Murasame Liger

Murasame here is the subject of a bit of controversey and a lot of fire in the Zoids model community...why?

Quite simply, the thing is mostly pre-built. This is likely an attempt to capture a younger market-an experiment, if you will. Among other things, this leads to concerns over Zoids deviating from what many percieve as their intrinsic, core concept: animal model kits you build yourself. It unsettles me some, to be honest. For the curious, Blox didn't bother me, and neither do the Bios. I see them as a branchoff from the main line, whearas Murasame here is supposed to part of it.

Pre-building takes the fun out of things for those who enjoy seeing a Zoid go together from the ground up as much as seeing it finished. And yet, a kid building one and wanting to play with a Murasame or display it will run into the fact that it likes to fall apart and is very static-the gimmick in the blade renders it a far cry from the beautifully flexible weapon in the anime.

Debate aside, what's a Murasame like to build? Well, you get your Liger lump (many say it resembles a bear), and a lot of armor pieces. It's similar to the Cyberdrive critters, but I'd say a bit more fiddly. This would be fine if not for the gold plastic being that irritating soft kind-the mane likes to fall off Murasame if you look at it funny. The blue and white bits are very nice and sturdy, though, and the blue's a very pleasing Blade Liger-like shade. If you like those pretty white markings on Murasame's mane, you'll have to wrestle with stickers-they're not painted or separate pieces. I can't stand the things, so my Murasame stays gold.

The cockpit is a bit odd...I strugged with the top blue bit for a while before I figured out you have to hook it around the charcoal bit and then bend said bit slightly around both ends to get it to click in place. It's also hard to open without losing head fins, so like Fire Phoenix I left the pilot out.

In motion, my Murasame is a bit gimpy. He wobbles/limps on one side, and I can't take him apart to fix it. He moves in a straight line, though, so it's not too bad. I've heard of other Murasame with far worse problems walking and others with none at all-it seems to be pot luck which you'll get. Hopefully they'll improve this in future runs. The blade gimmick is certainly amusing (sproiiiing...), though I'd have preferred a poseable one.

In conclusion, I don't think Murasame's horrible. I'll defend it like I do Gravity Saix and other bashed critters, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but a pointy cat fan either. It's a great design in theory, and the anime version is wonderfully animated and flexible in a way that begs for a KFM-style figure. However, the kit fails to compare, being stuck in between toy and model in almost all the wrong ways. Poor Murasame...