Red Horn (OER, aka The Terrible)

I had an NAR Horn already. You can blame Gambino if you like, you can blame the UK comic...whatever it was, a combination of old marketing, character attachment and my love of Red and Dark Horns latched onto my brain and made me pick an old one up too.

Red Horn the Terrible (as his name implies) was nasty, uncompromising, and ruthless, especially if he felt betrayed. Zenebas parallel before it happened, right down to the later comeback? Probably not intentional, but fun anyway. Red Horn is the most Zenebas-y Zoid there is, in my opinion, the best expression of their design aesthetics and tied to a lot of important characters. Sabre Tiger does a pretty good job too, but Horns are stompy, angry, and stubborn. They just feel Zenebas-y, and I like saying Zenebas-y.

MIB Red Horns are very hard to find nowadays, so my Horn was built. I always disassemble-clean-reassemble if I at all can, and in the process the old tail clip and dying stickers gave out. Superglue fixed the former easily, and the latter I did my best to save two Zenebas logos. They're still peeling, greh...

There's not a terrible amount of color difference between this guy and my cheapo KB Toys NAR, but what difference there is really shows in the right light or with them side by side. The red is much richer and a bit more ruby, having a definite depth to it that makes the new Horn look almost washed-out. It's one of the best reds I've seen on a Zoid, with only the shinymetalflakeZenebasred on EL beating it out for coolness factor. The charcoal cockpits also look awesome with silver pilots in, though two of them have migrated elewhere since my newer Zoids are shiny-starved. One of them went to a Redler that soon flung itself at Red Horn in an obvious attempt on its life, causing me to move the pilot to Gildy instead. Ungrateful little bastard...no, not you, König Wolf. You got the other one but you're being nice about it, so stop looking at me like that.

So much for no stupid obscure jokes, eh? At least I haven't mentioned warning labels yet...aw, damn.

Horns still are fun to build, even though I can do it from memory. They're a very pleasing combination of simplicity and engineering like many Zoids of that era, with the legs being especially creative in how they got such a good shape out of so few pieces. They don't take long to build, but it's a fun trip, and they're one of the most addictive variants I've ever encountered, on par with Command Wolf and Redler. They'resimilarly awesome in motion. Walk, chomp jaws, and spin a gun isn't much on top of what most battery-ops manage, but Red Horn is a master of the stompy, clomping along on the floor with a steady rythem you can actually hear on most surfaces. It may be Liger-sized, but it carries itself like a far larger Zoid.

If you don't have some kind of Horn, get one. I really mean it, get one. It doesn't matter which, though I'd avoid the Hasbro Dark Horn if you can't get a CP-03 too. If you're already a fan, picking up an OER Red Horn is worth your trouble if you can get a fair price. The differences are subtle at a glance yet good, and, like lizards, Horns are always better in swarms.

written February 9th?, 2006