Command Wolf / Command Wolf Irvine / Command Wolf AC (old review)

New review

They're basically the same model with a few minor differences, so I thought I'd review them together. They have retail prices in the 800-1000 yen range (I think that's around 7-9 dollars...), although both the Command Wolf and the Command Wolf Irvine Version are out-of-production, so you might have to settle for paying more on eBay like I did.

The various Command Wolves come in a box with pretty much the same parts and instructions, although the boxes themselves differ in color/design. The Command Wolf AC's is probably my favorite, with the shiny blue wolf contrasting well with the yellow-orange moon. The Irvine version comes with the extra parts for the cannon it has and the Irvine mini-figures (which are unpainted, by the way...) as opposed to the regular two pilots the others have, and the Command Wolf AC comes with an extra set of parts for its cannon and boosters-basically, a CP-04. Both of them come with the original Command Wolf's cannon, so if you really want to have them use that instead, you can.

I didn't really have any trouble assembling any of my Command Wolves. The head and neck can be a bit fiddly to get together and on the body with the little gear lined up, but other than that, there aren't any tricky parts. Be careful shaving off the extra plastic on the lower front legs, though...those little raised triangles got in my way a bit, and I ended up nicking them more than once. Also, the AC's blue parts and the painted parts on the Irvine version show where you shaved off the extra plastic more due to the fact that they're shiny/painted, so I'd be careful with those, too.

The extra cannons on the AC and Irvine versions were both easy to assemble...I don't really like the boosters on the legs of the Command Wolf AC, so I left them off. I decided I liked them after all and ended up adding them later, and figured I'd mention that as I'm revising this review. They *were* sitting in a box with stuff like the red armor for my Liger Zero X, the Shield Liger tails left over from building Blade Ligers, and a bunch of extra rubber cap thingies...and all the instructions for Zoids I've built, along with their decals...although I don't have the instructions or decals for the KFM Liger Zero, since I threw them out with the box...darn...

Er...back to the subject. Once built, Command Wolf runs well, if rather oddly. They all go pretty far across the wooden floor...I sometimes find myself having to pick them up and change their direction before they hit a wall, in fact. The Command Wolf also has two walking speeds. Its head and neck can be positioned either up, down, or somewhere in the middle. When all the way down, the little gear on the neck hits one on the motor, and it walks at a slower pace, like it's sniffing the ground or stalking something. Never mind that Command Wolf doesn't have a nose in the sense that a real wolf does, it looks neat :p. Speaking of its head, I found the jaws on my three Command Wolves to be kind of hard to open...they're all pretty tight against the sides of the head, so I have to pull on them to get them to open.

I have to admit, these guys are probably tied with the Shield Liger as my favorite Zoids model-wise...they're easy to build without being too simple, they look nice, and they walk well. I don't have a favorite among them...I like each one's color scheme about equally.

Old Black/Gold CW review

You may have seen 'chrome' Zoids on eBay and elsewhere. Most of these are done by Leoshop using regular Tomy Zoids...the Zoids themselves are authentic, but they aren't official Tomy limited editions or anything like that. If you want to buy one somewhere other than Leoshop (like eBay), beware of people selling them for greatly inflated prices, or people calling them limited editions straight from Tomy, or the like. Leoshop does put little stickers on the box calling them 'special editions', though, so if someone calls them that, they probably just got it off the box. I got mine via a combined Leoshop order (they have a 50 dollar minimum) for a little over 20 dollars after shipping. [Later note: Leoshop doesn't do chromes anymore, so it looks like it's down to eBay if you want any of theirs...]

I already reviewed three regular Command Wolf variants, so I'll just focus on the differences in the chrome-y version. Also, while everyone seems to call them chrome, they're actually vaccum metalized, as far as I know. On my black/gold Wolf, all the bits that were grey or black are gold, and the off-white ones black.

To get Command Wolf together, I had to strip chrome off some of the pegs/holes in the head, the pegs on the piece that attaches the back legs to the front, and the peg the speed-switching gear goes on. The head was tricky to get together even after that, and the jaw still is really tight, and I've pretty much left it where it is for fear of stripping the chrome on it. The cockpit also doesn't close perfectly, but it closes most of the way.

Trimming the extra plastic off the pieces took longer, because I had to be quite careful. Even so, it left big visible spots, especially on the black bits. The grey and black under the gold doesn't stand out anywhere near as much for some reason, imo. I got a Sharpie marker at the art store, and it worked perfectly for touching up the black bits-now they're no more visible than, say, the ones on a Command Wolf AC. I wonder where that gold paint marker I used to have went, and if it'd work for the gold bits...

Even before I touched up the black bits, my shiny Command Wolf looked quite spiffy. I'll admit I have a big weakness for shiny things, but whee...it especially looks great in the sunlight-the gold bits will even reflect off nearby surfaces, and the black ones, while shiny too, are enough of a contrast that it isn't blinding. If you like shiny things, I'd recommend getting a 'chrome' version of a Zoid you like...although I bet any battery-operated ones or ones with a lot of movement would be more work to get together, as you'd have to strip the chrome off of stuff.

Pics

Command Wolf stalks the table ...in the dying sunlight. Probably as un-blinding as the thing will get.
Closeup on the Wolf's front from the above pose.
Command Wolf with ZoidFans Shadow Fox A Blinding shinyness warning. They even reflect onto the paper.
Faceoff! Command Wolf and (intentionally blurred) Fox A.
More blinding shinyness. Fox and Wolf again, with a red bowl in the corner.