Mospeada

[Convectuoso]

Great pictures! 

[sjoebarry]

Just got my hands on my first Toynami MPC Legioss Alpha.  Got the Vol. 4 Shadow Version (based on @jenius amazing site review).  As always, have to agree with his assessment.  My having OCD doesn't help either with the fit/build (symmetry) issues.  Its a really good looking model/toy, but i just can't get the feet/jet exhausts to line up property, AND my futzing around with that alignment ended up snapping the peg that connects one of the arms to the feet!  10 minutes into owning the darn thing!  Saving grace is it will be spending most of its time in Battloid mode anyway.  HERE'S TO LOOKING FORWARD TO WHAT SENTINEL HAS TO OFFER US!!!!

[teckno viking]

Just starting a build of Jim's Jeep 1/12 scale.

However figured I would see if I had a base to utilise than from scratch.

Alas not but I Did locate this I had completely forgotten about.

 

1970s Armoured 6 wheel vehicle for 6inch Mikitary figures. 

Photos of As it Is, with middle wheels removed and turret. Also next to the 1/12 kit Mospeada I had on my desk with my customised Riobot Rider.

Now the question Is utilise and go for a slight twist with Jim's Jeep or Another type Military vehicle.

As it Already does fits the style of the Anime.

I'm going 

[sjoebarry]

Ok, back to the Toynami MPC Shadow Alpha i just got.  WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP!  I don't know if maybe the person i bought it from had experienced issues before they sold it, but the thing literally fell to pieces when trying to transform to battloid.  Like into 5 separate pieces.  I've never used so much glue on anything before.  Needless to say, it's "stuck" in battloid mode for good now.  Shoulda just bought a super-posable darnit!  It's a stinkin paperweight now.  Ah well......  one more reason to hope & pray for the Sentinel model.

[SuperSenpai]

1 hour ago, sjoebarry said:

Ok, back to the Toynami MPC Shadow Alpha i just got.  WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP!  I don't know if maybe the person i bought it from had experienced issues before they sold it, but the thing literally fell to pieces when trying to transform to battloid.  Like into 5 separate pieces.  I've never used so much glue on anything before.  Needless to say, it's "stuck" in battloid mode for good now.  Shoulda just bought a super-posable darnit!  It's a stinkin paperweight now.  Ah well......  one more reason to hope & pray for the Sentinel model.

Some of these toys were known to have issues out of the when they were brand-new, out of the box, so the fact that yours fell apart as a second-hand item is not all that surprising.  The advice I would generally give to folks regarding these toys is to decide in advance how you're going to pose it, carefully transform it, and then forget about ever handling it again.

[tekering]

55 minutes ago, sjoebarry said:

Ok, back to the Toynami MPC Shadow Alpha i just got.  WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP!

Were you aware that Toynami issued a recall on that particular model?

Quote

It has been brought to our attention that there have been numerous complaints concerning the quality of the Robotech Shadow Chronicles Movie Edition: Maia Shadow Fighter Masterpiece [sic]. Upon our own investigation, we have discovered that the product indeed is far below our level of acceptability in terms of standards of quality. A new factory was enlisted to manufacture this product for us, and it is apparent now that they were unable to deliver the high level of quality that our customers expect, and that we demand. As a result, we are recalling the product, effective immediately.

As much as I laugh derisively at "the high level of quality that our customers expect," I must grudgingly respect them for taking responsibility for that particular dumpster fire.  That doesn't excuse the rest of their product line, of course, but it does suggest that the Shadow Alpha was, somehow, even worse.  

Refunds were issued, no questions asked, for a full two months after the announcement.

[Syro]

2 minutes ago, tekering said:

Were you aware that Toynami issued a recall on that particular model?

As much as I laugh derisively at "the high level of quality that our customers expect," I must grudgingly respect them for taking responsibility for that particular dumpster fire.  That doesn't excuse the rest of their product line, of course, but it does suggest that the Shadow Alpha was, somehow, even worse.  

Refunds were issued, no questions asked, for a full two months after the announcement.

I still got the Maia Alpha. Never heard about the recall. The thing barely stands and won't hold the gun up. I kinda hate it but its the only alpha I have until Sentinel releases their beast... any day now (fingers crossed) 

[derex3592]

I admire my red, blue and green Toynami Alphas from behind glass and don't ever touch them...kinda lika a Faberge egg..LOL

Edited September 10, 2019 by derex3592

[sjoebarry]

1 hour ago, SuperSenpai said:

The advice I would generally give to folks regarding these toys is to decide in advance how you're going to pose it, carefully transform it, and then forget about ever handling it again.

Yeah, thats exactly what i am gonna do.  I don't know where i heard this, but someone said Mospeada Legioss's are robots that become planes, while Macross VF's are planes that become robots.  So i think since i've basically super glued this thing together in Battloid, it's gonna stay that way.  Just a shame like i said, i would have just gotten the super posable.  I like changing up my display cases from time to time, back & forth in modes for all my stuff.  This guy's just gonna be sittin there like a destroid now.  ha!!

[sjoebarry]

1 hour ago, tekering said:

Were you aware that Toynami issued a recall on that particular model?

I got the Sue Graham model.  I stayed away from the Maia one because of the recall.  Jenius's site gave the Sue Graham one a little higher score for durability, but..... yeah.  Live and learn.

[teckno viking]

How CM Brave Rider Mospeada 1/18 Can be changed multi times whilst played with. Is Much Smaller and yes even with its Own faults Still Has Superior Play value over Toynami.

Truly is Sad.

[tekering]

14 minutes ago, teckno viking said:

How CM Brave Rider Mospeada 1/18 Can be changed multi times whilst played with. Is Much Smaller and yes even with its Own faults Still Has Superior Play value over Toynami.

Simple answer: Mospeada merchandise has always been superior to Robotech merchandise, just as Mospeada is superior to Robotech.  

[jenius]

1 hour ago, sjoebarry said:

I got the Sue Graham model.  I stayed away from the Maia one because of the recall.  Jenius's site gave the Sue Graham one a little higher score for durability, but..... yeah.  Live and learn.

The one HUGE plus the Shadow Fighter had over the first three releases was the hands... it doesn't have the crumbly hands from the regular releases. Unfortunately... all the other problems came with it. 

[SuperSenpai]

With the advent of new Legioss products, I was curious to see what the current market values were for MPC Alphas.  I did a quick eBay search on sold listings and.... holy crap, those things are still selling for over $200 a piece.   

[sjoebarry]

1 hour ago, SuperSenpai said:

With the advent of new Legioss products, I was curious to see what the current market values were for MPC Alphas.  I did a quick eBay search on sold listings and.... holy crap, those things are still selling for over $200 a piece.   

I got this MPC Shadow Alpha for more than HALF of that.  Mmmmmmmaybe that should have been a sign as to its condition.

[Hiriyu]

When I had my MPC Alphas I treated them very gingerly, knowing that they were fragile and not especially well built. I had a couple of the glued pieces on one or two of them come loose, but fortunately never broke anything. When I sold them (I had one of each of the original releases), the buyer of my green Legioss reported that one of the shoulders had arrived broken... the shoulder actually broke all by itself while in its packaging, double-boxed and heavily bubble wrapped, during shipment. The original construction materials just weren't very good, and became even less good as time went on. 

[SuperSenpai]

On 9/10/2019 at 3:55 PM, sjoebarry said:

I got this MPC Shadow Alpha for more than HALF of that.  Mmmmmmmaybe that should have been a sign as to its condition.

Used, I wouldn't pay much more than what they retailed for.  I have two MPC Alphas, the green and red one, that I purchased secondhand for around $60-$70 each.  One of them was missing the box, but the other was pretty much MIB.  I knew about the issues going into the purchase, so I had decided in advance that I would only get them if I could get them for a bargain.  Given the  build quality and durability issues, I didn't think they were worth it beyond that.  

With the increased competition from newer Legioss releases, you'd think that prices would have come down on the MPC Alphas, which was I was curious and ran that search.  Either people didn't get the memo, or there are a lot of folks who really want Robotech-branded product.

[varitechs]

1 hour ago, SuperSenpai said:

Used, I wouldn't pay much more than what they retailed for.  I have two MPC Alphas, the green and red one, that I purchased secondhand for around $60-$70 each.  One of them was missing the box, but the other was pretty much MIB.  I knew about the issues going into the purchase, so I had decided in advance that I would only get them if I could get them for a bargain.  Given the  build quality and durability issues, I didn't think they were worth it beyond that.  

With the increased competition from newer Legioss releases, you'd think that prices would have come down on the MPC Alphas, which was I was curious and ran that search.  Either people didn't get the memo, or there are a lot of folks who really want Robotech-branded product.

There is somes possible answers:

- the MPC box are very beautiful to collectible 
- A lot of people (as me) want robotech branded product.
- MPC Alpha Fighter have a good design and the combo with the Beta is terrible
- And they are limited and numbered products.

[tekering]

1 hour ago, varitechs said:

 MPC Alpha Fighter have a good design

There must be a translation problem here.  

[jenius]

The rest of that sentence is problematic also because the MPC Alpha pairs relatively well to the Beta, certainly better than CMs mustered.

[Mechapilot77]

the betas are half the reason i got the alphas from toynami!  i haven't touched the alphas in years but they were not broken when i put them back in their boxes....i wonder how many survived the test of time itself!  kind of afraid to dig them out and look.  lol.  the betas though....nice and solid.  love those things (But havent' taken those out in years as well).  i think i sold my sue graham (the pink shadow one whichever that was) to jenius.  wonder if its the one that ended up being reviewed.  lol.  that said i want at least one of the sentinel legioss...to see for myself what its like.  my ET's are my "main" legioss now.  they do LOOK cool and handle ok, but i feel like more could have been done to improve them...if they came out in 2008 they'd be peer competitive almost (but not quite), but they came ou tin what 2018 so they are a bit underwhelming despite looking pretty.

[jenius]

The pink one is Maia. I bought one of the first releases and returned it when it showed up with an arm already broken and loose in the box. Most the pictures up of Maia on my site are from that returned one. You probably sold me the reissue, I've only taken a couple pics of it, like this one where it's in the center:

I plan on doing a Toynami Shadow Fighter vs. CM's Dark Legioss video at some point. After that I plan on giving Maia her own video where I'll discuss the v1 failure and the reissue.  All of this will probably happen well after Sentinel releases their Legioss.

[Convectuoso]

I bought the Green and Red MPC Alphas from Mandarake. The green one I've transformed to Soldier Mode and back to Fighter mode once, and it's holding just fine. The Red one, however, broke in half at the chest at the first attempt of transformation. I was able to glue it back together, but I haven't tried to transform it ever since. It's hands crumbled when I tried to have it hold the gun. Then I bought the Blue one MISB from eBay for $90.00 but at the same time I received it the Sentinel version was teased, so I haven't taken it off its box, in case the Sentinel version is better. If that's the case I will definitely sell all the Toynami ones and use that money to buy the Sentinel ones.

[varitechs]

3 hours ago, tekering said:

There must be a translation problem here.  

No, personaly i like so much :-) but it's personal

41 minutes ago, jenius said:

........ After that I plan on giving Maia her own video where I'll discuss the v1 failure and the reissue.  All of this will probably happen well after Sentinel releases their Legioss.

Long time ago, I made a comparison, it's in french but you can look pictures:

http://www.robotechcollections.fr/galeries/Toynami_mpc_vfa-6zx_maia.php

[Mog]

One of my blue Alphas had both hip joints crack and turn to dust, so it's being held together by paper clips in battloid mode.

My red Alpha took a few stage dives over the years, so one of the feet/booster parts is cracked.  Still holds in place, but definitely hesitant to transform it anymore.  I also broke off one of the arm-to-leg connections, trying to get everything to compress and compact in fighter mode.

When I had the greenie, I had to super glue its midsection to keep it from collapsing in battloid mode.

The Shadow Alpha I once owned had the infamous banana boat syndrome in fighter mode.  So, when trying to position everything to reduce that effect, I wound up breaking off one of the winglets.

Yeah, the Toynami Alphas are fidgety and fragile as all get-out.

BUT they do look beautiful when you combo it with the Beta.

[sjoebarry]

55 minutes ago, Mog said:

BUT they do look beautiful when you combo it with the Beta.

Even though it would have looked silly with the Shadow Alpha attached, I got an MPC Beta around the same time. May have seen some posts earlier I had asking about the proposed MPC Beta Shadow (that I didn’t realize was never issued). So yeah I got the Red Beta and really wanted to pair them up....but can’t now.  Unless I try the Battloid w/ Beta pairing. But I’m scared to even pick the Alpha up off my workbench to move it into my case let alone try that pairing. (I don’t have enough fingers to cross for this Sentinel Legioss release)

[505thAirborne]

6 hours ago, jenius said:

The pink one is Maia. I bought one of the first releases and returned it when it showed up with an arm already broken and loose in the box. Most the pictures up of Maia on my site are from that returned one. You probably sold me the reissue, I've only taken a couple pics of it, like this one where it's in the center:

I plan on doing a Toynami Shadow Fighter vs. CM's Dark Legioss video at some point. After that I plan on giving Maia her own video where I'll discuss the v1 failure and the reissue.  All of this will probably happen well after Sentinel releases their Legioss.

The sad thing is I have the re-issue of Maia and it's still a complete dumpster fire out of the box, fighter mode only for that one. At least my Scott & Shadow have held up well over the years. 

Come on Sentinel... you can do Soooo much better QC wise that Toynami & CM's right? 

[varitechs]

7 hours ago, 505thAirborne said:

The sad thing is I have the re-issue of Maia and it's still a complete dumpster fire out of the box..

From my experience, since the first realease of Scott version, i saw and checked many MPC Alpha, there wase some little problems but i don't had many big problems except the fact there are fragile, you have to handle them carefully taking your time. The only one where i had some break parts is the Shadow version, coqpit wings are very fragiles...

No, the worse wase come later, Aoshima versions were worse....catastrophic... I have never seen so many problems and yet Aoshima had pushed back the release date 2 times! 
The half that i received were unsaleable... But i used them for make some custom Alpha :-), 
Yeah the QC was always a problem and Aoshima versions was very very bad.

I don't want to talk about first version of Maia, it was a shame to sell such a crap...
However, in my opinion (and perhaps Jenius will give us his opinion), with the improvements from aoshima, the re-issue of Maia is the best of all, QC was not perfect but it's the best of all.

Edited September 13, 2019 by varitechs

[jenius]

43 minutes ago, varitechs said:

From my experience, since the first realease of Scott version, i saw and checked many MPC Alpha, there wase some little problems but i don't had many big problems except the fact there are fragile, you have to handle them carefully taking your time. The only one where i had some break parts is the Shadow version, coqpit wings are very fragiles...

No, the worse wase come later, Aoshima versions were worse....catastrophic... I have never seen so many problems and yet Aoshima had pushed back the release date 2 times! 
The half that i received were unsaleable... But i used them for make some custom Alpha :-), 
Yeah the QC was always a problem and Aoshima versions was very very bad.

I don't want to talk about first version of Maia, it was a shame to sell such a crap...
However, in my opinion (and perhaps Jenius will give us his opinion), with the improvements from aoshima, the re-issue of Maia is the best of all, QC wase not perfect but it's the best of all.

I probably wouldn't be so kind to the MPC Alphas but, with exception of those awful hands, they are generally better than the Aoshima toys. It's a shame, Aoshima had some good ideas but they allegedly let Toynami choose the factory to outsource everything to and the result was a disaster. Aoshima toys have way more paint flaws and warped parts than the Toynamis (though MPC alphas had their fair share of crooked landing gear and ill-fit). Maybe because the Aoshima toys are newer, or maybe because Aoshima re-worked the intakes, I haven't had any Aoshima toys break in the center of the chest like several of my MPC Alpha toys have (that breakage seems to be way more common with age as I've handled lots of MPC alphas but only recently had them all start splitting in the chest.

As for Maia Version 2, I've never transformed her so I can't say, but it stands to reason that she should be the best of the lot. That said, I've been warned in the past that she has many of the same faults as earlier MPC toys. Can she hold the gun in battloid?

[varitechs]

4 hours ago, jenius said:

Can she hold the gun in battloid?

No. But it's a design problem no manufacturing :-)

[seti88]

november! Missiles must be very difficult to add

or orders may have been overwhelming..

[sh9000]

I’m happy they delayed it only because I was able to cancel an extra I ended up ordering while trying to rearrange orders at Amazon JP.

[Duymon]

Honestly I don't even care when it comes out so long as it does eventually come out :0

[Mog]

Just peachy. 

I really hope this is so they get everything right and painted correctly.

So, Houquet release is optimistically December 2020 at the earliest?

[teckno viking]

Shame of the push back. However if its for fixing Issues so be it.

 

On the Plus side Between Cap's re release Mospeada Accessory set and Just bought my 3rd Stick (have Five Now) shipped for £125 from  Japanese site. Discount due to box Only damage. Was only going in the Bin the packaging once its opened

Edited September 13, 2019 by teckno viking