02.08.08

Aoshima New Century Alloy 1/48 Legioss

Posted in 1/48, 1/55, Alpha/Legioss, Aoshima, MOSPEADA/RT New Gen, Toynami at 1:32 am by micronian

 

Review: It’s not (entirely) a Toynami MPC

 

 

Packaging & Extras: (4/5)
The packaging is slick enough but you won’t get full collector’s regalia like you did with the Toynami MPC. Don’t expect a flap that opens to reveal a window showing off the toy or an inner cardboard tray. Instead you get a thin plastic tray that strives for nothing more than serving its purpose. The same can be said for the instruction manual which is black&white and the same for any of the various versions. The decals seem to be a carry over from the Toynami MPCs meaning they look excellent with the only difference I see being some new Genesis Climber stickers. So, you won’t get the nice box or nice instructions that you’d get with a Toynami MPC but you will get two new missile clusters that can be attached underneath the chest intakes. As you can see in the picture below, you still get the pilot figure, shoulder-mount, and collapsed ride armor piece of plastic.

 

Charm & Collectability: (2.5/5)
Stateside, at least, more people will clamor for the Robotech version of this toy than the Aoshima. This might have changed if the Aoshima was the promised improvement over the Toynami MPC but it fails to deliver in some big ways. Instead the average consumer will look at this as an uglied Alpha thanks to the dedication of representing a toy version of Imai’s old model kit (that’s where the missiles underneath the intakes and third missile cluster come from).  The missiles under the intake are removeable though and if you can get yourself past the center missile pod then this might meet your needs. The gun can also be attached to that center missile pod in the back or under the wing like the MPCs have them. There are so many rumors about these toys being defective that it’s hard to think they’ll ever be in huge demand. It was rumored this toy was so badly built that Aoshima called off the matching Tread Toynami was supposed to build for them. Tommy Yune later spread word that the rumor was overblown and that it was simply an issue of which factory in China would be used for the matching Tread. At any rate, I don’t see the Tread or MPC Beta up for preorder anywhere so only time will tell. Now, let’s clear up some confusion. Aoshima markets this toy as its 1/48 Legioss but most of you will see it’s practically identical to Toynami’s 1/55 Alpha. What gives? The scales are wrong. These are essentially the same toy and since the true scale of the toy (in soldier mode) is somewhere between 1/48 and 1/55 it left both companies able to simply label it whatever they wanted. Below are some pics showing how large a 1/48ish Legioss would be standing next to a 1/48 VF-1 (I think Toynami is closer to right calling this a 1/55, especially when one compares pilot figures).

 

Sculpt, Detail, & Paint: (7.5/10)
Everything about these toys is brighter than the Toynami MPCs right down to the guns. If anything is the same it might be the little pilot figures. So, if you like a more cartoony-looking Legioss then here it is! There’s a bit of a matte quality to the paint which I didn’t find all that attractive in a few parts. Personally, I’m one of those people who views that third missle pod as a derivation from line art so it kind of annoys me. Otherwise this toy is pretty consistent in paint and look with the MPC. The picture below demonstrates the differences between this and the MPC, first the missiles under the intake and the deleted seam on the hips, to the right the different finish to the guns, below that is an examination of the center missile pod.  The series of pictures below that are comparisons of the MPCs to the Aoshimas.

 

Design: (7/10)
At first I was positively frightened. Somebody was taking the Toynami MPC and making it slightly more complicated in the hopes of building a better toy. The last thing this toy needed was someone trying to make it do more. Fortunately, the ratcheting hips work and work well! The removal of the seam on the upper thighs was also nice. The under intake missiles fit well, can be easily removed, and stay in place well enough. I don’t know how it happened but my green and red Legioss toys sit WELL off the ground with their landing gears deployed in comparison to my Toynami MPCs which had only the tiniest bit of clearance. There are some issues though and I don’t know if it’s just me but feel free to leave a comment on this and help me clear things up. First, none of the right arms on my toys seem to extend as far as the left arms. The difference is very minor as the pics will show but it kind of caught me off guard while transforming it. Second, I can’t get the wings to be inset like I can on the Toynami MPC. Pushing the wings in while in fighter mode really cleans up the fighter mode’s appearance on the MPC and keeps them from moving around so much when handled. I tried to wiggle them in on my Aoshima Legioss and they just wouldn’t go anywhere. You would also think that by now Toynami would be building these toys so that the forearm missiles were prominently displayed but no luck there.

 

Durability & Build: (4/10)
You would think this would be an improvement over the Toynami MPC but it’s not. The rumor for that is that Toynami couldn’t use the factory it would normally go to so Aoshima recommended a different one and that different one wasn’t really up to the task. At any rate, there have been some real horror stories relating to these toys ranging from warped parts, pieces of plastic rattling around inside the toys, horrible paint flaws, chipped paint, unglued parts, and just about every other issue you can imagine. For my part, I bought three in one crack and don’t have any huge deal breaker problems. Of serious concern to all of you looking to pick up a blue one since you never managed to grab a Scott MPC is that of the three blue ones I’ve seen now all three of them had the piece of plastic that serves as a neck attached by the factory backward (as pictured below). This is a BIG problem as it means the head wobbles in soldier mode and worse, it keeps the nose section in fighter mode from being able to come sufficiently down. I tried to demonstrate below and you can see the effect on fighter mode in the side profiles shown above. This adds to that “arched back” perception that was so rampant with the Toynami MPC toys and means the head will always look funny underneath the nose of the craft. Yeah, that sucks. Another common problem is shoddy glue work and over-applied paint freezing parts up. On a toy you already know to be fragile there’s nothing quite so scary as breaking a part free of excess paint. The excess glue issue, especially on areas where there’s a bit of that bright matte paint finish, may cause a real glossy effect that can be pretty annoying. The crotch vent on my green Legioss appears to have either missed the gluing process or broken free during shipping. That’s an easy fix but who wants to open a toy only to have to fix it? Speaking of the crotch vents, none of the vents on my toys seemed to move freely like they do on the MPCs but that doesn’t appear to affect much. The hands on the original MPC were a major weak point and I honestly can’t say how much they’ve improved. They feel firmer and stiffer but it seems like they might be painted which can cause a whole new set of issues. I still would recommend avoiding fiddling with them very much at all. One last build issue, all of the removeable chest pieces with the triangle were installed upside down on my toys, they just need to be removed and reinserted right-side-up.  So, with all that bad is there any good? Yes. While I see no reason to believe this toy is built any better in any other way I did find all of my Aoshima toys to have nice tight arms. Does that mean after four more transformations they won’t be completely loose though? I can’t say and hope to never find out. The only area that I can see that looks like a reaction to the Toynami MPC releases is that the hinge behind the cockpit is no longer painted the color of the toy. On the MPCs this was painted and that paint was easy to chip away.

 

Articulation: (7/10)
There’s no reason to expect you could articulate this toy any better than a Toynami MPC and you can’t. It’s also no worse. I suppose you could have fun doing something with that awkward third missile pod but I thought it looked best just being tucked out of the way. An average score makes these (the Aoshima and MPC) the best Legioss/Alpha toys out there to pose. Hopefully someday someone builds a 1/35 scale that’s even more fun.

Total Score: (32/50)
Savvy readers might remember that I gave the Toynami MPC a 34.5/50 so where did Aoshima lose its points? The Aoshima doesn’t come in as nice a package, it doesn’t promise to be as collectable, and I felt the MPC was a better representation of the vehicle from the shows. Some of those points might be pretty trivial to you and if they are this can be a pretty decent replacement. The sad news is that the durability and build don’t appear to have been improved. While my red Aoshima seems to be an improvement over my Rook MPC my green MPC and blue MPC seem preferable to Aoshima’s efforts. Yet again Toynami hits us with an effort that seems to fall far short of its potential and this time it’s being sold under the name of a company with a strong reputation which is bound to tick a lot of people off. So, if you have an MPC already, no need to get one of these. If you don’t own the MPC and are now feeling the itch for Legioss/Alpha toy I say go ahead and buy one but do yourself a favor, buy it from a place that accepts returns. Also, don’t ever think of this thing as a toy. This is a completed model and should be handled as gingerly as you would a variable model (um, except when you’re breaking parts free of over-gluing or excess paint). If you’re just a moderate transformable plane collector look for something else, there are much better toys out there.

Permalink