Krark

The Prince of Darkness...no, not that one. The other one.

If a red and silver Salamander isn't cool enough to start, Krark has quite a story behind him. He saw the the endless fights between the blue Zoids and the red mutants as futile, as a waste of their power. Despite being a red mutant himself, he cared little for factions, wanting to instead unite all of Zoidstar into a conquering army. The clever, calculating foil to the mindless destruction and anger of the other main powers, his aims were no more noble than any other villain's, yet likely the best hope for survival if you were a Zoid.

On a random note, the closest battle story equivalent to Krark is likely Guylos (of the Evil Emperor variety). They share similar matter-of-fact schemes to take over the world, and the habits of sitting back and observing other powers until the moment is right to strike, then ruthlessly recruiting bits of other armies (join me, or you die/she dies) to build power. The UK comic actually has a few battle story parallels beyond that that lead me to suspect there may have been some collaboration between designers, but this isn't the place for my rambling about that. This, ladies and gentelmen, is supposed to be about Krark - the model.

My particular Krark is from eBay, about the only place to find them these days. They vary greatly in price, built ones being pretty easy to find but often broken. The ears and wings, especially, are a a common casualty, as Salamander isn't the sturdiest of molds with everything connected to the motor and thus nice and stiff for breaking. A mint in box Krark will set you back a good amount, probably half for the unbuilt and half for the sheer nostalgia power the UK line commands.

I've commented before on the ability of Salamanders to squeeze into small places unbuilt-their box is the same size as an American Liger Zero, if I remember correctly, and smaller than the Japanese Zero's slightly larger one. I guess this just speaks to the efficiancy of their design: they don't have any more bits than they need to do what they do. Either way, it seems that a built then disassembled Salamander is an even more skilled contortionist, as mine came in an amazingly small box. I didn't take a picture of said box and it met a rather bad end in a basement flood, but it was small, trust me.

I've covered building Salamander itself already-famous for its engineering, it's one of the best examples of the line and a joy to put together, whether or not it's for the first time. It's the sort of Zoid you can sit and look at the bits for, wondering how the hell they work until you start piecing them together and things suddenly start to make sense. That's something missing from many newer designs (build one Liger or theropod, and you can figure out the basics of all the others), though Rayse Tiger and Dark Spiner broke the mold for me, as did EL other than its Zero-esque legs.

Krark isn't a straight-up Saly recolor either, with his wingy sprue being red instead of silver. None of the Saly recolors are, really-F2 has the gold, Bombvern the pale blue-green, and Radox...dang, I'm not sure. I'm sure someone will smack me if it IS a straight-up recolor :p.

The other change Krark has is in the missile launchers. Tomy UK opted for a more drastic change to keep aspiring youngengineers from adding their own springs as people do with Pteramander-they molded the missile launchers as one solid piece, missiles permanently part of it. You might say this is bad, but, as with Gore, it ends up looking cool. The missile launchers never were my favorite bit of Saly to start, since the missiles have a habit of either launching or trying to escape when I set them in loose, so I don't really miss them being functional. It's far less irritating than the blunting of Saber Tiger teeth that goes on these days.

A finished Salamander variant is still a sight to behold, even though I've gotten a number of larger designs since I built my first one. Skeletal and pokey (Terry Pratchett thought it looked like a chicken), Krark can be anything from compact and plotting to huge and swooshyscreechy. This is thanks to its incredibly balanced walk cycle, which lets it stagger confidently around, lifting one foot completely off the ground and carefully placing it down before lifting the other. No other two-legged Zoid does this with such aplomb (few even try), and good luck finding a cat that doesn't shuffle instead. I've heard of Salamanders pitching forwards, but I suspect it's that any sort of carpet or rough/uneven surface is death to them more than the design. I've got wood floors, and there's four stable Saly and counting in this house, including a Bombvern with CP-10. There was the time where, amazed at its walking skills, I poked my first Saly to see if it'd fall over if I poked it enough, but that doesn't count.

If that walk isn't enough for you, Krark also opens and closes its mouth in time with the motor increasing in pitch (making for a nice screech on my newer Salys and a slight variation in Krark, whose motor seems to be getting on a bit), swishes his tail (a bit awkwardly-stiff tails are Saly's one weak point), and lifts and unfurls his wings in a typically Tomy simple yet genius way. It's a crazy amount of engineering for what amounts to a kid's toy-sure, Zoids are model kits, but they ARE targeted to a kid market. That's not to say that things like Zoids can't be appreciated by older collectors (and weird kids-the sort of kids I get along with), and its engineering is why a Salamander variant will always be on my recommended list of Zoids to poke to get a feel for what the line can really do.

Krark looks just as good still, and boy does he stare. Even with him pointing away from my head, I sometimes get the feeling he's watching me. Saly has an odd air of intelligence about it to start, and the red/silver colors and backstory amplify it in Krark's case. Silver pilot glinting and Gul Tiger by his side, he menaces the bookcase and accompanying boxes, perhaps plotting to take them over and sieze control of the DVD player nearby...if the Dark Zoids don't get there first.

So what am I really saying? If you don't have a Salamander variant, you need one. And if you have a bit extra cash to spare, dig 80s nostalgia and red, or just want MORE Salamanders than the regular one (as Gilvy says, you can't eat just one), why not make that Salamander variant Krark?

written January 17th, 2006