"Tehnolog's Z.O.D. Range" Topic

Purchased a pack of two Z.O.D. robots from an ebay seller – apparently 'Doberman' and 'Lizard'. A 1:100 range of models produced for the game of the same name. Can't comment on the game as my Russian is non-existent, but the two record cards that come in the box are vaguely reminiscent of Robogear.

The robots are approximately 45 mm tall and cast in hard plastic. The box came with two bodies, two bases, four pairs of arms and possibly four back pieces. Here I have some problems as the package didn't survive contact with Russian postal service and brittle failures ensued with the back pieces suffering worst. However, I suspect the damage is fixable with some liquid cement. Arms and pack pieces all appear to interchangeable between the bodies with no problems.

The detail is generally strong and well defined, though one of the alternate arms looked very weedy and one of the weapons had a modicum of flash. The mold clearly isn't perfect and some of the detailing is weak. Take this apparent track unit on the feet of one the models:

Can't comment fully on the fit of pieces (though it seems ok) or their reaction to glues, but the hard polystyrene looks and feels pretty typical. It should take painting and conversion pretty well.

Stylistically they don't scream any particular influence that I'm aware of. The legs and arms are a touch too chunky for the bodies in my opinion. They don't look obviously piloted and the bodies look a bit cramped for a pilot, but others in the range appear to have cockpits. The back pieces, appear variously as backpack-like or as slightly odd crest-like creations, none of which I'm particularly sold on. They fit by a lug into a socket on the back of the robot that could be filled easily. Looking at whats available the range appears to have a pretty good spread weapons and bodies. My weapons weren't terribly prepossessing and some of the others look a bit over blown size-wise. The old Big Ass Gatling gun with no obvious ammo supply problem.

The models cost US$5.50 (GB£3.80) postage was US$6 to the UK. Buying more at once is the probably the best way making a purchase more cost effective (assuming no one starts importing). The obvious comparison is with the Steel Legion plastics which are approximately £2.50 GBP plus postage for five. However, having owned a set I can see the Z.O.D. models scale much better with 15's, which is hardly surprising since they are supposed to be 1:100, while the Steel Legion is 1:300-ish. The Z.O.D. line is better detailed and provides a larger range of options. One of the deals on ebay currently would give you 16 mechs for roughly $33 USD including postage, which even if you discard half-a-dozen on stylistic grounds would leave them costing ~$3 each.

Finally the all important comparison shot with a HOF levy, a Traveller Mid-tech infantryman, a QRF Colonial and a 1:76 Saracen (my 15mm vehicles are stashed away at the moment).

They would probably manage across 10-20mm scales with no problems. At micro armour scales they could probably pass as really big mechs quite easily.

Cool. I'm a little more jazzed about my purchase now.

I think they look good

Not Bad !!

Russian post not known to by gently with parcages, yess.
Very good and honest revew, thank you.

these look right up my ally, excellent for conversions.

great awaiting my 5 large collections….cant wait to see the infantry

I can't find them on ebay. Jim is sad primate.

Could you tell me what to search for and which ebay site they're on? I'm in the US.

Thanks

Jim – just to a search for ZOD 15mm and you'll find the items. They seem to be selling quickly.

Chris K.

Thanks for posting these. They models look good and seem to be a pretty good deal, but they just don't look like 15mm to me. They seem more like 10mm.

Maybe it's my preference that mechs should be piloted, but with a height of what appears to be 40mm from sole to top of head (not counting fins and bits) these look to be on the very small end of Mechwarrior minis which are nominally 10mm.

Still, if 15mm automatronic walkers is what you're looking for, these would probably do nicely and I do like the style.

they also have infantry…squad of 10….tanks, and small flyers

Yes, hope someone buys the infantry/tanks and can give us as good a review.

A couple more pictures….
With Takara 1:144 VOTOMS (not a great shot) – they are bigger and somewhat more chunky

Just a another clearer shot of the detail

Compared to a 1:100 Tomahawk….

Not certain whether they are piloted or robots, but some of the designs do look bigger in the body particularly the ones sporting apparent cockpits

I'll try and take some tools to the mold lines tonight and maybe glue the broken leg back on!

I'm also interested to know about the tanks and infantry and the flyers (the flyers look quite neat little things in the pictures).

As for the mechs I'm considering a 24-mech company loosely based on the ideas of Succession War BT/40K Epic Knights backed up by a couple of support vehicles and some Khurasan Bolivans as levy/muster.

Excellent comparisons. Is the Tomahawk the model or the toy version?

It's the second Tomahawk (Battlemaster) I've seen painted in the last two weeks and It's got me itching to dig my Exosquad-re-released-toy-version out of the parents house and do some painting!

Attacked what I think is the Doberman (right hand side model in the photos) with a sharp knife. The mold lines came away fine. The styrene is very hard to the point of being brittle I suspect. The Dobermans broken leg showed no evidence of having deformed prior to breaking. Seemed to glue very well with Humbrol's basic liquid poly (difficult to spot the break).

The Tomohawk is the Bandai 1:100 kit (h'mm I can see mold lines in those photos)

Could someone please post a comparison shot of these with the eM4 steel warriors…? Somebody could make a killing importing these.

Agreed! I'd like to see how they compare to the steel warriors. Or I could get off my lazy butt and go make some measurments of the Steel Warriors and BT mechs I have.

ROU,
Don't fret about mold lines. No one notices them.

Until you mention it…

Yeah steel Warriors, not Legion, I wasn't keen on them so I flogged mine on. However, they are taller than the Scopedog VOTOM, but legg'ier. There's a crude comparison shot of a VOTOM and eM4 mech in this thread.
TMP link
The ZOD mechs are definitely wider and chunkier and better detailed

So the ZODs are bigger than the eM4 mechs, by say 50%…? The VOTOMs look smaller…

These are quite keen

I have 16 of the little s and 4 fliers winging their way from mother Russia to Colonial Australia as we speak, can't wait.

funny, didn't know was a swear word, if so, one of the lamest ever used.

Hmmm… I really wish you could buy those tanks separately. I may have to order a box just to see how they stack up.

Part II – WIP and some more comments

A retinue knight with ride sans heraldry (and a Steel Warrior for comparison)
I went the whole hog ordered the mech's plus flyers. The 'one of everything' is a little annoying, but probably fits with my projects conception better than a parade of highly uniform mechs.

The mech's come in one of four aesthetics, which are for want of a better identifier I'll call by the colour of the plastic. The grey mech's are all broadly similar to the ones pictured in the initial review and show some clear, but undefined Japanese influence. The green ones are similar, though have identifable cockpits, and personally make me think Battletech (an example is pictured above). The blue and brown exhibit some GW influences, but also some slightly dubious sculpting and/or mold tooling. Some of the blue mechs have more dynamic poses, but suffer from a slightly two dimensional look and their weapons are dissapointing.

Cross compatibility isn't as good as I'd expected. Some of the backpieces will only fit on specific bodies. The lugs and sockets for the arms are slightly different between the different groups. The plastic quality comes across as a bit variable – I managed to snap an arm lug of in the socket, but pining worked fine and took me no more than five minutes. They seem to take paint fine accepting my over enthusiastic use of ink.

:( I have not recieved mine, its been nearly a month now.

The Russian postal service is not what you would call reliable not to mention fast, however i did receive my Z.O.D ruin buildings about six or seven weeks after i bought them off of E-Bay which is not bad going, so hang in there GD…

testing

Wow, talk about, "talk to soon" they just arrived today, they are not world beaters, but they are worth the money, I'm pretty impressed, lots of conversion parts, and the flyers are cool, I will take some close ups of all the parts and post them on my blog.

"Arise ye powers of darkness"[/pretentious voice]
*cough* *hack* *cough* *squawk*
"Damn that's borked it, the chickens bolted, the wife's going to kill me… I'll just have to make do with this!"

Only 8 years. Finally finished some more. Hacked off some of the worst weapons and cut down over sized should pads. Replaced with spare GW weapons – IG grenade launchers make nice large bore autocannon. One with ridiculously big knees I chopped off at the waste and stuck on Pz38T chassis.