Zorran

Z - STACKS #1

HARBOUR TUG

VOICED BY CHRIS TULLOCH

THE CHARACTER

Cunning, devious and fiercely determined, Zorran is the leader of Captain Zero’s Z-Stack Tugs. Zorran is a villain through and through, ruling his team through sheer intimidation and fear, all in the name of keeping the Z-Stacks ahead of the Star Tugs.

When The Duchess liner arrived in Bigg City Port, Zorran devised a plan to steal the contract from the Star Fleet by devious methods.

He got Zip and Zug to put Big Mac out of commission, and then delivered the final blow when he bumped Sunshine into the rudder of the liner, before he came to the rescue, portraying himself as a hero in their hour of need. But whilst Zorran thought he had been discreet, he didn’t count on Izzy Gomez seeing the whole incident and catching him out

But this incident didn’t put Zorran off trying to trap the Star Tugs up river when a old tramp steamer he and Zug were trying to take up river caught in the strong current and jammed across both sides of the bank.

Seizing this opportunity, Zorran left Zug and the Star Tugs trapped up river and headed off to tell Captain Zero the news – even lying to Ten Cents that he was going to fetch the Salvage Team.

Zorran’s plan came undone however when, upon returning to the old tramper, Billy Shoepack blew it apart with his dynamite – as a result, Zorran was swept downriver by the water built up behind and was washed up upon rocks

Sometimes, in spite of his cunning and manipulation, Zorran often becomes victim of folly himself. During the Quarantine season, when a fleet of schooners became infected with “microbonic plague”, Zorran decided to gain a tow one way or another by stealing Sunshine’s tow of the notorious tramp steamer, Nantucket.

However, Nantucket caused confusion by lowering his yellow flag and, while Sunshine remained cautious and suspicious, Zorran immediately rushed off, thinking that Nantucket had been cleared of quarantine – when he hadn’t.

Unlucky for him, the Coastguard caught them both out, and Zorran was left quarantined with Nantucket for forty days in the estuary!

All the same, Zorran’s natural instincts as a true leader come into play whenever the Z-Stacks are given important contracts, such transporting dangerous explosives for the Navy. He manages to keep the natural drama of the Z Stacks to a minimum.

When Bluenose tried to intervene with loading the explosives into the Naval tramper, Kraka-Toa, Zorran sided with O.J on the dangerous and vital importance of the Naval Manoeuvres, and even warning Ten Cents to save himself when the ‘Naval Twit’ put himself in danger – although he, Zak and Zebedee still had their doubts over Warrior and Top Hat’s abilities when it came to fighting the dockside fire

THE MODEL

Zorran’s model gives us some insight as to what may have been the last episode of TUGS filmed – the face is leading some of us to believe Ghosts may have been the last one off the production schedule, but we cannot be entirely certain and given that everything was shot out of sequence, it’s difficult to arrive at a definitive answer.

In all, it originally appeared as if he'd be unfortunatly in a state of shock forever despite overall, the model being in good order cosmetically and structurally.

However our luck was changed, when incredibly, a wonderful man by the name of Jeremy King, an ex modeler of the show brought along a casting of a brand new facial expression which will allow that familiar devious smile of Zorran to return very soon!