#Zoids Saber Tiger

[zoideramy]

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Zoids HMM Great Saber, Kotobukiya

[I'm really happy with how the sun caught the eye panel on this one!]

[chilopodacrudus]

Brastle Tiger appreciation post.

[escapistsatellite]

this is saved in my computer as "JF Wild Zoids". presumably it's from an old Gameboy or DS game who know, just wanted to share some old clunky scifi animals.

[nazrigar]

Paleovember: Smilodon and His Legion of Sabercats

Continuing my series of pop culture paleontology, featuring the many, many saberteeth critters inspired by Smilodon.

Guess which ones are which!

First row, left to right: Classic flavored Smilodon ala Charles R. Knight Saberleomon Zabu (Marvel Comics) Primeval Smilodon Half-Tooth from Walking with Beasts Modern Smilodon Diego from Ice Age Raikou the Nashville Predators Sabertooth from Tales of the Jedi Vale Saber Cat from Skyrim

Second Row: Catilla from Transformers Sabertooth Tiger Zord Barioth Saber Slime from Slime Rancher Zaber Fang from Zoids.

Last row: The Macawnivore from Dreamwork's The Croods Slash Fang from Primal Rage.

Previously:

Triceratops

Pteranodon

Tyrannosaurus

Sid and the Giant Sloths

The Hero of a Thousand Faces

[cloudshoregames]

BTE Mech Construction Showcase: Blade Liger

Greetings, Dan here!

For our previous two Mech Construction showcases we focused on a humanoid and gun-chicken for factors when building our example mechs. This time, I wanted to focus on making a specifically not bipedal mech. To help illustrate this, today we will be looking at the Blade Liger from the Zoids franchise. For those not familiar the Zoids franchise features a series of mechs that take the shapes of various animals. This is partially because depending on the series, the mechs are pseudo-biomechs that occur naturally in the wild. As I alluded, this does vary somewhat from series to series, but we won't get into that right now. The important thing is they are animal mechs with some level of autonomy, and are sorted into lines of species. The Liger species, taking its name on from the real life hybrids of lions and tigers, are naturally "big cat" mechs. There are some variations between them, mainly in load outs, but across the board they are known for effective, speedy mechs. The Blade Liger specifically is known for being fast as well as sporting two long Laser Sabers that extend from their sides, allowing them to cut through enemies as they zip by. When running by the enemy isn't an option, the liger also has fangs and claws. For ranged, some also come equipped with cannons or laser guns.

(Art property of Takara Tomy)

We'll be building this as a starter mech again, so we will have two Blitz Tech parts, and two Caballero Corp parts. Since the Blade Liger is known more for speed than durability, we will go with the Caballero Corp Frame, giving it 12 AP, and the Blitz Tech Boosters to give it an Movement Rate of 2. We will also go with a Caballero Corp CPU for 1 Utility System, so we can have a higher HR with a Blitz Tech Radiator giving a Heat Rating of 10. We won't be able to outfit the Blade Liger with all of its weaponry at start, but we will be able to build its most iconic weapons so it feels right.

For our one Utility System, we'll go ahead and equip the zoid with a Bio Frame. Though it is not organic in the slightest, this will account for some autonomous actions on the part of the mech. Most specifically in this case, if the pilot is incapacitated, the Blade Liger's instincts will kick in, and it will continue to defend itself.

As for the Weapon Systems, even though the laser sabers are more iconic they are no less part of the Liger's identity than the Fangs and Claws, so we'll build both kits with an HR Rating of 5. Starting with the laser sabers we'll raise the damage level up to a d6, costing two heat. While the Blade Liger is equipped with a saber on each flank, they only ever attack a target once with it, as they run by it. Because of this, we'll leave the RoF as a 1, costing only a single heat. For ammo, we can keep that at 4, costing a single point. Lastly, for the range, the saber will naturally be at melee range for one point, bringing us to our total of five. That said, the laser sabers do extend out from the Liger's side so could conceivably hit a target just slightly at range. As such, we'll put the weapon kit's optimization on the range, allowing the sabers to hit Melee thru Close range. 

For the Fangs and Claws, we have another 5 HR to spend. As you may have noticed, when distributing 5 heat, players will really only be raising the level of one weapon feature while the rest remain at the base level. While the Laser Sabers had their extra point in damage, for the Fangs and Claws, we'll put the extra point into Ammo, giving it 6 powered attacks. Once that's depleted, the melee range will allow this weapon to continue to be used at a lower damage output. The reason we went for higher ammo is that we will apply the optimization to the weapon's Rate of Fire. When attacking, that will let us describe the attack as separate claw and bite attacks, though they are using the same weapon system/RoF. This allows the player to skin their mech's capabilities with flair that helps the mech feel more like their vision.

Now, much like with the starter Escaflowne, this build is all melee. One possible route, the player could take during development, is to increase the radiator quality so they can build ranged weapon systems. This could account for the cannons some Liger's are equipped with. Naturally, they would want to improve the Boosters as well to give the mech more speed. This could be further emphasized by equipping the Blade Liger with a higher CPU and Mobility Mode Converter to represent the jet boosters seen on many of them as well.

Next time, I'd like to commemorate the release of From Software's Armored Core 6. This whole project was kicked off with a spark of inspiration upon watching a video on the original Armored Core from Josh Strife Hayes, and I would feel remiss without paying tribute. For our next mech construction showcase, we'll put together a high end build for the infamous Nine-Ball.

See you then!

Dan

[acoyote]

love this fucked up bird. it’s in my top 3 favorite zoids along with saber tiger and dibison.

one of the only zoids i regret selling in the Purge years ago is my krark. i finally broke down and got a plain ol pteramander to replace it and i’m glad i did. it has filled the krark-shaped hole in my heart plus i got to build it myself and there’s no damage or missing parts like the krark had. i can just paint it red later, i don’t care much about it being the “real” vintage krark, i mostly just loved how it looked so i’ll be happy with that

[junuve]

becky the saber

[envyliger]

Capabilities of Saber Tiger Bolt Zoids

[cider-spider]

Happy Year of the Tiger 2022 🐯

[whothehellisdante]

Since I got a Liger Zero Empire HMM for my birthday, I decided to take some new pics of my old Great Saber. After roughly a decade, it still looks good and moves as well as when I first built it! (Helps a ton that I dusted it thoroughly.) But because I’m a wuss, I only slightly pose it. ;u;

It’s missing its ammo belts because those pieces cracked and broke apart years ago. r.i.p.

[impassive-aggressive]

okay i’m done spamming you with zoids art for tonight, i promise

[zoideramy]

Zoids - HMM Great Saber (Kotobukiya)

Finally got this kit finished, detailed, and photographed! It was sitting in my backlog for far too long, I was honestly kind of dreading it. Being an older design, some parts of the Saber's build are difficult, but it actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting. My only other experience with the HMM Saber Tiger was the bootleg, which of course was frustrating and difficult. Some steps were still finicky and others needed glue and minor sanding, but overall not a bad kit if you've got a little patience and some prior experience. Would not be an HMM I recommend to beginners though, haha!

[hanyoutaikyoushu]

A collection of FOR-Specific doodles/drawings done over the last year or two.

- A red Dibison I often ended up in battles with!

- There was a Death Stinger event where, to destroy it before it reached the base, you had to run ahead to trigger its CPC spin so it would stop, so it would have more time to be damaged. Most Zoids didn’t bother to see if there was one of us CPG-users anchored in place before doing this, though. Many Breakers were a’sploded that week.

- The world will never know the horror of pachyderms trying to kamikaze your base for a full 10 minutes because their ridiculously OP defense let them walk right past you- Won with a tiny sliver of base HP left.

- The introduction of the Konig Wolf was topically paired with insane battle glitches, game crashes, etc. Including the Zoid being stuck in place throughout the battle. Overheating woes.

- ... Purple Shadow Foxes are just pretty ok. Go-to scheme for all game foxes.

- Overpowered Zeek Dober was in for a very rude awakening when the newly introduced launching Breaker claws snared him mid-Hellblazer run and dragged him to a fiery death.

- Don’t play multiplayer games with reliant teammates during lightning storms, kids-

- Drawn during the very last day of Zoids FOR, with just a few hours remaining. I battled until the very moment I could battle no more.

[escapistsatellite]

The Real Variants

So these are zoids that are developed from Blade & Shield Liger that have not, to my knowledge, appeared independently in any media or canons outside of video games or literature.

Firstly the Shields

The Spark Liger appears once in the Official Fan Book Vol 2, in the Zoids Modification Project section. One thing I don't understand about it's load-out is the Wiki articles claim of "electron strike claws"; according to the Iron Bible zoid index, the Strike Claws that are standard to the configuration of both OG Shield Ligers and Saber Tigers/Fang are already electromagnetic & discharge electricity into their target. But overall the Spark Liger is one of my favorite members of this group!

I would have loved to see the Spark Liger featured in an anime or 3D game.

The Blade Liger:

Although it is not specified on the list, I am of the position that the high-output ion boosters mounted on blade arms make yet another appearance on the Slash Liger, which approximating from the Blade Liger means that this zoid has 3 total boosters

Slash Liger appeared in an old webcomic entitled ZOIDS Delusional War Record, the 2nd chapter of which can be viewed here: zoids.fandom.com/wiki/Lidier?so=search#Models

Also: https://zoidsuniverse.com/2019/10/30/rz-028-slash-liger-custom/

The Snipe Liger is probably the biggest stand-out of this family: it is so dedicated to being a run' n' gunning specialist that it doesn't even have a set of jaws.

According to the fandom wiki this zoid appeared in a Zoids Battle Story webcomic, possibly Delusional War Record, but I'm not sure at this time.

[newcenturyfury]

Just chillin’

[kuzann]

“Strike Laser Claw!” Brad’s voice rang out over their shared channel, and Harry looked over his shoulder just in time to spot the Shadow Fox coming down on the Red Horn that had been chasing Naomi.

There was an explosion that shook Harry’s Dark Horn, causing it to falter mid-step and collapse to the ground—one of his pursuers had landed a solid hit on the Zoid’s near shoulder. “Come on, come on...” Harry wrenched at the controls, trying to get the Dark Horn on its feet before the pair caught up. The damaged shoulder groaned worryingly as the Dark Horn put weight on it.

No sooner had Harry gotten his Zoid up than a flurry of gunfire peppered its flanks. The Dark Horn shuddered and started to fall back to the ground as the remaining Red Horn charged in.

Harry was able to catch his Dark Horn before it could fall completely to the ground again and tried to turn toward his attacker. Frustration rose as his opponent continued to fire on him—he would be down for the count before he could even get his guns around at this rate. His Dark Horn stumbled again as it turned, and Harry grit his teeth and hit the pedal for the left side’s boosters.

In his haste he slammed the pedal to the floor, and his Dark Horn was launched into the air by the sudden burst.

The Red Horn skidded to a halt and threw itself into a turn, trying to get out of the way.

Harry screwed his eyes shut just before they collided. The noise was brief but deafening as the Dark Horn’s side slammed into the Red Horn’s shoulder, knocking the both of them to the ground.

‘COMMAND SYSTEM FREEZE’ flashed on Harry’s center console. The Dark Horn had finally reached its limit.

Finally got this chapter done! \o/ Lots of battles and lots of chatter in this chapter, and next chapter we’ll see the improvised team face off against Stoller!

As always big thank you to @junuve for beta reading! You’re awesome, Jun!!