Their RC aspect is not sophisticated compared to large toy robots, but they are pretty amusing for a line of 2-inch figures. In addition to moving forward and spinning, their eyes light up and they make curious mechanical noises.
Like all our favorite toylines, they were not part of a big multi-media franchise, yet, some effort was still made to give them a backstory and individual profiles. Plus the designs are pretty creative.
All Zibits were designed by artist and illustrator Jason Muhr.
60 figures (from 22 unique sculpts) made it to market. At least four more sculpts were exhibited at Toyfair 2011, but never produced. Additionally a spin-off RC toyline intended to be the enemies of the Zibits were designed. These were called Arch Alienz and were never developed at all.
Overview
Series 1 Zibits were distributed by a company called Senario. They were first shown at Toyfair 2010, and had a wide-market release in 2011. They were sold at Toys R Us and Radio Shack (in addition to many independent toy stores). In single packs, there were twelve characters derived from six unique sculpts. Additional variants were available as store-exclusives. Additional characters were further derived from the same sculpts and available as exclusives within playsets. All variants (even those with new names) will be discussed after the core characters are introduced.
Clunk + Gunk
Dex + Spex
Dinc + Sproc
Epsilon* + Go-B
Gek + Scrapz
Shox + Tank
In an unusual move for a toyline, Senario made a "Series 1.5" with six new characters derived from three brand new sculpts. These were not available in the USA. I know they were available in the UK and Singapore. In the UK, Zibits were distributed by Flair Leisure PLC. In Singapore, they were distributed by Camtec Marketing Services. One additional Series 1.5 variant (of Termanis) was made for the one new playset introduced.
Bash + Rev
Bendix + Sion
Shift + Termanis
Series 2 Zibits are marked (c) 2011 and came out in 2012. These were again distributed by Senario. The only place I ever saw them was Barnes & Noble. TRU, Radio Shack, and all the independent stores that had Series 1 did not carry Series 2, despite the noticeable popularity of the line. There were no variants made of any Series 2 sculpts. Series 2 Zibits were distributed in Italy by Giochi Preziosi, despite having not distributed any earlier series.
Code + Reverb
Cozmo + Nebulis
Galex-Z + Tetron
Hyjax + Torrant
Mitro + Naka
Surge + Tagg
Series 3 Zibits are marked (c) 2012 and came out in 2013. These were distributed by Playmaker Toys. I don't know if Playmaker bought Senario, or if it is actually the same company with a new name. I do know that Senario no longer had an active website, and the package design was changed up a bit. I remember seeing Series 3 Zibits at Barnes & Noble, Hastings, and Radio Shack. Radio Shack even had the one and only exclusive figure this time (a variant of Skit).
Arc + Centro
Aux + Sync
Biz + Kezel
Fusion + Tactik
Key
Qore + Raidus**
Around November 2013 three small Action Defense playsets showed up at TRU. This was very surprising considering they had not carried the Zibits single packs for years. (Sometimes TRU will get direct-to-clearance items to pad the Christmas rush.) They were very cheap. These three playsets also made the deep clearance rounds in 2015 at stores like TJ Maxx. These are the only Zibits I have ever seen at clearance stores. These were distributed by Scenario and feature the Series 2 checklist on the boxes.
CTR612 -- Atomicopter
LZR411 -- Orb Catapult
GNR217 -- Missile Launcher
The figures in these three sets are derived from the same basic boring mold. These figures don't have arms or charming faces like the other Zibits. They just look like guns. I know they are defense drones made to "battle the evil Blurge," but man these designs are horrible. They have awful names too. Those sequences of letters and numbers that look like license plates are their actual names!
Worst of all, they marked the end of the toyline. Despite several other creative Zibits ideas that were in development, no more were ever produced or marketed.
Variants and Exclusives
These playsets feature exclusive Series 1 variants introduced as new characters:
Flux -- Power Lab (uses sculpt of Epsilon/Go-B)
Psykull -- Zcrane (uses sculpt of Shox/Tank)
Static -- Zrail (uses sculpt of Shox/Tank)
Zark -- Zorr Mine (use sculpt of Epsilon/Go-B)
Here are two more characters packaged as Limited Edition figures. They each came with a "Zorr crystal" and a "lightening ball" (two tiny pieces of plastic). These were sold at independent toystores when Series 1 was hot stuff.
Helix -- uses sculpt of Dex/Spex
Avant -- uses sculpt of Shox/Tank
These are Series 1 color variants that were TRU 2-pack exclusives called BioMetal Armor. They are the most boring excuses for exclusives ever. First, they are just straight metallic paint without even a second color for accent. Second, unlike all the other variants, they did not even give them unique names and new bios. Third, BioMetal? What the heck does that even mean? Grrr.
Gunk + Go-B
Spex + Shox
This is the Series 1.5 color variant. I am pretty sure that the figure did not get a new name.
Termanis (blue version) -- Zrail Highrise set
Notes and Stuff
*Epsilon was originally named Alpha 7. The name was changed because a robot in Power Rangers Wild Force (2002) had previously been named Alpha 7. A gold version of this sculpt was sold as Alpha 7 before the name was changed. When they re-released the figure as Epsilon, they made him red and gold. I am pretty sure this is an intentional dig at the Power Rangers franchise, since their popular character Alpha 5 is colored red and gold.
By the way, Epsilon is the 5th letter in the Greek alphabet. They could have changed the name to Eta, the alpha letter 7. But, once again, this is probably just another jab at Alpha 5.
They also changed Go-B from white-and-purple to black-and-purple when they re-packaged the new Epsilon. Who knows why this one was changed too. At any rate, seven different figures exist using this same sculpt.
A third figure changed appearance with this Series 1 revamp. Tank went from being a mostly silver bot to to a black-and-red bot. Seven figures also exist in this sculpt. For some reason they kept making their variants from the same two sculpts, despite having four other interesting designs that they could have used.
Here is a comparison of both Series 1 checklists.
**Raidus is surely meant to be "Radius." However, it is spelled "Raidus" on both the front and back of the package. Doh!
There are also at least four playsets that did not include exclusive figures. They decided to go with ordinary already-released figures within these. I may add images of these on a separate page.
Count Them Up
Series 1 -- 12 figures (6 sculpts)
Series 1.5 -- 6 figures (3 sculpts)
Series 2 -- 12 figures (6 sculpts)
Series 3 -- 12 figures (6 sculpts)
Action Defense -- 3 figures (1 basic sculpt)
Total: 45 figures (22 sculpts)
Variants
S1 Playsets -- 4 figures
S1 Re-releases -- 3 figures
S1 BioMetal -- 4 figures
S1 Limited Edition -- 2 figures
Termanis variant -- 1 figure
Skit variant -- 1 figure
Total: 15 variants + 45 figures = 60 Zibits
60 total Zibits (from 22 sculpts)
