#bigasauru

[escapistsatellite]

Battle of the Central Continent, by ばてぃらい

#ゾイド 中央大陸の戦い - ばてぃらいのイラスト - pixiv

[everyzoid]

RBOZ-001 Bigasauru

While Tank and Serpent were a sort of evolutionary dead end for zoid design, Bigasauru is a portent of things to come, in a couple of ways. Tank and Serpent were significantly different in design from the windups that came before; Bigasauru on the other hand scales up the zoids we’ve seen before, with Bigasauru being both bigger and more complex than any zoid design before. The small windups’ motion was stiff-legged and shuffling, whereas Bigasauru has jointed legs and an articulated neck that raises and lowers as it walks. The mechanism here is a tad awkward and slow, but very similar to the design of later motorized zoids. 

I like Bigasauru for a lot of the same reasons that I like Garius. It’s creepy and skeletal and appropriately primitive for the first motorized walking zoid. I also really like how well the design slots in next to the eight existing whiteheads as well as the two yet to be released. It’s a consistency of design that the line will drop after the first few empire zoids and while I appreciate greater diversity of later models, I miss how nice these zoids look together. 

Bigasauru was released both in Japan as part of the OJR line and in the Spider-Man and Zoids and OAR lines under the name Giant ZRK. I’m not sure if ZRK is supposed to be an acronym or not but I’ve always really liked the name for some reason, even if it’s less descriptive than Bigasauru. This release was identical to the Japanese release. 

When I first became interested in zoids and zoids customization, I came across the customs of Zoidology. I have very little information about who created these customs, other than that they go by Zeke and that they are located in Hong Kong. Their customs are always a bit strange and oddly beautiful and they have stuck with me over the years. 

One of my favorites is Norea, which reads to me as a sort of modern reimagining of Bigasauru. It maintains much of the key design elements of the original while making it much more elegant and striking. I would like to think that if Bigasauru ever got a release as a Highend Master Model Zoid, it would somewhat resemble Norea.

Overall I really like Bigasauru. Over the years I’ve become more appreciative of the earlier skeletal designs and Bigasauru is probably my favorite of the motorized ones. I love the image of one stomping through the desert, flanked by Gurantulas and Gariuses and Hidockers, headed into battle. 5/5.