Skull Hunter Posted February 12, 2010 Posted February 12, 2010 Hey all. So I purchased all three of the CM's expensive ass legioss and treads a while back ago from a fellow macrossworld member. I was decently happy with the purchase but was still bothered by a few cosmetic issues, the chest intakes being one of them. Well, searching around on ebay today, I came across a seller selling one with upgraded parts. When I saw the image I was like, WTF? There are new better molded intakes, hands, and linkage bar as well as a huge gun and other items. I was pissed. If I knew about these parts, I might have waited. So I did a search on google, and came across scorched earth toys review on anymoon and the upgrade looks great! The link is below in case anyone is interested. My question is, does anybody on here know if I can get a few upgraded sets by themselves, or if they even come by themselves? I mean, I feel I've been slapped in the face for buying their older crap when they put these out to try and sell the rest of them off! I just wish that there was a way to get just these parts without having to sell mine off and lose money, while paying even more for this version. Any info would be greatly appreciated. http://anymoon.com/blog/2010/01/12/cms-upg...ioss-tread-eta/
jenius Posted February 12, 2010 Posted February 12, 2010 (edited) I think you meant to put this in the Mospeada thread. EDIT - To date you can't just buy the upgrade parts by themselves. EDIT II - musta been confused... this IS the Mospeada thread. Edited February 12, 2010 by jenius
Vostok 7 Posted February 12, 2010 Author Posted February 12, 2010 I think you meant to put this in the Mospeada thread. EDIT - To date you can't just buy the upgrade parts by themselves. EDIT II - musta been confused... this IS the Mospeada thread. It got moved and then moved again. He originally posted it in the Macross Models forum, then it got merged with the Astro Plan thread and then finally merged with the correct thread. And I'd kill for some Beagle saddlebags. Seriously. Is Ray/Lay/Rey/Ley/Etc./Etc./Etc.'s bike still available around? Should probably get it some day since it's the only other Beagle that will ever be
chowyunskinny Posted February 12, 2010 Posted February 12, 2010 Bid It Up!!! Beagle 1/10 Mosepeda Saddle Bags
DarrinG Posted February 12, 2010 Posted February 12, 2010 Enjoyed Jenius' review of the CMs soldiers. It was a weird choice in pairings. With all this talk of vinyl (or whatever they make their collecting figures out of) -- couldn't they have done a small hive guard cheaply and throw in a few hbt canisters? What would that have done for demand for the Wolfe figure? "So the hero's a traitor . . ."
AcroRay Posted February 12, 2010 Posted February 12, 2010 Bid It Up!!! Beagle 1/10 Mosepeda Saddle Bags Then recast it!
EXO Posted February 12, 2010 Posted February 12, 2010 The saddle bags arent going to be available at any future WonderFests.
woll622 Posted February 12, 2010 Posted February 12, 2010 Hey, I just openned up my Maia Sterling RT Masterpiece. It has all of the improvements of the aoshima legioss, like ratchet joints. Here are some pics.
woll622 Posted February 12, 2010 Posted February 12, 2010 (edited) It is not as weak as the first release, but the right leg is slightly split, and the head is wobbly. But overall, I am pretty happy. This will be my 6th alpha, and this one feels more secure. The hand is made of better plastic, but the gun does not fit all of the way over the hand. Also, the gunpod fits securely into the peg between the arm thrusters where as my original shadow alpha does not do this. Edited February 12, 2010 by woll622
woll622 Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 I'm terrible witht his stuff, but I think I got all of the photos I took up on flickr... http://www.flickr.com/photos/47504398@N04/
lavinrac Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 It is not as weak as the first release, but the right leg is slightly split, and the head is wobbly. But overall, I am pretty happy. This will be my 6th alpha, and this one feels more secure. The hand is made of better plastic, but the gun does not fit all of the way over the hand. Also, the gunpod fits securely into the peg between the arm thrusters where as my original shadow alpha does not do this. Oh man.... Beagle?? Are you there Beagle? Can you please make us an alpha? Seriously it looks like the alpha is never going to get the proper respect.. BTW. Hesperia CA eh? Cool! I used to live in Apple Valley. Whats up?
eriku Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 Yeesh, by those nice close-up pics I can see that the Toynami Alpha mold still looks shabby. It has that rough-around-the-edges rough and unrefined garage kit look. They really, really need to just give up on that mold and start over. Good to hear it's not falling apart or anything though. And at least they finally seem to have addressed the hands.
505thAirborne Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 Still haven't changed that godly Rear landing gear, still looks like toothpick with a zit attached. Seriously Beagle, BANDAI or Yamato, take a swing at a Alpha/Legioss Fighter!!!! ( I know its wishful thinking, but still!)
Mog Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 Yeesh, by those nice close-up pics I can see that the Toynami Alpha mold still looks shabby. It has that rough-around-the-edges rough and unrefined garage kit look. They really, really need to just give up on that mold and start over. Or at least, get rid of the die-cast content. And ratchet-joint the shoulders! That's where the ratchets are truly needed. Regarding Maia's bird, it's too bad Toynami didn't make the shoulder sensor a grey color instead. The white just stands out too much on Maia's color-scheme.
Uxi Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 Almost looks like the arched back is gone is fighter. Almost. Still would like to see another run of the regular Shadow with their "improvements"
AcroRay Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 Yeesh, by those nice close-up pics I can see that the Toynami Alpha mold still looks shabby. It has that rough-around-the-edges rough and unrefined garage kit look. They really, really need to just give up on that mold and start over. It's not the MOLD, it's the assembly. Jeeze. It looks 'rough-around-the-edges' because the parts aren't cut from the sprues properly, the painting is messy, and it's not assembled properly. Like a master-grade Gundam kit assembled by someone with very little skill at assembling and painting complex models. And even if that weren't the case, if the plastics aren't injected and demolded properly - like being run too quickly, and not monitored or sampled regularly, as is typical with short-run productions - then no matter how good the tooling is, the plastic product won't be consistent or meet QC needs. Sorry. It's just really started to bug me lately when people in toy forums start throwing around terms that they don't really know much about, and then use them to make judgements on results. Still, shabby is the word for this poor thing. It has issues I don't see in my earlier Toynami MPC Alphas. I'm amazed at the rough cut points and messy assembly. There probably weren't many made of these, and that's an absolute quality killer for products with a huge amount of complex parts in multiple materials, with lots of paint apps and difficult working mechanisms. The smaller the overall quantity, the shorter the time the job occupies a given assembly line. If it were a product with a larger quantity run, you could monitor the assembly and toss out or repair examples like this, and the line workers would have a longer run to train themselves on all the tricks needed to build them properly or strip and rebuild samples that aren't going together properly. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole run of these replacements weren't all assembled in a day or so. That doesn't leave you much - if any - opportunity for errors, retraining or tweaks on the run.
eriku Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 It's not the MOLD, it's the assembly. Jeeze. Sorry. It's just really started to bug me lately when people in toy forums start throwing around terms that they don't really know much about, and then use them to make judgements on results. Well then I guess we're blessed to have an informed expert such as yourself to correct us. I don't have personal access to the molds to inspect them myself, like you apparently do, but to my eyes the toy looks like the product of a shabby mold combined with poor painting and poor assembly. So business as usual for the Toynami Alpha, basically.
jenius Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 Well it's good to see they at least got the chest intakes right and incorporated the Aoshima improvements. Honestly, if this is the Aoshima valk with better quality control then it does stand up better against every Alpha released yet. Clearly though we're a long way from where we'd like to be.
gilermo Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 Bid It Up!!! Beagle 1/10 Mosepeda Saddle Bags Man i wish i could. But i am no member of these japanese Yahoo auction and i don't use a credit card . Normal Ebay + Paypal would have been way better for me...
chowyunskinny Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 You can still use Paypal with a deputy service like Shopping Mall Japan. I would try them or Rinkya, but I personally use Shopping Mall Japan Man i wish i could. But i am no member of these japanese Yahoo auction and i don't use a credit card . Normal Ebay + Paypal would have been way better for me...
AcroRay Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 Well then I guess we're blessed to have an informed expert such as yourself to correct us. Yep. Now you know some things about toymaking you didn't know before. Information is a grand thing.
505thAirborne Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 The saddle bags arent going to be available at any future WonderFests. You should try to recast them EXO, since your already doing the VF-1 parts. I'll bet these would sell quite well!
woll622 Posted February 13, 2010 Posted February 13, 2010 Oh man.... Beagle?? Are you there Beagle? Can you please make us an alpha? Seriously it looks like the alpha is never going to get the proper respect.. BTW. Hesperia CA eh? Cool! I used to live in Apple Valley. Whats up? Hey there! Looks like you're a long way from this part of the country now. 505thAirborne - I agree, too bad something else couldn't be done about the wheels. The ones on this plane don't lock into place well, so if it slides a little bit, the wheels fold back. Mog - The shoulders were stronger this time around, though I agree something a little different would be great. I haven't had shoulder problems with the other 5 alphas I've had. Instead, I have had problems with the extendable arms breaking, the shoulder sensor attaching thing breaking off, and the leg breaking off at the hip. I thought the color was a little strange too for the sensor. At least this time it actually fits iinto the hole! The messed up version I had last year was molded in some other plastic and gooped with sloppy white paint. I almost got out my exacto knife to try and clean off the post to fit it in. Thank goodness the recall came first. Uxi - I noticed that the arch gone as soon as I took it out of the packaging. I was suprised, but obviously very happy about that. It was nice that it actually would set on all three wheels, instead of the back wheels and the chest plate.
derex3592 Posted February 14, 2010 Posted February 14, 2010 Well, looking at those pics...AT LEAST the broken back thing is fixed..sort of. Anyway, hopefully it's not just that ONE that looks better, but it wouldn't surprise me. I'm done with Toynami "Next Gen Mecha" for the foreseeable future. Exactly 0 of my dollars will go to anything they put out. I had high hopes after the Beta, but oh well....
Mog Posted February 14, 2010 Posted February 14, 2010 Toynami never capitalizes on areas untapped in the Macross or Mospeada market. They never jumped at a chance to make the GBP-1S armor back in the day. They never made their own SDF-1 or re-released the Matchbox version with a few tweaks. They could have easily released a TV VF-1A Max (just a simple repaint for them), but they never did. While everyone in the 1/48, 1/55, and 1/60 scale sleeps on the enemy mechs, Toynami does NOTHING to take advantage of the situation. Although I'm thankful that Toynami finally released the Beta, their reputation and track record have taught me never to put any faith on them releasing anything groundbreaking or original.
DarrinG Posted February 15, 2010 Posted February 15, 2010 The right leg is slightly split . . . Slightly split? Awful, just awful. I hope its just you and maybe only 4 other people who actually spent hard earned money on this piece of crap. I want Toynami thinking only this: OK - this was a disaster. Nobody wants anymore of these, especially with our current production techniques in place, so what have they been asking for from the classic series? What about enemy mechs? What would it take to get the Fuke work from Beagle and take that to market as a Rook MPC? (using beagle's same factory of course) . . .
jenius Posted February 15, 2010 Posted February 15, 2010 (edited) Toynami has never grown beyond that early stage where they can afford to take risks and the Robotech license hasn't proven profitable enough for them to pour in a ton of effort. Honestly, Robotech toys are probably amongst their most expensive to make with a very limited return, a ton of complaining, and really they're probably quite happy to be moving further and further away from that license. Edited February 15, 2010 by jenius
AcroRay Posted February 15, 2010 Posted February 15, 2010 (edited) Toynami never capitalizes on areas untapped in the Macross or Mospeada market. They never jumped at a chance to make the GBP-1S armor back in the day. They never made their own SDF-1 or re-released the Matchbox version with a few tweaks. They could have easily released a TV VF-1A Max (just a simple repaint for them), but they never did. While everyone in the 1/48, 1/55, and 1/60 scale sleeps on the enemy mechs, Toynami does NOTHING to take advantage of the situation. Although I'm thankful that Toynami finally released the Beta, their reputation and track record have taught me never to put any faith on them releasing anything groundbreaking or original. You can't just say "Hey! No one has released an Armored Valkyrie yet here in the states! Lets do it!". Its a little more complicated than that. I'd say all the product they've developed is exactly capitalizing on the Macross and Mospeada interest market here in the west. They did prototype a Macross Storm Attacker modular toy, with the intent of selling it in sections with their very inexpensive line of Super-Posable Macross figures. When re-orders didn't support an expansion of that line, that product died with it. So there's a precise example of what you're asking for, with an indication of how it proved unworkable. Also, the MPC Ben Dixon didn't sell well. (H3ll, it's the peg-warmer of the whole series. You can pick it up for less than its original SRP.) Max's largely identical-looking 1A most likely wouldn't have done any better. Why throw money in on a losing idea? (Like Matchbox's poor retail results with their original and imported Macross toys.) I don't get your "make the GBP-1S armor back in the day". What day? ("Back in the day" means the 1980s to 40 year old guy like me! ) They haven't been around that long, and they have developed a GBP set for their 1/100 line. If there was retailer interest and the company had the resources to release it, they most certainly would have. Really, some ideas aren't necessarily worth pursuing simply because they haven't been done or because there's some potential market. You need to attract enough retailer interest to justify all the R & D and manufacturing costs to take advantage of it. Robotech and its associated Macross & Mospeada identities in the west (the only market area Toynami really has the license to create and sell product for) has only a very limited - if consistent - potential interest market which most retailers would likely tell you has been tapped as well as it can be within the legal restrictions inherent with each of those properties. And chances are most retailers would simply respond "Robotek what? Is that from Lego?" Its like extracting the gold dissolved in the world's sea water. No one's taken it yet! It's there, but every one has come to terms with the fact that it really isn't worth all the effort to get it. And they have release a huge number of Mospeada products in all price ranges and interest ranges - from posable action figures, to super-deform toys to high-end pieces and even sculpture pieces (some of which feature enemy mecha). YOu certainly can't say they haven't capitalized on that market when they've released somewhere in the range of 30 individual products. Most, however met retailer disinterest and far too many to lackluster sales at best. I for one wish very much it were otherwise, but that's the situation they're working under. I'm pleasantly amazed we have what we do from them, and am delighted with every new piece they turn out. Hopefully Invid mecha will join their vinyl collection, but based on what they showed off at this week's TFI, it probably won't be in 2010. Edited February 15, 2010 by AcroRay
Uxi Posted February 15, 2010 Posted February 15, 2010 They never made their own SDF-1 or re-released the Matchbox version with a few tweaks. I wish they would do this. More the former than the latter, but anything. This and enemy mecha, especially battlepods/Regult, and Invid.
AcroRay Posted February 15, 2010 Posted February 15, 2010 (edited) Toynami Mospeada-related Product to date that I'm aware of. Perhaps Genius can confirm/clarify some of this list: Masterpiece Cyclone Scott Bernard Masterpiece Cyclone Rand Masterpiece Alpha Fighter Scott Bernard Masterpiece Alpha Fighter Rook Bartley Masterpiece Alpha Fighter Lancer Masterpiece Alpha Fighter Shadow Fighter Masterpiece Alpha Fighter Meia Sterling (Robotech Shadow Chronicles, so might not be considered Mospeada product.) Masterpiece Beta Fighter "Rand" Masterpiece Beta Fighter "Lunk" Masterpiece Beta Fighter "Annie" Masterpiece Beta Fighter Shadow Fighter (Not yet released?) Super Posable Alpha Battloid Scott Bernard Super Posable Alpha Battloid Scott Bernard - Metallic Edition Super Posable Alpha Battloid Rook Bartley Super Posable Alpha Battloid Rook Bartley - Metallic Edition Super Posable Alpha Battloid Rand Super Posable Alpha Battloid Rand - Metallic Edition Super Posable Alpha Battloid Lancer Super Posable Alpha Battloid Lancer Metallic Edition Super Posable Alpha Battloid Shadow Fighter Super Posable Alpha Battloid Shadow Fighter - Clear Plastic edition I-Men Scott Bernard with VFA-6H Alpha Fighter I-Men Lancer with Cyclone Armor Lancer I-Men Rook Bartley with VFA-6Z Alpha Fighter I-Men Cyclone Armor Rook with VFA-6I Alpha Fighter I-Men Rand with Cyclone Armor Rand Morpher Alpha Scott Bernard Morpher Alpha Rook Bartley Morpher Alpha Lancer Morpher Alpha Shadow Fighter Bookend Rook Alpha vs Invid Scouts Bookend Scott Bernard Alpha vs Invid Enforcer [Edited to add Cyclones and remove Morpher Rand!] Edited February 15, 2010 by AcroRay
Maiden Japan Posted February 15, 2010 Posted February 15, 2010 (edited) We never released Morpher Alpha Rand. You do not count MPC Cyclones? Edited February 15, 2010 by Maiden Japan
AcroRay Posted February 15, 2010 Posted February 15, 2010 (edited) We never released Morpher Alpha Rand. You do not count MPC Cyclones? Whoops! Added them in! (Very bad of me. I don't own one myself because of the price, but I did convert a friend's Bernard edition for him so he could display it in soldier mode!) So that's 32 individual products, almost all of which are complex toys in multiple materials, in a huge range of price price points. Not to shabby a collection of stuff for any Mospeada fan. I wish the I-men had gotten more distro. They were fun little things - more so than the average kubrick thing. Edited February 15, 2010 by AcroRay
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