Zed Rig Runner Bright, Not Just White Glyos Vehicles Item No.: n/a Manufacturer: Onell Design Includes: Vehicle, figures sold separately Action Feature: Swappable vinyl parts can reconfigure bike Retail: $20.00 Availability: March 23, 2012 Other: The Second Rig Runner
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I love Glyos as a line. I like the concept and the designs. So I'm going to catch Hell for saying this, but the only Onell Design creation I'm not over-the-moon with is the form of the Zed Rig Runner for its figure compatibility. (Callgrim? Great fit. Like a glove. Armorvor? Glyans? Not so much.) The Glyos line, and the bulk of everything Onell Design does, is superb to a fault. I've had Venjorun Armorvor hanging out on my desk and/or coffee table since his release, and it's rare that a Crayboth isn't within reach of my workspace. These are superb playthings and as such a vehicle which doesn't work perfectly with the entire range of figures feels like something went awry. (This is the me who got angry at any figure in a line who couldn't sit in a driver's seat at the age of 6 talking. This me is vocal and easily agitated.)

The Rig Runner looks good, is painted well, fits together nicely, but isn't too keen on being sat on by the bulk of the figures in my stash. The Founders/Travellers can work with a little fidgeting, and the Phaseons work swimmingly. But the Glyans? Not so much. I guess one can fit but his legs are stretched apart, which is sort of a sin of vehicle/figure compatibility in my book. (Obviously, this can be fixed by purchasing and using Axis Joints parts, which I assume you have some of by now.) As a lazy, cheap American I tend to expect things to work out of the box, and my collector habits make it difficult to ever permanently alter a figure. As such, my Rig Runners occupy a motorpool on the lower step on a tiered display, looking cool, but with their pilots beside them rather than on them.

The design itself is neat, cleverly reusing some existing parts which may be tweaked to change up its look in fun ways. It's made of three chunks of vinyl, which can be rotated or separated per your delight. The area where the figure sits is a little thick (and I've seen what this does to other mass-market figure crotches in their respective lines, so it makes me nervous) but a customizer can fix it or maybe some day Onell will thin it out a bit so my poor Glyans can continue to father children after a ride. I appreciate that the vehicle is so perfectly versatile, and it shares parts with the Callgrim Warp Bikes as well.

If you pop off the big front piece-- which is a cleverly repurposed arm from The Rig-- you can put on the smaller back piece and assemble a funky little starhopper thing. It's tiny and works great with other figure lines, like Imaginext, Galactic Heroes, and Jedi Force toys. Again, it works fairly well with the founders, but some fidgeting is required. I realize I'm being picky, but with Onell we usually get what amounts to perfection, and this one is just so tantalizingly close to being a perfect little vehicle for all my Glyos needs.

The vehicle looks super-cool on my shelf, and fits in with the Glyos toy universe visually. I loves me my Armodoc and Rigs and Glyans and Pheyden and especially the Crayboth army I'm trying to complete, but this is an item that I fear may muck with the integrity of my other figures' hip joints over time. I may be wrong, but my Glyaxia Command Elite Glyan had pretty loose legs for a while after spending a few seconds on the vehicle. Customizers and people who can remember not to store your figures on this vehicle, enjoy! Everybody else... well, be careful which figures get the pleasure of having their own vehicle.

Having said all of that, I still like the look of it and own two of them in different colors. Its toy-ness isn't as fantastic as the other items in the line, but it's still nifty, particularly with the Callgrim/Order figures from RawShark Studios. (You should buy some of those.) I was asked by a few people if a Rig Runner is a good vehicle for the Armorvor mold, and let me give you a firm no. At least, the stock Armorvor's legs are too stumpy and close together to work well with the Rig Runner, but you can pretty much modify any Glyos figure with other legs or Axis joints to achieve any of a number of desired results... so I guess in that sense, every Glyos everything could be good by virtue of the fact the entire line is generally easy to modify and the figures are less means to an end but are usually more of a canvas on which the fan/collector to projects their toy needs.

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