10.20.09
Toynami 1/55 Robotech Beta or Aoshima 1/48 Mospeada Tread
Review: Was it worth the wait?
Packaging & Extras: (5/5)
Both toys come in a friggin’ huge box. It’s a little humorous to me Toynami kept the book motif going because it’s safe to say that anyone who doesn’t have a collection of antiquated technical catalogues won’t have a book anywhere near this size in their abode. All the standard MPC box attributes are here from the white shipper box with art and production number on top to the opening book and slide out tray. Both the Aoshima and the Toynami are a bit off-center within the tray but you’d only notice that if you had the box opened and looked at it dead on. Great pains were taken to make sure this toy stayed in place during shipping and got to its new owner unharmed. The white missiles (I’m not sure that’s what they really are) that are propped up behind the battloid’s head must be attached by the owner (they plug right in). Extras include a gummy pilot figure (such a pain to try to get him into the cockpit), metal landing gears with rubber wheels, attaching booms for fighter and battloid modes, a plug to conceal where the boom attaches, and a very primitive display stand. Unlike previous MPC offerings, the instructions are not taped to the box so you can flip through them without fear of damaging your collectible… and I’m betting the provided stickers are of the same high quality I heard the Alpha possessed. The Aoshima does have unique decals and instructions.
Charm & Collectability: (4/5)
Huge, hefty, a fair amount of diecast, limited in production, and it’s of a mecha most manufacturers have stayed away from? That’s the perfect storm for a very hot collector’s item… some day. Each Beta is limited to 10K and Toynami will be making the blue, red, green, and shadow variants and releasing them in that order over the next year. Rand is credited with this first release and it appears Annie will adorn the red Beta’s box and Lunk will adorn the green one. Who will be on the black one? I’d guess Ariel but I haven’t seen any art yet. The production number has been artfully concealed by Toynami by placing it inside the cockpit. Orders from Robotech.com no longer come with a faux animation cell, they now come with a card about 25% smaller than the instruction manual with some key stats about the character associated with the volume. The Aoshima toys come in the brighter colors matching their Legioss toys and there’s no number stamped in the cockpit. The Aoshima toys also feature slightly different paint schemes with some gray undertones being replaced by white ones.
Sculpt, Detail, & Paint: (7.5/10)
This toy is definitely not without its issues. First and foremost, and potentially a deal-breaker for many eager fans, is the handling of the cockpit in battloid mode. In the animation and line art detailing the transformation, the cockpit for the fighter folds downward during transformation and then ceases to exist. The assumption is that it somehow is consumed by the cavity beneath. CMs devised a way of handling this “anime magic” but Toynami opted for a much more distinct cockpit in fighter mode which made the cockpit too large for concealing. It seems to me like they could have at least made it so the cockpit spun around and had the bottom facing forward but they didn’t and so you’ll be left with a chest that looks nothing like the prototype Toynami continues to show off (shame on you Toynami). On the up side, the large cockpit area really does make fighter mode look a lot better. On the down side, the yellow areas of the cockpit should have been made of a yellow plastic you could see through. Another sculpt issue is most evident when fighter is looked at from above. The missile racks that collapse backward are supposed to butt up against the legs but there’s a large gap on either side. Since the legs are diecast this might actually save you some paint chipping but it isn’t quite right. Speaking of those missile racks, they’re also supposed to taper toward the end. Any other grievances are really minimal. In fighter mode the Toynami easily trounces the CMs as the best representation yet but I’d give CMs the edge for battloid. One issue with the paint, it’s a tiny bit darker than the MPC Alpha’s hue although I felt it wasn’t different enough to be much of a distraction. If you have a superposeable Alpha you can substitute that for the MPC with a bit of a balancing act (or you can use dual sided tape and it’d be pretty much a perfect substitute).
Design: (8/10)
With the exception of the cockpit, I was honestly impressed with the Toynami design (words I doubt I have uttered before). While the concept behind the transformation is about as straight forward as it gets the line art and anime relied heavily on some shifting dimensions that made implementing that transformation in toy form much more difficult then one would expect. Toynami incorporated sliders so that the chest connectors could move forward and aft for different modes (they need to move forward in fighter mode to conceal the gap behind the cockpit) and extensions in the hip so that the legs can reach the edge of the plane in fighter mode. One big bummer was that Toynami didn’t manage to incorporate the additional shoulder missiles (but don’t worry, the chest missiles are present). Enough of my yapping though, how does the connection work? It actually works quite well! No, you’re not going to be able to act like your connected Alpha and Beta, in any mode, are one toy but you can put them together for an excellent looking display piece and not have to worry about them. This is definitely not the CMs fiasco all over again; the combined product actually looks like it’s meant to go together. In fighter mode I found it best to disconnect the Alpha’s legs to spread them far apart, then attach the Beta and put the Alpha’s legs back together. Still, I think over time you’re probably going to scratch the downward facing cockpit with the Alpha’s legs as the fit is very tight. Just for the curious, you can’t really connect the Alpha in guardian mode to the Beta as the arm for fighter mode is just too long and it would be an odd balancing act. I don’t really consider this a negative though as I don’t know why anyone would be doing that. The connection in battloid mode is nice and tight. My only criticism is that it seems like something should lock the connecting boom into the Beta. As it is the boom just slides into the cavity but if you angled the combination downward it would just slide right out (so you probably don’t want to zoom the connected toys around your living room too much). For you sickos that want to connect both toys in battloid mode, you can’t do it, the area the boom fits into is concealed when the Beta transforms into battloid mode.
Durability & Build: (8/10)
While this toy seems incredibly stable and sturdy there are few problems and potential weaknesses. First, I had a bit of sloppy paint application on the top missiles. Second, I had a bit of sloppy glue application on the back of one of the legs. Third, there’s painted diecast here in areas that rub up against other parts so you’re going to want to be very careful to avoid scratches. Honestly though, this toy is so obviously built better than the Alpha toy it made me feel that much more let down when I brought the Alpha in for the photo shoot. The paint on the Beta is uniform throughout, the whites are a brilliant white, the joints offer audible clicks, and by the end of handling it you’ll get the feeling that the Alpha must have been made by another company entirely. Of course, these observations are all just first impressions, I’ll be sure to update this section if people start finding issues.
Articulation: (8/10)
There are three things this toy is missing. First, it can’t swivel at the waist. Second, the legs don’t twist with much range outward (so that you could angle the knees away from each other). Third, you can’t angle the head up. The CMs had all of these features so if you’re looking for the Tread/Beta with the greatest range of movement the CMs is the better choice (and, again, the CMs also captures the anime look of the Tread/Beta in battloid mode the best). Still, this toy is no slouch. I was really worried that Toynami would take the super easy way out and make it so the legs just feature three metal prongs but they actually did incorporate articulation into the front toe. You’re definitely going to want to find a taller stand to get into those poses where the Beta is connected in guardian mode.
Total Score: (40.5/50)
Did you ever think you’d live to see the day a Toynami product scored above a 40? Granted, a lot of people are really going to be turned off by the battloid mode’s looks but it didn’t take me all that long to get over it because bomber mode looks pretty good in return. Of course, many people think this toy’s bomber mode is an abomination so that won’t be much of a comfort. The real issue here is that the Alpha that’s made for this toy sucks (whoa, I just had a total déjà vu moment… this feels just like my CMs review now). You know what would be great? Toynami should now remake the 1/55 Alpha completely out of plastic, ditch all the missile bays, the opening chest compartment, the Cyclone bit, the poseable hands and sell it for $39.99 so people who don’t feel like spending an arm and a leg on the ultimately unsatisfying blue MPC Alpha have a better option. In the meantime, I know many of you will consider getting a blue Aoshima Legioss since the blue MPC is now sold out everywhere. If you’re part of that group please visit my Aoshima Legioss review so you know what you’re getting yourself into and know that you’re going to have a color matching issue as demonstrated below. Now that the Aoshima Tread toy is out, and incorporated into this review, I’ve included a few more pics for people hoping to mix and match. As you can see, depending on the lighting, the color difference can be pretty noticeable between Aoshima and the Toynami and I don’t recommend a mixed pair. I felt I did a pretty thorough investigation of the Aoshima toy and I found no differences other than the obvious superficial ones. Another thing to note, Aoshima was instrumental in the original development and design of this toy (in any form). So, if you’re someone who has sworn off Toynami products but you prefer the Toynami paint scheme, you can make yourself feel better about the purchase by considering it an Aoshima toy.
micronian said,
December 21, 2008 at 4:13 am
Just to head off questions:
Q – Where are all the comparison pics?
A – There will be another post later with lots of comparison pics. I wanted to get the review up as quickly as possible since I know lots of people are debating a purchase.
Q – With the Alpha and Beta connected, can you flip them upside down?
A -NO. There’s a lot of gravity involved in the connection.
micronian said,
December 21, 2008 at 4:39 am
Q – Would this toy work with the Aoshima Legioss? How does it look?
A – I’ll update this post later with pictures. It does work but it doesn’t look good as the bright blue of the Aoshima clashes with the dark blue of the Beta.
protostar8 said,
December 21, 2008 at 6:38 am
Is the Beta supposed to kind of sit “slanted” when hooked up with the Alpha? I’ve seen several shots on the web that make it look like the Beta is pointed slightly upwards instead of flat/straight when connected to the Alpha and to me, it doesn’t look quite right?
vladykins said,
December 21, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Great review as always– I popped here right after I received mine last night but you hadn’t yet put up the review; must have just missed it.
Glad to here you got the beta cockpit down between the alpha leg/thrusters by separating the legs– I ended up sitting the beta cockpit between the arm/engines. It did make the toy pretty stable, but it doesn’t seat the engines against the beta chest pieces and bends them slightly outwards. Gonna go try finagling the cockpit between the legs after spreading them like you did.
Once again, thanks for a great review.
MEMO1DOMINION said,
December 21, 2008 at 4:45 pm
THANX FOR A GREAT REVIEW.
FOR ME, I AM WAITING ON THE LUNK VERSION.
AND I BEEN HOLDING OF ON THE PRICY ONES OF THE OLD GAKEN TOYS. IT WAS A LONG WAIT BUT I DO LIKE THE TOYNAMI ONES. AND THEY SHOULD MAKE THE ALPHAS AS CLOSE AS THE BETAS AS WELL.
AND ALSO POSTED A LINK TO THIS SITE ON RTX.
THANX AGAIN ON ANOTHER GREAT REVIEW.
HEHEHE
micronian said,
December 21, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Protostar8 – The slant may just be because the Beta carries all its weight in its legs or a slight angle may have been incorporated into the stand to make sure there was never a concern about having the connecting boom slide out when another toy was attached.
fifbeat said,
December 21, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Great review man. Good to see that Toynami put out, for the first time, a good toy. Looks very forward to the comparison pics. Thanks!
MisterRyno said,
December 21, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Yet another good review. I must say that I have heard many more good things about this then I have bad things. Still won’t change my stand on them though. I’m just waiting for it to spontaneously blow up. It may…it may not…..eh…who knows. Well….like I said. Good review mate. Can’t wait to see the CM vs Toynami review you do!
N I N J A
AcroRay said,
December 21, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Nice review, and fast, too! Thanks!
D4mn, I want one of these….
vladykins said,
December 21, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Excellent review as always. Popped in after I got mine yesterday to see if you had a review and I must have just missed you posting this!
I’m glad I read that you had separated the legs/thrusters a little to fit the beta cockpit- prior to reading that, I had placed the beta cockpit on top between the alpha’s engines/arms (which caused them to swing out slightly to accommodate). Interestingly, this stabilized the toy a bit further, but isn’t anime proper. I have tried your method and it works, though I have difficulty reconnecting the alpha’s legs- my tolerances are too tight.
Like you, I feel like the beta and alpha are miles apart in quality and solidness. Little wishes I have in addition to your comments: make the arm missiles come out like the arm missiles on the Yamato 1/48 GBP Armor- small addition but great add-on. Deepen the chest buttons/cavities where the alpha arms go to fit a little more snuggly. Shrink the width of the cockpit slightly to give better tolerances.
Once again, thanks for your reviews!
protostar8 said,
December 22, 2008 at 7:35 am
It is a great review! Thanks!
JediTray, aka Invidious said,
December 22, 2008 at 9:01 am
Yet another great review, Micronian! I was never able to get the blue Alpha, so I am waiting on the green Beta. That is, if I’m feeling nice about the price. I still am having trouble swallowing the price of this and the Cyclone, but since my original Gakkens were stolen and they are commanding quite the stack of buckazoids these days, the price difference is minimal. It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. I completely agree about the lack of quality on the Alphas, and you addressed it perfectly in your Alpha/Beta comparison. It’s hell to be disabled, on a fixed income, AND a toy collector, but saving up for pieces like this are so worth it! Unless of course you report a major issue with the green Beta, LOL! Thanks for your efforts!
Mayita said,
December 22, 2008 at 5:26 pm
excellent review , thanks
Darrin Geisinger said,
December 22, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Great review and up fast – thanks for being the best darn toy review site in the world.
FIRST REACTIONS
Good:
1. HUGE – how can you not smile when you handing this massive box. Out of the box it is simply the perfect size mech. The book-style packing still oozes extreme high-quality.
2. Felt solid, colors are great and looks awesome in all modes – especially bomber.
3. Toynami actually covered the hands in bomber mode, which is something even better than the line art – kudos
4. The way the cockpit extends down when opened as in the anime is very cool
5. Locks together solid in bomber and all the thrusters extend – fantastic
6. The gap between the legs and yellow top missiles is not a negative. I thought it would be from pics I saw – not even noticeable.
7. The two chest cylinders extend to lock the front missile bays in shut
Bad:
1. Would have liked the cockpit to lock in place in bomber mode, I kept bumping it out of position when I did anything.
2. The hip joints – too lose even though good poses in battloid are not effected, just feels wrong.
3. The connector mechanism – should have gone into the bomber like a collapsible antenna. That way the front landing gear is closer to the beta, not sure what the line-art says here.
4. The stand – you mean I can’t attach it to the beta without the connector?
The Ugly:
1. Of course the cockpit in battloid mode. Wish it did not bug me so much. Why can’t they include a cover for it like the connector cover? Someone please make these and sell them to all of us.
2. They HAD to include the top missile bays and didn’t! Those would be so cool in all modes. I can’t figure out why they skipped this ???
Bottom Line:
I will weigh in with my take among the many thousand differing ones on Toynami vs. CMs. I don’t have the CMs set so I may wrong here but just look at the comparison photo side view of the two linked up and tell me how you could choose CMs. The CMs Alpha/Beta linkup looks like it was stepped on by a shock trooper. That and the CMs colors are too cheap and cartoony.
The CMs beta legs are shaped better, cockpit is covered in battloid and they included the top missile bays. Other than that Toynami wins.
PS – I CAN’T believe we actually got this ship a quarter century after seeing Rand crash the thing on TV — forget I complained about anything . . .
micronian said,
December 25, 2008 at 7:00 am
Just a little note to everyone – Yes, you can pull the boosters out further from the feet. It’s just a preference by me to keep them in although in hindsight I should have had them out during the shoot so all of you could see what it looked like… imagine the boosters in the feet being pulled out about half an inch further and there you go.
Mark said,
December 26, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Excellent review. I think Toynami have done a far better job than the CM version.
Gabriel said,
December 31, 2008 at 10:05 am
I dont have any of the CM’s. But can Toynami Beta Link up with the CM Alpha? or are they different scale?
micronian said,
January 1, 2009 at 3:04 am
I think you could make that work with a custom connecting arm. If I have a reason to pull those toys out again any time soon I’ll give it a try, otherwise I’ll try it when the red beta is released.
ruskiiVFaussie said,
January 5, 2009 at 2:49 am
Nice review Jenius, thanks for the big effort put in for the photoshoots.
First time i got to check the review out, the Toynami looks great, but won’t
replace the Red CM Tread i have for looks and poseability, hope we can
connect it some how to the CM Legioss easy enough, i do want a Red Toynami Tread…
evan2313 said,
January 10, 2009 at 5:01 am
Hm, im not sure if this would work, since i havent gotten myself the Beta yet.
But based on your assessment, do you think it is possible to cut off the top part of the display stand (the one with the two plugs that plug into the connecting boom and the tab that tabs into the groove on the Beta’s groin), file the cut-off part to streamlined the underside, paint/spray it white, and use it as a connecting reinforcer to lock together the Beta to the connecting boom?
I am seriously thinking of doing that once i get my Beta (waiting for the green one actually), but through your observation, would that be possible?
Thanks
Rusty said,
January 23, 2009 at 12:01 am
What are the dimensions of the Beta & Beta/Alpha combination specifically in fighter mode?
micronian said,
January 23, 2009 at 1:59 am
Robotech.com states:
16″ combined Alpha/Beta
the Beta has a wing span of 16.75″
emerson said,
March 4, 2009 at 6:39 pm
It’s my understanding, based on the credits on the card included with the toy, that “Product Design” and “Engineering” are attributed to Aoshima.
Wouldn’t the MPC Beta, therefore, be an Aoshima product in Toynami packaging? And therefore be no more a Toynami product than the Beagle MOSPEADA is in MPC packaging?
Lavish praise for Toynami has been splashed all over the Interwebs, but I believe the credit has been misplaced, due to Toynami’s quite skillful work with the marketing smoke & mirrors.
The difference with the Beagle MOSPEADA is that 1) it was released as a Beagle product separately in Japan, and 2) it was released as a Beagle product first. That’s not to say that, in the U.S., Toynami has not tried to pass off the Beagle as its own….not to mention the various Megahouse Ride Armors…
Don’t get me wrong, as a consumer, I am GLAD for all these offerings. And I love the MPC packaging. But I think, at the very least, credit should be given where credit is due.
micronian said,
March 4, 2009 at 9:07 pm
This is a Toynami product engineered by Aoshima. Aoshima will be selling their own variant in Japan eventually. Toynami approached Aoshima and asked for help with the engineering of a toy to go along with their MPC Alpha. So it was Toynami’s idea, Toynami presumably bank-rolled it, Toynami had the rights, and Toynami brought it to market. Aoshima definitely deserves credit for their engineering work, that’s definitely what’s making this toy so successful, but this is a Toynami product none-the-less and no matter how much a person may despise them they do deserve the credit for seeing this toy through from idea to available for sale… Aoshima would have never done that on their own. People are also a little too quick to dismiss how Toynami has helped with the Beagle. Regardless of what input Toynami may have had on the final product, the mere fact that Toynami guaranteed the sale of 3K Ride Armors would be enough for Beagle to not have to cut corners in production and offer exactly the toy they envisioned.
micronian said,
October 20, 2009 at 5:46 am
This review has been updated (original post was December 2008). The post now includes more detail and pics on the Aoshima release.
mospeadamacrosstech said,
October 22, 2009 at 12:24 am
This is an excellent review.
Thanks for taking the time to put these together right. You ROCK.
Basara 549 said,
December 24, 2009 at 8:09 am
It’s interesting to note, though, if you actually rewatch the animation, the chest flip-down launchers are NOT the launchers that fire in the aircraft mode. For one thing, flipping the doors downwould flip the aircraft over, by itself, and would be nearly impossible to accomplish with the Legioss/Alpha attached.
What IS seen in the animation is a set of SMALLER launchers (2×4 instead of 2×5) pop up OUT OF THE HULL BEHIND the front launchers, in some of the scenes where it fires missiles (in different modes). The link in my title shows a pic of them firing in Battloid mode, screencapped from the series – where it is obvious that the 2×5 launchers have not been opened at all.
Of course, adding them in would have increased the complexity, but given my own experiences with the tools that are in charge of the series for the last decade, they probably had no clue the other launchers were present, and HG’s been notorious even going back to the late 80s for not paying attention to details for their product (especially when licensing).
micronian said,
December 26, 2009 at 4:53 am
That was covered in the review by this sentence:
One big bummer was that Toynami didn’t manage to incorporate the additional shoulder missiles (but don’t worry, the chest missiles are present).
The CMs Tread does include these launchers.