Zoids
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The first US Zoids were small, about 4 inches tall, blue, black and white wind up toys. Initially, there were three, the T-Rex, Bird, and Elephant types. These were quickly followed by the Spider and Frog types, as well as two small battery powered Zoids. Tomy also released a giant Zoid with this same color scheme called Giant Zrk, that closely resembled a Brontosaurus. Designed to resemble dinosaurs or animals, Zoids are essentially giant robots with pilots in their gold cockpits. Later Zoids, and most of the ones released in Japan and Europe, were much larger battery operated creations that looked more fearsome with a beefier construction and better color schemes. Zoids were released under a number of other names, including RoboStrux in the US, TechnoZoids in the US and Canada, and Zoids2 in Japan and Europe. The biggest differences between the toy lines were color schemes. |
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 The second major toy line inspired or derived from Zoids are the Starriors, which were both a toy by TOMY and a comic book from Marvel. Starriors also included a mini-comic inside the packaging. The main similarity between Starriors and Zoids is the gold pilot in the cockpit (which doesn’t open on a Starrior) and it’s wind up mechanism. There is a small degree of snap together construction in the Starriors line, but no where near the flexibility of either the Z-Knights or Zoids. |
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Zoids was a model toy line introduced by TOMY in both Japan and America during the early 80’s that featured snap together construction and wind-up or battery powered motors.
TOMY released several other Zoids like toy lines that featured snap together construction and battery or wind up power. Z-Knights were a line of battery powered walking robots with swinging swords and weapons. Most Z-Knights were released in Japan, but a few were released in the US as well.
In June 1999, TOMY announced at a toy show in Japan that they would be releasing a new line of Zoids with all new color schemes.