HomeEnergy Liger
Such a sexy pointed cat deserves a review in my newer style, so here we go.It's been so long that I built either of my Energy Ligers that you'll have to turn to the old Hasbro EL review for first construction impressions. What you'll get here is rambling, differences, highlights, and more rambling.
Energy Liger's box is just as cool as the Zoid within. It hits at the height of the NJR's design-fu, complete with cool OJR throwback color variants, nicely coherent angular design, and a really good diorama photo. It's just a panel-lined EL on a cliff with lightning, but it looks great. The contents include a rather funky motor with translucent air pumps (complete with rather funky bit of cardboard holding it), tons of sprues (warm silvery grey, pale gold, black, darker Neo Zenebas-y red, brighter metal flake old Zenebas-y red, and clear red in a shade that screams "Jolly Rancher candy"), matching pale gold caps, four hollow black tubes, a pilot, a pair of air bellows, two pre-assembled air-powered guns (in darker silvery grey), a stand, and four cap-to-Blox adaptors. There's a reason it's a big box, shall we say.
As you may have guessed from that list, EL isn't the same old pointy cat. The leg construction is very Zero (though with fewer fiddly bits), but that's where the outright similarity ends. It's a nicely different build, though Rayse Tiger is still the king of pointed cats in that regard. EL's got a gimmick all its own, too: the air pumps that make for its very broad shoulders aren't just for show. They can be connected to the wings or the guns. I don't bother with the former, as it just makes them unfurl and stay that way until you press a button. The guns are where it's at: switch the motor on and the pumps whirr while the cannon moves back and forth and the gatling spins. We're not talking Dark Horn spins, we're talking barrels become a blur. Add in the fact they're firing nasty beams 'o death, and you get an overgunned 160-ton cat hoverflying at 660 kph...a mere twitch short of 666, which may or may not be intentional.
I'm of the opinion EL shares more with Gilvader than not-quite-666 stats and impossible armaments and speed for its great bulk. They both hold their heads high and have that sleek organic feel colliding busy with smooth, both have a swept-back look to the hindlegs and face with one bit of forward pointy...could well be coincidence, but it's an amusing one if so. For further geekery, some variations I can find on Japanese unicorn legends also have them with a lionlike mane and single stabby horn. We all know what Gilvader thinks of unicorns.
There's one drawback to all that speed and power, as one learns in the fanbook Ex of this era: Energy Ligers have a very short operating time and require extremely skilled pilots. Ray Gregg, arguably one of the finest liger pilots to have lived, was impressed by Wolff's ability to handle one even as it tore his Zoid apart, and I think that speaks for itself. Add that anything based off a wild Zoid (in this case, the same one as the Liger Zero) will be limited in supply and difficult to produce, and I don't see many of these making it to the field. I suspect the NJR designers wanted badly to make the DOOM!stompies of old, and faced with the lack of market for true large models instead crammed them into smaller packages like we see in EL, Seismo, and Giga.
Back to the actual model: what are the differences between this and the Hasbro EL? Besides the stand (I hate the stands) and adaptors (I don't want to stick Blox to EL), there's a fanbook included as part of the full-color instructions. If you don't read Japanese that amounts to pretty pictures, but if you know a bit and are a story geek like me it's a huge selling point.
And there's the colors. Oh, man, the colors...Hasbro!EL pulls off its scheme okay, but I don't like black with red, nor do I buy into the "evil color schemes are better" view. This EL is where it's at...it's a classy sort of fearsome, a held-back imperial sort of angry that suit its design and use in the battle story perfectly. While the organic sleekness is decidedly Guylos, the colors are all Zenebas, managing to combine brighter old-school red with the darker Neo Zenebas sort in a two-tone matchup that beats the pants off Sturm Tyrann. The brighter red is metal flake, too, and we're talking metal flake beyond random sparkley, metal flake that's shiny and sleek in ways that defy photography. I've seen it compared to the famous red plastic of the imperial Zevele, and what I've heard of those paints that as nothing but a high compliment. Combined with the multiple shades of greysilver and the clear red and charcoal for wings and charger as opposed to all orange, it EATS MY BRAIN in ways that only the OJR Mk.IIs and Dark Zoids can compete with.
In keeping with its almost-stompy image, EL is by far the largest cat Zoid. Even if you remove the guns and tubes, you're still faced with something that dwarfs the other felines and makes most theropods look a lot smaller too. It's heavily built to back it up, not just relying on armor bits sticking out everywhere for size.
You would think that'd mean a slow, plodding walk, but it's a freaking speed demon to match its stats. Mine clocks in at speeds twice any Blade or Zero, and laughs at even Lightning Saix's fast mode because it doesn't slide and the Saix does. Turning on the guns doesn't seem to slow it in the least. The only things that can outpace it are on wheels.
It's also about as poseable as a rock with moveable wings, but when you're this cool, who the hell cares?
Conclusion: If you don't have an EL yet, for pete's sake, get this one. It's great in any color, but the red makes it that much better. The only reason I can see to get the Hasbro would be finding one cheap (a lot harder these days), and the only reason for the Fuzors the connectors to stick Jet Falcon on its back. To each his own, but if you're talking to me? Highly, highly recommended, and arguing with the far less available Kingliger for my second favorite pointed cat with Shieldy Mk.II ahead and Rayse Tiger behind. This is a design that even non-fans of cats will likely enjoy for the Zoid behind it, and well deserves its place as the final motorized critter in the battle story continuity.
Written May 18, 2006; updated May 25th, 2007