Marvel UK's Zoids

Hola, Sup Forums. Do you like robot dinosaurs?

fuck yes

what's up with black suit spidey and robot toy comic tie-ins?

Yessir

I mean, dumb question, because who DOESN'T?

Coincidence because black suit saga just happened during the big toy tie-in boom in the mid-80's when Marvel partnered with Kenner and Mattel.

we will never get a zoids-transformers-black suit spidey three way crossover.

I happened to be on a Marvel UK kick and realized I'd never read any of this stuff despite loving the motherfuck out of Zoids as a kid.

Also, I discovered that the Zoids pages on Wikipedia appear to be written by an autistic individual and are pretty weird.

It's an absolute shame Zoids never took off the way Transformers did.

Maybe if we trick Tom Scioli into reading these strips we can get GI Joe/Zoids/Transformers crossover.

how so (the wiki pages)?

a zoids story that actually complains putting kids/teens behind the controls of war machines.

who knew?

So actually the only time you'll see this comic mentioned anywhere is in reference to the fact that Grant Morrison actually did his first work for the Big Two in later issues here.

They're insanely long and detailed, written in kind of a fanboyish way and even include opinions. The Zoids Saga/Legacy page has the writer calling out people who didn't like the Legacy localization on the bottom, humorously.

Now, I would love to meet whoever wrote these, because one of my best friends is a hardcore Gundam autist and I love listening to him drunkenly explain the plots of various Gundam shows for hours on end.

I watched some of the Zoids anime called "Chaotic Century" when it first came out, and I barely remember it but I seem to recall it had some pretty dark and mature themes about war. So when I first read that Morrison wrote Zoids, I assumed the comics were somehow the basis for that show.

But actually they have very little to do with each other and came out 15 years apart.

My understanding is that the Marvel UK Transformers comics are also held in high regard by TF fans.

ah! been a while since i've been on the wiki (usually just to get what weapons are mounted on what zoid) to notice,

i keep expecting to encounter this line for the prince

>Ahead, hovering like some vast, predatory bird..."

and yes, Scioli needs to write that crossover

IIRC that was Morrison's first work for the big 2

Meant the actual articles on Wikipedia. I expect a specialized wiki to be plenty autistic, Wikipedia prefers to keep things to a small summary.

Yup, that what first interested me in this. But that's not until much later issues.

I just love the design of this Mecha-Godzilla looking motherfucker.

I was aware this didn't have anything to do with the anime but I thought both is and the anime were loosely based on the "Battle Story" that was established in the toys' flavor text. But this is a lot farther from the anime than I though. IIRC there was like a brown shonen guy in the anime.

I don't think this was ever published in America. It's a shame because this franchise could have been pretty huge. I LOVED the toys when I was a kid. Their gimmick was they were motorized though, I think maybe kids thought the wind-up aspect was childish.

Just look at this goddamn thing.

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Another thing I loved: cross sections/schematics. I would have eaten this comic up if it came out in the US.

Does Spidey ever appear on something other than covers?

Issues are 24 pages, the first half is Zoids, second half is a Spidey reprint from the Peter David run. I'm excluding those.

Most of the covers are Spidey centric, most kids buying this were probably going "the fuck is Zoids?"

Robo-Rodan. Roban?

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that probably means the first comic book I remember reading was by Grant Morrison

if I ever want to see a man die inside, I'll drag my old bones to a con and tell him in person

Hey, I bet he'd love that actually. His issues are supposed to be pretty fantastic.

Heck yes.

The names of these things are charmingly retarded. The gorilla Zoid is Gore. Godzilla Zoid is Zoidzilla, etc.

Oh and Scorpozoid. And Zoidaryan.

IIRC the later "rebooted" Zoids have some cooler names, but the only one I remember is the Zoidzilla was renamed Gojulas. Which is still just a corruption of Gojira but a little less on the nose.

Anyone know if Scioli has ever mentioned these comics being an influence on him? I should ask him on Twitter.

sweet deadly kong colors though (though that zoid came much, much later).

So you're a Zoid fan? Very cool to have a legit Zoid fan here.

>that's one BAD beast!

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Looks like they're cramming an FF story into these as well.

kinda sucks that there's not much new news about zoids though (outside of new HMM releases).

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Was just about to ask about that. Wikipedia only goes up to like 2015. English Blurays of the anime would be pretty cool, considering it's already dubbed.

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Interesting how the Reds want to end the war.

I could kiss you right now OP. Zoids is my favorite cult franchise. The UK comic is actually a real treat.

I don't remember seeing Zoids in the states until the mid 90s. What the heck

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the reasonable one is the one who wants zoids on zoids violence to stop (and to rule the galaxy)
the "hero" just wants to fight mutants

Unfortunately I'm gonna stop now because captcha is making me do like fucking 8 in a row, I was planning on going up to issue #10. But this shit is so much fun so I'll definitely continue it.

Toys were definitely around in some quantities, but according to Wiki it failed to catch on and I think Kenner bought the franchise and tried to make it a thing again in '99.

Man, imagine if they got Morrison to do Zoids again back then when he was at the peak of his stardom! Dark Horse would have been a good choice for a publisher.

the second try was more successful iirc but didn't last.

sad that hasbro didn't crossover tfs and zoids while they had the chance while they still had the license.

There was a Marvel UK Zoids monthly comic - which Morrison was hired to write - scheduled to come out after this series ended. The intention was for that to be published in the US as well (hence the change of format) - but it was cancelled before the first issue was released.

The uncoloured artwork for the first issue used to available online (and probably still is - I read it years ago).

thanks for the storytime

>the writer
Got bored so I looked him up. His name is saberwyn (AKA Saberwynatlarge), likes to have serious conversations, writes like Chris-Chan, and what I assume is his Facebook is pure gold

Grant Morrison's career started here.

Hopgood's art was quality stuff. The amount of detail he drew.

They certainly are. Much of TF lore comes from them and some TF UK stories are classics.

That is fucking amazing, good work user.

Holy fuckin' shit! Are you going to storytime the whole UK Zoids run? Awesome!

Yessir. Will take a few days.

If I remember correctly this was around the Secret Wars Arc

I also found out he either lives in Australia or just loves their navy and architecture.

Actually the entire comic is a spinoff of Marvel UK's "Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars" reprint of Secret Wars where they debuted a Zoids comic

>Rimmer

Awww, I was hoping this was one of Morrison's issues.