![]() |
Durham Industries, Inc. No. 5758 Sidewinders Star Mission Robot - Zobor and Zerak Fronts |
The earliest and perhaps best of the Zeroid copies that I'm aware of were made by Durham Industries, Inc., a company in New York specializing in wind-up toys manufactured in Hong Kong. These have a 1978 copyright and are approximately the same size as the original Ideal robots but a bit taller, using a wind-up mechanism instead of the CU-24 motor and batteries. To date, I've only seen two different models, a Zobor-clone and a Zerak-clone, sharing many components but with arm and head details, plus color differences, distinguishing them from one another.
The upper body most closely resembles Zobor while the lower body Zerak, going as far as to emulate the two chrome "lights" and the bumper details - however these don't include the trail hitch associated with the orignal Zeroids. The arms are somewhat retained as are the hands. The best details are the heads which are very close to the original.
![]() |
Durham Industries, Inc. No. 5758 Sidewinders Star Mission Robot - Zobor and Zerak Backs |
![]() |
Durham Industries, Inc. No. 5758 Sidewinders Star Mission Robot Bottom |
Durham Industries, Inc. No. 5758 Sidewinders Star Mission Robot - Zerak Knock-Off
Durham's version of Zerak comes in a similar color - I originally thought that my loose one had a broken antenna then realized that it came with the unadorned spike.
Durham Industries, Inc. No. 5758 Sidewinders Star Mission Robot - Zobor Knock-Off
Durham's version of Zobor comes in a similar color but more of an orange - note the swapped chest sticker which I thought was a misapplication to my loose example but it turns out that's they way they came.
All content, including images and editorial, is Copyright ©1999-2025 John Eaton and/or contributors unless otherwise stated. If there are any comments or objections, please contact John Eaton.