Ride Armors, Legioss and Treads! Oh my!

[RavenHawk]

The 1st pic of the Beagle on HLJ and the Toynami Ride Armor on BBTS are the exact same toy...

Look at this:

http://wildcats.pupui.jp/mt/archives/2008/...eview_pa_4.html

[CoryHolmes]

It's here! It's here! *prances around with joy* FedEx seems remarkably inept given it's reputation, but after waiting almost two decades for a decent Beta toy, what's two more weeks? I'll come back soon with review report tales of slobbering over my new toy

[promethuem5]

Look at this:

http://wildcats.pupui.jp/mt/archives/2008/...eview_pa_4.html

Huh, weird... I wonder why they bothered with different headsculpts. I think I like the Toynami one better, and with the exchange rate as it is, and the Toynami one only $200 even on BBTS I think I'll live with it.

[Totoro242]

Yaco's blog has put a short comparison gallery of the beagle vs. the toynami version. Seems the visor on the toynami color is also a darker blue than the beagle. I think I like beagle's more realistic attempt at capturing Stig's head and I also like the lighter blue visor.

http://wildcats.pupui.jp/mt/archives/2008/...eview_pa_4.html

Yuck, that thing isnt more cartoony, its just fugly. I am disappointed in this scuplt. What were they thinking? Look how big the mouth is. I seems to me that the Beagle version has more Asian features and the Toynami version is supposed to look more European/American?

[fifbeat]

Hmmm.... I like them both in their own way.

BTW, when the heck is the next MH coming out?

[jenius]

Yuck, that thing isnt more cartoony, its just fugly. I am disappointed in this scuplt. What were they thinking? Look how big the mouth is. I seems to me that the Beagle version has more Asian features and the Toynami version is supposed to look more European/American?

I had the same initial reaction. I think I like the Beagle one a little better but I don't think either one knocked it out of the park. I can understand why Toynami saw the Beagle one and said "You know, we'd like to try our own sculpt" and it makes me sad that THAT was the best effort they could come up with. I'm really curious to see what will happen with Rand/Ray.

EDIT - Drifand, good work with the CMs Fuke, I'm afraid I've resigned myself to leaving her in bike mode going forward.

Edited December 30, 2008 by jenius

[magicsp00n]

Yuck, that thing isnt more cartoony, its just fugly. I am disappointed in this scuplt. What were they thinking? Look how big the mouth is. I seems to me that the Beagle version has more Asian features and the Toynami version is supposed to look more European/American?

There is a significant difference there, but I actually prefer the Toynami version. The bigger features seem more expressive. Plus, the source material is a cartoon, so I'm not sure that I'm concerned with a deep level of realism.

[AcroRay]

Both aren't as spot-on as I'd like. But I like the Toynami version head sculpt. A little more colorful.

In either case, at least you know who it is! You gotta wonder who's inside the old Gakken one...

[CoryHolmes]

Damn, this toy is gi-frickin'-normous! I mean, holy crap! My hand actually got tired as I was holding it up to transform it

At first I was worried about the loudness of the rachet joints (it is a Toynami product, afterall) and some of the lower body joints seemed loose and floppy. Transforming it was a bitch and a half, but once I got it into Fighter mode it was nice and tight and solid. I'm a little put-off by all the open space in the toy, but it's nothing I can't live with.

I thought the torso units were supposed to slide back and forth, though? And about the cockpit, does it move forward and back at all? 'cuz right now it looks kinda sad. All in all, I love it. Best. Beta. Evar.

And about the Beagle/Toynami heads... it looks to me like the Beagle head is more asian in colouring (pale colour, small features, dark hair) while the Toynami is more "Western" and closer to the cartoon. Personally I like the Toynami colour scheme and the Beagle's sculpt, but that's a minor detail. Who buys a Cyclone toy to look at the MeatBoy inside the armour?

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

Fifbeat: The next MH should be the Dark cannon fodder but there's no release date yet AFAIK.

Edited December 30, 2008 by Lonely Soldier Boy

[EXO]

[miriya]

WOW. Megahouse really did a great job on the face.

[Save]

The MPC head looks like Scott if he was to ever cameo on The Simpsons, that sculpt is hideous.

[QuinJester]

WOW. Megahouse really did a great job on the face.

Megahouse is a whole 'nother basket of chips and didn't do either of those faces.

I like the slightly cartoony look of the Toynami version and the darker visor, but I do think Toynami's mouth is too big. It's BESM, not BEBM . The Beagle's mouth, in comparison, looks too tight lipped and small. Ah well!

In the end, the helmet will be on anyway, so it all kind of becomes moot. Even with the visor up, you wont see the mouth.

[EXO]

It's kinda inbetween except Toynami took it to a weird extreme.

[Einherjar]

The Toynami mouth is kind of big. Maybe the face was made from his Shadow Chronicles design.

[justvinnie]

The Toynami mouth is kind of big. Maybe the face was made from his Shadow Chronicles design.

Neither sculpt is bad or good IMO. I just notice the giraffe necks. Its just not right.

vinnie

[Guvava]

So does the Toynami come with the beagle head as well? Looks like that one sits down better on the neck, too bad there's a ginormous screw hole in the side, but it's not too big a deal. Can't wait for these to come out. For the first time the bike has a proper front headlight and the inset rear taillight is a really nice touch.

Edited December 31, 2008 by Guvava

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

Double Post. The post below is the good one.

Edited December 31, 2008 by Lonely Soldier Boy

[Lonely Soldier Boy]

It seems to me that Tommy Yune was trying to sculpt the head on his own style. I don't think he gives a damn for anime accuracy.

[Guvava]

Yeah it does looks a lot like the Shadow Chronicles Scott Bernard, but not exactly. I think if the beagle sculpt had a little less jaw bone, then the head wouldn't be so round and would look a bit closer to the anime Stick.

[Mog]

For you "sick freaks" out there , there is a way to link the Alpha and the Beta in double-battloid mode.

It's a little bit of a cheat, but you'll get the idea from the following post (as well as some embarassment for even thinking of doing a double-battloid!!): Post Linky.

Enjoy!

EDIT: Regarding the two Stig/Scott heads, I'd have to see how the Beagle head looks with the helmet on before I make a final judgement. But I'd lean more towards the Beagle head. Not a fan of the blue hair, and I kinda prefer my Stig/Scott with a more brooding/angry face.

Edited December 31, 2008 by Mog

[RavenHawk]

I prefer the more brooding face too. I know it's a cartoon, but I still don't like my cartoons too cartoony...

It is true that I, like most people here, will probably leave the helmet on almost all of the time. I just feel, for $200, it should be perfect, and I know this head sculpt is going to bug me.

[rdenham]

I hope the screw hole had to be placed on the side of the neck; otherwise it was a huge oversight to not place it on the back of the neck were it could have been hidden better.

Edited December 31, 2008 by rdenham

[Vermillion21]

I'm leaning towards the Beagle version ... but in the end, price difference will likely determine which version I buy.

[AcroRay]

I hope the screw hole had to be placed on the side of the neck; otherwise it was a huge oversight to not place it on the back of the neck were it could have been hidden better.

Looks like the neck is 2 parts - right & left - so the screw would need to be on the side.

A simple plug would have solved the cosmetic problem, though. Perhaps one will come with the final version? Or a sticker to cover it? (As is done in some of Bandai's SOCs.)

[gilermo]

The Toynami version looks like one of those drag-queen aliens from Project A-KO.

Guess it's gonna be helmets on for this version

[fifbeat]

Fifbeat: The next MH should be the Dark cannon fodder but there's no release date yet AFAIK.

Thank you.

Someone needs to get all the head shots of ALL the ride armors, size them the same, and put them next to each other. That would be interesting.

[Black Valkyrie]

Bart ! B-A-R-T !!! GET MY CYCLONE !

[RD Blade]

I'm not too keen on either head. They're both recognizable as Scott/Stick, yet both lack something. A cross between the two would probably have been ideal.

[RavenHawk]

Ok, so my package from Robotech.com arrived yesterday, containing a blue Beta, the Shadow Alpha, and the two Mars Barse mugs.

I didn't have much time to mess around with everything last night, but here are my initial impressions:

Mugs:

The one that didn't arrive broken is really nice, though the label on the bottom that says that California law requires them to tell me that it coontains substances which has been found to be carcinogenic really isn;t as reassuring as your might think. Guess I won't be eating that mug.

Now I have to find out whether it will be expensive enough to ship back the broken mug where I should just glue it together instead.

Alpha & Beta:

These are my first Toynami products, so some of the commments below may seem like old news to people here.

Shadow Alpha:

Very nice and heavy, feeling lots of diecast. Feels like it SHOULD be sturdy. That's pretty much it for the pros.

For the cons:

1) I can't get the arms to fully extend

2) Can't get the landing gear to stay deployed

3) Cannot get it to transform back to fighter mode. It seems like the legs/lower limb assembly just won't slide back enough to let the arms lock in with the legs without the arms having to be extended, plus the entire front of the fighter seems to be angled down strangely. Nothing really seems to lock into place to any real degree. Am I doing something wrong? Any advice?

Beta:

This thing is nice. I am very impressed. Very solid, and I LOVE the transformation. Yes, I know it's simple, but everything locks into place so nicely, and stays there. Yes, the legs are loose, but it still stands up and holds position, so it's not really more than a minor annoyance. The cockpit doesn't seem to fully close, and the gap under/behind it in fighter mode is kind of noticable, but again, not a big deal. In general, I really like this one and wish that the alpha was up to the same standards.

Alpha & Beta together:

First of all, I opened the Alpha first, and was actually surprised by how small it is. Maybe it's because it's my first time paying so much for essentially a toy, but I expected something bigger. Now, putting the Beta next to it, after I had opened the Alpha, really impressed me. The larger size is fantastic, just what I wanted to see (and what I heard the CM's were missing, which kind of sealed it for me on getting the Toynami instead).

I do have some complaints however.

1) The stand is just way too flimsy. Yes, it holds everything well, but is so weak that the GORGEOUS Alpha/Beta combo tilts and swivels around a good bit, just because of the stand flexing.

2) The connecting boom between the Alpha and Beta, both in fighter modes, doesn't lock into either one! It just slides into the Beta, but doesn't lock, no press fit or anything. It just freely slides in and out. On the Alpha, it just kind of cups the Alpha, but again, doesn't really hold onto anything. Pretty much any position but on the display stand, and the two fall apart!

3) There is a big gap between the Alpha and Beta. The Alpha doesn't slide all the way back into where the Beta has recesses to fit Alpha, so they don't really look like one larger craft, just like two separate ones barely touching in a couple spots.

Again, am I doing something wrong here?

[CoryHolmes]

In my brief time with my Beta toy I found that speading the Alpha's feet/thrusters, recessing the "connection points" beside the Beta's missle bays, and having the Alpha cupped on the stand and then sliding the two together gets me the closest fit. Still not as perfect as the anime, but that's to be expected.

The Alpha's arms are supposed to fit into those recessed connection points and mine comes pretty darn close to it. Sadly the combined fighter doesn't look quite as cool as it does on the show

[AcroRay]

3) Cannot get it to transform back to fighter mode. It seems like the legs/lower limb assembly just won't slide back enough to let the arms lock in with the legs without the arms having to be extended, plus the entire front of the fighter seems to be angled down strangely. Nothing really seems to lock into place to any real degree. Am I doing something wrong? Any advice?

The problem is probably that the inner torso isn't collapsing together enough (which causes the 'banana' shape problem, I believe), or that the upper and lower legs aren't collapsing together enough, and are jamming up when they slide together. To secure the fighter form, you have to get the tabs on the thing's "groin" to lock into the slots behind the collapsed knees, and for the arms to lock into the little sockets on the leg surfaces.

My Rook Alpha had the same issue with the left-side leg & shoulder jamming up, so I took the Rook's left leg apart to find out what the deal was:

On the interior surface of the halves of the lower left leg (and presumably the shoulder), I found a channel where the upper leg travels, sliding with a poly-cap. One of the halves' poly cap and channel was gummed up with some stray paint or some glue (I forget which), so I had to clean it up carefully a bit with a hobby knife. To get the leg apart you have to leaver out a couple of plugs which hide the screws. It wasn't a problem on mine to do it with a fresh, sharp hobby knife blade but it did leave a tiny bit of a blemish on one. Your mileage may vary depending on how well your's is assembled. (When you put them back in, be careful with the one on the lower most area of the leg. I think its angled to fit in flush a certain way, iirc.) Its a little tricky, so be careful keeping all of your dis-assembled parts straight. I've done this sort of thing to tweak a lot of transforming toys over the year, from TF's to Yamato Valks.

I found a similar issue seems to occur with the way the bicep telescopes out of the Alpha's shoulder. But in that case I think its just that the tolerances on the joint is just universally tight in the toy's design. The shoulder is glued together, if I recall. (I'm at work now, so no handy reference). My advice is to just firmly grasp the shoulder with one hand and the uppermost portion of the bicep with the other hand, and carefully extend it as far as it will go (us a picture on-line, or compare to the other shoulder's extension), and maybe do it a couple of times to wear some play into the slider. Your concerns there are to not inadvertently damage the swing-bar and hinge that connects the arm assembly to the torso/fuselage, and to not strain or break the mid-bicep swivel joint.

Another issue you might want to be careful with is the hatches on the leg missile bays. Their joints tend to get painted closed, and can break easily (well, I had one that did) because they're a tiny snap-together part, and both the door and hinge are molded in transparent plastic and painted (probably the same tooling set as the canopy parts). Why? The transparent plastic tends to be very rigid and holds the very fine tolerances for the part through demolding rather well, but the transparent plastic also tends to be brittle and will snap easily. So many teenie parts make up this thing!

I'd venture to say that the telescoping limb elements and center torso block are the most likely source of challenges with the Legioss design. If any single one doesn't work, the whole thing is affected. That's the big difference between the Legioss and the typical Valkyrie, I think. The Valkyrie is made up of folds and hinges - rather like a piece of origami. The Legioss is made from telescoping parts and hinges - more like a photography tripod. If you've ever wrestled with a complex tripod (like a heavier Vinten or Sachler cinematography tripod and head) that's jamming up or failing to lock anywhere in its structure, you know what a huge pain-in-the-a55 it can be to set up or stow away. You can say "Oh, these sticks are crap." but you still have to get them to do their job.

Sounds like your Sterling Alpha is buggy typical of an Alpha MPC. I've had that landing gear issue on a wheel or two on my Alphas (and on a Yamato Valk or two.) Mine are usually in Soldier, Diver or 'Stalking Fighter' mode, so I haven't had the motivation to debug them of it. My suspicion is that its a poly-cap issue again. That maybe the axle pin in the strut is glued into the poly cap in a closed position, so the cap's natural elasticity wants to pull the axle and strut back to a closed position. Or alternately that the poly cap isn't giving enough resistance to keep it from folding in on itself under the weight of the jet. I'd say just buy a Flexi-Display stand for it. They take up a lot of shelf-space in jet mode. If its in the air, you can display more stuff around it!

[AcroRay]

Mugs:

The one that didn't arrive broken is really nice, though the label on the bottom that says that California law requires them to tell me that it contains substances which has been found to be carcinogenic really isn;t as reassuring as your might think.

That's REALLY disturbing. I'd wanted a set of those mugs to actually drink out of. Now I absolutely think I'll pass...

[jenius]

I think your problems with transformation are mostly to do with the bugginess of the design. I remember my first attempts to transform that toy back into fighter mode... it seemed like the fight of a lifetime. After I'd done it about 4 or 5 times I started to learn how I should hold it at certain points, what areas of the toy could cause problems if not alligned perfectly, etc. Just remember, if it started out that way it can get back to that way. If it's the rear landing gears that are frustrating you by not staying up you're probably not pushing them far enough forward... they actually lock into place at some point (IIRC). If your combined Alpha Beta doesn't look as tight as pictures you've seen elsewhere then you're doing something wrong.

EDIT - AcroRay, that's a CA state law and I remember hearing that it was really all smoke and mirrors and that the mugs with those labels are essentially the same as any other mug. Might be wrong, but that's what I was told.

Edited December 31, 2008 by jenius