Fuzors: Character Profiles
These contain spoilers and are somewhat silly. Do not read 'em if'n you don't want plot points revealed. Corrections are very welcome, though I've tried checking things as best I can. Image galleries linked are part of my LJ Scrapbook, made possible by tasty tags.
Mach Storm - Savage Hammer - The Peacekeeping Bureau - Richter Scale - Gravity Zoids pilots - Everybody ElseMach Storm
These main character fellows hang out inna clock-tower base in the heart of Blue City. While most of it remains unseen in-series, a lot of the team lives there and Sweet cooks on occasion, so methinks it must be well-equipped. There's definitely a hangar or two, and the main room comes equipped with a pair of desks, orange couch and loveseat made of some mysterious scrubbable material, a coffee table, and a wall-sized TV with temperamental remote. Sweet has a potted plant by her desk, and on occasion they acquire a larger plant and a fishtank, of all things.
Their team logo is a swooshy feathery thing in blue, turquoise, and reddish pink.
RD
Our hero, the protagonist, and all that main character stuff. RD's the stereotypical Liger Pilot in some ways: brash, impulsive, and a bit full of himself, learning over the course of the series to turn that into being courageous and confident instead. His teammates don't mindlessly put up with him when he's being a pain, though, and his heart's mostly in the right places. He honestly cares about his Zoids and the bond between mecha and pilot, his moping over the Phoenix dying being one of the only points where a Zoids anime character took more than an episode to ponder the implications of their heroic actions.
In true Liger pilot form, RD is rather clueless about some things, especially girls and Rastani sulk-fanboying him—he processes all advances and sulking as "let's be best friends!", something he's quite good at. You want hugs? He'll totally miss it. You need saving from a group of nasty wild Zoids, somebody to hang out and discuss Ligers with, or someone to find typos in your literature? He's your man.
Also typical? Absent parents! RD's mother died when he was young (how, we never find out), and while he fondly remembers his father and his tales of the Alpha Zoid, he left when RD was younger. Supposedly he was searching for said Alpha Zoid, but he never wrote and never came back. RD ended up growing up with the team and with Sweet as a childhood friend, which may explain his obliviousness to the fact that she's, yanno, a girl.
Despite others picking on his piloting-fu, RD is capable of following a battle plan when he's not letting his impulsive side get the better of him. After getting the Falcon, he used its ability to split and re-fuse on the fly to great effect against a group who took a Whale King hostage and the berserk Chimera Dragon. There's also his Zero turning out to be the Alpha Zoid, which is never clarified and may be either a unique plot-device event or a fulfilled potential/"pilot has perfectly bonded with their Zoid" deal.
Zoids: Liger Zero. At first he's stuck with the base model (the CAS exist in Fuzorsverse, but I suspect Mach Storm won't spring for them), but true to the series' gimmick he ends up with first the Liger Zero Phoenix and then the Falcon. The Zero has no black markings around its ears, and when the animators feel like rendering it, it sports the Mach Storm logo along the left side of its forehead.Sweet
The Female Protagonist to RD's main character, Sweet grew up alongside him (where were her parents?) and thus tends to act like a bossy older sister. It's a caring sort of bossy, as she's the one who knows how to get him to stop moping or whining...though it's often accompanied by a ladle, as applied to RD's head. She'll mother/boss other team members too if given the chance.
Since she's not a Zi Fighter, Sweet does jobs like the team's laundry and cooking, and often drives the others around in the team Gustav. As she put it during one of her RD-scoldings, the team is more than flashy piloting, and every job's important.
As if to prove this, Sweet helped out Deed and Ciao with the whole Whale King held hostage situation, as she happened to be on board serving drinks. She first distracted the Double Sworder pilot in Deed's failed attack attempt, and then ran to let RD and the Zero in while Ciao stalled the Sworder pilot...with a handgun. And people say female Zoids characters need to run around in Gun Snipers or Saix to be badass ;p.
She may also fancy RD a bit, considering she gets annoyed by him hanging out with other girls that show interest and has her moments of suspiciously nice. RD is blissfully oblivious to all of it—when a TV interview lady attempted to go on a date with him, he instead dragged her along to a surprise birthday party for Sweet.
Zoids: None, unless the Gustav counts. Comes armed with a ladle from Hammerspace.Sigma
Resident Snarky Bastard, Sigma usually says what everyone else is thinking. He's especially fond of picking on RD, usually when RD's being a pain himself. He and Helmut are good friends, Helmut keeping him in line when he gets to be too much of a snark and their Zoids often teaming up early on. Later, they actually end up fusing, both of them driven to seek revenge on Marvis for betraying them and the team.
For all his sarcasm, he's not too bad a guy. Like RD, he cares about his Zoids, and was quite upset by his Boldguard getting chewed to death by the Holotech Zaber Fang. This led to his early mid-show upgrade, however, as Haldo presented him with a Leostriker and special anti-stealth paint shells to hunt Keith down. After some blasting and failed hiding, RD cornered the Fang and Sigma and the Leostriker chopped off its legs.
About the only other character development he got was in Marvis' debut episode, where he recalls looking up to Marvis as a mentor and being quite crushed to find out not only did Marvis never really care about their friendship, he was just there to screw the team over. His response? Chopping the legs off Marvis' Zoid.
Zoids: Boldguard, for all of seven episodes. Once it was killed by Kieth, he switched over to a Leostriker, which remains forever in the Gunner mode. Said Leostriker also fuses with Helmut's Command Wolf, forming the shooty/slicey/shield bits of the Command Striker.Helmut (aka Maskman)
Resident Obligatory Doggy Pilot, Helmut differs from those before him in one very important way: he doesn't get his starter Command Wolf killed. It survives the era of mid-show upgrades, being chewed on by berserker dragons, doom via the main villain, and many other indignities. Perhaps this is because he's not also the Obligatory Brooding Antihero (that's Blake's job). In fact, he's Mach Storm's leader and tactician, keeping a level head through just about any situation and organizing battle strategy. In the Japanese version of episode 2, this is especially apparent—that fight against the Spiner, damn. Sigma also ranks him above RD in skill, and an early practice battle ending in the Command Wolf's victory would agree.
As Helmut's name in both versions implies, he wears a mask for reasons never explained. He wanted to be a superhero? Chastity mask? Hell knows.
He apparently joined Mach Storm because of RD's father Harris, piloting back when along with him, Sandra's father Graham, and (I believe) Haldo. He and Sigma both and looked up to Marvis in their younger days...pity Marvis would later betray them, killing Sandra's father and convincing her Helmut had done it to take over the team.
Once Alpha's evil plan is revealed and Sandra realizes what's up, it's Helmut who she goes to, and they reconcile pretty quickly for two people who didn't bother to fact-check Alpha's plotting in the first place. Helmut helps coordinate the charge against Alpha and the Seismo once battle is joined, getting pilots to direct their fire and split the first fusion. He and the Wolf go down pretty quickly after the Berserk Seismo comes into play, but he's piloting it again in the epilogue...and being teased good-natured like by Sweet and Sandra, who's become at least his friend again.
Zoids: Command Wolf, in AC flavor. It fuses to the Leostriker to make Command Striker, changing from midnight blue to pearly in the process. Since the only real difference there is it becomes a Command Wolf with stabby bits and a shield, keeping it alive remains impressive. The Wolf also has Strike Laser Claw on its own, which Helmut mentions is an upgrade.Matt
The kid. RD ran into Matt when he was having housing trouble in the form of Savage Hammer threatening to sporkify his home so a greedy developer could build on the land, and Matt quickly latched onto RD as being totally awesome because he was a Zi Fighter. They ended up best buddies, Matt explaining his angsty past and dead mother with a smile on his face and RD teaching him how to pilot a Leoblaze.
Seriously, nothing upsets this kid. He might get a bit angry, but his general mood is a perpetual ":D!!". He doesn't even seem that upset when his Leoblaze is stolen by the Matrix Dragon lot and then killed by the Energy Liger. It's a bit creepy.
Matt was also the one to pick up on Venus' telepathic cries to help the Jet Falcon when RD was in trouble, smashing in the controls with a rock and releasing the birdy. His strange telepathic link to it was never mentioned again, though he was the first one to point out that RD's awakening the Liger Zero Falcon's hidden glowy potential was the "legendary [Alpha] Zoid".
Zoids: Leoblaze, for a few episodes. It faceplants and gets smacked around a bit by Blake in its debut episode, and later it's kidnapped by some thugs to build the Matrix Dragon. And then it dies. Poor Leoblaze.Amy
A bit selfish and a bit flashy, Amy doesn't live on-base and thus shows up only occasionally. Usually this is because she wants something, but she also tipped the PKB off about thieves, got Mach Storm info, set them up in fights, etc.
Amy also did the fanservice thing in the earlier episodes, where she had a habit of distracting people (flunkies, Rastani, Sweet) with her chest while getting them to do stuff for her or the team. This got her branded a "slut" and other unflattering things by fans, ignoring how she, uh, never exactly followed through on her distractions.
During the Holokitty two-parter, Amy was revealed as Kieth's old girlfriend. He'd become convinced their König couldn't cut it, and this combined with his general jerkass attitude resulted in her leaving him. His attempt at seeking revenge ended with Amy reminding him that "just because you pilot a strong Zoid doesn't make you a strong person"...and punching him out.
Zoids: König Wolf Mk.II, which amounts to the DSR and missile pods on a copper/red/navy Wolf. The rifle fires short beam bursts, but is still animated with the ammo drum, once again proving that the Zoids creators have no bloody idea what they want it to do >_>;.Hop
Mach Storm's accountant, Hop is in charge of both moneys and sending the team out on their various non-battle jobs that help pay the way in between being flashy. Given the antics Zoid teams are prone to, this often leaves him worried about their finances.
I seriously can't think of much else to say here, other than he doesn't get along with the remote control. Sorry, Hop!
Zoids: None. He has a calculator.Dan
Dan is a mechanic and Liger Zero fanboy. This pretty much sums him up, seriously. RD found him in the desert, he went nuts over the Liger and ended up seemingly joining the team. From there he showed up to do things like exposit about the old-school Liger upgrades and fix up Zoids. Most notably, he and Matt went out to look for a new partner for the Zero after the Phoenix got killed, their interfering with Burton's stabbity helping snap RD out of his funk.
The Japanese version of his debut episode cuts stuff to fork in longer battles, so he just...shows up. First he's there, and then he's not. Whoopsie.
Zoids: A Heldigunner, for all of one episode. He calls it "Heldy", and it walks with a nice monitor lizard crawl instead of the old mad shuffle. Also had a truck (which did not turn invisible).Savage Hammer
Sandra
Seemingly an Evil Lady With White Cat, Sandra's main role early on was plotting evil things for Savage Hammer to do. These were mostly things that involved defeating, humiliating, or otherwise crushing Mach Storm, which she had a seemingly inexplicable hateon for. She recruited Blake by sabotaging his Geno Saurer and then claiming RD did it—Blake, being easily angered, hopped on the rivalry boat.
As the plot went on, however, it was revealed Sandra was manipulated herself by Alpha's lot, despite her being Alpha's sister (via her mother marrying his father, not birth). She used to be on Mach Storm and good friends with Helmut...and then Marvis arranged for her father, Graham, to get killed in a battle, shooting his Saber Tiger's face open with his Shadow Fox's vulcan at near point-blank. Sandra knew none of this, however, only the warped version she was told that made it out to be Helmut's fault, painting him as killing her father to get control of the team (and framing Marvis?). Helmut knew only some of what happened himself, and this no doubt contributed to the confusion and his lack of going after her and finding what was up.
When the chips were down and backstory revealed (by Burton, no less, who found it all very amusing), Sandra teamed up with the Good Guys, and was last seen hanging out with Mach Storm in the final episode.
Seems to have fancied Helmut in the past, and considering she now knows he's not evil, may well fancy him again.
Zoids: None, but her cat's name is Mitsy. Mitsy apparently survives the end-series doom, being rescued by Haldo after she wanders off (as cats do).Blake
RD's rival, Blake is extremely fond of brooding and glaring at things, often while leaning on walls. He doesn't seem to like anybody on his own team other than Luke, who he ranges from tolerating to being...very angrily concerned about. Blake is easily angered in general, for all his calm front. His battles with RD early in the series thus degenerated into a lot of shouting, banter, and one-upping "oh YEAH?"-type statements. All this because Sandra had him convinced RD sabotaged his old Geno Saurer in one battle? Sheesh.
After his Buster Fury got trashed by the Energy Liger in the interrupted battle between Blake, RD, and the Matrix Dragon crew, Blake took off into the desert, chasing the Liger on a motorcycle with a Big Fucking Gun. This bout of foolish badassery was interrupted by Luke, who dragged him to an underground hangar and presented him with the Gairyuuki. Being a vindictive bastard at this point, Blake set off to try out his new Zoid on RD's Liger, killing the Phoenix in the resulting battle.
Thankfully, Blake was hit with a stick of character development a bit after being defeated by RD and the Falcon (ah, mid-show upgrades, so subtle). Mainly: Alpha decided brainwashing Luke and using him to blow Zoids up and manipulate Blake would be a good idea. This, naturally, pissed Blake off and triggered his eventual awkward alliance with RD, both against Pierce and the Energy Liger and in the final battle versus Alpha's own Seismosaurus.
Zoids: Berserk Fury, which does the Fuzor thing with Buster Eagle to form Buster Fury. Once that gets trashed by EL, hegets Gairyuuki, which has the blox Hien and Gekkou as armor/buddies. As if that weren't enough, he semi-befriends the Evo Flyer and Dispelow after beating them up in the wild.Luke
General clever tech guy and occasional pilot for Savage Hammer, Luke manages the occasional snark but fails at being evil. Oh, he tried to play the proper antagonist team member in his debut episode, shocking the Buster Eagle to tame it and talking tough, but he ruined any effect that may have had by wibbling around Blake. He also wore short shorts for the entire series. If they weren't purple, they'd be very worthy of the obligatory Japanese schoolboy in Gamera films.
Luke was very fond of the Buster Eagle once tamed (in flashback, he practically hugged the thing when Blake gave it to him), but when it came to the Gairyuuki, he stuck to helping work on it and programming things to be extra-smitey to Blake's liking. In fact, he didn't pilot anything new until the end arc, when Alpha—his own father—brainwashed him into being a Leogator pilot to destroy stuff for them. Blake, RD, and the Gravity Zoids lot attempted rescue, but between Dimetra Ptera interference and Blake being the world's crappiest shot with a CPC, he got dragged back off to be a gunner for Alpha's Seismosaurus.
Fortunately for the good guys, Alpha also made the mistake of having him fire directly at RD and Blake, whose AGHLUUUUKE screaming snapped him out of the brainwashing in time for them to a) not crisp and b) mount a rescue. Despite having no mouth or feet, the little Hien blox off Gairyuuki managed to drag Luke out of the very explosion it caused by ramming the gunpod. He was unharmed, if a bit in need of hugs.
Has one hell of a fanboy thing for Blake, definition of "fanboy thing" depending on what sort of goggles you wear ;p. Even the anime anniversary fanbook acknowledges this with suspicious verb usage, and, um, well, I'm still after the source.
Zoids: Buster Eagle, usually as stuck to the Fury. Also brainwash-piloted Leogator and was an unwilling gunner for the Seismo.Burton
A general Savage Hammer pilot and all-around git, Burton enjoys a good bit of sporting taunt-your-opponent and was often sent out to do Sandra's dirty work, be it scaring locals by threatening to demolish their homes or chasing down a Gairyuuki-happy Blake. He also has pointed ears (seriously) and often carries binoculars, both for watching flunkies get to work and spotting Mach Storm members to pick on.
He was involved in Alpha's plots to manipulate Sandra, it seems, and very much enjoyed making the dramatic "everything you fought for was a lie, we made you hate your friends" reveal to her...until RD tore apart his Lord Gale and the Zero Falcon nearly stepped on him.
Zoids: Lord Gale. When the animators bothered, it had the Savage Hammer emblem on its left shoulder.The Peacekeeping Bureau
Gummie
On the surface, Gummie is a rather ridiculous cowboy-slash-police-captain sorta guy, his appearance (and silly Southernesque accent) drawing some on American stereotypes. He's rarely seen without a cowboy hat, though thankfully he avoids wearing random flags ;p. Fond of teasing people in a fatherly sort of way, Gummie might come across as harmless or even bumbling, especially earlier in the series when RD messes with him and the PKB. However, when someone actually threatens his city, he becomes anything but snuggly.
He's quite capable of piloting his Gojulas Giga, readily taking out things like the Zoid-bandits' Iron Kong. He and the Zoid share enough of a bond that when Alpha had it sabotaged, he was able to snap the Giga back into listening before it did worse than beat up on RD and Blake (who, for all their strong fused Zoids, couldn't stop it stomping around the city). The Giga not scary enough for you? Ask Alpha's minions about the time they tried to imprison Gummie's men, and how he punched the lot of them out before taking his force and their Zoids Chimera Blox-stomping in the streets.
Zoids: Gojulas Giga. No upgrades, no guns other than a tongue cannon, no problem.Ciao
Ciao was one of the first characters to show in Fuzors, helping Deed chase down RD and the Zero when they were bouncing down the for-cars-only road. She walks the line nicely between friendly (she stopped to talk to RD when he was having a sulk) and taking no crap without going too far into the Generic Badass Female category, which is nice to see.
She fancied Jean Holiday from the circus in episode 9 until he proved to be a criminal, stealing Zoids with his ninjalike circus-fu and moving on to the next town with his buddies. Her response, despite all his attempts to win her over, was to track him down with the rest of the PKB and take out his modified Aro Saurer with her completely stock model. By blasting it point-blank after letting it grab her by the throat for a better angle, no less. Sure, she joked about getting the judge to go easy on him, but this was after trashing his Zoid.
During the whole Whale King hostage deal, she distracted the Double Sworder pilot long enough for Sweet to get RD inside by attacking him with a handgun. A freaking handgun. And it worked, too, as by the time the guy tired of taunting her and "shit, I am out of ammo and this thing is many times my size" kicked in, the Zero was there to bail her out. RD went on to smite the Double Sworder and help land the Whale King, but he'd likely have been useless without her (and Sweet) helping out.
Ciao didn't do terribly much after that, but she was there with the rest of the PKB in the end arc, getting rescued from Alpha's men by Gummie and rallying swarms of Zoids to attack the Seismo.
Zoids: Aro Saurer. She needs no other.Deed
The best shot on the force and one of canon's only Gorhecks pilots. Awesome or not, poor Deed didn't get to do much in Fuzors. He's a loyal and practical sort, though, and seems somewhat attached to Ciao, as they're often seen hanging out together...even buying groceries together at one point. Hrm.
He got into a Gorhecks on Gorhecks shoving/tailwhipping/bodyslamming match with one of Jean Holiday's flunkies and looked to have the upper hand, though it was sadly settled by RD and the Zero rather than Hecks'd to the death. Like Ciao, he also helped out in the end arc battle, though more in a cameo sense.
Zoids: Gorhecks, though he also pilots a PKB Sinker on occasion (as Gorhecks is not the Zoid you want for a road chase).Richter Scale
Is a very bad pun, considering the Seismosaurus' name means earth-shaking lizard. As in earthquakes. These here are the real bad guys, and aside from main characters include a whole lot of flunkies and other supporters, many of which run around in generic helmets with purple goggles.
Alpha Richter
The true villain of the series, and the one who was pulling so very many strings...even those of people pulling other people's strings. One of his puppets was his sister Sandra, who he won over after arranging her father's death via Marvis and blaming Mach Storm for the incident. Another was his son, Luke, who ended up on the rival team Sandra formed to take down Mach Storm, his friendship with Blake making him a nice distracting brainwash-puppet later on.
During the series itself, Alpha was engineering and building doom Zoids in the form of the Seismosaurus (or "Seismos", as he called it) and the Chimera drones...and pulling political strings. When the Seismo plan was ready to go, he got the heroes out the way first, sabotaging the Gojulas Giga and arranging it so Helmut and company would take the blame. With much of Mach Storm jailed, the PKB's main Zoid dubbed "dangerous", and the city frightened that further pilot-owned Zoids would get up to Bad Things, he set about taking power by force, revealing the huge Seismo in front of terrified crowds.
But that's a whole lotta string, and it caught up with him. RD wasn't captured along with the rest of Mach Storm and helped engineer an escape, and pilots refused to give up their Zoids, rebelling alongside citizens and demanding to free Blue City of "tyrant mayors", as their protest signs called Alpha. Sandra realized what was up and helped out too, and RD and Blake teaming up was the final straw...everyone knows bad guys are doomed in the face of a hero-rival alliance. Blake rescued Luke, RD carved the Seismo's neck open mid-shot, and it went down in the usual flames, Alpha screaming that "you ruined my plaaaaan!"
He didn't even get the drama of death at the end of his failed takeover: he survived the Seismo's destruction and was left crawling out of its remains, begging the PKB for help.
Zoids: Directed the multi-person job of piloting his Seismosaurus and was responsible for the construction of a whole lot of Chimeras, though he didn't pilot them personally.Marvis
A sadistic and manipulative bastard, Marvis played at nice until his betrayal of Mach Storm. He wanted control of the team, killed Sandra's dad, found Sigma and Helmut's flailing about it all quite funny, etc.
Zoids: Shadow Fox (upgraded with a frontal e-shield) and Steelarmor (of Magic Size-Changing). Also helped with Seismo gunnery after fusing with it in the Steelarmor.Rebbecca
Brainwashing isn't very nice. Neither is pretending to be a good guy (with the aid of a wig) when you're actually on Alpha's side.
Zoids: Dimetra Ptera, plus remote-controlling Luke and the Leogator.Gravity Zoids pilots
A group of very unusual mercenaries, these guys grew up in the wilds of Zi among a group of warriors who didn't want the distractions of technology...well, other than Zoids. Theirs are weird to match, being "powered by gravity". This apparently grants them extreme speed and some degree of stealth (though the Gairyuuki Speed's 3-D radar could break through it). They also have an "ultimate attack" which involves a whole lotta dramatic glowing, biking in circles...and kicking up smoke and dust before they flee. Er, mount a tactical retreat.
While they were initially hired by Alpha's minions to go after Mach Storm (which cause a hella lot of confusion in Blue City, being as they didn't understand concepts like Christmas trees traffic lights or police), they quickly switched to aiding the good guys when they saw what the Richter Scale was up to.
Vareth
The leader of the group. Fancies himself a viking. Quite blunt and completely clueless about things city, but with a sense of honor and tactics.
Zoids: Gravity Wolf.Dart
Fancies himself a ninja, and has a habit of cutting down doors and giving pretty girls their own flowers as a gift.
Zoids: Gravity Saix.Saber
Is both a girl and the sanest of the group, but that's not saying much.
Zoids: Gravity Saurer.Everybody Else
Characters that don't really fit into one of the above categories...and really, this is Fuzors, there's a lot of them. I'm sure I'm missing some, but I've done my best to mention the important ones.
Rastani
Rastani was one of the first Zi Fighters the series showed us, being the head of the champion Black Impact team. It consisted of three gunmetal Blade Ligers for maximum Worf Effect, and had a lot of his father's money behind it. He came across as quite the ass early on, as the team his Ligers defeated consisted of three Godos, and all he had to say before Black Impact's fight against the Killer Spiner was stuff about his good looks and natural talent.
Much like how /Zero's Tigers went from outright nasty in episode 1 to sympathetic by episode 15, Rastani did a complete 180 in episode 18. His older brother, Reynard, took over the team and replaced the Blade Ligers with Chimera Blox, proving their strength by having them trash the Ligers first. Desperate and torn, Rastani went to RD for help, talking angst about how he lived in his brother's shadow and warning him how dangerous the AI Zoids were. RD proved quite capable of kicking some Chimera ass, though, and he and Rastani ended up friends.
Rastani later used his I'm-so-cool influence to rally Zi Fighters to fight the Seismosaurus. His Blade Liger made a great show of biting off cannon turrets...before getting gatling'd unceremoniously to the ground. Ouch.
His teammates, heard briefly in episode 2 (and seen briefly too, in the Japanese version) were named Billie White and Jackie somethingIcan'tmakeout. They dropped off the face of the earth after episode 18, which also showed a random blond guy as part of the team.
Zoids: Blade Liger BI. Look, I didn't make that abbreviation, they did. The anime ones differ a bit from the model release, having dark blue Shield Liger-style legs and gold blades/fangs/claws. They're also wonderfully finny and suffer less from the perpetual silly bucktoothed grin syndrome. Pity they mostly exist to be beaten up.Rattle and Malloy
Those of you who have dabbled in text-based Zoids RP, remember those annoying prats you'd somehow end up having to fight? The ones that always used the cool Zoids and would beat others by being a cheese or scalping newbies, and then brag endlessly so that even fighting them on even terms was annoying as sin?
Rattle and Malloy are the very embodiment of that. Their team even goes by the name "Dark Assassins", changed to Dralles (the hell?) in the Japanese version.
In-universe, they're a pair of braggarts, and the first to unlock the Fuzors thing and use it to their advantage. The Killer Spiner beats the ever-loving crap out of a group of three champion Blade Liger pilots, and goes on to draw with Mach Storm only because it ran out of power. By the Holokitty episode, however, it exists just to prove how nasty Holokitty is: they're out on a training exercise, and it appears and defeats them effortlessly. To be fair, Holokitty beats up on the main cast too, and Rattle and Malloy don't seem horrible pilots. They can at least coordinate their attacks.
Lest they be confused, Malloy is the Spiner pilot/wears red, and Rattle is the Killer Dome pilot/wears green. Rattle actually seems the smarter of the two, keeping a more level head in the revised episode 2 battle while beating up on the Zero and Wolf with the Giant Enemy Crabs.
Doug
That Helcat guy. RD and Mach Storm tried to help his lot with a Wild Zoid problem...mainly, the Evo Flyer and Dispelow pre-Gairyuuki fusion. RD was busy flailing about Fire Phoenix, though, and Doug's Helcat ended up blasted and its head popped off. Mach Storm at least drove the Evo Flyer and Dispelow off, though, and Doug seems to have ended up with good friends with RD despite the explosions. He shows up briefly in the end arc, mainly to go "oh hi, RD :D" and have his Helcat make a cameo shooting down Storm Blox. Guess he duct taped the head back on.
Zoids: Helcat, in a very Noiresque color scheme.Dr. Wolfgang Pierce
Earlier in the series, Doc Pierce seemed to just be a random smartypants scientist type, showing up to go on about the power and potential of Fuzors and give advice in the Holokitty arc. It turned out he'd also been helping develop Zoids for Alpha all this time, but Alpha didn't dig his Energy Liger project and he got annoyed. This led to many instances of him having the Energy Liger interrupt when plot-convenient, presumably (and usually) in ways that messed up Alpha's plans. Why he didn't just go public with the plot and/or take the EL against the Seismo is anyone's guess, but that's crazy scientists for you.
He also built the Ray Kong, which he used to sneak around and control the Energy Liger. When he and RD finally met in battle, Pierce fused the Kong with the Liger, making for an obscenely powerful cat with missiles and crap stuck to its back. He piloted said fusion (which had a top speed in excess of 600 kph) by shooting at things, getting rammed by Blake, and then standing stock still with a shield up when RD charged him with spikey things at the ready. Methinks his skills lay more in the creating of Zoids than in operating them.
Zoids: Ray Kong, the Energy Liger by proxy (both remote control and fused).Haldo
He likes strawberry soda (really a lot) and knew RD's dad back in the day. He showed up mostly to give advice...and in Sigma's case, give him the Leostriker and some special Holokitty-bustin' shells after cheering him up about the Boldguard's death.
Zoids: Many Gustavs. He's saved their control sticks as a reminder of good times and his past reckless days, and still drives one today.Keith
Keith, to be blunt, is full of himself. Formerly Amy's boyfriend, she left him for that very reason: he was completely hung up on powerful Zoids and whatnot. This went from "jerk" to "criminal" when he decided to terrorize Blue City with his Holotech Zaber Fang, taking out all the Fuzor Zoids and generally shredding pilots that claimed to be strong to prove his own worth. Attempts by the PKB and Mach Storm to flush him out failed, and Sigma's Boldguard was killed in one of his ambushes.
However, as the second half of Keith's two-part story came around, Sigma got revenge with a little help from Haldo, who presented him with the Leostriker and special breakyourcamo paint shells. Drawn out by Amy promising him a fight (which she was losing, thanks to him being a cheese), Keith was cornered by Sigma and RD in short order. Not to be outdone, Amy proceeded to chew him out...and punch him square in the jaw, knocking him to the ground.
Zoids: Holotech Zaber Fang. Blinding yellow and tricksy, it could defeat pretty much any sensors (and Gorhecks is no slouch in this department), adapt to different types of light, create holograms of itself, etc. It fell to what was essentially paint. Paint...and a huge blade slashed across its limbs.Jean Holiday
Suave and composed, Jean Holiday came to the rescue when Matt "borrowed" the Liger Zero and it decided skipping down roads would be great fun. He caught up with it on a motorcycle and did fancy acrobatics to get inside and shut it down...which was a good hint to both of his professions. Mainly, as an acrobatic in a traveling circus, and as a traveling Zoid thief.
He tried to make nice with Ciao to get an advantage on the PKB: flirting with her at the circus, sending her flowers, and all that. Pity for him Mach Storm would have none of his Zoid-ganking, and they teamed up with the PKB to corner him and his gang. Jean ended up facing down a very annoyed Ciao, who took him down in her stock Aro Saurer. He and his gang were presumably captured and flung in jail somewhere.
Zoids: Aro Saurer, armed with the CP-09 booster cannons.Venus
A mysterious and somewhat hyper-cheerful girl, Venus she found RD when he was off moping about his Zoid's death in Irca Forest. Not only did she dress in red and yellow clothes and wear feathers in her hair, she talked to the Zero and seemed to remember the Fire Phoenix's experiences, especially judging by her reaction to the Gairyuuki.
Besides being suspiciously like a Zoid reborn as a human (I imagine this would be a very confusing experience—think of all the new bits), she guided RD through the forest, helping him find the Jet Falcon and regain courage enough to face down Savage Hammer. Afterward, she wandered off into the city, never to be seen again.
Zoids: She may BE one, depending on how you look at it. Doesn't pilot anything, but is friends with the Liger Zero.TV Host Lady
The woman of a thousand names, she goes by Tracy, Kiera, and Cindi (plus "Lillian" in the background of her set) and does stuff like interview pilots. RD wasn't particularly happy about this, being rather embarrassed at getting fangirled on TV. Her attempt to ask him on a date didn't go well either: he thought she wanted to have dinner with him and the rest of the team, and brought her along to a surprise party. For Sweet. Yeah.
Showed up in the end arc, refusing to give up her show and warning pilots of Alpha's treachery. In the final battle, she flew in onboard a helicopter, assistant at her side, and stuck around amid anti-air fire enough to scare Raynoses so the citizens could see what was happening as it happened—surprising dedication for someone who seemed so shallow!
Zoids: Nope.
