Killerdome

Killerdome's either a throwback to Transfighters or a precursor to Blox-it's a Zoid that sticks on another to power it up. A Fuzor, to go dub anime and make all the bashers twitch...and you know I love doing that :).

Beyond that, Killerdome is a crab. A spinning crab. Yes, spinning. Don't ask me why beyond that it looks cool, and perhaps that is all the answer one needs. It had always been on my "eh, get someday" list along with other things that were interesting but not overwhelmingly so, so when I saw a cheap one on eBay that was Japanese and first run from that time when "first run" meant you got a free card, I was sold. Or the Killerdome was sold, and I bought it. Indeed, I had a Killerdome and it needed building.

Killerdome's box is cool. Like you would expect, it has Killerdome on it, along with it fused to Dark Spiner smiting a Megaleon and Snipe Master with SPINNY LASERS OF DEATH. The box also has some battle story from that fun point in time when Prozen revealed he was Zenebas-y and evil. Not that we'd ever see something as unheard of as one Empire betraying another to smite the Republic, oh no.

The box also plays home to the expected Killerdome parts. This would be two frames of red bits, two frames of blackish grey (greyish black?) bits (one of which is very small), another blackish grey frame of slightly softer plastic, six purple caps (what is it with Neo Zenebas and purple?), a wheel (complete with rubber tire), a pilot who is very doomed, and a gearbox. No motor here, but there's motion, so I guess that's okay.

Killerdome isn't hard at all to build, like most Zoids that don't move on their own. The gearbox is cool if you open it up to look at it, but it's also where all the fun lies. Body halved go around that, along with some nifty slidey bits the move the claws. Stick on eyes, claws, legs, dome, and hey, there you are. Nothing tricky in the least (though one of my guns kept trying to escape), though I wasn't expecting it to be), and I rather like the simple yet effective trick used with the claws. Sometimes you don't need eleventybillion bits to be cool, and these claws are.

Together, Killerdome...sits there. You can move its legs around, making for lots of...leggy poses? The claws are also moveable, rather than static like you'd expect for something attached to a motor, which is nice. Hey, how much articulation are you expecting from a spinning crab, anyway? The motion comes into play when you roll Killerdome along, and the wheel does things with the gearbox. Those things make other things happen, and Killerdome's shell spins while its claws click happily.

If you're too lazy to roll your Killerdome along on the floor yourself, you can also stick it to a Dark Spiner and let the same bits that make its fin wave do the work for you. I have to confess I think Killer Spiner is a silly-looking thing, but I would give it a try if my Spine weren't in England, if only for Rattle and Malloy's sake. Oh well, just stare really hard at Killerdome and pretend it's stuck on a Dark Spiner, and that'll have to do.

So is Killer Dome worth getting? Not if it's pricey, but if you catch one cheap and are looking for a quick and amusing build to do unholy things to your Dark Spiner with when done, sure. And if you don't have a Dark Spiner, you can always amuse yourself by trying to hang it off things by its legs and watching it kamikaze to its death because its toes don't grip for beans, or annoying family members by rolling it on flat surfaces and making laser noises. It's a cute little thing and at least worth a look, even with its pilot's escapist tendencies. Crap, mine's stuck under the edge of the shell again...

written May 18, 2006