Blitz Haken

Magazines that come with cool freebies (as opposed to "here is a crappy trading card with a stock photo for you to punch out") seem to be a dying art here in the US, though I encountered some in England, and they certainly aren't gone in Japan - not with things like this guy.

Blitz Haken came as a bonus extra with the November 2004 issue of Dengeki Hobby, a giant of a magazine comparable to a large paperback book. The magazine itself (besides a bunch of content I have no interest in, like Gundam and figures of half-nekkid girls) has a nice Zoids section set in the early days of the Japanese Fuzors release. There's some fun stuff about the characters, early episodes, and models, though you won't get too much out of it now that Fuzors is long gone if you can't read Japanese. There's photos of a nicely painted and detailed Rayse Tiger and Liger Zero Phoenix, though, and photos of some Zoids dudes with prototypes of a few models in funky colors (including Brastle Tiger). If you feel like going through the back black and white bits, there's a couple pieces of Zoids fanart there...pity they're about the size of postage stamps.

There's also instructions for assembling Blitz Haken (it needs instructions why?) and some neat customs made from it, my favorites being the multiple examples stuck together with other Blox pieces to form a mutant HakenFlyscissorsamajig and the one where someone managed to get is a poseable jaw. Careful cutting, much?

Magazine aside (and let's face it, most of the time you see Blitz Haken it's sans reading material), what will you be getting model-wise? One lone blue pilot, one funky gold Core Blox, and one frame of Brastle-style metal flake red parts. I think we all know by now why Tilly thinks of metal flake red in its various forms.

The detail on the parts is very nice, but they're all red - this is a critter that would really benefit from panel lines and some painted details, 'cause you don't even get eye stickers. Posability isn't all that hot, but come on, it's one frame of parts you got for free with a magazine, what do you want? There's a body and neck/head (all one piece) with cockpit that sticks to the block, two arms, a tail, a tailtip that folds up to be pokey, and two legs. Articulation is thus limited to base of tail, hips, and shoulders, and if you pose things too drastically they'll escape from the blocky center.

It's also supposed to fuse with Brastle, but it looks so incredibly dumb that I won't talk about it here. Really, it'd be more effective for it to stand on Brastle's back and hiss at things, unless you're trying to make your opponent collapse laughing.

Conclusion? You get what you pay for, and I hope you're not paying too much for this guy. He still makes a cute friend (and horrible fusion partner) for Brastle, and if you need a small yet satisfying detailing project for a rainy afternoon, Blitz Haken is where it's at. Get those tiny paintbrushes, nib pens, and Gundam Markers...

Written November 5th, 2006