. Lastly out of the two girls from Genesis, which one you prefer? Re Mii or Kotona?

1/72 Liger Zero Jaeger Review

The last time i did a model kit review was more than a year ago and this Liger Zero Jaeger is no exception. I had taken shots of my finished work for this kit last year but since i had trouble posing the kit for midair pose i stopped halfway. However it won't do justice if the kit doesn't get to see the light since i promised to show the finished work through the WIP back then. I don't take much shots for this kit but i think it is sufficient enough to see the difference of the unpainted version.

Wings opened

Zero Jaeger(Hunter in German) is the second CAS form of Liger Zero created by Helic Republic for high speed close combat. Sporting Ion Booster that is even larger than Liger Zero's, Jaeger is capable of manuvering in really high speed for a land based Zoid only rivaled by few like Berserk Fury Z. Since Jaeger frame is meant for speed, the frame doesn't come with extra armament but Liger Zero's Strike Laser Claw is potent enough for a high speed combat considering most of the high speed zoids doesn't have too much armor. In Zoids Legacy Jaeger is the least used CAS for Liger Zero but i have to admit after working on the kit, Jaeger is probably one of the coolest looking form of Liger Zero's CAS

Liger Zero Jaeger buildoff!

Picked up my hobby knife again  after being inactive for more than 6 months already. I just finished my LBX Odin and picked this Jaeger CAS units. Gotta say this is probably my favorite Liger Zero variants in terms of look because appearance wise, the HMM Liger Zero Jaeger is the coolest one out of Zero's CAS variants at least for me. Unlike my previous Liger Zero build i intend to do painted build for Jaeger which is rather straight forward unless i plan to make the kit looks more detailed. Just now i finished Sanding all of the parts for the Jaeger units which took about 2 hours which i bet Panzer would take much longer -_-;.

Wonderfest 2013 releases

Every year as always Wonderfest bring something surprising for collectors and especially for mecha fans. I am not really following RIOBOT series but from this Wonderfest, Sentinel introduced couple of awesome mecha figures. First is the RIOBOT Blodia from Capcom's mecha fighting series Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness which is piloted by Jin Saotome, the main character of the series. I saw Blodia first in action in Marvel Vs Capcom through Blodia Punch then played Capcom Beat em up called Armored Warrior in which it is one of the playable character and finally the Cyberbots itself which i played on MAME. I wonder if Reptos will get a Riobot eventually since Blodia managed to get it through. While there is a slim chance for me to get Blodia at least i will be getting Cyberbots from PSN.

Apart from Blodia, Riobot Jehuty which was announced a while ago got prototype model which really gorgeous and looks like Anubis soon will be following as well. I am still looking forward to the Riobot Orgun which has been taken a while but still get a better chance to me to get it compared to Blodia.

Usually i don't really care with Max Factory releases on Wonderfest but certainly they caught my attention this time with Figma Guyver and Dougram Plamo. I am actually fan of Guyver which is quite interesting and have been looking for a good physical rendition of Guyver 1 but no luck and Max Factory finally decide to release a figma for it. As for Dougram my wish seems to be granted again in one way as Max Factory decided to create Plamo for Dougram, Soltic and Blockhead in 1/72 scale which would be the same as average 1/144 Gundam kits.

Finally in the Kaiyodo and Kotobukiya section, with popularity of Rathalos Blademaster Kaiyodo decided to expand its Monster Hunter Revoltech lineup with Jinouga/Zinogre Blademaster which seems to come with SnS and other weapon which is quite random since Jinouga had weapons in all weapon tree IIRC.

For the Kotobukiya, it is abit disappointing this time since there are no major release for SRW or Muvluv appeared in the exhibition but at least the 1/144 YF-23 Blackwidow is pretty much confirmed now. HMM is also getting Gojulas which i bet will be as expensive as Iron Kong. This Year's Wonderfest seems to add plenty of stuffs again in my want list which is too tempting.

1/72 HMM Berserk Fury

After few months of the first reveal for the kit, finally Kotobukiya announced the release of Berserk Fury's kit. The kit will be released on August this year with price of 8800 yen. This is rather expected since the previous Geno Breaker cost like 7800 yen and Berserk Fury is more or less have the same size frame with it along with CAS feature. Berserk Fury or Berserk Fuhrer is a zoid developed by Empire based on Geno Saurer in order to rival Republic's Liger Zero and ironically the Empire stole technologies from Republic to develop this Zoid. Berserk Fury is really strong all around where it possess powerful Diffused Particle Cannon which is discharged from its mouth and also capable of generating Energy Shield. Apparently the version that the Kotobukiya released the New Century version which is piloted by Vega a kid who serves Bit's rival. I won't be getting this kit for a while since i need to conserve my budget and i still have too much backlog yet to be finished.

Early April Loot

Actually i should call the topic as March loot as if my stuff from Amiami was not so late too arrive due to the local Post office error. I got myself some Virtual-ON kits from HLJ which had rather tempting offer then i finally got myself the Armor Plus of Tekkaman Blade from Mandarake which i get more or less regular price. From Amiami i bought SOC Zeorymer and HMM Liger Zero Jaeger which i preordered beforehand but ironically it is the last items to be arrived out of all loots. I guess i will be buying less stuffs by the 2nd half of the year as my backlog keep increasing while i currently have problems to clear my backlogs. Anyway you will expect some review of the Armor Plus Tekkaman Blade soon or later because i rather have high priority to review this guy.

Kotobukiya Wonderfest 2012

Just like last year, Kotobukiya's lineup always caught my interest in Wonderfest. In their booths, they show the prototyper for Panzer Zero and Berserk Fury which was confirmed around last week already. My wallets will cry for sure since i will be getting both of them which will be released around the 2nd half of this year and i bet the latter one will cost 7800 yen at least.

Perhaps one of the lineup that Kotobukiya always supply new products steadily is the D-style which grew in rather fast pace. Kotobukiya show new addition of the lineup which is ARX-8 Levatein and Takemikazuchi which i would've gotten them if i am collecting SD kits. So far there is no news for Muvluv kit or SRW which i will be looking forward to.

I am never really into Revoltech but Monster Hunter caught my eyes for sure. In their booths they show the prototype for MH3 version of Rathalos Blademaster armor though no weapons shown yet. They also show their revoltech version of Rathalos/Rioleus which would be a great pair for the Hunter and i will be looking forward for them. Apart from Monster Hunter, it seems that Kaiyodo is a serious contender for Volks rather than Kotobukiya as their Muvluv lineup grow in really fast rate. This time they already announced F-22A Raptor and SU-37 Terminator though i won't be getting them at any rate.

I will update this post if i find anything interesting

Source: Cybergundam

1/72 Liger Zero Jaeger

Finally kotobukiya list the 2nd CAS Variant of Liger Zero and as expected it is Jaeger!  The kit will be released on February next year with the full kit or the option parts with cost of 7000 and 3000 yen respectively. For some reason the kit got is little bit more expensive compared to Schneider probably due to having more parts i suppose. Jaeger itself is the Liger Zero variant that is specialized for Reconnaisance or Lightning fast combat. It is equipped with more powerful version of Ion booster in order to achieve its goal. I am not quite a fan of Jaeger but i will get this one anyway since i will be collecting all of the CAS parts for Liger Zero. With this it is pretty much confirmed that the next CAS for Liger Zero that will be released is Panze which hopefully Kotobukiya would release.

1/72 HMM Liger Zero Schneider Review

The first CAS Variant of Liger Zero that Kotobukiya released.

My recent loot for this month: part 2

As i said before in my previous loot thread that i still have 4 more loots that are coming and here they are! I got 2 Master Grade from Rainbow Ten which is pretty nice place to get Gunpla Kit due to the reliability as they had most Gunpla in stock and get automatic shipping calculator. As promised i am getting myself a Zero Schneider part for Liger Zero and a Volks A3 TSF action figure which is F-14 Tomcat. I got the Zero Schneider from Amiami and F-14 from YJA through middleman. Initially i consider to get any TSF that Koto unlikely to release which i had F-15 in mind but in the end i got F-14 which i am not familiar with but has rather nice Missile equipment. Probably i will do straight build from these kits with consideration for Spiegel gundam that i might do a paint job. With this i won't be ordering anything anymore for this year except some of my preorder.