{"id":5497,"date":"2012-02-01T04:11:05","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T04:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anymoon.com\/blog\/?p=5497"},"modified":"2014-07-11T06:15:38","modified_gmt":"2014-07-11T06:15:38","slug":"matchboxplaymates-7-destroid-toys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anymoon.com\/blog\/?p=5497","title":{"rendered":"Matchbox\/Playmates 7″ Destroid Toys"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Review: Beggars couldn’t be choosers when it came to destroids
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Packaging & Extras<\/strong>: Matchbox (2.5\/5), Playmates (1.5\/5)
\nThe classic Matchbox toys released in the mid-80s came in boxes with the toy, stickers, and instructions in a box that featured some very 80s art work and pictures of the toys.\u00a0 The later Playmates ExoSquad reissues came packaged\u00a0 with similar instructions and stickers on large blister cards… and I hate blister cards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Charm & Collectability<\/strong>: Matchbox (2.5\/5), Playmates (1.5\/5)
\nBoth the Matchbox and Playmates toys clearly identify themselves with the Robotech license but the Playmates toy is cross-licensed with 1993’s ExoSquad show.\u00a0 How did Robotech toys get mixed up with ExoSquad?\u00a0 Well, that’s a long story, but here’s the text on the back of the box to give you an idea of how the toy manufacturers figured it could work from a story perspective:
\n“Far from the Homeworlds of ExoSquadTM, the ROBOTECH TM Master Zor develops Robo Technology and launches reflex-powered machines through a hazardous and unstable Space Fold which empties into ExoTerritory!\u00a0 Joining the battle alongside mankind’s final hope, ROBOTECH war machines reinforce ExoSuad’s fighting teams with their special class of Attack Mecha E-Frames.\u00a0 It’s the ultimate battle with the ultimate machines – ExoSquad and ROBOTECH!”
\nNeedless to say, these toys don’t feature any sort of transformation (they’re not supposed to) and they don’t have any diecast.\u00a0 These mecha were not piloted by heroes in the cartoons and were never very popular amongst consumers.\u00a0 As a result, these toys are not coveted and generally easy to find today for the same price, or less, than when they were originally released.\u00a0 Pristine Matchbox examples may demand some premium… but not much.<\/p>\n

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Sculpt, Detail, & Build:<\/strong> (6\/10)
\nAs you can see from the various line art comparisons, these toys don’t have much in the way of detail and they take numerous liberties in terms of proportion and shape.\u00a0 Obviously these toys were designed well before the days of CAD.\u00a0\u00a0 Each toy has some fairly significant faults.\u00a0 For the most part the Matchbox toys are the same as the Playmates versions except that Playmates added a sprinkled black effect to simulate what modelers call “weathering”.\u00a0 If you weren’t a fan of Yamato’s attempts at weathered toys you’ll really hate Playmates’ effort.\u00a0 Of all the toys I felt the Raidar X toy (Macross’ Defender) was particularly bad looking from a sculpt perspective as the whole upper body seems like it was designed completely by someone’s memory of the show rather than by looking at what the toy is supposed to look like.\u00a0\u00a0 There are lots of bits on these toys you’d wish were made of clear plastic but instead are covered by a sticker (like the Excaliber’s cockpit), by paint (the lights on the Spartan’s head or the spotlight on the Excaliber) although the Raidar X does get some credit here for actually having clear plastic employed for its chest-mounted spotlights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Design:<\/strong> (5\/10)
\nI’ll ignore these toys’ lack of joints and terrible articulation here since I have another section dedicated exclusively to design.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Each toy has a gimmick of its own:
\nRaidar X (AKA Defender): this toy has “Shoulder-mounted auto cannons, a short-range weapon for guarding Raidar X against infiltrating enemies.”\u00a0 If you’re a Macross purist this is probably quite confusing to you.\u00a0 In the Robotech universe the weapons aren’t physical munitions, they’re beam weapons, so, it wouldn’t make sense for the Raidar X to be walking around with huge magazines on its torso.\u00a0 So, oddly enough, the Matchbox destroid features a hinge allowing the user to open what should be magazines and reveal what is allegedly mini guns… but they look nothing like that.
\nExcaliber MK VI (AKA Tomahawk): this toy has torso missile bays that open revealing interior missiles.\u00a0 The shoulder-mounted missile bay does not open.
\nGladiator (AKA Spartan): Side note, it’s fine that the writers of Robotech wanted to change the names of the destroids… but couldn’t they have picked unique names rather than the other Japanese names of the destroids??\u00a0 Anyway, the Gladiator features a center section that opens to reveal a big gun.
\nSpartan (AKA Phalanx):\u00a0 This toy features missle pods that open.
\nWhat you won’t get with any of these toys are cockpits, the ability to partially disassemble them to Frankenstein them with other destroids, panels that reveal more detaili, or anything beyond each toy’s main gimmick.<\/p>\n

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Durability & Build:<\/strong> (5.5\/10)
\nThese toys feel cheap and are poorly made.\u00a0 Paint lines are not crisp and flaws are frequent.\u00a0 Seams are very pronounced.\u00a0 Parts do not fit together well.\u00a0 Fortunately, there’s not a whole lot to these toys so while they may be poorly built they don’t seem particularly easy to break.\u00a0 While they do lack any heft in your hand they don’t feel like they’re about to fall apart while you handle them.\u00a0\u00a0 You can handle them with little concern of breaking them.<\/p>\n

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Articulation:<\/strong> (4\/10)
\nGenerally speaking you get the following joints:
\n1) Toe moves up (not down).
\n2) Hips rotate.\u00a0 Since the toe moves up this allows you to rotate a leg backward for a straight forward walking pose.
\n3) Shoulders rotate
\n4) There generally one rotation point in the arms.\u00a0 On the Raidar X this is at the hinge just after the shoulder, in the Gladiator this is at the wrists, in the Excaliber this is at the point where the cannon attaches to the arm.\u00a0 The Spartan has no other swivel point than the one at the shoulders but it does have a swivel point at its neck (none of the other destroids have heads).
\n5) A rotation point at the waist.
\nYou don’t get knees, ankles, ball-jointed hips, so all poses you achieve will look fairly rigid.
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