1. What is a Zoid?
Zoids are mechanized fighting units. They're built to resemble various animals. The most common type of zoid is a lion type zoid called a Liger.
2. Are Zoids alive?
This question has been debated for quite some time, and of course a zoid is not a carbon based life form like people and animals. But while a zoid is first and foremost a mechanical being made of metal and gears, they do seem to show signs of being sentient. For example, zoids will often times roar in the midst of battle and now and then their pilot will respond. Bit Cloud and Liger Zero do this many times during the Zero Century series, as if they're talking to each other. There's also a pilotless Gordos who wanders around in Chaotic Century in hopes of his pilot returning. Similarly a wild Red Blade Liger is found wandering pilotless in Zero Century as well. Unlike sleeper zoids, who are controled via programing, these zoids have nothing to tell them how to act or where to go. They just move on their own.
3. Where are Zoids Found?
Zoids are only found on the planet Zi. They are typically given to soldiers for military combat, but normal people use them as well for various tasks such as transportation.
4. How are Zoids made?
Another debated question. Based on what people have gathered from the original Zoids Bible (a set of 20 some card with zoids history written in Japanese) and other old Zoids Battle Stories (collections of ancient comics and stories found on the backs of zoid boxes, again in Japanese) the original zoids were nothing like the ones we know now. The first zoids were known as Wild Zoids, and were much more like a biological animal, though still metal based life-forms. Their hide was smoother and lacked the sharp angles of zoid armor today, and they ran around in the wild like true animals do. Theory has it that these wild zoids were captured and tamed, and used as transportation. People would ride them like horses and use them for work. Eventually they evolved, either naturally of through force by humans, and developed primitive cockpits and other more mechanical features. After many years they developed full cockpits and weaponry, and lost much of their wild tendancies.
When it comes to making a zoid, another theory says that the core of the zoid would split, much like when a biological cell muliplies, and a new zoid would be formed from the new core. It's thought that when humans decided to manufacture zoids for themselves, that they would either take and manipulate these new cores, or try to create their own version of one. Of course a human made core wouldn't have nearly the sentient qualities as a natural one would, but it still would make for a suitable "motherboard" for a man made zoid. Similarly, it's also thought that by combining zoid cores one could create a completely new species of zoid. A good example of this is when Prozen decides to awaken the Death Saurer by fusing together multiple cores of dead zoids.
5. How many different types of zoids are there?
The number of different types of zoids is quite vast. Typically you have the following zoid types: Lion, Tiger, Wolf, Fox, Cheetah, Shark, Tyrannosaur, and Pteranadon. There are many variations to each type, as well as a few types of zoids with only one or two variations. A decent count would be well over 100 different zoids models.
6. Are there any customized, one of a kind zoids?
Yes. Zoids are extremely customizable, from paint jobs to artilary. Guns and weapons can be mounted on both the left and right sides, top and under-carriage, and sometimes on the legs and sides of the head as well. How a zoid looks and fights is completely up to the pilot.
7. How do zoids work?
Every zoid has within it a Zoid Core. This core is the heart, soul, and brain of a zoid. Think of a zoid core as a huge super computer that determines how the zoid works. It keeps the zoid alive. When the core is damaged, the zoid is destroyed.
8. What's an organoid?
Organoids are wild, living zoids. They merge with the zoid core to increase the combat ability of a zoid and give it an extra boost of power. More information on organoids can be found here
9. How many different zoids series are there?
As of right now, there are four different series. Zoids: Chaotic Century is the first series. It's split up into two seasons, Chaotic Century being the first season, and Gaurdian Force being the second.
Zoids Zero, also called Zoids New Century and Zoids Shinseki Zero, is the second series. It features a junk dealer named Bit Cloud who ends up on a Zoids battle team. The entire series is about Zoid battle tournaments.
Zoids Fuzors is the third series. It's also a series entirely about Zoids battles and tournaments, but has an interesting difference. In this series, zoids can fuse together to make an entirely new zoid.
The newest series is called Zoids Genesis. Genesis is about a young boy named Ruuji who ends up piloting the ancient Murasame Liger, which was pulled from the bottom of the sea. With the help of Murasame Liger and some new found friends, Ruuji must save Zi from the Digard soldiers and their evil Bio Zoids.
10. Do you have any plans to add information about the other series?
Currently there are no plans to add any information to this site other than information regarding the Zoids Chaotic Century series. It's just too much work to keep up with when added to the current work of running Where's My Anime and a forum.
