Bio Megaraptor Glearmd
Released midway through the Genesis line, Nudist Raptor here was announced along with a "Commander" Bio Raptor, which many thought would be the black and red one from the first Genesis episode. Disappointingly, there was little difference in color (the two were even hard to tell apart in some lights), but Glearmd delivered on its promised gimmick in spades: glow in the dark armor.
To be honest, I'm not a Bio Zoid fan. They're poseable but it's executed somewhat poorly (the Megaraptor crew like to faceplant and/or headdesk), and many of them shed like the dickens while others don't. From an aesthetics point of view they're not very Zoidy either-they look like the belong in an entirely different world. This works okay in the anime, but models it's...strange.
Regardless, this one glows in the dark, and that's cool.
Glearmd's box is like many limiteds: a reworking of the original, with similarly posed Megaraptor with much Photoshopped glow and mentions of the Zairin figure inside. It's kind of cheesy, actually, but that's suiting for what amounts to a glorified version of those little GITD plastic dinos and lizards you used to have as a kid. It also has nothing to do with Zairin other than he's included in the package, but hey.
Speaking of which, the little Zairin figure is dressed in the bulky Bio Zoid pilot suit, which amused me-he's completely unfanservicey, and actually looks reasonably friendly as opposed to "I will stare into your SOUL" like many human figures. The pink uniform of doom would have been nice too, but that'd likely only have added to my sister's insisting he was a girl (as she did with Raven until hearing both of them). He's also squishy, but sadly does not bounce like a superball if thrown to the floor.
Besides him, you get a silver stand, a Glearmd body in dark charcoal with clear red chestbit and eyes, some other skeleton bits to add to it (also charcoal), some joint-covering things in silver, and a ton of squishy GITD plastic armor complete with prepainted gold claws. The body has a battery preinstalled, so if you poke the bit on Glearmd's back he'll happily make one of various roars, gurgles, and strange "kissh!" noises while the light in his chest piece blinks. If you press and hold the button, he'll keep making noises until you press it again-perfect for driving parents and coworkers mad. It's definitely a feature for the easily amused, but I'm easily amused.
Megaraptor creeps
Face of glowy evil! The jaw is falling off...
The GITD plastic is the straight-up milky greenwhite kind and is also a pain to trim perfectly. On the other hand, it leaves no real sprue scars and it's really pretty. No matter what light it's in it's faintly luminescent, giving it a strange semi-clear look that could be either glow or translucence-in-action, and the darker it gets the brighter and greener and glowier it gets. With proper charge it's very bright, with its only competitors Rayse Tiger and my OJR Heldy. Since the armor makes up a huge portion of a Bio Zoid and Megaraptors in particular are spindly skeletal things underneath, that's a lot of glowing going on.
Rim lighting?
Megaraptor leans toward the camera
"Sit down, I think I love you - anyway, I'd like to try..."
Way to ruin the shot, dude.
The Megaraptor mold itself holds a nice balance of rounded and pointy. It sports articulation at the claws (individually moveable), elbows, and shoulders on its front legs, and hips, knees, and spork claws on the back-but no ankles, something which gets annoying fast but is probably good with how some of the other joint loosen up. The tail is ball-jointed at three points and the neck and head two, which is very nice, and the torso has a flex point in the middle that also leads to many cases of Bio Megaraptors falling in half (oops). The jaw also opens really wide-almost 180 degrees really wide-with only the chin armor stopping it from going further. It looks ridiculous, but that's why it's fun.
There's one real problem to address here: Megaraptor sheds. And by sheds, I mean armor pops off every which way, even armor I haven't touched. It makes it a total PAIN to pose or photograph him, defeating the purpose of an articulated Zoid. I don't want to glue him, tempting as it is, because Zoids shouldn't be glued. Other people don't have the shedding issues with this guy and/or the regular Megaraptor, and it seems to be very potluck and random as to what you'll end up with. I have to wonder if environment is a factor too, as my Sturm Tyrann with the broken droopy booster gets worse during some times of year. Perhaps I should catalogue Glearmd's shedding factor and see if I can use it to predict the weather!
I'm gonna dance even if my armor falls off!
Well, that was unexpected.
Maybe I can put myself back together?
Conclusion? If you like glowy things at all, you will like this guy. Just hope you get one that isn't shed-happy. If you don't like the Bios, it probably won't convince you of the line, though you may be like me and like it individually for being pretty and having a cool head (magical dislocating jaw and clear red eyes!). If you do like them, why don't you have this thing? It glows! GLOWS!
For awesome glowy photography of this guy, Hidocker's site is where it's at. Blacklight madness! I'll take some of my own...someday. Honest.
http://zoido.smeat.net/limited.html#biomegaraptorNG
http://zoido.smeat.net/semicustoms.html#biomegaraptorswap
