- "Devious, man. Devious!"
- — Zip (Sunshine).
Zip is Captain Zero's second switcher, and is both the newest and youngest addition to the Z-Stacks. He mostly works with Zug and together they are often used to win minor/smaller contracts (such as the freighting of quarried boulders) and other such duties.
He speaks with a neutral English accent.
Description
Zip is usually seen at the Zero Dock, helping the other Z-Stacks out with their loads or seen around with Zug. Zip and Zug are the Z-Stack equivalents of Ten Cents and Sunshine, in which they are the smallest tugs in the Fleet and are competing against the other two for work.
Biography
In Sunshine, Zip is learning what it takes to be devious and by seeing Zorran pretend to save the Duchess at the cost of the Star Fleet’s credibility, he fully gets the idea. He and Zug assist in the scheme of getting the contract for towing the Duchess by pushing Big Mac onto mudflats.
In Pirate, Zip and Zug cruelly harass Ten Cents over their barges being stolen in the night. When Captain Star and Captain Zero’s plan to nick the thief is put into action, Zip and Zug are put into pairs and Zug makes Zip bait as well as the flare barge. While on watch, Zip sees Ten Cents and Sunshine leave their post and he and Zug follow them. They check an old warehouse and find all the missing barges, as well as the real thieves, two green-eyed tugs. The villains chase them around the Port until Ten Cents, Sunshine and Sea Rogue stop them.
The next day, Zip denies thinking Ten Cents stole the barges, but Ten Cents knows he’s speaking rubbish. Despite bragging they are never scared, Zug backs into a flare barge, which sets off and scares the two Zero switchers away.
In Warrior, Zip and Zug are competing against Ten Cents for the rock contract. The three tugs are working with Scuttebutt Pete and Mighty Mo in pulling down disused buildings.
During work, Izzy Gomez attempts to enter the Port for free. He runs aground on rock foundations and capsizes. Ten Cents attempts to save Izzy, and while Zip initially wants to help him, Zug convinces him to let him sink under Izzy's weight so they can take the salvage for themselves. They tell lies to Top Hat that Ten Cents claimed was his salvage. With Top Hat and Warrior helping Ten Cents, there’s not only no salvage for Zip and Zug, their actions cause the Z-Stacks to lose the rock contract to the Star Fleet.
In Bigg Freeze, Zug and Zip believe Ten Cents and Sunshine want to steal the contract to deliver fuel to the S.S. Vienna. However, they really need a fuel barge to supply Lillie Lightship or else Vienna will sail on by.
After losing an argument with Zorran - which Zip and Zug assisted him with, Ten Cents and Sunshine decide to use an emergency light barge from a creek further upriver. While they're in the creek, Zip and Zug trap them in with a stolen fire barge and leave them, under the impression they were trying to get a fuel barge and beat Zorran for the contract to refuel Vienna. With no light, Vienna almost passes Bigg City Port without making a stop, though Warrior makes a light with the garbage in his barge.
Zip and Zug are scolded by Zorran for their actions and by his orders, the Zero switchers miss out on Vienna to return the fire barge to the Fire Station before the Fire Chief finds out. Zip and Zug are unable to free the fire barge and they get in trouble with the Fire Chief.
Personality
Zip is like Zug, only worse, and is a “true zero” in the Z-Stacks. His head is often in the clouds, and he is well known for being a coward. He is easily scared and sometimes speaks out of turn. as well as being quick to back down when engaging in an argument, and is easily dominated.
Zip could be described as being "slow in the head," for it will often take him a while to catch onto things. Even with basic terms and phrases such as "devious".
Zip and Zug are a similar wavelength. However, Zug is much more skeptical of the pair, whilst Zip is quite the opposite. Zip will often follow along with Zug's plans in any situation, even if doing so causes Zug to lose his nerves. Zug often takes advantage of Zip's naivety to keep himself out of danger.
Like Zebedee, Zip lets other Z-Stacks do the planning while he assists. However, as shown in a deleted scene from Warrior, he’s capable of conning the Star Tugs successfully when he tricked Ten Cents into weakening a disused building’s superstructure. Zip heavily looks up to Zorran, but usually fails to meet his standards.
Again, similarly to Zebedee, Zip is also shown to have a kinder side to him. The biggest example being when Ten Cents needed help with keeping Izzy Gomez floating. Zip stated that he should help him, but Zug turned down the idea.
Basis
Like the rest of the Zero Fleet, Zip is based on the Moran tugs of New York.
Livery
Zip's livery consists of a black hull sporting white trim, and a maroon superstructure witch also sports white trim. His smokestack is painted in a solid black with the Zero Marine Bigg City insignia on its sides, a white stripe along its top, and a white number 5 on its front.
Zip flies the Zero flag and has a silver search light positioned on the front of his hull. His name is also painted on the sides of his hull in white with a dash at each end.
He wears a black fedora with a white stripe.
Appearances
Episodes
Books and Annuals
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Audio Files
Zip's hooter (much like Sunshine's) has a whooping sound. Although, it is deeper in tone. It is also O.J.'s in a higher pitch.
Salty's Lighthouse
In the spin-off series Salty's Lighthouse, Zip was voiced by Ian James Corlett, giving him a high-pitched New York accent. Zip has a much more youthful and childish voice than his TUGS version despite being more mature and older.
Trivia
- In an interview conducted by Sodor Island Fansite (SiF) with model-maker Chris Lloyd, Lloyd commented that when Zip nearly completed, his model had accidentally slipped from the workbench and fell onto the floor smashing into pieces. After the incident, it took around two weeks to put the model back together.
- In an interview with Jeremy King in "TUGS: A Bigg Retrospective." King stated that another accident occured when a light fixture fell onto Zip during filming, resulting in significant damage to his superstructure. King stayed up all night attempting to fix Zip's model, but only got as far as painting him in primer. The model was finished soon afterwards.
- Zip is the only character with dashes besides his name.
- Zip and Zebedee are the only Z-Stacks who have the "smiling" whistle mouth that all the Star Fleet tugs have. The rest of the Z-Stacks have a "frowning" whistle mouth.
- Zip never interacted with Zebedee and Zak.
- That being said, he was seen working with Zak in Trapped.
- It is currently unknown if Zip's other face masks still remain in existence.
- He currently wears his renowned devious expression.
Quotes
- "That bunch of clapped out sardine cans are gonna find they've missed the boat, or my name's not Zorran!"/"But it is Zorran. Isn't it?"
- — Zorran and Zip (Sunshine)
- "You have double crossed us!"/"I have not! You take that back!"
- — Zip and Ten Cents (Pirate)
- "I don't like this, Zug."/"Quiet!"
- — Zip and Zug (Pirate)
- "Here comes Mr. Demolition himself!"
- — Zip referring to Warrior (Warrior)
- "No tug, Izzy? That's illegal!"/"And stupid."
- — Zip and Zug (Warrior)
- "They want this barge? They can't have it, see?"/"No, no. You keep it, Zorran."/"Yes, yes, you keep it."
- — Zorran, Zug and Zip (Bigg Freeze)