The full scope of the square planar (BME-DACO)-Ni(II) unit as a metallothiolate ligand is realized in its reaction with zinc chloride giving rise to an unprecedented Zn/Ni heteropentanuclear pinwheel structure. Three (BME-DACO)Ni(II) units serve as bidentate bridging ligands to two zinc ions, each of which finds itself in a tetrahedral coordination of three sulfurs and one chloride. The tetrahedral preference of zinc in its coordination complexes is frustrated by the sterically restricted N2S2 donor ligand N,N'-bis(mercaptoethyl)-1,5-diazacyclooctane (BME-DACO2-), which leads to a dimer in which Zn s an approximate square pyramidal coordination, with a 2 Zn-2 S core.