Zoids
was a model toy line introduced by TOMY in both Japan
and America during the early 80's that featured snap
together construction and wind-up or battery powered
motors.
The first US Zoids were small, about
4 inches tall, blue, black and white wind up toys.
Initially, there were three, the T-Rex, Bird, and
Elephant types. These were quickly followed by the
Spider and Frog types, as well as two small battery
powered Zoids. Tomy also released a giant Zoid with
this same color scheme called Giant Zrk, that closely
resembled a Brontosaurus.
Designed to resemble dinosaurs or animals,
Zoids are essentially giant robots with pilots in
their gold cockpits. Later Zoids, and most of the
ones released in Japan and Europe, were much larger
battery operated creations that looked more fearsome
with a beefier construction and better color schemes.
Zoids were released under a number of
other names, including RoboStrux in the US, TechnoZoids
in the US and Canada, and Zoids2 in Japan and Europe.
The biggest differences between the toy lines were
color schemes.
TOMY
released several other Zoids like toy lines that featured
snap together construction and battery or wind up power.
Z-Knights were a line of battery powered walking robots
with swinging swords and weapons. Most Z-Knights were
released in Japan, but a few were released in the US
as well.
The
second major toy line inspired or derived from Zoids are
the Starriors, which were both a toy by TOMY and a comic
book from Marvel. Starriors also included a mini-comic
inside the packaging. The main similarity between Starriors
and Zoids is the gold pilot in the cockpit (which doesn't
open on a Starrior) and it's wind up mechanism. There
is a small degree of snap together construction in the
Starriors line, but no where near the flexibility of either
the Z-Knights or Zoids.
In
June 1999, TOMY announced at a toy show in Japan that
they would be releasing a new line of Zoids with all
new color schemes.
