See Creatures

 

Possibly because of my childhood exposure to lots of epidodes of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, 20,000 Leagues and various other deep sea adventures, i've always been fond of sea monsters and other mythical creatures. Disneys animated feature, Atlantis gave rise to some wonderful designs for mecahnical fish and sharks and a massive monster called Leviathan, designed by comic maestro Mike Mignola. Naturally the Mattel toy machine churned out various dolls and vehicles and among them was a Mega Rig scale Leviathan. The Leviathan toy (above) splits into several smaller creatures and connects with other parts in a large playset with tiny 1" figures.

The Multimac toy range which generally includes space themed vehicles which can be broken down like Lego, provided another fine lobster style creature via ebay recently. This garish pink beast seats a 2" figure similar to the Manta Force variety of toys and has lots of interchangeable parts and jointed limbs.

Often copied by Multimac, Tomy Zoids are a massive range of robotic dinosaurs and other creatures. Huge in the late eighties and nineties, the range had a resurgence of interest and was rebranded in Japan a few years ago. The line included all manner of beetles, lizards, fish and even a snail. The later run of Zoids included a wonderful Sea Scorpion which was only made available in Japan.

The Zoids range all include a tiny seated gold figure, like a Spacex astronaut, but dressed like an X-Wing pilot. The range diversified into good and bad models with silver pilots in the enemy machines. Larger models are motorised with battery power and smaller ones by a tiny clockwork motor.

An earlier japanese extension to the Zoids range was Zevle, a range of models that included larger 2.5" articulated figures. Possibly the most impressive was the Zargam Scorpion, a similar size to the Sea Scorpion at over a foot long, it is battery powered and houses a single figure lying prone inside the armoured carapace. The toy was originally red, but i bought a pre-built version which had been decorated in white from the states. The box art for the toys was by one of japans famous mecha artists who painted the art for the Macross series of kits.

My test run of the video post was accompanied by my son Will, who adds enthusiastic commentary to the film! Batteries werent at their best, but it does show the basic range of movement. More to follow soon on the Zoids/Spacex connection..