Just When You Thought it was Safe to Go Back on the Gaming Table...

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! Hurry, get out of the water! No, wait, even that won't help! Run!!! It's:

The Zombie of the Month- November 2015- The Zombie Landshark of Bikini Beach by KaYo Miniatures

   What's so great about this zombie? It's everything you want for your horror/post-apoc game, all rolled into one (but only because you are not actually 28mm scale yourself). What a creative Kaiju. It's a big mutant zombie landshark. You heard me right. It has four legs, none of which, obviously, belong on a shark. It has a mouth big enough to swallow a 28mm figure whole- as an appetizer. No, seriously, I've stuck one in its mouth, it totally fits. And you're kinda glad to chalk up its many hideous wounds to the decay of a zombie plague, because your only other alternative is to
acknowledge that there is something ELSE out there big enough to do his kind of damage to this monstrosity.

Zombie Landshark eating a Bones model

    Also, let me say that, despite the deliberate mutilation of shark anatomy, they did a really good job with the anatomy they did do. I'm not a shark expert, but the fins look very organic and seem to taper in the right places. I don't know what it's front legs are the legs of, but whatever it is definitely has legs just like that. I can tell. And yes, it has the appropriate multiple rows of teeth that are the shark's hallmark. Overall, a really magnificent sculpt for a weird beastie.
   So, what is one to do with a mutant zombie landshark? Well, since it's post-apoc month, I think that's obvious- use it as a vicious snakehead for This is Not a Test!!! Yeah, you're glad there's only one of them. The model didn't come with a base, but I assure you, it's going on a 50.

The Basics:

Scale- The scale is officially 32mm, but I guess it's hard to scale a mutant zombie Landshark. For the record, there was also a 75mm scale version available, but we went with the game scale, of course.

Genre- Uh, terrestrial? That is to say, it may require you to be playing on a planet. Then again, maybe not. Maybe it can survive in space, too.

Material- Resin, so transport him carefully. There's a lot of teeth and claws to break off. It seems to be a fairly strong resin, because I have not had a problem with it thus far. It doesn't seem very brittle.

Parts 'n' Bits- none, unless you ignore the warning above ::wince::

Assembly- Ah, here's where we get a little tricky. See, that mouth goes very deep- good luck getting your paintbrush in there at the right angle to paint it after it's assembled. I HIGHLY recommend you do what we did. Prime the inside, paint the inside, assemble it, stuff it with gauze or something, then prime and paint the outside. The fit is not perfect- you may need to do a little cleaning and puttying to get the seams right, but you'll hardly notice when done- it's already highly mutated, after all.

Base- If you get the full kit, it comes with one, but ours did not. That's why it is not pictured on one. I assure you, he will hereafter be going on a 50.


Ratings:

Sculpt- 5 brains out of 5- Like I said there's a lot of carefully rendered anatomy and details in this model. I spent a lot of time on it, and I'm still looking at it going "Oh, I could have done this there." But it will even still look good if you don't get too detailed with it. Whatever you choose to do, it will still be a conversation piece.

Affordability- 1 brain out of 5- I don't think KaYo has actually released it on their webstore yet, but the shark by itself was offered for $25 on the Kickstarter. Remember, that 1 doesn't mean I think that's an unfair price, just that you can't build a horde thatta way. To be fair, I really don't want to see more than one of those at a time. It takes the specialness out of it- and scares the crap out of me.

Value- 5 brains out of 5- ...if you're into rubber monster films, corny horror flicks, really unique zombies, cool mutants, mad scientist constructs, chaos beasts, or really well-rendered models in general. If you're not into any of those... are you sure you're a wargamer?

Availability- 0 out of 5- As I said, I don't even see it on their website yet (though there's other models you might want to go look at). No kidding, there's not even anybody selling one on Ebay. There were 73 backers, and it looks like they are all keeping the one they've got. But they just shipped out the Kickstarter ones, so I'm sure they'll be putting this beauty up on their website soon.

Pros- While there are a lot of interesting and large zombies on the market, there are very few real kaiju zombies. And yet, this size is still very usable on the field, rather than being relegated forever to the gribbly shelf. It really hits the sweet spot of big, scary guy and "Yeah, I can find an excuse to put that on the table."

Cons- None really, unless you count that you can't get it now, now now now. Or if you don't need any really unique zombies. But then again, if you don't, you're probably not still reading my column, are you?