Post by V2 on Oct 10, 2009 6:37:41 GMT 8
CMS AFC-01D Dark Legioss
Warning: I'll be reviewing this from a "Genesis Climber Mospeada" perspective.
Ah the Japanese... their innovative engineering designs never ceases to amaze everyone. You gotta hand it to them, they're really good in concept and execution - from the lineart down to the engineering schematics! One of the most popular concepts known are the "transformable" ones - a design that features the unit having alternate modes that seems feasible (in paper & animation of course) that looked so amazing you'd wish you were piloting them. In the real-robot genre however, there is a not-so-popular series in the 1980s that featured very innovative design concepts - a series called Genesis Climber Mospeada.
If there's two things that draw me to the series it’s the mecha designs - first would definitely be the MOSPEADA vehicle (a.k.a. Cyclone) and the second would be the Legioss (a.k.a. Alpha Fighter) which would be the "equivalent" to Macross' variable fighter designs. Honestly I'm not familiar with the technical data so just click here for that.
Usually sick and tired of the usual Macross-based variable fighters, I've always wanted to get a toy of the Legioss so I managed to acquire the Toynami's "masterpiece" version (in which was repackaged from Aoshima's design) - however much to my shock the stock I got had problematic issues that I had to return it. When CMS released their version of the Legioss it was too expensive so I had to let it pass. Months later my usual supplier signaled a clearance sale of his stocks - in which one of them was CMS' Dark/Stealth variant which I liked better. Fast forward a call and a few arrangements I was finally the owner of one this baby.
Packaging
The toy box is designed in a format that’s standard to all CMS products - Showcasing the features of the toy (in this case, the each mode). Inside, the toy and its accessories is safely secured in a clamshell tray design.
Accessories
The toy comes packaged with a variety of accessories - a special hand for holding Gun Pod, A pair of large missiles (which can be mounted beneath the intakes) and a set of Ride Armors in their respective modes - storage, bike and ride-armor mode.
AFC-01I DARK LEGIOSS
Armo-Fighter
I'll have to give them credit for a job well done on the details - as its pretty great - from the exhaust/intakes down to the rivets on the fuselage!
The Gun Pod can be mounted on the engines thanks to some tabs.
The landing gears are made of die cast metal (which is rare for toys nowadays) and they hold the weight of the unit pretty well. You'll just have to open the doors carefully and systematically to release them.
A design flaw of this mode in my opinion is that the backside of the unit in this mode doesn't look good - the length of the legs despite being folded and contracted still looks too big compared to the lineart... so I guess this is a case of "impossible anime-ish engineering). Also due to the overall weight and the absence of support/locking tabs some parts are bound to be misaligned when you play around with it and because of this, you won’t be able to display it flying.
Armo-Diver
Equivalent to the "GERWALK" mode. Aesthetically speaking I'll have to admit this mode is not visually appealing at as the backside looks "cut off".
You also have to fold down the wings to allow the arms to be deployed properly. Despite this, the arm's range of movement is pretty good in this mode. The legs however don’t have the same forward range of movement as a Valk - which is just foul.
This is probably the best way to display it in armo-diver.
Armo-Soldier
This is probably the forte of the toy. In this mode the Dark Legioss becomes the equivalent of a "battroid".
The wings are folded and tucked in nicely at the back and there's a good level of balance.
Head & Chest
The head design gives off a mechwarrior/heavy gear feel. Sadly it’s not articulated sideways and can only move up and down (for the armo-fighter mode). The chest design gives off a buff look. Details and markings are pretty good as they're flawless in application and print. Though not shown, the center part of the chest can be opened and you can place the folded MOSPEADA unit (a.k.a. Cyclone) inside.
Arms
Articulation-wise they perform fairly well - the elbows can’t reach 90-degrees however. The missile bays that can be opened showing salvos of missile inside - you just gotta love them!
For this variant of the Legioss rather than a hand-type manipulator it has a claw-pincer appendage on the arms that you can open/close.
Legs
The pelvic joints are ratcheted so you can be ensured it won’t get loose easily. The feet have fairly decent range and coverage so balance won’t be an issue. Like the Arms, there are missile bays - really nice!
And it can kneel!
EU-13 Synchro Cannon Gun Pod
The gun pod has a simple yet intimidating design - you can also remove the magazine (specifically for armo-fighter mode).. To hold it, you have to replace the basic hand with a dedicated claw for it.
It’s relatively light too.
"Missile Swarm mode"
Transformation
Transformation for this unit is simple and not as complicated as it looks from the pictures. Just make sure you have "gentle" hands and consult the manual firsthand - it’s really friendly in instruction and detail.
Die-cast Content
One of the things I love about CMS' is the die cast content in their toys - as you can see they're quite generous - the landing gears, the shafts for missile bay covers, the hinges for the arms and the feet. Rare are toys like these nowadays and yet CMS tends to bestow the best amount of metal in this one.
CONCLUSION
A "usually forgotten but memorable once remembered" design, the Legioss was a great design that was said to be at par with Macross' VF-1 design (even to the point where Harmony Gold's fairies made stuff up on how this was the VF-1's successor). Many toy companies tried to attain perfection by releasing their version but failed miserably (especially Aoshima & Toynami) but only CMS was able to achieve perfection by focusing on a few important things: a stable transformation that's faithful and feasible to the lineart, great accessories, flawless detail down to the smallest rivet in the fuselage, great material composition and an insane amount of die cast content that would really give you your money's worth. Add along the special stealthy look and color, this is one variant you don’t want to miss.
Though the lack of a decent flight stand/base accessory, "flying" stability, aesthetic issues the armo-fighter mode and a could've-been-better articulation for the joints would've improved this unit, I'm still confident the Pros still overcome the Cons of this baby. There's a lot of room for improvement for a new version but for now, this one's the perfect for the moment.
Sick of the usual oversaturated Valkrie? Try this refreshing modern version of its classic rival... the CMS' CMS AFC-01D Dark Legioss or its other variants. Don't leave the shop without it!
Warning: I'll be reviewing this from a "Genesis Climber Mospeada" perspective.
Ah the Japanese... their innovative engineering designs never ceases to amaze everyone. You gotta hand it to them, they're really good in concept and execution - from the lineart down to the engineering schematics! One of the most popular concepts known are the "transformable" ones - a design that features the unit having alternate modes that seems feasible (in paper & animation of course) that looked so amazing you'd wish you were piloting them. In the real-robot genre however, there is a not-so-popular series in the 1980s that featured very innovative design concepts - a series called Genesis Climber Mospeada.
If there's two things that draw me to the series it’s the mecha designs - first would definitely be the MOSPEADA vehicle (a.k.a. Cyclone) and the second would be the Legioss (a.k.a. Alpha Fighter) which would be the "equivalent" to Macross' variable fighter designs. Honestly I'm not familiar with the technical data so just click here for that.
Usually sick and tired of the usual Macross-based variable fighters, I've always wanted to get a toy of the Legioss so I managed to acquire the Toynami's "masterpiece" version (in which was repackaged from Aoshima's design) - however much to my shock the stock I got had problematic issues that I had to return it. When CMS released their version of the Legioss it was too expensive so I had to let it pass. Months later my usual supplier signaled a clearance sale of his stocks - in which one of them was CMS' Dark/Stealth variant which I liked better. Fast forward a call and a few arrangements I was finally the owner of one this baby.
Packaging
The toy box is designed in a format that’s standard to all CMS products - Showcasing the features of the toy (in this case, the each mode). Inside, the toy and its accessories is safely secured in a clamshell tray design.
Accessories
The toy comes packaged with a variety of accessories - a special hand for holding Gun Pod, A pair of large missiles (which can be mounted beneath the intakes) and a set of Ride Armors in their respective modes - storage, bike and ride-armor mode.
AFC-01I DARK LEGIOSS
Armo-Fighter
I'll have to give them credit for a job well done on the details - as its pretty great - from the exhaust/intakes down to the rivets on the fuselage!
The Gun Pod can be mounted on the engines thanks to some tabs.
The landing gears are made of die cast metal (which is rare for toys nowadays) and they hold the weight of the unit pretty well. You'll just have to open the doors carefully and systematically to release them.
A design flaw of this mode in my opinion is that the backside of the unit in this mode doesn't look good - the length of the legs despite being folded and contracted still looks too big compared to the lineart... so I guess this is a case of "impossible anime-ish engineering). Also due to the overall weight and the absence of support/locking tabs some parts are bound to be misaligned when you play around with it and because of this, you won’t be able to display it flying.
Armo-Diver
Equivalent to the "GERWALK" mode. Aesthetically speaking I'll have to admit this mode is not visually appealing at as the backside looks "cut off".
You also have to fold down the wings to allow the arms to be deployed properly. Despite this, the arm's range of movement is pretty good in this mode. The legs however don’t have the same forward range of movement as a Valk - which is just foul.
This is probably the best way to display it in armo-diver.
Armo-Soldier
This is probably the forte of the toy. In this mode the Dark Legioss becomes the equivalent of a "battroid".
The wings are folded and tucked in nicely at the back and there's a good level of balance.
Head & Chest
The head design gives off a mechwarrior/heavy gear feel. Sadly it’s not articulated sideways and can only move up and down (for the armo-fighter mode). The chest design gives off a buff look. Details and markings are pretty good as they're flawless in application and print. Though not shown, the center part of the chest can be opened and you can place the folded MOSPEADA unit (a.k.a. Cyclone) inside.
Arms
Articulation-wise they perform fairly well - the elbows can’t reach 90-degrees however. The missile bays that can be opened showing salvos of missile inside - you just gotta love them!
For this variant of the Legioss rather than a hand-type manipulator it has a claw-pincer appendage on the arms that you can open/close.
Legs
The pelvic joints are ratcheted so you can be ensured it won’t get loose easily. The feet have fairly decent range and coverage so balance won’t be an issue. Like the Arms, there are missile bays - really nice!
And it can kneel!
EU-13 Synchro Cannon Gun Pod
The gun pod has a simple yet intimidating design - you can also remove the magazine (specifically for armo-fighter mode).. To hold it, you have to replace the basic hand with a dedicated claw for it.
It’s relatively light too.
"Missile Swarm mode"
Transformation
Transformation for this unit is simple and not as complicated as it looks from the pictures. Just make sure you have "gentle" hands and consult the manual firsthand - it’s really friendly in instruction and detail.
Die-cast Content
One of the things I love about CMS' is the die cast content in their toys - as you can see they're quite generous - the landing gears, the shafts for missile bay covers, the hinges for the arms and the feet. Rare are toys like these nowadays and yet CMS tends to bestow the best amount of metal in this one.
CONCLUSION
A "usually forgotten but memorable once remembered" design, the Legioss was a great design that was said to be at par with Macross' VF-1 design (even to the point where Harmony Gold's fairies made stuff up on how this was the VF-1's successor). Many toy companies tried to attain perfection by releasing their version but failed miserably (especially Aoshima & Toynami) but only CMS was able to achieve perfection by focusing on a few important things: a stable transformation that's faithful and feasible to the lineart, great accessories, flawless detail down to the smallest rivet in the fuselage, great material composition and an insane amount of die cast content that would really give you your money's worth. Add along the special stealthy look and color, this is one variant you don’t want to miss.
Though the lack of a decent flight stand/base accessory, "flying" stability, aesthetic issues the armo-fighter mode and a could've-been-better articulation for the joints would've improved this unit, I'm still confident the Pros still overcome the Cons of this baby. There's a lot of room for improvement for a new version but for now, this one's the perfect for the moment.
Sick of the usual oversaturated Valkrie? Try this refreshing modern version of its classic rival... the CMS' CMS AFC-01D Dark Legioss or its other variants. Don't leave the shop without it!
keeping the site active as a place to dump info for easier backtracking. 