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No they don't have vertical release. And no they don't have play in the toe. Until you have a really heavy backseat landing/crash on them, and then the toes will release vertically (even though they're not made to) and from then on you will have loads of vertical slop in the toe.
I've broken 3 pairs of toepieces this way. The later models with a slightly more squared off toe pylon assembly are a bit more resistant to shitting themselves like this. I eat too many pies so I'm like 190-200 and I often land like a sack of concrete, which may be why I broke a bunch.