Clear Red Horn

No, not Crystal. Clear. 'tis what the box says, honest. While I'm clearing up myths: Holokitty's box (warning, text file) will be happy to explain that the Holotechs and the like do have a reason for being clear plastic, retcon-style!

The original Clear Zoids were extremely rare, available only in a Japanese giveaway where you had to mail in Z-points for a chance to win one in a random drawing. Since then, several other promotions in the style of turn in points, get Zoid and a strange distribution of the Molgas in Australia have rendered them far less rare, though the Death Saurer still proves pretty elusive and supplies are drying up again. A Horn can be had in the 30-50 dollar range if you're patient, in my experience, and there appears to be no real difference between the various runs of Clear critters.

What you'll get if you buy one is a plain white box with nothing but a label to identify the shiny contents within. The parts are all molded entirely in clear plastic with a few exceptions: the caps, which are red; the pilots, still blue; and the motor, still black. The eyes and cockpit are even clear, though I also later tried swapping in green eyes. The verdict? It looks odd, leave the clear ones. While the Holotech Ligers that came with the Genesis box sets seem to have improved on the formula some, the older clear plastic in this guy is a bit brittle and requires a bit more care than regular stuff. Take your time trimming and don't twist pieces off, you'll be fine.

This was actually my introduction to the Horn family, which I hadn't paid much attention to previously (for shame!). I very rapidly found out three things: photographs do not do them justice, they must be built to be experienced, and they're more addictive than they have any right to be. The mold is one that's simple to build, yet wonderfully thought out and clever. It goes together beautifully other than the bit on the tailtip, which is a pain to wedge on - this seems to be an issue that cropped up with the new releases, as my OER Horn had no problems. Together, a Horn is larger than you might think for the low number of frames, and carries a decidedly stompy air.

They're stompy in motion too, clomping along wonderfully on the floor while spinning their front gun and chomping their jaws. Never mind this one is clear, it's still going to blast you to bits and STOMP on you.

Conclusion? It's the quintessential medium-size stompy Zoid in clear plastic. What more do you want?

Written November 7th, 2006
Old review