Tilly's Zoids

From the same parts lot as my Raynos came a surprisingly large amount of a Battle Cougar: the undercarriage/body (but not the accompanying gears and metal contact strip for the motor), one wing clip and both wings, all chrome bits but the horn, and all limbs and other critical bits.

The tail, on the other hand, was gone—which means at some point the Cougar's butt came apart (and quite possibly other parts, considering its missing innards). OJR Battle Cougar's tail attaches properly between two halves of rear end, a welcome change from McCougar's escapist tail, which is forced to slid into a slot on the Cougar's rear, as the two halves are screwed on as part of its prebuilt motor box. Thankfully, the modded McCougar tail fits the old attachment method, and other than the rather clashy combination of coral and true red, Battle Cougar could borrow. McCougar also donated its wingclips (both medium grey, which matched fine) and its innards, and the old Cougar could wobble forward again.

Speaking of color: despite often photographing as black, the legs and tail on old Battle Cougars are definitely charcoal grey. The red makes Sturm Tyrann and Leoblaze look pale—it's very very red. The chrome goodness, hallmark of that era's Republic Zoids, was of the pale gold variety on mine, which matches well with white (sunburnt or not). All up, it bears a definite resemblance in color to a non-metal-flake Kingliger, but with the red made brighter and the silvery grey darker. I highly suspect this was intentional.

Like parts-lot-Raynos, my Cougar came pre-stickered. Unlike Raynos, a few of its stickers came from elsewhere. Some things made sense and were a really nice touch (like the extremely tiny "pull handle to release canopy" sticker actually being by the little seat—that's more patience than I'd have!), but it also has crossed out Zenebas logos on its wings as borrowed from a Battle Rover. Zenebas had fallen a few years before Battle Cougar existed—thus, my excuse will be that my Cougar has been doing a bit of time travel. There's also two circles that say "SPAW" along with some unintelligible squiggles. SPAW?

Conclusion? The chrome plus the lack of horribly clashing colors (I like yellow, but not with coral, peach, and grey) and screwed-together parts puts this guy ahead of McCougar by a mile. I'd go for Storm Tiger first out of the variations (you can't go wrong with a free gradeup weapon included), but this guy's better than I expected. I wouldn't pay through the nose unless you like gryphons—it IS still a Battle Cougar and a gradeup, which means one-piece legs and semi-absent hindpaws. It never really was on my want list as I figured McCougar was enough, but that's parts lots for you: sometimes junk, sometimes a nice surprise. And I count this as a nice surprise indeed.