Diablo Tiger

The Cyberdrive Zoids can be considered a failed experiment. They began with a very cool concept: remote control Zoids that could shoot BBs and battle each other. The problems? Bulky prebuilt bodies and atrociously bad controls for the high price point (5980 yen).

Still, before its very quick demise, the Cyberdrive line managed to get three Zoids out: Cyclops, Diablo Tiger Alpha, and Diablo Tiger Beta, an exclusive recolored version that only came packed with the tie-in Cyberdrive Zoids GBA game. This here is the Alpha, the infamously lavender-and-purple model. I own it because HLJ had the Cyberdrive critters on sale for 60% off a while back, finally rendering them affordable.

Cyberdrive Zoids come in display-style boxes: there's a front flap covering clear plastic "windows", showing off everything the Zoid can do along with the nekkid Tiger body, which is mostly assembled other than the head and armor. It's eerily similar to the (far later) Murasame Liger, though Diablo Tiger has a bit more of an excuse with all the electronics wedged in it. Construction - what little there is - is smooth, with the lavender plastic trimming well.

Did I mention it's sparkley lavender? Oh yes. It also has no caps, just screws (the horror!). The only real thing to watch out for in this process are the pieces holding on the rear hip armor: it's on hinge-flaps over a pair of triggers that "freeze" the Zoid when the armor takes a direct hit. These little flaps make it a pain to line up the leg armor if you don't put it on the flaps before attaching them to the Tiger's legs, as I found out the hard way. They're also easy to set off by picking up the Tiger, and if you do this while it's on it'll refuse to respond until reset.

Once you've built Diablo Tiger's head, stuck on its gun, and rendered it a bit less nekkid, you'll need to track down three LR44 button cell batteries for the remote control if you want it to do anything. The Tiger itself needs a pair of AAAs, which are much easier to find.

While Cyclops definitely suffers less from the bulky frame the Cyberdrive critters share and tends to fare better in "combat" thanks to its horn, Diablo Tiger has a certain sleek grace about it once you get past the belly. While its stickers and box can't agree on a faction beyond "Empire", its lines are Guylos: organic curves and points flowing in a way that looks almost alive. It's also surprisingly small, more the size of a bulked up Lightning Saix or a compressed Saber Tiger than the Zero one might expect from the battery requirements.

Now, on to the controls.

Both the Tiger and the remote have a switch with three positions: 1, off, 2. Off is obvious, and the Tiger and remote should both be set to 1 or 2 when on. This lets you have two Cyberdrive Zoids out at once without signals getting crossed.

When the Tiger is switched on, its eyes blink red-green-red-green until it gets a signal from the controller. Once that's done and it's on the move, its eyes blink green.

If the Tiger takes a direct hit to the back leg armor, it hits those triggers I mentioned and makes the Zoid "freeze". The eyes blink red, and it won't respond further until turned off and back on.

In firing mode, the Tiger's eyes glow bright red (no blinking, it's angry now!), and if you've put some of the 30 included plastic BBs in the cannon, it'll start firing them with a reasonable amount of force. If not, it'll settle for making ominous clicking noises. The little plastic BBs are as easy to lose as you'd think, and the firing isn't on demand: it just cycles through every couple seconds. This makes it pretty useless for taking an opponent out unless you have very lucky timing.

Steering is the other real issue here. While the Tiger responds quickly and moves at a good clip, a quick glance at the remote reveals the real issue. There's a forward-reverse switch, the fire button, and...how do you turn? The answer is you don't turn. The last remaining button should be labeled "swivel", because that's all it does: rocks the front half of the Tiger left and right. You don't get to choose which way, either, you just have to wait for it to be facing the right way and time that with going forwards/backwards. This makes for a stupidly wide turning circle and a lot of frustration...but if you hold down the swivel button, you get a dancing Zoid.

Conclusion? Don't spend a lot of money on this thing. 5980 yen is too much, Bob! If you find it cheap and dig the design or really want a remote control Zoid, pants or not, give it a go. If you want something you can actually steer, try Death Stinger along with CP-16, even if it's a wired remote.

Rewritten May 20, 2007
Old review