NAR Dimetra Ptera Zoid

It's amazing what a color change can do. With just a little spray paint, an Ugly Duckling can turn into a reasonably cool Zoid. As an example, take Hasbro's release of Dimetra Ptera in Dayglow Orange. Ugh. But at 50% off list price it's hard to pass up, especially when part of the money you save can be spent on spray paint.

This was trivial as far as spray paint jobs go. I simply spray painted the single sprue of orange parts with navy blue. Since my Zoid was to be kept in Pteranodon mode, I didn't even have to mask anything. Everything else is right out of the box. I like the blue color much better than the orange, but I think a flat red (or black) would look even better, with the red motor and red caps.

Since I had some red satin spray paint I decided to try it. I bought another kit and painted it. I like it!

I think the red satin body blends very nicely with the red motor and red caps.

After I took the red Pteranodon pictures, I disassembled my blue Dimetra Ptera and assembled it into Dimetradon mode. Here is a picture of the out-of-the-box alternate configuration.

I wasn't satisfied with this, so I took this as an opprotunity to modify this Zoid. First I removed the elbow joint and shortened the Blox motor unit by one Blox. Then I revised the battery cap end such that it tucks neatly under the body. Finally I modified a BrachioZilla tail (not shown here) to plug onto the battery cap end. I sprayed the motor box flat gray and the new tail the same blue as the body.

I think the end result looks much more balanced and proportional.