04.24.09

CMs 1/18 Dark Ride Armors (Stick & Ley Types)

Posted in 1/18, CMs, Cyclone/Ride Armor, MOSPEADA/RT New Gen at 8:47 am by micronian

Observations & Critique: Raiding Reflex Point is a black tie affair

The original review for CMs Ride Armor Stick & Ley types can be found by clicking here.  CMs packaged three ride armors in the same packaging, Shinobu, Dark Stick-type, and Dark Ley-type. The three boxes are differentiated by different stickers as follows: Blue=Stick, Orange=Ley, Red=Shinobu. I’ve already commented on Shinobu, released first of these three, with my observations on the Fuke-type ride armor. Neither Stick nor Ley come with any sort of decent extras other than a Gallant pistol, there aren’t even extra helmet-less heads here. You would think that CMs would try to spice up these unseen-in-the-anime designs by including something exciting but that apparently wasn’t on their itinerary.

 

CMs may not have included anything special or given these toys exciting packages but they did limit their production so they have that going for them. The dark Stick-type is limited to only 1,000 pieces while the dark Ley-type had only 500 produced. It seems like neither is selling particularly well and now that Beagle has made their appearance on the Ride Armor scene it seems probable that more CMs and Mega House toys will eventually find their way to bargain bins.

 

Unlike Mega House, CMs chose not to assign heroes to their dark efforts. Instead we get the bikes of people who presumably would have landed with Shinobu. Since these are unnamed characters we can only presume existed, or would have existed had the Inbit not wiped them all out, the bikes don’t get the tampo-printed feast of details that the other CMs efforts received. While the paint scheme itself is pretty nice the toys did appear a bit bland to me (although I suppose that’s the nature of any ’stealth’ vehicle). While I have a couple issues with how the front end was treated on the CMs Yellow/Fuke/Shinobu ride armors, I think they really nailed the proportions and angles on these two. It was also nice to see CMs went the distance and gave these figures slightly modified heads so they wouldn’t be recognized as hero characters when their visors are up.  I would reduce these toys’ score from my original review from an 8.5 out of 10 to an 8.

 

While not unlimited in release, this is the least limited version currently available of Stick and Ley’s ride armors with the 2.0 upgrades to the original releases (introduced originally on Stick’s green ride armor and the Stick/Ley clear/metallic 300 piece event exclusives). A quick rehash: 2.0 upgrades include much sturdier wind screens and metal locks for the swing arms that connect to the wheels. Unfortunatley the connection between the Ley-type’s gun and the front fork has not been improved. I gave up entirely on having the peg from the gun grab the fork and instead just angled the gun to make it appear as if the connection were made. It’s pretty sad that after all this time CMs didn’t figure out a better way of handling the front end of the Ley-type bike. The CMs bikes are still small and complex, they are not intended for children and not very user friendly, but the Stick/Ley types do appear to be much better than the girls’ bikes.

 

There’s still a lot that can go wrong in handling these toys so caution is definitely recommended. My Ley-type came without glue (or not enough glue) on the translucent amber piece of plastic on one of its shoulders. Obviously this isn’t a big deal since nothing was broken but it’s always disconcerting to find something loose the first time a toy is handled. Special care should still be taken when handling the wind screen and avoid putting too much pressure on the plastic pegs on the wheel where the gauntlets and hip guards attach.  The version 1 Stick/Ley toys had lots of problems and scored only a 4/10 in this department, these V2 toys would probably score a 7/10.

 

Articulation has always been a strong suit of these little ride armors (hampered by balance issues). It’s still pretty hard to get the Stick-type to look like it’s doing a natural missile firing pose with the targeting scope. With all the dark types together some fun displays can be made (even better with a Dark Legioss toy present also).

 

Really, everyone should save their money and buy Beagle Ride Armors if they’re looking for the best in adult collector ride armor toys. If you’re looking for a cheaper substitute you can thrash around with you’d probably be happier with the Mega House offerings (although I still prefer the slightly more expensive CMs toys). These certainly aren’t bad toys as far as ride armors go but they’re not great toys either and it’s getting really hard to determine what their niche is now that Beagle has taken the game to the next level. If you like the paint scheme and you like how CMs handles their Ride Armor toys there’s no reason here why you should avoid these releases.  When all the adjustments are tallied, this toy would score 2.5 points above the original review of the V1 toys (improving to 34.5/50).

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