Review: TREAD with Love
Packaging & Extras: (4.5/5)
While I would love to see higher end packaging with flip-top lids on the Riobot Mospeada line, the gorgeous Mercy Rabbit art is a great consolation prize. The box is reasonably sized at 35 x 23 x 15 cm and constructed of cardboard with a decent thickness and an appealing matte finish. Inside the box are two plastic trays. In the first Tray you’ll find the toy as well as:
1) A pilot figure (not articulated)
2) 2 pairs of fixed posed hands (fists and slightly open)
3) A plate to prevent the toy from rolling when on its landing gear
In the lower tray you’ll find:
4) The display stand consisting of a base plate, a base for the arm that connects to the plate, the arm
5) A display stand adapter for the TREAD, an adapter for the use when combined to the Legioss in fighter
6) 2 support pieces for the combined toys
7) A pry tool
Underneath it all, you’ll also find:
8) A full color instruction booklet.
If you purchased the Sentinel shop exclusive version, you also received:
9) 2x long range missiles
10) 2x medium range missiles
The exclusive missiles use the same hardpoint connections as the Legioss weaponry so you can use them for either vehicle. The plate to keep the toy rolling on the landing gear is bizarre… I’m not sure why you would ever need that. Does anyone display their toys on a sloped shelf? I think it might be that the Tread landing gear can spread out a little too wide, so the plate ensures the toy has a tiny bit of clearance from the ground.
So what don’t we get that would have made this perfect? There’s an iconic piece of art that shows a soldier mode Legioss holding a new gun attached to a diver mode Tread with some curiously-mounted missiles; it would have been amazing if Sentinel had included the parts to recreate that image. It also would have been great if the toy included an articulated Rand/Ray figure and his bike. I suspect they only included a fixed-posed pilot because they didn’t want people to break their toys trying to get the pilot into different positions. Bonus points would have been awarded if we received Aisha and Mint figures that could be squeezed in behind the machine gun under the cockpit.
Charm & Collectability: (4.5/5)
I want to start by acknowledging some confusion regarding the mecha. The “TREAD” was originally named TLEAD: Transport Legioss Escort Armored Dreadnought but since “TLEAD” defies the English-speaking tongue, the commonly accepted name of this mecha has shifted to TREAD. Some say that stands for “TRans-EArth-Deployment”. This change dates back to Gakken/Lansay, which sold the original /172 scale toy as a “TRED” in France.
Also, this mech was a last minute addition to Mospeada. It’s not difficult to find line art that makes the TLEAD look huge in comparison to the Legioss and then find other art that makes the TLEAD look just a bit bigger. While the Legioss is always 8.75 m tall in soldier, some preproduction art shows the TLEAD as 10.5 m tall, while other art shows 12.0 and the final measurement was listed as 13.7! Bomber mode grew from original dimensions of 8.72 m long to 9.7 meters. In the comparison above, if I scale the toy to the drawing of the person, the drawn Tread would need to be larger than the officials dimensions. So, while I will have some line art comparisons, please understand the scale was inconsistent.
The Sentinel Riobot Tread is very nearly the stated 1/48 scale (using the largest dimensions) at 21.8 cm long in bomber mode with a wingspan of nearly 45(!) cm. The toy has impressive heft at 660 g though that’s about 220 g lighter than the Toynami MPC. Sentinel uses metal only in key areas to increase durability while the Toynami’s lower legs were made entirely from die-cast. The quality of the plastic on the Sentinel is superior to the Toynami with consistent color, finish, and tactile response. A single Sentinel TREAD at 42,000¥ will run you about twice the cost of the Toynami MPC’s original MSRP of $149.99 or more than twice (thanks to the magic of exchange rates over time) the Aoshima counterparts which cost 17,800¥ which will limit the audience that would consider this purchase and make it a grail item for some.
Sculpt, Detail, & Paint: (9/10)
While easily the best interpretation of the bomber yet, the design feels like it should have been stretched to be taller. This would have made the cockpit a little larger, potentially allowing the pilot to sit in a more normal position, then those big canopies would have shown the pilot’s body instead of his giant boots. As it is, those canopies are a little large and maybe should have been opaque to obscure the pilot’s awkward position. I’m not a fan of the TREAD design in this mode (flying brick) but Sentinel has done a very impressive job eliminating the flaws seen on previous toys. Big improvements include arms that sink entirely into the wing housing, the back laser-guided bomb array sinking in perfectly between the legs (CM’s left them above, Toynami had huge gaps on either side), a better proportioned cockpit with no gaps, and better paint applications and mold details.
As with bomber mode, this is also easily the best soldier mode toy we have ever seen. The art shows the circles on either side of the chest being larger and the thighs a little more narrow but these are incredibly minor nits on a very impressive showing.
Combined the toys look glorious in their flight modes but again, I feel like the bomber design should have been stretched upward. This would have allowed the arms of the Legioss to better settle within the chest cavities. As it is, the instructions make it appear the arms snug into those spots (step 6 on page 16) but it’s an optical illusion, they end up just above where I would I like them, a very frustrating miss on a toy that does so well in every other way. The original schematic of how the combined vehicles should look in fighter mode shows the Tread being less tall than the standalone art, so Sentinel was doing their best to overcome some anime magic. As a backpack of doom, the Tread plays its part very well. The connection distance is great creating a unified look. I wish the cradle that sits under the Legioss on the display stand was less conspicuous but it still looked great in various poses when using the stand.
Design: (9.5/10)
Sentinel delivered many thoughtful touches on this toy, including:
1) An opening cockpit that fits an appropriately sized pilot figure. While the toy comes with a figure that is not articulated, the Legioss pilots work just as well. The cockpit also features opening mechanisms on top and below, and the below mechanism features an extending hinge to open extra wide. The top opening creates an egress point for when the cockpit is stowed in combined mode.
2) Integrated landing gear that are animation accurate. This was no small feat!
3) Hard points on the wings (both above and below)
4) Opening thrust nozzles below the arms
4) Perfect transformation that includes integration of the connecting bar that extends for Legioss/Alpha connection (and to use the front landing gear)
5) Solid connection to the Alpha/Legioss toys
6) Integrated chest missile bays (with an extending hinge to conceal the opening mechanism)
7) Integrated trapezius AND chest missile bays which are also functional in bomber mode
The only thing we don’t get, is the bomb bay compartment that Aisha and Mint stowed away in and opening bomb bay doors on the bottom of the toy (though the toy does have the molded detail for the doors). You can pretend they’re in there, behind the Gatling gun.
The connection to Legioss toys is AMAZING! Even without using the connection enhancement pieces, the Legioss connects to the Tread better than the Toynami MPC did. You can hold the toys in fighter, whoosh them around the room, even flip them upside down and they stay connected! Soldier mode is also perfectly functional without the extra parts for normal handling and posing. I didn’t like the extra connection piece for fighter mode; it was awkward to use and the toy feels secure without it. I couldn’t tell how much more secure it was with it. The Soldier mode connection piece locks the toy to the connecting boom so tight that you can now flip the toy upside down. If you’re planning on some aggressive poses or play with the Legioss in soldier and the Tread as a backpack, then use that extra part.
The included display stand is the Riobot standard which is flexible but neither substantial nor rugged. The arm attaches via a hexagonal peg and has three pivots allowing for height and angle adjustment. Use a screwdriver to tighten the joints and help keep things stable. Unlike previous Tread toys, the sentinel can be displayed in bomber mode without being connected to the Legioss. When the Legioss and Tread are combined, you’ll borrow the display stand arm from the Legioss, using both arms to keep the toys elevated. While it’s possible to do banking poses, managing two arms supporting two connected toys can be challenging. I’ll be seeking out more premium after market solutions for my display purposes.
Durability & Build: (9/10)
If you purchased Sentinel’s first release of the Eta Legioss, which was plagued with shoulders so tight they couldn’t move and a portion of wing so loose it frequently flopped off, you had good reason to be weary about spending this much money on the first effort of a new mold. I am thrilled to say I encountered only one insignificant handling issue with my Tread: the left hand comes unpegged from its pivot too easily. It’s not a big issue because there is some resistance there and it pegs very easily back in place. Attaching the Legioss to the Tread requires caution. If you jam the toys together when bringing them close, either could be harmed. Also, the display stand feels flimsy and it’s easy to imagine scenarios where your toys could fall while you try to adjust something.
Articulation: (7/10)
The head is on a bizarre joint that allows it to look up and down easily but can only look left and right while looking down. It seems like Sentinel could have added a hinge to the plate the neck connects to for more natural head mobility. The shoulders allow the arm to spin 360 degrees and pivot about 160 degrees away from the body. Twist points just below the shoulder and after the elbow allow impressive arm mobility while the elbow allows about 150 degrees, which is impressive given the CM’s toy could only manage about 100 degrees and the Toynami stopped at 90. The hands attach by ball joints connected to a hinged wrist which gives a nice range of motion to the fixed posed hands. The articulated hands are very limited with four fingers attached to one hinge and a thumb that pivots in/out and resembles a lightly closed hand rather than a fist. Create a little clearance on the back of the toy by pivoting the tail of the connecting boom away to enable a waste swivel. The hips are metal and allow the legs to angle out, twist the toes outward, and spin all the way around. I would have loved to have seen the ability to pivot the legs even further outward, particularly for combined modes where you want to show the boosters sweeping outside the Legioss aggressively. As with all previous Tread toys, knee mobility is awful. The knee needs to be able to pivot 90 degrees forward for transformation. A connector behind the knee hits the thigh as the knee bends in the natural direction limiting range to about 40 degrees of backward motion. In a perfect world, the knee would have an extension and pivots on either side to allow more than 90 degrees of motion and the leg would have a twist point somewhere in either the knee or thigh. To articulation was a surprising weakness. The front toe can pivot left and right while the back toes can pivot in/out. A central rear fourth toe also pivots in/out. All of the large nozzles are on ball joints.
Total Score: (43.5/50)
This is a fantastic toy that I am thrilled to own. It’s a love letter to all Mospeada/Robotech New Generation fans; but it’s not for everyone. As a standalone product, the Tread has two modes: an ugly bomber and a soldier with limited articulation. Yes, it has ultra-premium details and engineering, and Soldier-mode looks like a real brawler with shelf presence but, for 42,000¥, this is hardly a competitive product. It’s not until you spend another 25,000¥ on a Legioss that it really shines. I absolutely recommend this to all hardcore Mospeada fans that aren’t on a budget. If I could only own three Mospeada products (as of the time I write this) they would be (in no particular order):
1) Stick’s Beagle Ride Armor (or Toynami MPC) in an after market or repaired rider suit
2) Sentinel’s Riobot Legioss Eta
3) Sentinel’s Riobot TREAD Eta