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From a Zeroids Header Card |
"Moving across the landscape, overrunning all obstacles as inexorably as the Future itself, these amazing, efficient and powerful automatons have but one purpose - to serve their masters at work and play!" This was the sales pitch for Zeroids, released in 1967.

From "turret to track" each Zeroid simulates a marvelous mechanic-electronic complex, molded in awesome detail, and the sparkling Zeroid packages double as functional play units!"
The Ideal Toy company invested a lot into the design of Zeroid robots, reusing the small battery-powered CU-24 motors used in their Motorific cars and boats to power the robots (the batteries were placed in the legs and accessed by opening the Zeroid at the waist, held together by small tension-tabs). For more information regarding the creators of the Zeroids, look here: Zeroids Origin and History.
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Motorific and Zeroid CU-24 Motors |
The motor was placed in the base and it would power an axle that transferred action to the ground via rubber, tank-like treads. A unique switching lever was extended beyond the motor cover that when tripped with change the robot's direction - quite ingenious and probably taken from the work done on switching for their Motorific cars.
Ideal 1968 Zeroids Premier
The initial release solicitation can be found in the 1968 Ideal Toys Catalog. It featured three different robots: Zerak, Zobor and Zintar. They could be found in separate window boxes from a retail assortment:
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Ideal Toys-Games-Dolls-Playsets 1968 Catalog Image by Craig Hedges |
ZEROIDS
- 4771-2 ZERAK - THE BLUE DESTROYER
- 4772-0 ZOBOR - THE BRONZE TRANSPORTER
- 4773-8 ZINTAR - THE SILVER EXPLORER
The Zeroid TV commercial lists the Zerak as "the leader of the Zeroids"
Ideal 1969 New Zeroids Releases
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Ideal Toy Corporation 1969 "Toys - Games - Dolls - Play Sets" Catalog Pages 30-31 |
Ideal 1970 New Zeroids Releases
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Ideal Toy Corporation 1970 "Toys - Games - Dolls - Play Sets" Catalog Page 26 |
- ZEROIDS™ IN BLISTER PACK
- 4596-3 Zerak in Blister
- 4597-1 Zobor in Blister
- 4662-3 Zintar in Blister
- 4763-9 ZOGG w/LASER BEAM
- 4764-7 ZEROID™ W/SOLAR CYCLE
- 4649-0 MISSILE DEFENSE PAD
- 4648-2 SENSOR STATION
- 4659-9 ALIEN INVADER™
- 4608-6 ZEM XXI™
This is also the same year Ideal released the S.T.A.R. Team Space Equipment (wearable toys to basically play outer space adventurer) - relevant as the brand was reused in 1977.
Ideal 1970 And Later Catalog and Non-Catalog Releases

Ideal 1973 Ideal Innovations UK Catalog Page 34

The "1973 Ideal Innovations Catalog - Ideal Games, Toys & Dolls" for the UK market shows a single odd image of Zobor - the chest of the Zeroid is turned around backwards, the eye-strip is missing and the claws are colored green. It has a single listing, I believe this may be the product number for the generic "Zerak Robot" Window Box below:
- 4776-1 ZEROIDS ASSORTED
Sometimes towards the end to the line, Ideal kit-bashed the three robots to produce the Zemo robot reported to be for the UK market, now found in red, orange/gold or turquoise (the rarest of the Zeroids and not part of their initial design development). Examples of unmarked Zemo robots can be found in Japanese Solar Saucer packaging and presumably the generic "Zerak" cardboard window box, although I've seen an image of a Zemo with a Kresge Box so it may have been reused elsewhere.
Post 1970 (probably when sales began to flag), Ideal marketed the separate Zeroids simply as "Robots" in small, window boxes (these were found in Kreske's department stores and usually have a "Big K" price sticker on them - it may have been a contracted exclusive for those stores) or as "Zerak Robot" in a colorful white box. I believe that these were direct-to-retailer packaging of left-over Zeroids as they don't appear in any Ideal catalogs that I've seen.
Knock-off Zeroids
The earliest and perhaps best of the Zeroid copies that I'm aware of were made by Durham, a company specializing in wind-up toys manufactured in Hong Kong. These 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 and a Zerak, sharing many components but with arm and head details, plus color differences, distinguishing them from one another.
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Awesome Zeroids information John!
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