Alex

I guess we can dream of the 1/8 that could have been. Interesting though, why what eventually became the 1/8 gakken was so drastically simplified. Could they have at least kept the chest design from this ride armor? (Wow. I'm bitching over a 20-plus year old toy)

A thruster. The 1/8's thrusters were always pointing up. Hate that. All the thrust would force them down. Stick- "Ok. Now to fire this thing WHUP!!!!!!!!!!!!" Ray- Ew?

The Stick is the 1/12 kit and the Legioss is the 1/48 kit. Both are non-variable. I wish I knew where that prototype were now (if not ground to plastic atoms long ago). Imagine if Toynami's original Ride-armor had been based on THIS design. YAR!

Which is quite disappointing. This supposed prototype looks to be far better than the 1/8. It even has complete and detailed verniers (an important and sadly neglected area on the 1/8. Could it be that they thought this version would be too costly/delicate/impractical to mass-produce?

How comes Mylene doesn't get a mention?

To be honest, I don't know why movie Devestator looking like a Troll is a bad thing. The trolls in LotR were complete and utter ba$%#(ds. Giant destructive gits. And now we get a 120ft robotic version?! Why, yes. I believe i'll take a dozen, sir. The CGI version will look far better than the toy anyway (what movie toy has ever looked that good anyway?)

THAT'S the one! So what is with that ride-armor? I've never seen a kit that matches that in that scale. And it looks as if it came just within an inch of release. Can't see an visible screw-holes indicitive of a "TOY" (though a prototype might not have any). BTW, that's a great magazine. Tons of really great sketches, posters, line-art, character bios etc. And some really nice pics of the genesis of the mecha designs, the insane models some guy made of the Tread B, and nice little self portraits of the design team. And if I remember, a lot of info about the recording of the show, cast bios etc.

Have to check out my copy when I get home. I'm sure the title is "Anime-" something. It's definitely the copy shown in the Beagle display stand when they announced the 1/10. You can see the cover in one of the old Mw threads. I also rememeber the price was 4980en and it was next to the 1/35 Legioss priced at 3980en. The details were far beyond the 1/8 Gakken. It had a much thinner chest in armour mode, a black visor, hands that were more realistic with no holes for the gun, more detailed legs, a much more detailed crotch piece in armor mode and no visible/external hook up points for the suspension at the front of the bike. There are also pics of the 1/12 kit next to it. Those were priced at around 1500en I think. No way a kit would be more expensive than the 1/35 Legioss (right?). In which case, it seems we missed out on a superior Ride-armor and got the 1/8 in its place.

It was one of the mags that Beagle had in that display when they first announced the 1/10. The one with a full shot of Ray on the cover. I don't have a scanner unfortunately. But it DID have a price, Seemed ready to be released. More than just an abandoned idea.

I was reading an old Japanese anime mag lastnight. This particular issue was devoted to Mospeada. On the back they showed an ad for the upcoming Gakken toys and along with the 1/35 Legioss and Gakken kits they showed an ad for a Perfect Change 1/10 Mospeada. Not a kit. Was this an early prototype of what would eventually become the 1/8? It looked far more in proportion with nicer detailing. Anyone know what this toy was? I think the price was around 5000en

The Tommy-Yune head has a really "dead" expression on its face.

For some reason......that Tommy Yune head reminds me of a Muppet.

For no other reason than i'm bored. The transformers......through song Alpha Trion sings Elton John's Crocodile Rock....HIS way. "I remember when OP was young/ He and Dion made Energon/ Along with Elita-One/ But misguided OP idolized Megatron/ HEY/ Bots Flyin/ Op was really thrilled/ Although, valiant Autobots were being killed......... Cyber-DON Maclean's American Pie sung by Kup- A long, long time ago, I can still remember when, Cybertron was doing fine/ And I knew if I had my chance, I could make those Petro-rabbits dance, and maybe i'd be shooting for a while/ But Unicron he made us shiver/ With every decepticon he'd deliver/ Galvatron on our door step, with all the power he could get/ I can't remember if Daniel cried when he saw that Optimus had died/ And Magnus hid the Matrix deep inside......the day.....Optimus.......Died...../ So, bye bye Dear Optimus Prime. had the Matrix, was elated now a victim of gun-crime/ Amd Wheelie makes us hate him with every single damn line/ Geez, I wish that little guy would just die......Geez I wish that he would just die......... And the classic Maclean song, "Starry starry night"- Robot-Robot fight/ Paint Unicron orange and grey/ Listen to what Galvatron says/ If you don't he'll blow you all away/ Robot-robot fight/ Megatron shot Optimus/ Only because Rodim-ASS/ Ruined all of Optimus' plans........................................

Quick question, any memebers in japan know the best place to get a Toynami Beta (any version is ok). I saw Rakuten has them but anywhere else?

Nya-hah. Guess this belongs here. They're installing much needed soda machines in our office building today. They were carting them in on little wheeled pallettes. The guys wheeling them in were obscured by the size of the machines. All I could think of was the Cola machines in Mac. I thought "Wow, kawamori is really pullling out the stops for this launching ceremony. COLA.!!!!.......aw, man.......I GOTTA PEE!!!!!"

Apparently not. The hands literally seemed to become more brittle over time. They were just a little rubbery when I first bought it, but now they seem to have hardened. Hands down the worst part of the toy!

That's been the case everywhere i've seen them. The worst was a shop near my place that had around 50, just sitting there for about 1999en. Although, those seem to have been snapped up in the last week or two. It just looks so uninteresting at that scale, any details lost in the black.

Meaning the Megahouse version I take it. I really hope that they give her better proportions than her male counterparts. Looking at the other MHs lastnight they really do look horribly proportioned.

Nah. I'm not interested in doing it. I think Renato was doing just for the hell of it anyway. Yeah, those girls in the photos were the same when we went there. Can't say they were dead-ringers for their on-screen counterparts though

Either way, kinda sucks that it's taking chances away from other people.

Nah. I'm a bit of a git anyway

Well, on mine there are no sockets as the that part came away with the hands. All that's left is the piece that rotates. I'm actualy going to steal the hands off my CM's Tread as i'll be leaving that transformed once I get the Aoshima or Toynami.

Ow. That's worse than I imagined. My Aoshima (which I bought just after they were released) finally succumbed to his arthritis and the hands (BOTH) crumbled on the same day. Which is kinda of sweet in a way. The left couldn't live without the right. Apart from that though, the Aoshima has survived numerous drops and lived to fly another day.

Went to the Anime Center in Akihabara with Renato yesterday so that we could do this whole "Buy the poster-run around town-get the stamp-discard dignity" thing in order to win the chance to get the opportunity to be possibly considered to appear on a show with Kawamori. The two girls dressed as Sheryl and Ranka who greeted us at the center were....quite frightening actually. The actress playing Sheryl had to go home, seemingly because of her strained voice. Either having to sing numbers from the show by request of the visiting Otaku....or denying sexual advances from said Otaku. One of the places where we could get the stamps was the local Famima. One guy (bowl hair-cut? Check) had something like five posters. Which kinda p@#&es me off coz that just denies other people the chance to get the opportunity to.......and so on. Obviously his intent. He should be thinking WWHD (What would Hikaru do?). All in all, a thinly disguised psychological experiment to test the pointlessness of such things.

Don't know if anyone remembers the Beagle-esque figure I started a while back. I'm just going to buy a few of those suits and use those.