LANSAY TREAD

Gakken toys were made in at least two locations-Japan and Singapore. Although Gakken Japan abandoned the crashing toy market in 1984, their Singapore factory continued to produce toys-primarily the 'Alpha' toys for the Robotech line. One of their items that did not apparently generate alot of attention (simply due to the fact that no one here has been aware of their existance for 15 years!) was their small Tread/Legioss combination. A few test-shots were made in Japan (they are stamped as such), but they were never for sale. The very,very few Japanese versions have been confirmed to have been manufactured in Blue and Red color schemes. The Green version is suspected, but we have not discovered one yet.

The Tread/Legioss combination did make it past the test-shot phase in the Singapore factory, in fact from all our research we have been doing our best approximation is at least 1000 units were produced. Lansay Toys, a company in France, apparently bought them all and sold them through normal retailers and comic chops during the mid to late 1980s. Here is a photo from the Lansay catalog:

thm_lansay_tread_ad.jpg

Notice the toy has two right arms
(we don't know WHAT to make of that...LOL!)

The Lansay Tread was only produced in the Blue color, although it was packaged with a red,green, or blue Legioss. Here are some more pictures of the toy:

thm_lansay_tread_01.jpgthm_lansay_tread_03.jpgthm_lansay_tread_04.jpgthm_lansay_tread_02.jpg

 

 

Lansay was not going to sell loose toys-they needed a box-so one was created. Here is the only mass produced Tread/Legioss box in history!
(Well at least until the suspected and hoped for Toynami Tread/Legioss combination is produced)

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thm_lansay_tread_box_back.jpg
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Front
Back
Left
Right

 

Carl and I(Shawn!) want to extend our very special thanks to Yvan West Laurence, who contacted us when the original Japanese Gakken tread pictures were posted here on Macross World. Yvan was invaluable with the information he provided us for this page. We also want to thank our friend 'Yoshi' (his alias on the MW Forums) for his wonderful translations!

We've been using all our resources to find friends in France who want to spend their weekends hitting old swapmeets looking for some of these toys for us, but we've had no luck so far. So we are announcing the beginning of the 'Ultimate Mospeada Treasure Hunt'

There are Treads in France friends! Go find them!!

12/11/01 Update:

Akim Mehamel sends in another found Tread! Thank you very much!!
So how many more are out there!? I want one too!

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Before we go, here is an article written by Yvan for Animeland magazine(he is the editor). Happy reading!

 

ANIMELAND  N° 18/19 June 1995, p. 114-115

THE ROBOTECH TOYS

In France, you can mostly find Valkyries toys as well as the complete line of the Mospeada toys (which is the 3rd Robotech generation, according to Harmony Gold), though some little models of the SDF-1 were available in the past...
With the famous trend of transformable robots in the mid-80s, we've got a lot of toys imported from Japan, but also and mainly from Hong Kong.
The result : a lot of robots toys have been distributed and sold here, without being supported by any known TV show.
In particular, Bandai used a large amount of Takara toys to counter the Transformers line (which were also Takara toys, it's a long story that I'll tell you later if you're nice), which allowed us to get Dancougar, Machine Robot Chronos and even Cobra (the so-called  "psychoroid,  a car which transform into a robot).
Among the Macross toys proposed by the various importers, there were Valkyries with various colors, from blue to red1. Some of them were similar to the japanese Valkyries (grey with black/yellow trims for the VF-1S, white with red trim for the movie VF-1S), some of them were totally whimsical (like the red and white Transformers Jetfire, sold with the super valkyrie armor).
Smaller versions2 were also proposed, but the plastic quality disappeared with these versions.
Some of these little toys were not that bad, but some of them were horrible, like the the ones with pencil sharpeners as backpacks.
An 1/100 toy was also released, the boxart being the same than on the modelkits. This toy was plastic and die-cast, with a VF-1J head and the VF-1S paint scheme.
A complete program...

Lansay, for their part,  released the complete line of the Genesis Climber Mospeada toys, i.e the Legioss (Alpha) and the Ride Armors (Cyclone) in a wide variety of scales.
There are also characters figures and the fabulous Invid robots, but only in the Matchbox USA line.
So, thanks to Lansay, we have discovered3 the superb mecha created by the Studio Artmic, on the same basis that the Studio Nue Valkyries, i.e three transformations from robot, to gerwalk and plane.
Though far more complex, the Legioss transformation is more realist and especially more beautiful than the Valkyrie. But there are so many articulations that it makes the toy quite fragile.
A true jewel for the collectors, but a toy quickly broken and forgotten by the kiddies.
The particularity of the french package is that Lansay made a "word for word" and litteral translation of the japanese text, from the transformation names4, to the text explaining the story (invid invasion etc..)
The stickers are following the original robots schemes, and change with the models (head style and color change between each model).
The only difference comparated to the Japanese and North-American versions are the difference in plastic quality, and the weapons which are now unable to fire missiles (there is no spring and the gun's gachette is glued).
The AFC-01 exists in 4 versions, more or less transformables following the model.
The smaller of them is not higher than 9 cm, and the transformations are possibles but not faithful to the design. The only advantage of this version, is that it can be linked to the only existing version of the Beta in toy (it's the blue one). They can be linked in plane or in robot, indifferently.
Two models of average scale (12 cm high) were available. One of them can be transformed in all three modes, but with removable pieces (which make this toy somewhat ridculous).
The second model is superbly modeled, with die-cast legs, its proportions looking really like the TV series's version, but it can be transformed in gerwalk only (armo diver).
The bigger model, the most famous and the most highly valued, is the most beautiful, too.
This one can perform perfectly the three transformations, and is sold with a standing pilot figure (there is another one sat in the cockpit). This one is 23 cm higher in robot mode.

The Ride Armor are amazing motorcycles which can transform into armor on their pilots.
There are three different versions in small scale, quite ugly and not faithful to the design (in light blue, red and navy blue) and there is a large scale model, which is the model of  Stick Bernard himself.
A 20 cm figure greatly articulated, and a motorcycle perfect both in motorcycle or armor modes.
Only bad point, the plastic can be broken easily, there is a lot of stress on the articulations at each transformation, and the pilot doesn't sit good on the motorcycle.
A very beautiful collection piece, which will get a special place in your shelves if you succeed in getting one (quite rare).

All these items can still be found more or less easily in France, if you keep searching seriously.
In the next issue, I'll detail the rest of the japanese Macross  line(or Robotech in USA).
While waiting, enjoy the photos on this page.
 


Notes

1 - Takatoku / Bandai 1/55 which were imported by some stores. There were also 1/55 bootlegs,
2 - He's talking about the infamous Macres bootlegs, which were very popular among the kids.
3 - Effectively, the Mospeada toys were available in France years before the broadcast of Robotech.
The first contact of the public with these mechas were thus the otys and the series.
4 - Lansay's translations of Mospeada terms were quite cheesy, but these are the kind of funny lines you can't properly translate without losting its essence.

Remark

There is also a little paragraph resuming the actuality of toys in France in june 1995. Quite uninteresting. Aside from that there are two separated paragraphs, explaining to the newbie reader the VF-1 and AFC-01 variations. Uninteresting too.