[QuinJester]

The Toynami Masterpiece Ride Armor is a repackaged and slightly re-designed version of Beagle's MOSPEADA Ride Armor. The differences between the two boil down to different packaging (Toynami book-style box vs. Yamato style oversized window box) and a different head sculpt for the rider.

So how does it all boil down? Let's take a look:

The Figure


The base figure looks really nice as long as you don't look too closely at the cloth the joints are covered in. The stuff is REALLY cheap feeling, and if I had any sewing talents at all I'd be seriously looking into making something out of thin pleather or something similar. Ah well.


Screw holes. They may bother some people. Your own mileage may vary.


Ugly stitching on the arms.


Gratuitous groin shot showing how the fabric is kind of pulling apart. For the record, it was this way out of the box.


His front groin armor just sort of loosely clips on. It wont fall off on its own or anything, but it's just a little odd.


He's got these ... cylinder things. They plug into the cycle's "fuel tank". They're energy packs, I presume. I ... uh... haven't actually watched Mospeada.




The much maligned head. Personally? I like it more than the thin-lipped Beagle version. When it comes down to it, 9 times out of 10 you're probably going to be posing this figure with the helmet on so it doesn't even matter.

Overall Thoughts:

The figure on its own is decent. The cloth is a little irksome, and it's definitely not up to the level of quality of the average 1/6 figure, but when it comes down to it it's a fairly minor negative in the grand scheme of things. He's got ratcheting knees, and tight joints all around that make him really stable. He can pose nicely and wont look at all bad if you chose to display the set without the armor.

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Next up:
The Bike

(Sorry for the darkness of some of the photos. I only have one light and it's on a very short plug, eheh.)






It may be crazy, but I honestly think I like displaying this set with the figure and bike separate and untransformed. The bike looks really great. If I get another one (only if they do a different bike style though, such as Yellow or Hoquet's), then maybe I'll reconsider, but I think I'll keep my set like this for the time being.


... plus, it gives other people the opportunity to pretend to be badass bikers.


There's some flex in the front struts that gives a kind of "shock absorber" feel to the bike that's very satisfying. The wheels are a kind of sticky soft rubber that will pick up every piece of dust on your display shelf, though.


One side has a kickstand. Surprise surprise. The other side has mounting holes for ...


A gun! How to turn Sunday Morning road-rage into something on the five o'clock news!


Nice exhaust.



Overall Thoughts:
Believe it or not, I had an easier time getting Animated Waspinator to ride the bike than Stick/Scott, but that was before I gave up on trying to use the footrests and just pulled his legs up and as tight to the body of the bike as possible. Hey, he's got armored boots on, right? He wont lose any toes or anything.

The bike itself is a really nice piece even on its own. It locks together well and feels very solid. My only real complaints are in the tires (believe it or not, I would have preferred a hard rubber or soft plastic, as it is the extremely soft rubber pulls in every spec of dust and hair in the region and coats itself with them) and that the rear of the seat doesn't really lock solidly, giving itself just enough flex to look disjointed if you aren't careful. The front windscreen also doesn't really lock into anything and will easily be knocked out of place. All these are really minor knocks against what is otherwise a great looking and feeling futuristic bike.

... but that's not why anyone's buying this set, is it? Read on for more...