OJR Dimetrodon

aka "Explodey"

Rantinan won an OJR Dimetrodon from a US seller, which I shipped on with some other stuff to save on postage. Fast-forward a bit to the lots on eBay I got my Battlesaurus, Brox, and Zrk from: again, I ended up passing on and swapping Zoids with Rantinan and MystickSkye, which was a lot of fun (other than the bit with the boxes not wanting to open and the boxcutter and the peanuts, so very many peanuts). In the end there was another Dimetrodon in them...and after passing on the bits Rant needed, I still had a mostly-complete one for myself.

The problem? Its motor was dead, and its head had practically exploded in shipping, hence the nickname. By "exploded", I mean snapped apart from the inside, leaving the sides of the face and the eyes broken and the pilot gone. I never did find him, and can only conclude he self-destructed. I gave up on the motor after taking it apart and making several failed attempts at getting it spinning - it remained throughly stuck despite all my jiggling of gears and leaving batteries in. To Dimetrodon's happiness and my puzzlement, the motor happily started up a few days later of its own accord. And so, after some waiting on boxes so Rantinan and I could gather proper Dimetrodon bits between the two Zoids, I set out armed with superglue, aiming to reassemble mine and find it some spare guns.

The first few portions of a Dimetrodon are a bit confusing sans instructions, photos, or other Dimetrodons. The boxy flat piece that goes around the motor's spinny gear snaps onto the thingy that moves the head, then you pop the fins in and the tubes onto the sides...and the rest is just leg tail head stuff. Like Red Horn, Dimetrodon is a nice example of a simple design that works really well. It desn't have any need for excess gibberish to do its thing, and it looks good once it's together.

If you've built a Dark Spiner, you've seen Dimetrodon's thing before. To be honest, Dark Spiner does wavy fin much better, especially with its "stare at the moving thing" mode. But Dimetrodon started the idea, and it's still pretty fun to watch. The best bit about Dimetrodon's walk is actually its stomp - like Red Horn and Gul Tiger, it makes noise beyond its motor, slamming its little plastic feet down in an attempt at being menacing that works if you're the size of an ant or have a good imagination.

Explodey's motor seems to still have issues, leading to one of his legs wobbling unhappily mis-step, but he still manages a creakily angry plod. Amusingly enough, the bum leg is the one I'm missing armor for...

I definitely recommend Dimetrodon to fans of stompy things. So long as you don't expect Dark Spiner-level fin action, you'll be good. As to OJR versus NJR, they're both nice-looking critters. While the NJR is a bricky red, OJR Dimetrodon is close to that Zenebas-y not-red-but-not-really-pink red seen on Reddra. I suppose it's one of those colors you have to see, like the rich red on the OER Horn and Sabre Tiger compared to their newer brothers. The other main difference is the eyes: NJR's are regular new Empire green, but OJR's are the same more olive-y green Storch has.

But is the old Dimey worth the extra price and the annoyance of lost guns older built Zoids so often suffer from? Depends on how much of a Zenebas geek you are. If you just like the design, grab the rerelease, enjoy the Fanbook Ex, and ponder the mysteriously purple caps.

Written April 14th, 2006