Helcat

I got this little guy on impulse, and now I really like it. The Helcat's original price was around 600 yen (5 dollars-ish). They were out-of-production, but there seems to be more of them now...and, of course, Hasbro's Atak Kats, which are the same other than the name.

The Helcat comes in a smaller box with not that many pieces...it is a smaller, simpler model, after all. But that doesn't stop it from being cool, imo...

My Helcat was easy to assemble overall...there weren't any hard parts to speak of. Unlike my other wind-up Zoids at the time, most of the part that pulls the back legs back and forth along with the front ones was hidden, which I think looks good in this guy's case. The only thing that bugs me is that the gun on the back tends to move forward, making it easier for it to fall off...I might be able to fix that if I messed around with it a bit, but I'm worried I'd make it worse. Also, the helmet-like part with the ears that goes over the cockpit flips up a bit, which I wasn't expecting...that's just a minor thing, though...

The best part, though, is after you wind Helcat up. I love how it walks...it kind of creeps along the ground (bit bit bit bit bit...) in a way that looks surprisingly like a cat to me, considering the legs don't even bend at the joints like my various battery-powered catlike Zoids' legs do. And Helcat goes a lot farther than I expected for something with that small of a motor...

I'm almost tempted to get another, since I think they'd look nice in pairs. Or packs. Prides? Erm...what would a group of panthers be? But I think my family members would start questioning my sanity even more if I bought and assembled a pride's worth of Helcats and sent them walking all over the floor at once...but still, I'm tempted to at least get the thing a friend. It's a lot smaller than my other moving Zoids, so he looks kind of sad and all alone. (Yep, I should really be writing these when I've had more sleep...)

Update: Now that I have more than one Helcat, I can indeed say that they look nice in packs/groups.