12.08.08

CMs Brave Gohkin 1/18 Ride Armors (Standard Soldier Limited Editions)

Posted in 1/18, CMs, Cyclone/Ride Armor, MOSPEADA/RT New Gen at 12:24 am by micronian

 

Observations & Critique: Mospeada’s Cannon Fodder

 

The original Ley-Type soldier came in a box with a green sticker that covered the original box’s label and seemed a bit more classy than the Stig-type which just has a green circle applied to the box. Everything with these toys are as you would expect from their standard releases with one exception, the Stig-type comes with a second head. I can only imagine that CMs made a mistake and accidentally put Stig heads on all the figures and realized later it’d be easier to fix by just throwing in a brown-haired Stig head later. The Ley-type comes with a pamphlet warning the owner not to handle the windscreen improperly.

 

I believe the Winter Wonderfest Exclusive Ley-Type Ride Armor is the rarest exclusive Ride Armor to date. Only 100 of these were available and, if my understanding is correct, the Stig-type will be available in a quantity of 100 at three separate events for a total of 300. I’m a huge Mospeada fan and really like these figures but with so much competition for Ride Armor toys right now I’m guessing many people will have no problem over-looking these.

 

What sets the Standard Ride Armors apart from CMs other offerings is an absolute lack of pre-painted detail. Whereas the CMs Ride Armors are usually extremely well decorated and customized for their figures the Standard Types have almost no pre-painted markings of any kind. This makes sense in a lot of ways but does make the toys look more plain. If you’re curious about what the standard soldier looks like under the helmet, he’s just a brown-haired Stig. I would have liked if both bikes featured unique figures (a brown-haired Stig for one, a blonde or blue-haired Ley for the other) but to really achieve the faceless cannon-fodder effect the visors should probably be down at all times anyway.

The Ley-type from the Winter Wonderfest is a 1st Edition type of CMs Ride Armor.  It features an extremely fragile windshield (hence the additional instrutions) and plastic locks for the swing bars the wheels are attached to.  The Summer Wonderfest Stig-type is a 2nd Edition type of CMs Ride armor with improved durability for the windshield and metal locks for the swing arms.

 

Obviously, since these are limited, I wasn’t going to put them through the durabilty ringer. First edition toys are really fragile so handle with extreme care. Think you’re going to assure yourself a perfect condition toy by buying an unopened one? Think again, CMs uses multiple tape strikes on a glossy box making it very easy to open these toys, fiddle with them, then put them away and tape the box shut so that they seem as if they’ve never been opened. On the first edition there were also complaints of the windscreens being broken before the toy was ever removed from the box.

 

It’s a shame these toys are limited because it’d be pretty fun to have an army of cannon fodder ride armors being led by Stig into battle. These CMs figures are a lot of fun in Armor mode to pose but I wasn’t exactly up for transforming the exclusives as I’d hate to have one break and with toys this small that’s always a concern.

 

I definitely prefer these standard soldier-type exclusives to the clear/metallic exclusives CMs also released. I really hope that the next exclusive they do is a Johnathan Wolff (sorry, I can’t remember his Mospeada name) Ride Armor.

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