Z-Knights are fascinating: Their design is inventive, their construction is ingenuous, their capability to move is simply cool. That is why I decided to make this website about Z-Knights. Z-Knights are battery operated motorized model kits. This means that when you buy a Z-Knight then you get parts on sprue trees and you have to build the model by yourself. But don't worry, it is easy and no glue is needed - the parts are designed to either snap together or to be held together by rubber caps. And when the model is built then you can put batteries in the Z-Knight and let it walk. Not only is the walking movement surprisingly smooth, the bigger Z-Knights even have additional features like head movement, rotating parts or moving hips.
Z-Knights are constructed as humanoid machines. Mostly the designs are inspired by knights from different cultures from around the globe, but there are also models that look for example like a diver or more like a two-legged scorpion. There were also back stories to the Z-Knights, but actually the (quite complex) story of the Japanese release differs from the the (rather simple) story of the American/European release. If you are interested in the back story then go to the Z-Knight tales, there you will find all the details you need.
If you are new to Z-Knights you might also want to know what types of Z-Knights there are, so here is a list of the three main categories including all known Z-Knights (in alphabetical order; first is the name of the Japanese version, second the name of the American/European version, if there was one ;-): Large Z-Knights: Gilga Great Z-Knight Marinekaizer / Megahertz Z-Knight / Hardware (total 4 / 2) Middle-sized Z-Knights: Aegir Desertwalker = Hacker Skullviper / CPU (total 3 / 2) Small Z-Knights: Darksizzar / Kilabyte Deathbattler (D-Battler) Deathdoll Deathdoll, special edition Deviking / Megaclone Deviking, special edition Gaimu Guyzack Megahornet Nilas / Boot Northeglaiver = ROM Solsaber Vigace / Shutdown Zeligaia / Alt (total 14 / 6) Total Japanese Z-Knights: 21 Total American/European Z-Knights: 10 If you have any additions or comments to this list, please mail me! The large Z-Knights have a pilot (which is the same like the ZOIDS mindrider). Gilga and Great Z-Knight are a bit bigger than the other two large Z-Knights. The following two models both the Japanese and the American/European versions have the same colourations (only the stickers may vary): Desert Walker / Hacker and Northeglaiver / ROM. For pictures see the picture archive.
If you wonder why I mentioned ZOIDS: There is another toy line made by Tomy - the company that also made the Z-Knights - that is very similar to Z-Knights, or to be more precise, ZOIDS was the original toy line that the Z-Knights derived from. Other then the Z-Knights, ZOIDS are constructed as robotic animals, often dinosaurs. They are also motorized model kits using the same rubber caps and also the same pilots. Aside from the animal type construction the two main differences are that ZOIDS were and still are much more popular than Z-Knights, with not only 18 but hundreds of different designs. And: not all ZOIDS are battery operated but there are also models with a wind-up engine and totally unmotorized ones. Anyway, even though Z-Knights and ZOIDS have different back stories and have to be seen as separate toy lines, there are many connections between them, and therefore many ZOIDS collectors also have some Z-Knights in their collection, and vice versa...
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