Love 'em or hate 'em, Chrome Zoids play an important in Zoid history. We were first introduced to the "official" shiny goodness with the OJR line. A few chromed pieces were given away as contest prizes. Twin Horn, Hel Cat, Hammer Rock, and Ptera were all seen chromed in a solid gold or silver color scheme.
The next official chrome releases were years later as part of the NJR line. These "prize" Zoids could have been obtained by winning some type of contest including but not limited to a Z-Point Lucky Drawi, creating a custom Zoid, and even with artwork. A range of Zoids from the NJR line were chromed with the most popular units being Shield Liger, Genosaurer, and the three Liger Zero CP's. The official NJR contest prize Zoids chrome color scheme remains mainly monochromatic, and were usually housed in a plain white box. The Chromed NJR Zoid quantities are debatable but the general consensus is that between 50 and 300 units were produced. There was also a total of four limited official chrome Blox, which came in sets of two per package. The Blox Zoids were released in a grey scale box and featured a total of four Blox including: Unenlagia, Mosasledge, Leo Blaze, and Night Wise. All of these Blox had a silver chrome finish.

The last officially released chrome Zoids focused on the Genesis line. A set of all three Genesis Ligers chromed in gold were featured as the main prize. Along with the elusive Liger set, three Blox units were also featured as prizes. Just like the Ligers, these Zoids featured a solid gold chrome color scheme. This set included the Blade Hawk, Shield Liger (Blox), and the Sauro Knights.

 Fan or shop crafted "unofficial" chromes have also been created. The first unofficial Zoids were created and marketed by a toy retailer in China known as "Leo shop". Leoshop created a plethora of chromed Zoids, and also was open to take requests (if the order was large enough). The old Zoids message group "Zoids Fans" had one Zoid chromed a year between 2002 to 2004. Leoshop produced a total of 4 different chromed units including Berserk Fury, Shadow Fox, Gun Tiger, and Iguan. To distinguish between the chromed and the regular kits, Leoshop used a small holographic "Special Edition" sticker (pictured below) which was usually located on the bottom right or left hand corner of the box. 

The Leo Shop chromes usually featured more than just one solid color, and are known for their dramatically flashy color schemes. Actual production numbers are unknown and probably impossible to find out. Leo Shop stopped their chroming operations in mid 2005, leaving shiny Zoids fans devastated. In late 2009 / early 2010 the Zoids chrome aftermarket would boom yet again. Several larger chromes including Iron Kong and Death Saurer began to appear on auction sites. Located in Malaysia the "Mechadioz" shop started to produce their own, unique line featuring the tag line "Raise of the Dark Kingdom". At about the same time another chrome Zoids curator known simply as "Grimm" threw his hat into the ring.

Unlike other chrome services, Grimm centered around restoring and not re-creating. Located in the Philippines, Grimm Studios operates with integrity and honesty while delivering quality Zoid productions. Grimm Studios frowns upon off the wall color schemes and strives to maintain the integrity of the Zoids line by sticking to official colors as well as only producing an extremely limited amounts of certain pieces. An excellent example of this is the Battle Rex that I commissioned Grimm to produce for www.Zoid.US which will be limited to one piece in order to maintain it's rarity. Chrome Zoids are a flashy addition to any Zoids collection, and if you have one in yours consider yourself very lucky. Below are some of the chrome Zoids in my collection, click on the link to view pictures and learn more about each piece.

                     Leo Shop Chrome Command Wolf                 Purple & Gold Chrome Berserk

                                                       
                     Zoids Poison Chrome Blade Hawk                         Leo Shop Chrome Horn

  This has been a Zoid.US production. No image may be used without permission.2012 -WIKD