ZINTAR

Zintar! Exploration Robot and Team Member of the Zeroids: From Planet Zero!

Back when I was 5 years old in 1967 my parents bought me two of the Zeroid robots from the Ideal Toy Company. I was utterly spellbound by these little guys! I played with them forever until I broke them and moved on to other things but always had fond memories of those two.

Fast forward 50 years I saw a Zintar on eBay and went to buy it but man they are pricey collectors items nowadays! So I decided to build one for myself.

I thought I would play “what if” and suppose the Zeroids’ mission left them abandoned on some other world where decades beyond their mission date they had to survive by repairing and upgrading themselves with whatever materials were available.

With that in mind, and since I had never built a robot/mech before and had no idea how to build an inner structure I decided to see what was “out there”. Holy cow was I impressed! The whole Gundam/Machinen Krieger/Kallamity world exploded in front of me! So I picked up a Bandai Zaku and started from there. These kits are nothing short of amazing! I have been a long time 1/24 race car modeller and those kits can be detailed but the way these mechs go together is some seriously impressive engineering!

This build is not a replica of the Zintar I had as a child, but more of an homage. I did draw inspiration of the most recognizable parts; his distinctive head and the three fingered hand on his remote backpack arm, and the fact that he rode on tank-like tracks. The rest was me envisioning what might have happened and how he would have “evolved” given they were abandoned and needed to do with what was available.

I’m classifying this style of build as “retro-futurism” in that I still absolutely love the old school whimsical, somewhat innocent sci-fi style from the 1950’s and ’60’s but wanted to marry it with the incredibly detailed engineering and logical functionality that has gone into the mech world of today. This whole project has been a fantastic experience. My plan is to build the other three Zeriods over the next few years, adding the previous members to the new diorama. I already have many plans…