04.15.07
Gakken 1/20(ish) Transformable Ride Armors
Review: The toy that could make you suicidal
Packaging & Extras (3.5/5)
This toy is available in no less than four different packagings. You can get the original Gakken of Japan packaging which, I assume, includes a version of this toy that is made in Japan and may have some slight differences from the Singapore version reviewed here. Gakken of Japan offerings come in boxes that usually contain almost no English writing and prominently display the Genesis Climber Mospeada name. Another box that’s available is Henshin Robo variety that appears to be amongst the most prolific. Henshin Robos are Singapore made toys. Another common option would be the Robotech-branded version of this toy which is an exact repacking of the Henshin Robo product. The final version is a gift-set (pictured) which is also a product of Singapore but this version comes bundled with Gakken’s 1/72 Legioss toy. All versions of these toys, regardless of box or which character’s ride armor you purchase, will come with a black scope piece, a gun, decals, and instructions.
Charm & Collectibility (2/5) + 1 for Giftset & Japanese versions
You might be wondering why the teaser for this review references suicide. From my years of collecting I have seen these terrible toys sell for ridiculous quantities of cash. My assumption is that many of these ultra high selling prices were fostered by confused buyers who thought these toys were anything remotely like the much bigger, and MUCH better, Gakken 1/8 scale toy. Anyone who shelled out the kind of money that could buy the 1/8 toy for one of these roughly 1/20 toys is going to have some serious self-hatred to deal with for a little while. For those that do know what they’re purchasing, the Japanese version of the toy is slightly more sought after as is the case with all Gakken products. In this particular instance though, I’m not sure there’s any difference at all between the Singapore version and the Japan version, I only have Singapore samples and I can’t imagine a toy this small having anything that shoots. The gift-set is also a bit tougher to come by and it offers two toys in one.
Sculpt, detail, & Paint (4/10)
In motorcycle mode this toy doesn’t to a horrific job of emulating the bikes from the show. I give Gakken credit for doing more than a simple re-color. The bikes do feature quasi-correct front sections rather than being squared-off cookie-cutters of Stig’s/Scott’s 52. Sadly,the figure that rides the bike is a horrific rendition of the characters from the show and features pieces of the ride armor at all times rather than the standard armor. When the bike is actually transformed it sorta folds in half to become a giant back pack that isn’t believable at all.
Design (4/10)
I really don’t get what the makers of this toy were going for. It seems like it would have been very easy to make just a few pieces of this toy removeable to make it similar to the vehicle from the show. Unfortunately it seems like some huge importance was placed on keeping this toy a “perfect transformation” toy and boy does it ever suffer as a result. What makes even less sense is that you do have to remove the engine from the toy to transform it so it isn’t even perfect transformation anyway. The armor actually requires a hook to keep it attached in armor mode.
Durability & Build (6/10)
To be fair, these are very old toys now so the rigidity of the plastic seems to be going which isn’t something I could ever see coming on brand new toys. My toys feel frail. Any peg on the toy seems proned to breaking including the ones necessary for holding guns and the ones that keep the front shocks attached to the handle bar area. The arms are pretty easy to dislocate.
Articulation (3/10)
The wheels move in bike mode. The head turns, the shoulders and hips rotate, and the knee bends. Once the ride armor is attached the toy can pretty much just stand. In bike mode the rider looks uncomfortable at best. This toy really just isn’t good for any sort of display beyond a static pose (I recommend the rider standing next to the bike).
Total Score (22.5/50) + 1 for Giftset & Japanese versions
Don’t buy these toys unless you’re an absolute Mospeada completist; they’re honestly quite lousy. Save your money and some day purchase Gakken’s 1/8 Ride Armor as that’s easily worth the additional cost. If anyone wants to help, I could use pics of the other packaging, drop me a line at micronian_ace@anymoon.com. Thanks!
Grand Admiral said,
June 30, 2007 at 1:40 am
I had the dark blue one back in the 80s. The pegs broke on the hands then too. :\
This was one of my transforming toys that really didn’t get much play because it was so crappy.
Heli said,
April 2, 2009 at 5:56 pm
I also had the blue one.
One thing I don’t see referenced at all in the review, though, is that the centerline armor section can be removed from the rider figure. Nothing you can do about the hips, but you can at least make the chest look a little bit more correct.
Of course, with increased vintage fragility, I could see not wanting to risk it, as it does require flexing the piece a little. There’s a peg in the torso somewhere and a peg in the underside of the crotch, if I recall correctly. It’s been many years since I actually held this toy.