Mospeada

[danth]

Story time.

Somewhere around 1990, I was at the supermarket in my hometown in California, and on the way out, I saw mother-f***ing MOSPEADA gashapon figures in the gumball machine. I knew how impossible it was to find Robotech anything in 1990, so my jaw dropped. My penniless ass had no way of acquiring these other than begging my mom for some quarters, which she immediately declined. No amount of beseechment moved her. I was so pissed! Those toys would have made my year. 

I did find that crappy smallest scale transforming Gakken Legioss & Ride Armor set at an import store a few years later. But honestly those were so bad. I preferred the non-transforming gashapon that at least looked good in a single mode. 

I still, to this day, eye the gumball machines on my way out of the grocery store. I know it's never going to happen, but I can't stop. 

[Big s]

2 hours ago, danth said:

I still, to this day, eye the gumball machines on my way out of the grocery store. I know it's never going to happen, but I can't stop.

I still drive by an old spot that used to be my favorite hobby shop because they would get old school kits from Macross and Dougram and Mospeada and a bunch of other cool stuff I had never seen before. I think it’s unfortunately just a nail salon now, but I still look over to that spot and have my memories of how cool the place used to be back in the day.

[Major Tom]

3 hours ago, danth said:

Story time.

Somewhere around 1990, I was at the supermarket in my hometown in California, and on the way out, I saw mother-f***ing MOSPEADA gashapon figures in the gumball machine. I knew how impossible it was to find Robotech anything in 1990, so my jaw dropped. My penniless ass had no way of acquiring these other than begging my mom for some quarters, which she immediately declined. No amount of beseechment moved her. I was so pissed! Those toys would have made my year. 

I did find that crappy smallest scale transforming Gakken Legioss & Ride Armor set at an import store a few years later. But honestly those were so bad. I preferred the non-transforming gashapon that at least looked good in a single mode. 

I still, to this day, eye the gumball machines on my way out of the grocery store. I know it's never going to happen, but I can't stop. 

are they like this one? 機甲創世記モスピーダ 消しゴムフィギュア - メルカリ

[26662]

26 minutes ago, Major Tom said:

are they like this one? 機甲創世記モスピーダ 消しゴムフィギュア - メルカリ

That li'l guy looks pretty cool. 

[danth]

2 hours ago, Big s said:

I still drive by an old spot that used to be my favorite hobby shop because they would get old school kits from Macross and Dougram and Mospeada and a bunch of other cool stuff I had never seen before. I think it’s unfortunately just a nail salon now, but I still look over to that spot and have my memories of how cool the place used to be back in the day.

I feel that. There are so many places with memories of what used to be. The world I grew up with is gone.

1 hour ago, Major Tom said:

are they like this one? 機甲創世記モスピーダ 消しゴムフィギュア - メルカリ

It was a long time ago but I specifically remember different colored parts, like red and yellow, within a single figure. These are the best candidates I can find:

[Major Tom]

Ok, I believe the one you saw in the machine are plastic copy of the Gakken mini diecast figure line (2.5")  there are 3 types shown on back of the box.

[danth]

1 hour ago, Major Tom said:

Ok, I believe the one you saw in the machine are plastic copy of the Gakken mini diecast figure line (2.5")  there are 3 types shown on back of the box.

Could be! I figured it might be some bootleg from who knows where. I do specifically remember it had the thigh armor as a separate piece. Which seemed too engineered for a capsule toy.

[Big s]

6 hours ago, Major Tom said:

Ok, I believe the one you saw in the machine are plastic copy of the Gakken mini diecast figure line (2.5")  there are 3 types shown on back of the box.

A friend is f mine had a couple of these that he scored at a swap meet before they became temu junk stops. I was always a little jealous that he found them 

[Black Valkyrie]

 

https://www.taghobby.com/archives/911565 

 

 

[m0n5t3r]

22 minutes ago, Black Valkyrie said:

 

https://www.taghobby.com/archives/911565 

 

 

A.I. unmanned drone? Or like a super robot where the pilot in inside the head. Cue "...and I'll form the head!"

Liking the colors but wish there was less white and more black.

Edited Monday at 10:04 AM by m0n5t3r

[Black Valkyrie]

 

You know I tempting to order it, once the pre-order is open.  ☺️ 

 

[Mog]

Yep, the drone looks like a Transformers toy now.

Big ol’ thick box with some wings strapped to it.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

[WhatBoutMyStar]

Between the forward swept wings plus the head placement on top in fighter mode with the head laser/fin sticking out and the guns on a hinge like a mission pack, it kind of reminds me of a VF-31. Not totally sold on this line yet but looking forward to seeing the reviews after they're released.

[RavenHawk]

10 hours ago, m0n5t3r said:

A.I. unmanned drone? Or like a super robot where the pilot in inside the head. Cue "...and I'll form the head!"

My understanding is that these are meant to be drones, based on some of the bits of interviews from the designers that have come out.

[jenius]

We haven't seen fighter yet right? Does the drone talk mean it doesn't have a cockpit? 

[m0n5t3r]

2 hours ago, jenius said:

We haven't seen fighter yet right? Does the drone talk mean it doesn't have a cockpit? 

It's in the 3-mode promo pic @Black Valkyrie posted above. The head IS the cockpit. IIRC, the old drone had no head and still had what looked like a cockpit/canopy shape in fighter.

Edited Monday at 11:41 PM by m0n5t3r

[Big s]

2 hours ago, jenius said:

We haven't seen fighter yet right? Does the drone talk mean it doesn't have a cockpit? 

In the pics, there’s no visible canopy. I’m guessing either it’s armored or like everyone is saying that it’s just a drone

[jenius]

8 minutes ago, m0n5t3r said:

It's in the 3-mode promo pic @Black Valkyrie posted above. The head IS the cockpit. IIRC, the old drone had no head and still had what looked like a cockpit/canopy shape in fighter.

Oh wow, yep it's right there. I do love all the experimentation going on. Some of these experiments will land better than others but I'm down to scoop them all up.

[danth]

Why do these gotta be so weird? The crazy colors, the weird wings, and goofy giant guns together is too much.

White, black, red, and yellow are a lot of high contrast colors on one mecha. Is this Gundam? How about we do the normal black & grey stealth Legioss colors for starters?

The "head for a cockpit" thing is interesting, and reminiscent of the drone Legioss, but combined with the strange wingtips and huge cannons and crazy colors, this is pretty far removed from any familiar Mospeada design. I want to like these but they aren't meeting me half way. 

And maybe spend some time figuring out how to get some clearance for the landing gear before designing another freakish variant?

[M'Kyuun]

On 2/27/2026 at 9:11 AM, danth said:

Story time.

Somewhere around 1990, I was at the supermarket in my hometown in California, and on the way out, I saw mother-f***ing MOSPEADA gashapon figures in the gumball machine. I knew how impossible it was to find Robotech anything in 1990, so my jaw dropped. My penniless ass had no way of acquiring these other than begging my mom for some quarters, which she immediately declined. No amount of beseechment moved her. I was so pissed! Those toys would have made my year. 

I did find that crappy smallest scale transforming Gakken Legioss & Ride Armor set at an import store a few years later. But honestly those were so bad. I preferred the non-transforming gashapon that at least looked good in a single mode. 

I still, to this day, eye the gumball machines on my way out of the grocery store. I know it's never going to happen, but I can't stop. 

 

On 2/27/2026 at 11:27 AM, Big s said:

I still drive by an old spot that used to be my favorite hobby shop because they would get old school kits from Macross and Dougram and Mospeada and a bunch of other cool stuff I had never seen before. I think it’s unfortunately just a nail salon now, but I still look over to that spot and have my memories of how cool the place used to be back in the day.

I envy you guys that Macross and Mospeada stuff was existing within your sphere of availability. I grew up in a podunk town in north, slightly-west of central PA where there was very little of either, not much in the way of anime inspired stuff to speak of. We did have Transformers in relative abundance, though. I remember well-stocked shelves in the dept stores in the larger towns around ours. Our little five-and-dime carried them, too, but not in any kind of abundance, although my grandparents did buy G1 Ratchet for me there. In terms of Mospeada, one of several of our large dept stores the next town over carried the Monogram Gobots models, which were actually the Legioss (Leader-1) and the Ride Armor (Cy-Kill). I knew they weren't actually Gobots, as I was familiar with those toys, but that Legioss struck a chord and I bought it. That kit blew my mind- it had articulation far beyond anything I'd experienced thus far with any Transformers toy, its transformation was complex and brilliantly executed, and the thing just bristled with details all over, even fully retractable landing gear with real rubber tires. It was a masterpiece and I did a hasty and poor job of assembling it, having had very little experience building models up until that time. Unfortunately, the pegs that held the legs on were only plastic (should've been die-cast to better handle the various stresses) and one of them snapped off. To add insult to injury, my puppy somehow got ahold of the thing and chewed on the nose. I was really bummed about the whole situation, as for years, that model was the single most amazing transforming robot toy I'd ever owned- nothing compared for a long time. This was probably around '85 or so for reference. I never saw Robotech as a kid- it never aired on any of our channels, and if it did, I never caught it or I'd likely have been hooked like so many other Westerners. So Mospeada was unknown to me. That old Legioss model was my only brush with it, and it was at least a decade or more before I learned of its actual origin. When Toynami released their Masterpiece Legioss toys, I bought the Scott Bernard Alpha, so happy to finally have a good-looking transformable toy to replace that old model. But, over time, mine suffered the same egregious issues that plagued that toyline and today it just stands in battroid on my desk, with too many issues to really transform safely anymore. In that context, Sentinel's Eta was a godsend- just a masterwork of engineering, and I bought the Eta straightaway. It's the only Sentinel Legioss I own, and its being first edition, it suffers from the overly tight shoulders and loose ankles, alas. Still a gorgeous toy, though, and I love it. It blew my mind when it was announced, but now the Pose+ seems to take all the advances of the sentinel toy, taking engineering to 11 with all the opening panels, upscaling, ratchets throughout, a Gundam-esque forward access to the cockpit, and the promise of easier handling than the Sentinel. I'm stoked for it. And then Toyrise busted out their new Legioss line, with the express promise of playablity at the forefront, and some interesting innovations on the design. I'm in for the Omega. It's been a long road from famine to feast with Mospeada Legioss toys, but I'm glad it's happening and that I've enough disposable income to indulge a little in it. I only wish I had more space for it all.

Regarding the black, white, and red "drone" Legioss, I don't mind the color scheme or the pilot-less drone idea, but the big ugly back cannons are doing nothing for me, nor do I like the too-skinny forward swept wings with huge, weird beavertails at the trailing edges. Had they made the wings wider and nixed that beavertail altogether, I think it would've made for a more attractive fighter. In that case, I'd probably have gone for the green one, as I like that color scheme, too, plus the AWACs radome. I just couldn't abide those crappy wings. That said, I'll echo the sentiments for a proper black and grey "low-vis" or stealth look. Too, @danth makes a poignant observation regarding the gear and their dubious ability to support the toy without serious sagging and chest scraping in fighter mode. That should be an early engineering concern with the Legioss due to its design, especially with those hip joints at midships where a bit of sag should be anticipated and remedied. For now, I'm content with my single order of their Omega. I hope it's a fun toy, but for actual quality in design, I'm looking at my Sentinel Eta and, hopefully, the Pose+ to give an overall quality experience in-hand.

 

Gobots Model Kits by Monogram

Edited 50 minutes ago by M'Kyuun

[Big s]

27 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I grew up in a podunk town in north, slightly-west of central PA where there was very little of either, not much in the way of anime inspired stuff to speak of.

I had a friend that grew up around there. He said you had to search the odd spots , kinda like out here with Swapmeets or mom and pop hobby shops. But my understanding was that it was more common on the west coast because troops often brought them back to sell that came from overseas. 
As far as the Robotech show, he said it did air over there, but on a three hour difference. I guess he only discovered the show when he was sick for a week with the flu and the show aired at a ridiculous time when he would normally be in school and unable to watch. I think he said he eventually found a friend that had a vcr to record the show and would watch it over there when he’d stop by.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

Yep those are the kits I had back in the late 80s.   The Toyrise Mospeada will be my main focus this year.  Nothing this year other than it , still waiting for the red variant. 

 

[M'Kyuun]

31 minutes ago, Big s said:

I had a friend that grew up around there. He said you had to search the odd spots , kinda like out here with Swapmeets or mom and pop hobby shops. But my understanding was that it was more common on the west coast because troops often brought them back to sell that came from overseas. 
As far as the Robotech show, he said it did air over there, but on a three hour difference. I guess he only discovered the show when he was sick for a week with the flu and the show aired at a ridiculous time when he would normally be in school and unable to watch. I think he said he eventually found a friend that had a vcr to record the show and would watch it over there when he’d stop by.

TBF, my parents weren't into sci-fi at all (I'm the oddity in the entire family, even extended), and we made few trips out of town. My mom didn't drive, so we were reliant on my dad to take us anywhere, and as recreational interests go, he and my mom were both far more into country-related stuff like county fairs. Can't tell you how many tractor-pulls, cows, pigs, chickens, goats, etc of all breeds and variants I saw as a kid. So, my access to stuff was extremely limited, and of course, there was no internet. There may have been more anime related stuff around, but I had neither the knowledge of nor access to it. Contrarily, my buddy's dad was into sci-fi and it was always a treat to go to his house b/c he was an only child and they bought him all sorts of toys from a range of sci-fi. I was jelly.

Makes sense that the most anime-related toys in the 80s were found near ports and military installations. Unfortunately, we have no major military installations in PA. I only know of the AF Guard unit at the Pittsburgh airport. I did come across a vintage toy store in Pittsburgh where I picked up a G1 Jetfire complete with original box and a G1 Steeljaw. I don't recall any other anime related toys, but back then in the early 00s, my knowledge of anime wasn't as broad. I would've definitely known Macross or Mospeada stuff (or at least recognized a Legioss on sight), but I don't recall seeing any.

As to tv, I think the cable company and the package you chose determined a lot of what you'd see. My future wife lived only an hour north, but she and her brother watched Voltron regularly. I never saw it at any point growing up. Too, one of my closest friends who lived about a five-minute drive from me got Galaxy Rangers clear as a bell on his tv, but I had to arrange rabbit ears on my little B&W tv to get a staticky and barely discernable signal to watch it. So, I think the service had a great deal to do with the programming. We were never well-off, so I think we likely had minimal service. Still, I got to see Transformers, GI Joe, MASK, Thundercats, not to mention all the cartoons on Saturdays (Mighty Orbots, Pole Position, Bionic Six, just to name a few) with clarity, so I still carry a fondness for those days. I feel sad that today's kids don't have that experience. Then again, they have the internet with the glut of availability that it offers, so feeling less sad for them. 😄

Edited 16 minutes ago by M'Kyuun