Berserk Führer

Renowned as one of the most complex models in the NJR, BF comes in an accordingly large box. If you bought the Japanese one, you get one of my favorite mid-NJR box designs, all swirly and metallic and dramatic. If you bought the Hasbro...well, it's green. Beyond differences in batch (the lavender varies, and some BFs seem more prone to falling on their arses regardless of country of origin) and a slightly modified sticker sheet, the models are the same. Some note that Hasbro ones have soft eggbeaters, but my Japanese one has soft eggbeaters too, so I don't know if there really is a difference. The innards of the box amount to the usual Zoid-y bits and a metric crapload of little pieces, most of which are fiddly and many of which are lavender. The frames go from A to U, and that's not counting the unlettered bits-this is a Zoid that will tear your fingernails to shreds if you use them to burnish pieces like I do. Aside from the lavender, the colors you'll be seeing are a pleasing very dark grey, some silver trim and blades, and ruby eyes. This is a Zoid of few colors, but it makes that look classy.

For the curious, the reason for the sticker edit is that the original has the "Berserk Führer" visible if you squint. While I think that name flows better than "Fury" in Japanese, complaining about evil censorship is in this case is silly-especially considering that Hasbro BFs later migrated to the UK. You couldn't sell a kids' toy called Berserk Führer here, and you sure as hell couldn't in Europe. I don't find it offensive considering the way Japanese absorbed a lot of German words as "cool", but I can also see very well why it wouldn't fly. It still could be a nice chance to teach kids about how language and the meanings of words evolve-and how being politically correct is silly, but being considerate about word choice isn't.

Enough geekery, let's just call the critter BF and be done with it. Forget "boyfriend", BF means pointy lavender dinosaur.

I make no secret of the fact I prefer mechanical motor-related goodness to fiddlycomplex, but BF delivers in both places. It starts off by driving you insane lining up the clever bits of the neck, but they're not there to look cool, they're there to let it move the neck down while extending its CPC barrel. The tail's billing movey bits are escape-prone, and mine required their holes being widened to move-but because of them, BF can raise and lower every single piece of its tail armor. See where I'm going? The back legs are a world of pieces, and since every single detail in the armor wants to be a separate piece, you'll be forking stuff together long after they're functional. This is probably the one bit that bugs me-Geno Saurer and Gairyuuki do better with functional over annoying.

Like all Zoids that get their narrow frames from having external batteries, BF has to lug around a backpack, disguised as boosters and vents in this case. You assemble some other stuff to go on it, though: boosters (very simple affairs with no folding-out pieces, alas) and the famous Buster Claws-aka eggbeaters. These are formed by poking together a series of two-piece arms around and between connecting joints, which then hold a spinnable thing that the blades clip on to-quite clever, but also large enough that the entire construct likes to escape from BF's backpack if posed. Speaking of which: the claws and arms have plenty of articulation and can be folded, spread out, turned, and moved to face all sorts of directions and angles. You can do pretty much anything, though Death Raser's got the edge in rude hand gestures.

The resulting Zoid is a very pointy, very boxysleek construct that wouldn't look halfway as menacing white or grey or anything else but lavender. I preferred the Breaker looks-wise when I first built it and I still do, but BF is the better model. (Fanboys of both can either deal with this statement or go away :p.) BF's got a proper walk, though it's not the most interesting one: it stomps forward and wiggles its arms a bit its tail swishes back and forth thanks to gravity. Its engineering shines on the second mode, however. Flip the switch on its backpack to position 2 and it stops, lowers its head and CPC, and puffs out all its neck and tail armor. It stays that way for a bit, then reverses the process in an endless loop of mesmerizing armor go up, armor go down. Dude.

Conclusion? The BF is a classic among new-release Zoids, and to miss the experience of building one at some point would be a shame. While I prefer the later Gairyuuki take on the frame in looks and building, I wouldn't want to have only one or the other. They're very different in feel despite looking about the same when nekkid, and thus both worthy critters to keep in a collection.

Rewritten September 12th, 2006
Old review