#elephantus

HMMM ok. The dusty boy above is the third and last of the Mechabonica line, originally released under the name Mechaphantos, which like Mechagiras and Mechatoros, does literally nothing to communicate what it’s supposed to be. Elephantus was released in Zoids: the Pre-Hysterical Monster-Machines under the name Protozoid, and again, I don’t get it. Adding to this confusion, the Zoids Wiki seems to be convinced that this guy is called “Elepantus” and now I’m just mad.

Like, I get it. It lacks probably the most distinctive feature of an elephant, its trunk. But other than that, the large ears, the tail, the general shape all communicate elephant. I’m convinced that the average person would say this is supposed to be an elephant. 

Despite the naming confusing, I have to say I’m in favor of Elephantus. It maintains the somewhat plain color scheme of its contemporaries and doesn’t have any interesting alternate color schemes like Glidoler, but I feel like its a much more pleasing shape than that zoid, looking more like a counterpart to Garius. Both have the same spindly legs ending in the awkward-looking, if functional feet. Looking at it now, I’m realizing that this zoid is one of the very few to lack foot pegs for stability. Garius, being bipedal needed them, but apparently Elephantus, being quadrupedal, is light enough to not need them. The pegs always felt like a concession to zoids being small plastic toys and thus they were removed in anime appearances. I’m also just now noticing the strange lego-like pattern to the underside of Elephander. It’s a little odd, making it almost look like a Lego model.

Interestingly, Elephantus is also the most aggressive-looking zoids so far with it’s forward-facing guns underneath the cockpit, gun on the back, and weapon pods on the sides. Glidoler appeared to have no weapons at all and Garius was equipped with a pair of guns on its hips, but these aren’t as obvious. In fact I would have sworn that Garius wasn’t equipped with any weapons had I not gone back to check.

Again, Elephantus feels like a prototype design, acting as an antecedent to later zoids such as Mammoth and Elephander, but it also feels more complete than those before it. I quite like Elephantus, however, I would probably rate it higher were it not for the fact that shortly we’ll get two zoids that use the same basic frame but are more pleasing to look at and look more like the animals they are based off. 

As one of the few who ships this, I’ll have to own this...somehow. I don’t have the slightest idea of how I’ll do it (Haru Comic City 20 is this Sunday, and that’s possibly the least of my issues), but it’ll be done.