RIOBOT Mospeada Fuke Bartley Type

The second of our ride armour ladies arrives, making comparisons with the Intruder Gate armour somewhat inevitable (and fun!).

So unlike Gate, Fuke Bartley is one of the original TV series characters, making her debut in episode 2. Her ride armour is a vibrant red in the show, a nice contrast from the aqua green of Stig's main suit. It's also lacking a lot of the tampo details, being neither numbered nor emblazoned with the Mars logo. I actually rather like this, it gives the armour a clean look, and the little details in the sculpt also make it standout - the angular rear exhausts and the clean forearm panels give the unit its own identity.

The bike's lack of tampographs make it look less military, which I like in this instance.

Fuke herself is clad in pastels, from the off-white and purple accents to the red armour, she's quite striking, especially with the non-helmet head. With this attached her head movement is limited thanks to the stiff hair, but those flowing red/blonde locks serve to soften the overall look and feel - it's feminine but aggressive at the same time. The face sculpt looks a little off, but is still attractive. I confess I would have preferred a more emotive expression, as it is there's a determined look which I'm struggling to capture with photographs. It's certainly better in-hand.

Without the ride armour attached, the figure has a pleasing amount of flexibility. All the usual elbow/knee/ankle joints you would want are present and correct, but she also has articulation in her waist and abdomen, which allows you to get a pleasing "S" shape to accentuate her curves. It adds a lot of character to the figure and the addition of butterfly joints in the shoulders is just the cherry on top. These are well hidden by the soft goods covering her shoulders - they also adorn her knees and pelvis to make the figure look less toy-ish. It's also a nice change from the visible joints on Gate, though that character has been cybernetically enhanced and is therefore naturally more mechanically jointed. 

The ride armour transformation is relatively straightforward, just lots of twists on joints to get them facing the right way, but it's all intuitive and I managed it without instructions. Attached, she looks great - even her ankles extend to add an extra level of stiffness to aid balance, but it's still going to be naturally back-heavy because the majority of the bike's bulk goes to the rear. The wheels and boosters are completely symmetrical thanks to the lack of a mud guard, this makes the bike look a bit sparse around the front wheel, but pays off in armoured mode.

Combined mode is genuinely striking, I was going to display her in bike mode, now I'm not sure...

Just like the Gate armour, articulation becomes very limited once combined - despite the pistons extending with movement, the arms can only manage so much movement to the sides, and even Fuke's inner-armour shoulder pads can restrict her posing ability. She looks awesome though, and you can get enough going in the arms to make her look pretty natural. The legs will be stuck in an A-stance however - there just isn't enough contact with the ground thanks to those thin heels to give you much latitude, whereas Gate's clunkier boots give her the ability to stand on one foot and balance with the other. Of course, the included stand makes things more stable, but I always prefer to pose without if I can.

Two sides of the same coin, Gate (left) certainly looks more aggressive with chunkier lines and more metallic detail.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to pick whether to buy Gate or Bartley, but in the end I'm glad I caved and bought both. Gate has the more modern colour scheme, with metallic paint and gunmetal greys making it look and feel like the sturdier toy. I still love those chunky shoulders, white stripes and addition of the drone, it definitely feels like a modern interpretation of the armour. However, the softer palette, soft goods, more elegant lines and feminine curves make Fuke every bit as good, just for different reasons. I had seen tabbing issues in review videos, but this is the reissue and I had no issue getting anything to stay put on my copy when combining the figure with its armour. The only nitpick I have is that the visor on the helmeted head came off very easily and feels loose when compared to Gate, but this affects nothing of importance so I can overlook it easily enough.

Even though I'm only a recent convert to Mospeada (thanks to streaming services making older series easier to find) I'm delighted with Fuke - she's surprisingly svelte for an armoured figure, the strawberry red (hard to capture on camera) further adds a more feminine look and I'm torn on how I want to display her, given that every option looks so good! If you can find one (mine came from Hobbylink Japan) then I can highly recommend her as both a great interpretation of the original series design, and as a toy in its own right.