Gun Sniper

It's a velociraptor. And it's got ears. You would think ears on a dinosaur would look weird, but they look cool. I'd heard some posts/reviews about the Gun Sniper not having very good plastic and not walking well (if at all), but since it was only a small wind-up and I like the design and colors, I went ahead and got one anyway. I think it's still in production, but it had been out of stock at HLJ for a while and I didn't feel like waiting ages, so I got mine on eBay. Its list price was 600 yen on HLJ, for anyone who's counting...

Gun Sniper came in the usual box with parts, motor, and so on, but also came with the two little boosters on its back pre-assembled, presumably because they have that feature where you push them in, and they pop back out if you hit the button on the top. I have no idea what purpose that serves...unless you want to count that if you don't push the dark blue part that goes on the thing that pops out on all the way, it catapults it. Lucky for me, it hit a box and didn't get far, so I saw where it went and didn't have to hunt for it...

As I started to assemble my Gun Sniper, I kind of realized what people meant about the plastic...some of it was a bit on the softer side, but I didn't think it was flimsy or anything. There weren't any steps that I'd call complicated...stick the body together, build and put on the head/neck, build the legs, stick them on...I did like the fact that the front paws were articulated a bit and could be opened and closed-I hadn't noticed that they were like that in pictures. The little booster things on the back can get loose when you're reaching between them to get the wind-up key, which is kind of pesky...I would rather have the wind-up thing sticking out of its side like my Helcat, but that's life. The ears also look like they'd get loose and fall off more easily, so I'll keep watch on them so they don't escape :p.

When it came time to see if it walked, I was somewhat apprehensive, having heard tales of Gun Snipers who just stood there and refused to budge...but mine walked. Not very well, but it does move. It'll take the first few steps without trouble, but as the motor winds down, it tends more and more to freeze in place and not move...although lightly thwapping its tail usually gets it going again for a few more steps. Poor thing really could have used a bit stronger of a motor. I'd thought about getting a Wild Weasel unit for it (or getting a second Gun Sniper with one), since for some reason I like how it looks (that dish thing is cool), but I suspect it would walk even worse with the added weight. Rinon's Gun Sniper in the anime must be able to defy gravity, or something...

Despite the walking problems, I like the Gun Sniper...partially because it's a velociraptor and I've always liked the smaller bitey carnivore and omnivore sort of dinosaurs, and partially because of the funky color scheme of Prussian blue, purple-y blue, grey, and orange/yellow...like the ear thing, you wouldn't expect that to look good, but it does, in my opinion. Tomy should make a troodon Zoid...not a little wind-up or a huge complicated thing, but a bigger wind-up one that walks well. Heck, any dinosaur like that as a large wind-up would be good. I mean, I've got this tiny little Gun Sniper and the Geno Breaker, which looks like it could bite off the Gun Sniper's head without even trying O_o. Which it better not. If it looks like it's going to, I'll threaten to replace its Raven pilot figure with one of the generic Republic pilots left over from my Command Wolves...or worse, let the Ban figure pilot it. Bwa.

I think I'll end this review before it gets even more off-topic...