Bootlegged Zoids

Over the years, unofficial "bootleg" Zoids have been produced illegally by 3rd-party companies. This page briefly describes bootleg Zoids in no particular order.

Starbird

The Action Starbird, the Sea and Air Attack Ship, was made by a company named Penn Plax in 1990. It came pre-built and had a gold chrome pilot figure that sat inside a cockpit with a light green canopy. This toy has a unique feature: it is attatched to a float that one fills with air with an air pump that also comes with it. When placed in water, the toy will float or sink on its own. The toy has what appeares to be a silver chromed, dual pulse gun on its back and 2 silver chromed, torpedo missiles on its wings. The toy was released in 4 colors, 2 of which being silver, red, and gray, while another was green, orange, and gray. It was usually found being sold in pet stores.

The back of the box shows an animation of it in it's green color scheme. Many collectors consider this a Zoid regardless of its true origin and purpose. A MIB Starbird can be sold anywhere between $20-$80 US.

Weida Toys - MEGAROBO

A Chinese company called Weida Toys produced their own variants of real Zoids called MEGAROBO. They were produced in seeming random color schemes, mixing chrome parts with black and green; yellow, red, and purple; etc. They appear to have been reverse-engineered, but as such the parts do not fit together as well and the motors don't work perfectly. They were sold pre-built in blister card. Known Zoids produced by Weida Toys: Molga, Hellrunner, Command Wolf, Redler, and Brachios.

"FIRST"

Korando Wolf size comparison with official Command Wolf size

Another Chinese company known as "FIRST" produced there own line of bootlegged Zoids. Not much is known about them, except that each Zoid produced by the company went through several mould changes, had very random color schemes and are smaller scale than their official counterparts. An example is the Korando Wolf, the 4th Zoid in the line. In reality, it was a redesigned Command Wolf with several mould changes. Like the other FIRST Zoids, the Zoid did not come with rubber caps. Instead, the caps were solid plastic, with some actually built into the design. The instructions to build these are printed on the inside of the box lid, rather than being provided on a seperate manual, and the picture on the box depicted the Zoid with an odd paint job. Due to the much smaller size of these bootlegs, there is no room to accomodate a pilot or wind up motor, instead possessing limited posability. There were 4 models in the line, Stego (Gorhecks) a Black Rhimos, a Redler, and the Korando Wolf.

Robotic Beasts

Produced in 2006 by K and B International, the Robotic Beasts featured remote control (Some were wired, others featured a radio control) that powered the model to walk forward or backward. They also featured light-up cockpits and a mechanical roaring sound. The kits closly resembled Shield Liger, Dibison, Dimetrodon, and Gojulas and were colored in a white with black color scheme. The Dimetroden and Gojulas bootleggs were the only ones that were semi-unique due to thier redesigned heads looking nothing like the original ones, even though all the bootlegged Zoids went through mould changes. The one resembling Shield Liger was seen with and without large orange tubes and may have been bootlegged by other companies.

Toy Century Ind.

A company named Toy Century Ind. produced in 2003 what apears to be a bootleg loosely based off of the Death Saurer. It is colored green, silver, and metallic red. It is pre-built and shares no parts with the actual Death Saurer. It has U.S. Army stickers.

ZOOID

A company known as New-Star produced a bootleg Red Horn called the Red Karando. It appeared to be just a regular Red Horn, with minor mould changes, but illegally re-packaged in an new box with a slightly different color scheme. It attempted to imitate the European Red Horn, Red Horn the Terrible. This model also exists in black and is known as Black Horn, which imitated the Original Japanese Release Dark Horn.

Chang Fa Zoids

A company known for remote control toys, Chang Fa, produced three bootlegs called Zoids "Super Radio Control Machine Beasts" with boxes displaying Helic Republic logo. Each of the bootlegs had the same stucture with the exception of the head and color scheme. They also had the identical boxes with only a check mark on the back to identify which product was inside. When activated the bootlegged Zoids could move forward and back, hop and chomp thier jaws. The first, labeled 8599-X1 "Tiger Machine", resembled a Rayse Tiger, colored white and blue and black with yellow highlights. It was featured on the front of the box pictured similarly to Energy Liger. Next was 8599-X2 "Rhino Machine" was colored green and yellow with black highlights. This bootleg's head more closely resembled a Cyclop's than Black Rhimos though it most closely resembles another Tomy product, the Rhino Microid. The third called 8599-X3 "Mechanical Monsters" resembled a Murasame Liger and was colored blue, grey and black with pale bronze highlights.