Lightning Saix

I hadn't really thought of buying this one at first...and then when I found more pictures of it, I decided I liked it...cheetahs are one of my favorite big cats, and it's a big black pointy one.

Unlike my other catlike Zoids, the Lightning Saix came with not only the motor already assembled, but part of the body around it as well. My guess is that that's because of the two speeds, and otherwise it'd be hard to put together the stuff that lets you shift between them, or something. It also comes with a separate battery case that becomes the cannon/booster things on its back-that's what lets it stay skinny while still being powered by two AAA batteries, I suppose.

I recommend assembling the back booster thing first, so you can put the batteries in and test things as you go...although the Lightning Saix doesn't have a moving jaw to worry about messing up. Make sure you put all the parts on before you screw the top back on the battery case, so that you don't have to take it back apart again like I did. Oops. Once that was done, I went back to the start of the instructions. You assemble the head and neck and put them on, and then build the legs and attach them. Where the legs attach to the body, this one red part has a hole that you have to get around a part on the motor in order to get the leg on all the way, which took me a bit of fiddling. Getting the tail to fit on the part of the motor that lets you shift speeds was a bit tricky too, but otherwise, it wasn't hard.

One word of warning-when you're assembling the feet, you'll see these little extra parts of plastic on the curved part of the silvery claw parts. When getting rid of the extra plastic, *do not* cut all of those off. You know how the Lightning Saix's claws can kind of flip into its feet? (I don't know why, but they can...) If you don't have those bits of plastic to grip, I would imagine it could be pretty hard to get them back out again...I had trouble until I noticed them.

When moving, the Lightning Saix lives up to its name...if it can get a grip on the floor it's running on. Mine has trouble with the wooden floors, especially in the faster of the two speeds it has. That doesn't stop it from easily outdistancing my other Zoids, despite the fact that its feet are slipping half of the time...I wish I could find a spot where this guy could grip better, as I bet it'd be *really* quick. It sure looks nifty, too...the boosters on the back can be tilted up or down a bit, the head and neck can be moved up and down, and the mouth can be opened and closed. The tail can be moved up and down, too, which is how you switch from regular (down) to fast (up) speed...

I do wish the eyes were golden like the ones on Irvine's Lightning Saix as opposed to green, though. I think the orange looks better...even if it's Republic-y.