Molga Insect Type Zoids Small Wind-Up Toy Kit Item No.: Asst. 83028 No. 83046 Manufacturer: Hasbro Includes: Stickers, 1 pilot Action Feature: Creeps ahead with a wind-up motor Retail: $7.99 Availability: ca. 2002 Other: Discount Guylos Empire
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My first time seeing this Zoids kit was a U.S. RoboStrux kit called "Kreep." It was mostly in red, with gold-ish wheels, and I never had one. But Molga in Japan was a bit more common, cast in silver... and I didn't have that either. But after Tomy re-reissued it, Hasbro brought it out in American packaging a few years later. (I'm fairly sure this is the American one, but I bought a lot of Zoids back then and don't have the box handy to prove it - this could be the Tomy one from 2001. I know I bought an American kit for my then-girlfriend to try out, which shows you how patient people have to be around me.)

There are many different Molga toys between various kits, capsules, and reimaginings - I've got an unopened Zoids Wild Catalga to get to, for example, which reimagines the creepy-crawly as a much larger vehicle for hauling around bigger kits. Molga classic here uses the same mold for most of its early releases (sometimes with a cannon upgrade), and measures around seven inches long.

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Unlike most other kits, this guy is unarmed. They would later sell the CP-07 Connonry upgrade kit (which I believe I have unopened in a box somewhere), because as it is this guy's main defense is being cute. You wind it up, the wheel rolls, and the body sort of inches up as he crawls on the table or floor. It works pretty well, and honestly I'm kind of disappointed they didn't just reissue the old molds yet again for another generation of kids. It's not precisely a STEM toy, but neither were the things marketed as good for future engineers. This kit came with a handful of frames where you can pop apart pieces, build them around a simple motor, and then add some of the most unpleasant stickers to your heart's desire. These clear ones needed more trimming and just plain didn't fit as well as the foil ones of the 1980s. If you're going to spend some money, I'd recommend getting an old-fashioned kit or reissue.

Neither Hasbro nor Tomy embellished these kits - what you got here seemed to be barely-modified molds from the 1980s. The one change was that it now takes 1x "AA" battery, rather than two. The beefy dinosaur sort of drags his tail as his body is hauled forward by multi-part legs, complete with moving feet. There were several joints per leg, but they weren't things you could pose. They were here for the robotics. The mouth would open, and it looked super cool.

The very first Zoids kits tended to share parts, like rubbery twist-bolts (or caps), the pilot figure, and a lot of the cockpits. While most of the early Zenevas team guys had a similar clam-ish head, this guy made things interesting by hiding it inside a big caterpillar head. You can see the "mouth" poke out, as that same head piece was used by Brox/Zatton, Geruder/Battlar, and many others. It's the kind of smart thinking that we see less of these days as more manufacturers keep prices high with a premium experience, rather than sharing a sprue here or a motor there to keep development costs (and costs to kids) low. Now you can buy import $400 Zoids, if you really want, and that's SRP. This guy was $8 or less in America - I saw tons of them for $2 near the line's end at Kay-Bee.

It's kind of silly, but I love robot dinosaurs and modern animals quite a bit. They were my favorites in Transformers and I absolutely treasured the single digits number of Zoids and Robostrux I had as a little kid - all of which are still with me and in mint condition. (Plus or minus a few motors.) By forcing me to assemble the toys, I wound up taking especially good care of them - I wouldn't want my hard work demolished. It's a very satisfying kit, but be warned some of the motors may break even if you buy mint-in-box samples for reasons I don't quite understand. If you know how to repair them, let me know. But if you just want a really cool robot that might still work? Get this, if it's $30 or under I'd say you'll probably have a good amount of fun with it. And I'll get to the big Catalga soon, I swear.

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Click here to see more Hasbro figures in Figure of the Day.

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Day 364: Tomy Robostrux Brutox Figure Kit
Day 382: Tomy Robostrux Slithor Figure Kit
Day 406: Tomy Zoids Twinhorn Action Figure
Day 484: Tomy Robostrux Brox Figure Kit
Day 486: Tomy Zoids 24 Scale Neptune Figure Kit
Day 1,352: Tomy Robostrux Batlar Figure Kit
Day 1,422: Tomy Zoids Gator Figure Kit
Day 1,471: Takara-Tomy Zoids Masterpiece Shield Liger
Day 2,000: Takara-Tomy Zoids Wild ZW-05 Gannontoise Figure Kit
Day 2,008: Takara-Tomy Zoids Wild ZW-01 Wild Liger Figure Kit
Day 2,013: Takara-Tomy Zoids Wild ZW-03 Kabtor Figure Kit
Day 2,017: Takara-Tomy Zoids Wild ZW-04 Scorpear Figure Kit
Day 2,039: Takara-Tomy Zoids Wild ZW-06 Gabrigator Figure Kit
Day 2,075: Takara-Tomy Zoids Wild ZW-07 Kuwaga Figure Kit
Day 3,089: Takara-Tomy Zoids Wild ZW-13 Gusock Figure Kit
Day 3,094: Takara-Tomy Zoids Wild ZW-14 Stegosage Figure Kit
Day 3,099: Tomy Zoids Sinker Figure Kit
Day 3,104: Hasbro Zoids Dark Horn Figure Kit
Day 3,109: Hasbro Zoids Molga Figure Kit

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