Cruncher (Zoids2)

It's green, as they say.

Cruncher takes everything cool about Bear Fighter and makes it even cooler via the addition of shiny. More specifically, Cruncher is from the Zoids2 line, and like other critters of that type, it features chrome parts and shiny stickers. Its colors of choice are shiny green (bright medium green, not some subtle shade), regular darker green (slightly bluish and shiny), gold, and black. Add in an orange cockpit, shiny pilot, white caps, and stickers in black and swirly gold and you have something truly striking.

I already covered construction in Bear Fighter's review, but to sum it up: being one of the super 1000 windups, this bear is a clever construct indeed. It shares the fine honor of being able to walk on both two and four legs with Gungy, and you'll be hard-pressed to find one of those for as little as a Bear Fighter variant (even the rare Mk.II). This makes for an entertaining build and a solid design, and it faithfully shuffles along equally well in both Zoids so as not to disappoint. Shifting between the two is easy, a clever bit of plastic pulling Cruncher's head into the appropriate pose as you shift the legs with the back gun.

Let's face it, though - if you don't like shiny, you're not gonna like this guy. It's an acquired taste, one that Zoids2 fans as a whole seem to love. If you're looking for something to win over the naysayers, I'd try the classy Stego. But if you dig green and you dig chrome? You're gonna be one happy camper.

Written November 22nd, 2006