Double Sworder

Double Sworder is a rather neglected little stagbeetle, all things considered. It appeared in the anime, but only really was interesting when it was gigantic and got easily Blade Ligered regardless. It's Riese's Geno Saurer that everyone remembers, not that I'd blame them. Double Sworder has one advantage in the cool department, however: It's a model, and you can build one without rewiring blinky eyes or painting anything blue.

The rereleased Sworder takes after Shield Liger, going from an indescribable paler blue to standard royal blue and two shades of grey with orange wings. Nothing amazing, but it's a solid color scheme and a good match with many early-new-line Republic Zoids.

Assembly is relatively easy, especially as the clear orange is easier to trim than some clear plastic. My Sworder seems to have a bad batch of grey plastic, however, as both of the small back guns ended up with nasty stresscracks from being taken off the sprues.

While Spiderzoid walks on all eight of its legs (and so, by extension, does Guysack), Double Sworder and its Imperial rival Saicurtis cheat. Their legs are just for show, and the actual walking is done on low-slung pieces of plastic attached to the motor. The middle pair of legs is fixed to Double Sworder's sides, but the back and front pairs swing back and forth, alternating in a surprisingly effective "bug" walk for something cheating so much. Double Sworder's pincers also move in and out - slowly - as it walks, while the wings and their covers are left poseable. This is a near reverse of Saicurtis, who has a poseable front horn and wingcovers that move with the motor.

Like insects? Like things with pincers? Like Zoids that people tend to forget exist? You'll most likely like Double Sworder. If you have money to burn and patience, the old release isn't hideously pricey, and the new release is still somewhat findable at the writing of this review - though the market is fickle these days, so why wait?

Rewritten May 24, 2007
Old review