Review(updated): Was it worth the wait?
NOTES:
1) The “TREAD” is more accurately named “TLEAD” (Transport Legioss Escort Armored Dreadnought) but since “TLEAD” defies the English-speaking tongue, Aoshima and I tend to use “TREAD”. Someone back-solved for that acronym at some point saying it stands for “TRans-EArth Deployment” but… that makes less sense than TLEAD.
2) The creators of Mospeada played it pretty fast and loose with the dimensions of the vehicles in the show. It’s not difficult to find line art that makes the TLEAD look huge in comparison to the Legioss and then find something that makes the TLEAD look just a bit bigger. The official stats of the TLEAD state that it is 8.72 meters long in bomber mode and stands 10.5 meters tall in soldier (though there’s also official art that lists the TLEAD as 12m tall in soldier). The Legioss, for comparison, is 8.75 meters tall in soldier mode, so less than 2 meters shorter. For whatever reason, the Robotech staff (maybe Paladium made the numbers up for their RPGs and the Robotech crew just rolled with it) went with a length of 9.7 meters in bomber and 13.7 meters in battloid but did not change the Legioss/Alpha dimensions… this makes the Beta absolutely gargantuan in comparison to the official TLEAD.
Packaging & Extras: Toynami MPC: (4.5/5), Aoshima (4/5)
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 catalogs won’t have a book anywhere near this size in their abode (shipper box dimensions are 37x31x17cm). 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. Unfortunately, it seems like super-sizing the boxes make them more prone to tears at the seams. 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 including twist ties and plastic wrap. Inside the box you get the body of the tread and:
1) White missiles (I’m not sure that’s what they really are) propped up behind the battloid’s head, installation required
2) Pilot figure, the pilot is the same mold used for the Alpha/Legioss and is a pain to try to get into the cockpit)
3) Metal landing gears with rubber wheels
4) 2x attaching booms for Alpha (Legioss), one for when the Alpha is in fighter mode and one for when it’s in battloid
5) A plug to conceal where the boom attaches when not in use
6) A very primitive display stand
7) Instructions
8) Stickers (all toys come with the same sticker sheet labeled “VFB-9H”, Volumes 1 & 3 have the stickers on blue paper, my Volume 2 has the stickers on yellow paper)
9) If you purchased from Robotech.com you also received a data card.
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.
Aoshima toys come in a more traditional box adorned with pictures of the toy. Inside the box is a very simple cardboard tray sandwiched top and bottom between thin sheets of Styrofoam. The plastic clam shell within the tray holds the same contents as the Toynami offering. You won’t get unique instructions or stickers with these toys. There’s one sticker sheet with all the stickers you could need for any variant. All toys come with a simple black-and-white instruction manual you can download here:
Charm & Collectability: (4/5)
This toy is huge: 26cm (10.24″) long in bomber mode with a 43cm wingspan, 24cm (9.45″) tall in battloid/soldier). When connected to the Alpha, fighter mode is 41.5cm long!
This toy is hefty due to a fair amount of die-cast metal: 878grams (that’s nearly 2lbs!)
This toy had a limited in production run (10K max but likely no more than 5000 of each variant were actually made). The production number has been artfully concealed by Toynami by placing it inside the cockpit.
This toy is unique, to date only three Tread/Beta toys have been made: The Lansay/Gakken 1/72 Tread, the CM’s non-scale Tread that was bundled with their 1/48 Legioss, and this Aoshima/Toynami product.
That’s the perfect storm for a very hot collector’s item… some day. Of course the blue versions will be more desired than the red and the green. The green version was shown as cannon fodder briefly in the show but the red version only made an appearance in the failed Sentinels pilot shows. A shadow variant was supposed to follow the green release but sales were so low on the red and green versions that Toynami pulled the plug before the shadow version could make it to market. Since Aoshima never made a Dark Legioss repaint and the Shadow Chronicles failed to revitalize the brand, Toynami didn’t have those additional sales to count on for a shadow variant. Orders from Robotech.com came with a card about 25% smaller than the instruction manual with some key stats about the character associated with the volume. While Japanese releases of products generally are more sought after, the fact that both Aoshima and Toynami versions were made at the same factory in China and the Toynami Masterpiece Alpha is more sought after than the Aoshima Legioss would lead one to believe that the Robotech products may be a slightly hotter item than their Mospeada licensed counterparts. Releases included:
Toynami:
VFB-9H Vol. 1 Rand, December 2008, $149.99
VFB-9Z Vol. 2 Annie, February 2009, $149.99
VFB-9I Vol.3 Lunk, September 2009, $149.99
Aoshima
AB-01H Blue, August 2009, 17,800¥
AB-01Z Red,August 2009, 17,800¥
AB-01I Green, August 2009, 17,800¥
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 showed off. From a nitpick standpoint, the Toynami/Aoshima toys are a bit on the blocky side and there are large pegs that protrude off the arms. Instead of just making the red and green variants simple repaints, Toynami went ahead and created unique heads for each version, which is a touch I really appreciated.
Bomber mode benefits from the larger cockpit area in comparison to the CM’s toy. On the down side, the yellow areas of the cockpit should have been made of a yellow, see-through plastic. Another sculpt issue is most evident when bomber mode 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 die-cast this might actually save you some paint chipping but it isn’t quite right. Since the nosecone simply folds down for battloid, there’s a cavity behind it that is visible from some angles in bomber. The CM’s toy does a better job of collapsing the shoulder and bicep of the arm into the base of the wing; Toynami seems to have cheaped it out here since there’s plenty of room in the base of the wing to have engineered a better solution than leaving the arm protruding out. The CM’s toy does a better job in most respects emulating the line art but the one exception, the yellow weapons left high above the vehicle, is so glaring that it’s hard not to prefer the look of the Toynami/Aoshima in this mode.
While the Aoshima versions are the exact same toy in most respects, the primary body colors are brighter to match the Aoshima Legioss counterparts. Where Toynami decided to mix things up a bit on their red and green variants with gray trim work opposed to the all white look employed by the blue toy, Aoshima kept the all white trim on their red and green toys. One other fun fact, Aoshima went with a slightly different head for the green Tread though the blue and red are the same used by Toynami used. A Toynami Alpha can connect to an Aoshima Tread (and an Aoshima Legioss to a Toynami Beta) but the colors won’t match so it’s much better to stick with one manufacturer’s paint schemes.
When connected in fighter mode, the toys have a bit of an upward angle either on the stand or on the landing gear. I have heard some people say they prefer the combined fighter mode of the Aoshima toys (connected) because the Legioss’ missile pod on the back of the plane conceals the Tread’s down-turned cockpit rather than creating a giant air dam. One issue with the paint most notable on the Toynami toys, it’s a tiny bit darker than the MPC Alpha’s hue.
When connected in soldier mode, the sheer size of the Beta (Tread) dwarfs the Alpha (Legioss). I don’t know if the Alpha was supposed to need to leave it’s front portions of the wings splayed as originally designed but doing so with the toy has no real negative visual impact and allows the two toys to be sufficiently close together.
If you have a superposeable Alpha you can substitute that for the MPC Alpha with a bit of a balancing act (or you can use dual sided tape and it’d be pretty much a perfect substitute).
Design: (6/10)
This was Toynami’s most impressively designed Robotech product. On the ‘pro’ side of the equation you get:
1) Opening cockpit that accommodates an appropriately sized pilot
2) Perfect transformation
3) Solid connection to the Alpha/Legioss toys
4) Integrated chest missile bays
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 more difficult than one would expect. Toynami’s answer definitely simplifies multiple points but it’s still effective.
Since Toynami gave no forethought to the creation of a Beta when drafting their Alpha, it’s fair to be concerned that these toys wouldn’t come together well but I’m happy to say that they do. 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.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 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. For you sickos that want to connect both toys in battloid mode, you can’t really do it, the area the boom fits into is concealed when the Beta transforms into battloid mode.
Cons include:
1) Lack of integrated landing gear
2) Lack of shoulder/top of chest mounted missile bays
3) No lock to keep the cockpit in position for bomber mode
4) The cockpit doesn’t lock in the closed position and often has a somewhat agape appearance.
5) No lock to keep the torso upright in battloid (the rear booster should peg into the pelvis so the toy wouldn’t have a tendency to flop backward)
6) Nothing locks the connecting boom into the Beta except the display stand. The boom 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).
That was it for my complaints in 2008 but these days it seems like premium toys routinely sell for more than $200 and we’ve come to expect a bit more from them. In the case of the Beta, there are a few more elements we would expect today:
7) there should be an integrated plug for the connecting boom, probably a spring loaded door that would slide into the cavity as you slid the boom in.
8) Ideally the connecting boom would be integrated and telescoping though that’s probably unrealistic given how heavy these toys are.
9) The combined toys in fighter/bomber modes look good but I would have preferred the Alpha to sit a little higher so the fist area sat perfectly in the cavity of the Beta’s chest (but there is line art that makes it look like the top of the arm should meet at the center of the chest so it’s hard to argue exactly how it should be).
Durability & Build: (8/10)
This toy is built so much better than the Alpha or Legioss toys that it made me feel let down when I brought the Alpha in for the photo shoot. While the build of these toys is vastly superior to Toynami Alpha or Aoshima Legioss, I did encounter a few issues:
1) Paint application fail on one of the ‘bombs’ that raise up behind the head.
2) A bit of a sloppy glue application on the back of one of the legs and one of the arms.
3) A hip ratchet that doesn’t work on one toy (the joint is stiff and functions properly but there’s no ‘clicking’ at the various points there should be
4) One thing that really worries me is the yellow paint on the cockpit gets smashed against the Alpha/Legioss feet when combined in fighter mode. For now I’ve only seen smudging but it seems like a scratch is likely.
5) The gray plastic used in the feet has numerous inconsistencies in color.
Another thing to keep in mind is that there’s painted die-cast in areas that rub up against other parts so you’re going to want to be very careful to avoid scratches. 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.
Articulation: (6/10)
For it’s day, the articulation wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t good either. The head can swivel left/right but can’t look up or cock at an angle. The shoulders spin all the way around and allow the arm to extend away from the body. There’s a twist point mid-arm and then an elbow that allows 90 degrees of movement.. a wider range of movement would have been very helpful. The only articulated aspects of the hands are the ability to spin at the wrist and the ability to move all the fingers (they are one piece). There is no swivel at the waist. The hips extend out for transformation and have a very impressive ability to angle out away from the body. Unfortunately, the hips are not ball jointed so you can’t angle the toes out/in and there’s no twist point in the leg to compensate for this. If you don’t extend the knee the range of movement is paltry, like 25 degrees, and extending the knee increases that range by only another 15 degrees. The knee should have had two pivots, one at the lower portion of the hip and one at the top of the calf to allow at least 90 degrees of movement. Only the front toe is articulated with knuckles where it connects to the leg and mid-toe. There is no angling the toe left or right, nor can the back toes be moved. Since the leg can’t twist at any point, the relatively static ‘foot’ is less of a hindrance but you would still hope for more. In fighter mode there’s really no articulation to note. Of the two toys, the CM’s is more pose-able/dynamic.
Total Score: (36/50) (-.5 for Aoshima)
Yes, liberties were taken in both Battloid/Soldier and bomber modes, generally to keep the toy simple/cheaper, but overall, I was impressed. 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.
NOTE: This review has been updated. Originally posted on December 21, 2008, and then updated on October 20, 2009 to include the Aoshima product; it was updated again on March 2, 2011 to include pictures of the green and red variants, line art comparisons, a video review, and to update the content.
On May 12, 2019 this review was updated again to include release date and price information, a 4K video transformation guide, scans of all the instructions, pictures of the red and green Aoshima toys, numerous all new 4K photos. Additional observations were included based on my additional experiences with the toy.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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!
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
Nice review, and fast, too! Thanks!
D4mn, I want one of these….
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!
It is a great review! Thanks!
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!
excellent review , thanks
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 . . .
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.
Excellent review. I think Toynami have done a far better job than the CM version.
I dont have any of the CM’s. But can Toynami Beta Link up with the CM Alpha? or are they different scale?
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.
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…
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
What are the dimensions of the Beta & Beta/Alpha combination specifically in fighter mode?
Robotech.com states:
16″ combined Alpha/Beta
the Beta has a wing span of 16.75″
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.
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.
This review has been updated (original post was December 2008). The post now includes more detail and pics on the Aoshima release.
This is an excellent review.
Thanks for taking the time to put these together right. You ROCK.
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).
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.
Greetings. Being an avid collector of all things Macross and Mospeada (due to Robotech), I’ve found this site quite useful. Thank you.
I do have a question regarding the release of a “Shadow/Dark” Beta/Tread. Bigbadtoystore.com has a First Quarter 2011 pre-order release date listed for the Toynami MCP one, but I haven’t found any other website that is carrying or pre-ordering either version, or even pictures for them. Were they cancelled like the Beagle Yellow/Lancer and Houquet’s/Rook’s Genesis Climbers? I bought an extra Aoshima Beta/Tread from HLJ.com when they were on sale to paint like a dark one, but if they’re going to be produced, I’ll hold off. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
The official word is that sales of the Betas were not strong enough to warrant the fourth release (Ariel’s box, Shadow Beta). I believe George Sohn (president of Toynami) revealed this in an interview with CollectionDX at one of the anime conventions. There are still persistent rumors that Toynami will change its minds about the Shadow Beta but it seems unlikely at this point.
EDIT – note on BBTS, they always stick to whatever Toynami tells them and they don’t bother to hedge that with knowledge from previous experience. So, if Toynami never sends them an updated release schedule that shows specifically that a toy won’t ever be released they’ll usually leave it up on their site well after everyone else concludes that it’s just never coming out.
What about Toynami Beta Vol.4 shadow beta ?
did you have some news ?
thanks all
See my comment above (Feb 22). The Shadow Beta appears to be cancelled. It seems certain now it will never be released.
Sad that the shadow got cancelled. It’s the only alpha i ever managed to get. My hope for an alpha and beta combo with the same color is dashed. I wish they would release an alpha again, either a new one completely or like you said a plastic only version. Pretty weird decision to release betas when the alphas were released years ago and are impossible to get. Pretty much shooting yourself in the foot if you ask me.