03.30.09

Mega House Dark Stick Ride Armor

Posted in 1/15, Cyclone/Ride Armor, MOSPEADA/RT New Gen, Mega House at 5:24 am by micronian

 

Observations & Critique: Two years ago ride armor variants were just a dream

 

Essentially this is just a repaint of the original Stick offering in terms of both packaging and the extras. Unlike CMs, Mega House opted to actually do a version of a Stick-owned and operated dark mospeada rather than an unknown soldier with a black ride armor.

 

The MH Mospeada toys don’t seem to be generating much interest these days in toy collecting circles. They always had an uphill battle with their lack of diecast and parts-forming design but with the Beagle out it seems people are even less forgiving of those traits. Further hampering the charm/collectability of this toy is the fact it’s not canonical (kinda) and it’s not limited in any way (unlike the CMs counterpart).

 

At this point I think I’ve developed a bias toward the CMs toys so that might be tainting my preference toward their interpretation of the dark paint scheme over Mega House’s. I’ve also always found the Mega House Stick/Ray bike modes pretty hideous. At least by making their ride armor belong to Stick MH was able to apply some pre-painted detail to liven the scheme up a bit. Armor mode is definitely still where this toy shines. While it’s harder to photograph I really have to say that I still prefer the Black Event Exclusive scheme with its gold trim over this more familiar scheme.

 

When MH did their Black event exclusive Stick-type ride armor a while back they incorporated the new swivel to the arm joints. This dark ride armor is the first commonly available Stick toy to also feature this swivel (which really should have been included from the very beginning). Otherwise this toy retains the design of the original toy which makes it a pretty much the only ride armor I honestly think is a suitable TOY and not just a collector’s item. Unfortunately, that also means it continues to be pretty lackluster for adult collectors.

 

I have two major beefs with this toy from the durability stand point. First, all the white stuff should be MOLDED white, not painted white. Within five minutes of handling the toy I could already see areas where the white paint appeared to be damaged. Second, the front fork on my bike was either already broken within the package or broke the initial time I touched it. Fortunately the forks fit in so tightly to the gauntlet that I could still pose the toy in bike mode without it being obvious that something was terribly wrong with it. I already thought the way the front fork popped off to be put away for transformation was pretty lame, now that the fork has broken on me once I’m even less of a fan. On the positive side, this toy did hold itself together much better than my original Stick release which busted into pieces fairly frequently.

 

There’s one joint on these toys that I recommend everyone find some way of tightening up, maybe with some clear tape put over the ball. That joint is the ball joint that connects the upper body to the lower body. When this joint is weak the weight of the armor causes the upper body to immediately lean backward which causes the whole toy to topple. Of course, if you’re going to display this toy in armor mode, its best mode, then you absolutely should use a stand at all times which will make tightening that body joint less of a necessity. This toy is capable of many great poses but getting the toy to hold those poses can be hard without an adjustable display stand.

 

If you love this paint scheme, and you hate the CMs ride armors, then this toy is for you. If you’re a MH or Mospeada completist then this toy is for you. If you’re neither of those things then there’s nothing here that warrants my suggesting that you should consider purchasing this toy. Yes, you could buy 3 MHs for the price of one Beagle but I’d much rather own one Beagle and there’s nothing that states that Beagle/Toynami definitely won’t make a dark ride armor some day.

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