Blade Liger (NJR blue)
The Blade Liger needs no introduction to Zoid fans. Besides its starring roles to various degrees in all anime series but Genesis, it has seen much merchandise, much recoloring and rereleasing, and much annoying fanboy debate over whether Bit would kick Van's ass or the other way around. (The winner in that situation is, of course, Arthur Borgman.)
Regardless, this blue Liger should not be judged by its badly-rendered anime counterpart or the more overzealous of its fans, as it's a fine kit. It's also a very unusual one, sporting a curious amount of known variations, many of which seem very odd in their application. There's no real way to tell which one you'll get short of pinpointing it to the same run as another built Bladey or opening the box. The variations run as follows...
Tailfin: Can be either left grey with painted white fin, or painted both blue and white. The former seems restricted to the first run.
Claws and teeth: Can be pale gold metal, brighter gold metal, and plastic. Most plastic feet have been UK Blade Ligers, and reports of "Japanese" ones with plastic feet may be tied to a Korean Academy run (can anyone confirm?). The paler metal feet seem to be earlier Bladies and the bright gold the later.
Cockpit: Can be yellow-orange or bright orange, possibly with some variation in yellowness. Like the pale feet, the yellow canopy seems tied to earlier releases.
Ankle armor: Can be attached to the main blue sprue and painted, or cast as a separate white frame. The painted pieces seem to be early runs only.
Head: Varies greatly in fit, with some Ligers being very tight and not quite working right. The best solution I've found is to widen the holes the various pegs go into a little, making the head go together better and the shield panels stick less.
My Bladey was bought from HLJ back in 2002. Too late to be a first release, in other words, but likely from an earlier run. It thus sports a lucky combination of blue painted tailfin, pale gold claws and teeth, yelloworange cockpit, and separate ankle armor, all my favorites of the above. I seem to have gotten one of the dodgy heads, though, as the middle portion of mine never quite meshed despite my best efforts. The resulting gap in the cockpit floor doesn't get along well with the anime pilots, but that's what spare gold shiny ones are for!
Blade Liger would have been the second Zoid I built, but thanks to a speedy Liger Zero X it ended up being the third after Command Wolf AC. I managed to slice my hand with a pocketknife opening the shipping box it came in (how clever of me), and spent a good amount of time fidgeting and waiting for my finger to heal up so I could get to the building of pointed cat already.
A Blade Liger's box contains many bits that'll be familiar to Shield Liger owners, as they share legs and a body. The colors of these frames are different, though - the body is a paler grey, and the legs black instead of dark blue. In place of Shield's medium blue boxy pieces, you'll find sleek frames in a wonderful turquoise blue, complete with painted white details. There's also the blades, of course, and a new swishier tail that looks very cool but eats a ton of shelf space. The other obvious differences are the motor (which is faster and takes 2 AAA batteries instead of the 1 AA of Shield Liger) and the feet, which are diecast metal...or at least a different shape, if you got one of the plastic-footed ones. Finally, for the anime's sake, you get a grey unpainted sprue with figures of Fine, Ban (Bang, Van, potato?) Freiheit, and Sieg. One each of the Ban and Fine ones are supposed to fit in the cockpit, but mine don't do a very good job of it and like to fall over.
Despite all their shared bits, Blade Liger and Shield Liger are satisfyingly different builds - like Glidoler and Cosmozoid, they are a great example of how to reuse parts without it being annoying. Unlike Glidoler and Cosmozoid, there are some bits left over in the upgrading that you won't really have a use for: a Shield Liger tail, shield flap, back guns, and missile pods. I find the guns look rather nice on Rev Raptor if you cut off the peg joining them, and the missile pods are good for custom work.
As you build on, Shield Liger-y detailedboxy underneath bits are rapidly covered by lots of sleek turquoise - the Blade Liger is a streamlined critter. Heatsinks and shield generators are styled as fins, and the back guns are replaced by rocket boosters. The side foldy-downy pieces have become sleeker too, and instead of missiles you get the blades that give the Liger its claim to fame. Besides flipping down, they're attached at their base by a peg mounted on the end of the side piece. This grants them a great degree of articulation, letting you pose them all over the place - stabbing, slicing, firing the bladeguns, whatever. If you're expecting them to be as long as the glowing charged arcs of laser slicey in the anime you'll be disappointed, but that's what imagination is for!
Blade Liger is fun in motion as well: flip the switch and it sets off in the usual Liger trot, metal feet clunking satisfyingly on my wood floors. They seem to grant it some stability at its faster pace, as my plastic-footed ones have a rather drunken wobble to them instead. It doesn't do anything that special beyond that and I'd say Shield Liger's more fun to stare at, but the metal feet are a really nice touch.
On display, Blade Liger eats mad shelf space thanks to its long tail, but thanks to its wide back is also useful for stacking smaller Zoids on. Thanks to its various fins and shield panels and whatnot, it can look anywhere from calm to angry and bristley.
All in all, a very worthwhile kit for the pointed cat fan, and one that might appear to fence-sitters thanks to its sleekness. Don't think you've got the same experience from building Shield Liger or vise-versa - give both a try. Color is all up to preference, but I really do love the blue on this guy.
A final bit of amusement? My original review, four years and five Blade Ligers ago, ended with the following sentence, in part: I'd probably buy another one of these, since it's so spiffy...
Rewritten November 4th, 2006
