04.04.08

MegaHouse 1/15 Ride Armors

Posted in 1/15, Cyclone/Ride Armor, MOSPEADA/RT New Gen, Mega House at 3:08 am by micronian

 

Review: More Modern Mospeada

 

If you’re hoping to find an extensive comparison of the CMs and Mega House toys here I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. I had way too many pictures for one post so first I’m going to review the Mega House on it’s own merits and then do a third post that pits the two toys against each other. Look for my Showdown post before the month is through.

 

Packaging & Extras (3.5/5)
Toynami has signed on to distribute this MegaHouse product to the states so some boxes feature Toynami stickers on them. At the NY Toy Fare Toynami seemed to imply that the toys would make there way to the US in English packaging (which would make me think Robotech packaging) in the coming weeks. If this holds true, you US readers may do well to sit back and read all the reviews you want on these toys while patiently awaiting their true American release instead of paying all those hefty import costs. The packaging itself is fair without any collector’s gimmicks like panels that open up and the bike itself is prominently displayed in a window. Once the box is opened the instructions are hidden behind a cardboard tray and the toy is tucked tightly in a vacuum-formed plastic tray which is all pretty par for the course these days. Extras included are several fixed-posed hands (Stig has one hand that features his trademark big-ass gun), a helmet-less head, a tiny piece of plastic shaped like a ‘C’ that is actually a kickstand, and a display stand (Ray’s ride armor also comes with supply boxes on sprues, a frame to attach them to the bike, and supplies for inside the boxes for the at-home hobbyists). You won’t get decals with any of the import releases unless you’re very lucky, apparently the decals were something handed out separately at select retailers. That sweet Mint (aka Annie) figure that was shown at some Mega House displays is not included with either figure.

 

Charm & Collectability (3/5)
There’s no pretense of diecast here, they have less than perfect transformation, and they look like they should be far more plentiful if Toynami really does start distributing these to the US. Otherwise, the Ride Armor is a pretty unique beast and toys of it seem to generate quite a bit of interest.
 

Sculpt, Detail, and Paint (8/10)
Mega House (wisely) chose to go with a more “military-looking” color as opposed to the more traditional “seafoam” of previous Mospeada releases. Unfortunately, Mega House also skimped a bit on the tampo although there still is enough to make most collectors not lament the lack of decals too much. The wheels/tires look out of proportion, like they were stolen from a smaller scale toy. It seems Mega House realized this themselves as their prototype Yellow Belmont model shown in Japan had larger tires. The Ray and Stig figures are somewhat motley with big black joints, too long necks, and somewhat strange physiques/proportions (pictured above). None of these complaints are huge though, everything looks very good overall but the strongest showing, by far, is this toy in Armor mode. There is one weak point in the appearance of the armor mode though, the back of the bike doesn’t transform as tightly as it should (shouldn’t the legs be a touch longer and the arms maybe a touch shorter?).

 

Design (5.5/10)
This toy is small but it’s larger enough where a little more complexity could have been utilized. The most obvious, nearly funny, example of this comes in the form of Ray’s gun on his ride armor. Rather than making the gauntlet separate from the front wheel and then attach to the forearm you need to separate the gun from the gauntlet, put that in his hand, then take a separate piece from the box that simulates the rest of the gauntlet and attach that to the forearm. It’s minor but it’s lazy. Parts-forming is what this toy is all about. Check out the pic for below for a not so untypical transformation (black arrows point to parts that are only in one mode, yellow arrows point to parts that don’t necessarily have to be detached). Yes, you do have to pop the rider’s head off to transform him into bike mode. Some of the parts don’t attach as securely as they ought to, some of the mechanisms that should slide get stuck, it’s not uncommon for tabs to become unseated, and overall it just seems like Mega House sought out to find the easiest means for creating an accurate-looking transformable ride armor. Simplicity can be quite sweet but even with all that parts-forming I don’t think anyone would call this toy simple so really it ends up being a bit of a weak compromise. When the toy has been transformed its attachment to the rider figure is a bit precarious and it’s very difficult to pose the armor-mode figure without using the stand. Now you might think that this is just something inherent in the Ride Armor design but it’s worse than that, even the figure without the armor attached is a bit awkwardly balanced.

 

Durability & Build (6/10)
This isn’t a sturdy toy but with some careful handling you can make it work and not be too concerned with it. There have been a few complaints that fall outside the realm of owners control. One Japanese blogger received his Ride Armor with two front connecting rods (the ones that attach to the wheel), on Macrossworld two forum posters received toys that lacked the plugs that attach the hip armor, and on my own toys there was mild white paint over-spray that caused some of the pieces to stick together a bit much. The tab the hip armor attaches to in bike mode appears stress-marked on both my toys which is a little frightening (first pic below). Once handling the toy you should be aware that everything can fall apart fairly easily which may lead to you spending some quality time trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Of special concern to me were the two little, tiny, black pieces that the chest armor swivel on. In order to transform the toy you have to split the chest armor apart but splitting them frequently causes the attachments to become unseated and for the entire front end of the bike to pop apart. When the sides of the bike pop off that could be doom for those tiny black pieces that keep the chest armor attached (orange arrows in picture below) as finding them could be nearly impossible (I’m 2/2 luckily). When manipulating the transformed figure it seems that the visor may be easy to break, treat that part with caution.

 

Articulation (7.5/10)
This toy is not well balanced and the stand doesn’t offer a whole lot of flexibility. I would encourage you to hunt around for an aftermarket stand as the one included here sucks. You might have heard the MH stand allows for some cool flying poses… don’t be too fooled by this. The implementation of the flying pose attachment is all sorts of poor. If the weight of the figure is leaning to either side the attachment to the stand becomes unseated and the figure falls. If you opt for MH’s backpack assist attachment instead you’ll probably just end up using the stand as a prop since any dynamic posing will move the backpack from its area of support. There’s one crucial swivel also missing in the arms which is the reason why the Ray figure needs to cheat when it comes to his arm attachment.

 

Total Score (33.5/50)
This is another toy I don’t see particularly bowling anyone over. It’s decent, it’s fun, but it has lots of room for improvement. I’ll pit it against the other new Ride Armor release, CMs 1/18 scale, in another post very soon. In the meantime, my advice is to take your time deciding which one you want. Beagle and Toynami are working on a larger scale toy which seems to have a lot of potential. Patience may pay off two-fold with the Mega House toys since Toynami may flood the US market with them giving you the chance to pick them up at a bargain bin and you can watch the development of the larger scale toy and maybe just save up for that instead. Also note that Mega House is showing a prototype of Yellow Belmont’s ride armor that looks like it might have some slight improvements and rumor has it that Houquet will follow shortly thereafter.

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