ShadowerV2 Posted January 24, 2009 Posted January 24, 2009 If not for the exchange rate I would so be getting a Beagle Mospeada right now. Can't believe you bought one Sammy boy. And yeah I think the Alphas were designed using CAD. a Complete Asinine Design.
RavenHawk Posted January 24, 2009 Posted January 24, 2009 Bought a Beta and a Shadow Alpha abou a month ago. One of my kids or cats, take your pick, because no one will admit to it, knocked the Alpha over and broke off a piece. Just got a Blue Alpha and Shadow Alpha off of eBay ($170, not too bad)... opened them, look great... opened the landing gear on the Shadow, and the panel covering the front one broke right off! Grrr... very frustrating...
Shaggydog Posted January 24, 2009 Posted January 24, 2009 Graham is right - the biggest problem with the Alpha is the poor design. Parts simply don't fit together right. That's a design issue, not a QC issue. On the 'QC' front, the only problem I've had with my alphas is the crumbly hands. I'm really surprised to hear these reports of stuff breaking off, I haven't had that issue. Maybe it's only with the later releases.
danth Posted January 24, 2009 Posted January 24, 2009 Parts simply don't fit together right. That's a design issue, not a QC issue. How do you figure? A screw to tight, misaligned parts, sloppy glue work -- all of those factory mistakes could cause things to not fit together. And the thing is, everything on my Alpha fits together just fine. If some Alphas have good parts fit and some don't, that's bad QC.
Shaggydog Posted January 24, 2009 Posted January 24, 2009 I have six of them and on all, the hands don't fit properly back into the arms, the arms don't really shorten properly and plug into the legs when fully shortened (or if they do, the toy is 'under tension'), amongst other issues. The issues with fighter mode parts fitting are remarkably consistent. I've heard many similar reports from other owners. Thus, I conclude that in the design of the toy, they didn't set the dimensions and tolerances of the parts correctly.
chowyunskinny Posted January 24, 2009 Posted January 24, 2009 More of a Ray Charles than a Stevie Wonder... but I'm actually asking what this means. What is Nadesico, and how is this possibly copyrighted 1998? ahhh, ok....apologies for the snark well the picture looks to be from Dengeki Hobby or Hobby Japan. I believe the page it was on contained products from other anime properties like Nadesico. Whoever posted the pic cropped it, but left a little bit of the text and picture borders of the items to the right and below the Beagle Mospeada.
magicsp00n Posted January 24, 2009 Posted January 24, 2009 So who wants to bet that five years from now somebody will be paying $500 for a SUPER RARE RECALLED MAIA SHADOW FIGHTER on ebay?
Einherjar Posted January 24, 2009 Posted January 24, 2009 So who wants to bet that five years from now somebody will be paying $500 for a SUPER RARE RECALLED MAIA SHADOW FIGHTER on ebay? At that point, fans will buy anything at any price. The trick is keeping the fragile Alpha in good condition for five years in or out of the box.
rdenham Posted January 24, 2009 Posted January 24, 2009 (edited) How the F*** do you transform the Aoshima Legioss, I’m about ready to throw the thing across the room. I can’t find a transformation video on youtube and since the pictures in the instruction book suck and the written instructions in the Robotech guide book I found on the web don’t describe every step I am stumped. Edited January 24, 2009 by rdenham
troyness Posted January 25, 2009 Posted January 25, 2009 any Beagle owners want to strike some basic standing and/or kneeling poses they,ve come up with in armor mode without the display stand?
Tober Posted January 25, 2009 Posted January 25, 2009 How the F*** do you transform the Aoshima Legioss, I’m about ready to throw the thing across the room. I can’t find a transformation video on youtube and since the pictures in the instruction book suck and the written instructions in the Robotech guide book I found on the web don’t describe every step I am stumped. Click an image to enlarge it, then click it again to enlarge again... . .
AcroRay Posted January 25, 2009 Posted January 25, 2009 CAD-designed transforming toys tend to have tighter gaps, symmetrical design and better proportions than hand-sculpted models. They tend to just look better and work better. There are legions of Takara transforming toy products that are symmetrical, have tight gaps and tolerances, look great and work fine. Dozens of them were designed long before CAD was a tool for manufacturing. Most were designed before the invention of the laptop... H3ll, there are plenty of older model kits that would fit your CAD indications.
AcroRay Posted January 25, 2009 Posted January 25, 2009 How the F*** do you transform the Aoshima Legioss, I’m about ready to throw the thing across the room. I can’t find a transformation video on youtube and since the pictures in the instruction book suck and the written instructions in the Robotech guide book I found on the web don’t describe every step I am stumped. Keep in mind that if your Legioss has joints, sliders and other elements that aren't working properly, you might be lead to think that you're not transforming it properly even though you may actually be doing it correctly.
AcroRay Posted January 25, 2009 Posted January 25, 2009 I'm gonna have to disagree with Graham and say that the Toynami Legioss is a good design with a crappy execution. With better QC and a better choice of materials, I think it would be damn near perfect. Maybe with tighter tolerances at the factory the nose wouldn't bow up. As bad as the QC is, I still think it's a great looking toy before it falls apart. Danth pretty much has it right. QC is your main issue here. Every time a blot of glue gets in a slider, or a set of plastic parts are misshapen because they were demolded before they properly cured and stabilized in the tooling, or every time someone doesn't screw two parts together properly, or forgets to trim a little bit of flash off of the peg fitting into a socket, or pulls off a mask before the paint is fully dry - then you get things that don't interact (transform) properly. That would only be called bad 'design' in so far as you might consider your choice of materials and your workpersons' assembly instructions are part of the overall design. I think Toynami's Legioss is wonderfully designed. Its just a potential nightmare to get built properly on a short timetable. I'd venture that if you gave a kit of all the parts for the thing, instructions and a good set of tools to just about anyone here to build over the course of a weekend the result would be optimal. You'd have no trouble getting the design together and it would work fine. But if I told you to get 6 or 7 of them built before the end of the work day... then the results would probably be a little sketchy with some of them. Time is money.
Gastric Posted January 25, 2009 Posted January 25, 2009 Keep in mind that if your Legioss has joints, sliders and other elements that aren't working properly, you might be lead to think that you're not transforming it properly even though you may actually be doing it correctly. True, experiment with it (though i advice caution). I have the Toynami Alpha and after several experimentations found out there are several places where a "click" can actually be heard when the parts have been correctly slided in (e.g. collapsing the legs to transform back to fighter mode). This actually lined up my Alpha very nicely (yes, no gaps).. someone in this thread mentioned about collapsing the elbow joints into the lower arms BEFORE storing the hands into the arms; and that actually works perfectly and you'll get a nicely collapsed arm section for the fighter mode. Also watch out for the midsection/waist part. Collapse it fully. The arms and the legs will connect nicely via the tabs once everything is collapsed correctly. im actually having fun with the Alpha, and further reinforced my belief that the Alpha is a great design (bar the rear landing gears and the oversized cyclone storage compartment) , marred by QC and factory assembly issue (that might cause some fitting problem).
RavenHawk Posted January 25, 2009 Posted January 25, 2009 ahhh, ok....apologies for the snark well the picture looks to be from Dengeki Hobby or Hobby Japan. I believe the page it was on contained products from other anime properties like Nadesico. Whoever posted the pic cropped it, but left a little bit of the text and picture borders of the items to the right and below the Beagle Mospeada. Gotcha. Thanks.
promethuem5 Posted January 25, 2009 Posted January 25, 2009 SO... I read jenius's fantastic review of the Beagle, and I'm looking for more people's thoughts on its balance with the armor on... I hate toys that require stands, and the lack of balance my biggest gripe with the smaller figures... how does this toy stand and pose without the stand?
vf2ss Posted January 25, 2009 Posted January 25, 2009 how does this toy stand and pose without the stand? I'm having a hell of a time getting this figure to stand on it's own. The armor on his back makes him quite top heavy. The feet are smaller and that doesn't help in trying to get the figure to stand. The times that I've managed to make him stand on his own made me uneasy, I wouldn't leave him unsupervised and I'm going to use the stand for sure when it comes time to display him. Still, I really like this version of the Ride Armor. I think I had some Anime Magic working on my side when I got him to stand on his own.
troyness Posted January 25, 2009 Posted January 25, 2009 I'm having a hell of a time getting this figure to stand on it's own. The armor on his back makes him quite top heavy. The feet are smaller and that doesn't help in trying to get the figure to stand. The times that I've managed to make him stand on his own made me uneasy, I wouldn't leave him unsupervised and I'm going to use the stand for sure when it comes time to display him. Still, I really like this version of the Ride Armor. I think I had some Anime Magic working on my side when I got him to stand on his own. Nice!!!any kneeling poses?
promethuem5 Posted January 25, 2009 Posted January 25, 2009 Then ankles look really un-articulated... that might be a big part of the problem. Looks like this guy will need some tweaking after all. Thanks for the pics!
jenius Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 (edited) The ankles are really stiff but do offer a large range of motion. It's definitely tricky to get him to balance just right but the feet are more forgiving then you'd expect... but they still end up too small and really require you to get your poses just right. Edited January 26, 2009 by jenius
Alex Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 Managed to transform the Beagle sans instruction booklet for the first time on Sunday. Took about an hour but I made it. One thing I wanted to ask was whether people are having trouble pullin g out the thrusters/hub-caps. I needed to use something to lever them out. Wasn't easy. I'm really afraid that they might break under that kind of force.
SuperHobo Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 On mine the right side hubcap was a bitch and half to pull out and I had to get some tools to help me push it up. The left side was like butter though.
AcroRay Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 I'd like to take a moment here to just say that all of you people who have your Beagle Ride Armors completely and utterly suck, and that I'm consumed by envy.
troyness Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 If anyone had troubles lining up the front wheel with the back wheel of the bike(transforming it back to bike mode) I just realised that you have to swivel the kick stand to where the white wheel stem and it meet at a certain point to lock together!!
Vermillion21 Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 I'd like to take a moment here to just say that all of you people who have your Beagle Ride Armors completely and utterly suck, and that I'm consumed by envy. ditto for me too ....
troyness Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 some of these beagle stickers are eventually gonna come off ,anyone got any ideas as a preventive!!?
chowyunskinny Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 some of these beagle stickers are eventually gonna come off ,anyone got any ideas as a preventive!!? Maybe someone could commission Delta from Reprolabels to make a replacement set. I got him to make a set for the 1/8 Gakken a while back. I'd approach him again, but I don't own the Beagle.
RavenHawk Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 So, I bought a couple Alphas off of eBay for (somewhat) cheap, because they already had the stickers on them. However, the stickers are either poorly done, or not quite in the right spots. I'm assuming that I can't just take them off and reapply them elsewhere, right? Correct me if I'm wrong. Does anyone know where I can find new stickers for my Blue (Scott) Masterpiece Alpha? I looked at Reprolabels, which does a TON of Transformers stickers, but this is all they have for Robotech/Macross/MOSPEADA (or Macrospeada, as they like to call it): http://reprolabels.com/Macrospeada/ Thanks.
RavenHawk Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 Maybe someone could commission Delta from Reprolabels to make a replacement set. I got him to make a set for the 1/8 Gakken a while back. I'd approach him again, but I don't own the Beagle. Funny, I just posted a new topic about Reprolabels for the Masterpiece Alpha.
troyness Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 Maybe someone could commission Delta from Reprolabels to make a replacement set. I got him to make a set for the 1/8 Gakken a while back. I'd approach him again, but I don't own the Beagle. Thanx chowyunskinny!!! I got a feeling the hbt cell might come out of the fuel tank,looking inside you can see it,s a solid cylinder from one end of the fuel tank to the other,pushing on either end it moves as one piece to a certain point I,m pretty sure I could work it all the way out....just working up the courage
chowyunskinny Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 well for the Gakken stickers, I provided Delta with a 600 dpi scan of the original sticker sheet and shipped him a donor piece so he could test fit the stickers on. Hit him up and see what he says. Only thing I'd be worried about is Toynami/Harmony Gold having issues with somebody reproducing their stickers.
Alex Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 Thanx chowyunskinny!!! I got a feeling the hbt cell might come out of the fuel tank,looking inside you can see it,s a solid cylinder from one end of the fuel tank to the other,pushing on either end it moves as one piece to a certain point I,m pretty sure I could work it all the way out....just working up the courage I can get mine out about half way. I think you have to rotate so that it matches up with a slot and peg or something.
Vostok 7 Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 Ugh, I can NOT wait until my Beagle gets here. Supposedly ships on Tuesday. Cannot come soon enough!!!! Vostok 7
troyness Posted January 26, 2009 Posted January 26, 2009 I don't think it'd be wise to attach the sleeves on the arm to the chest armor, I think that'd create a lot of potential for tearing the fabric. I would rather they use a tighter and more rubbery fabric so it wouldn't move around as much. The targeting scope is definitely loose and could be much better. There were several poses I got the armor in that would have really been impaired if the hip covers attached in front like they do in the back. I agree that posing of the legs would be limited if hip armor had an attachment point to the crotch armor in front. It,d just be nice if it would click/lock together to make it seem more sturdy,,and then have the option of disconnecting it for posing,The connection point of the hip armor to the knee impairs posing aswell..but you then have the option of disconnecting it for greater knee poseablility
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