Tag Archives: Power Rangers
#2089: White Ranger
Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with All Time Toys, Hasbro, Lightning Collection, Power Rangers, White Ranger July 8, 2019
WHITE RANGER
POWER RANGERS: THE LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)
Since it's arrival on US shores in the mid-90s, Power Rangers merch has been produced by Bandai, who are generally the go-to for Japanese media that gets imported. They've been doing that thing for like two decades, but admittedly started to falter as Power Rangers' reach grew outside of its original, younger demographic. Bandai, or their American component at least, has never been one for the more collector's oriented side of the toy world. You know who's actually pretty good at that, though? Hasbro. And Hasbro really wanted to make Power Rangers toys, apparently, and decided that the easiest way to facilitate that was to buy Power Rangers. Not the license, the brand. They officially took over at the beginning of the year, with their first products being for the latest incarnation of the show. The big exciting thing, though, is their go at a collector's line, dubbed The Lightning Collection. I'll be looking at my first figure from the line, the White Ranger, or, if you're my drunk best friend, the White Ragnar.
The White Ranger is the first of four figures in Series 1 of The Lightning Collection. He's clearly designed as the natural pairing to the Lord Zedd figure also featured in this same assortment. The figure stands a little over 6 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation. The Lightning Collection is designed as a counterpart to Hasbro's Star Wars: The Black Series and Marvel Legends lines, so it's scaled pretty similarly, kind of bridging the gap between the two of them. But more importantly than that, let's discuss the scaling relative to other Power Rangers lines. The Figuarts and Legacy offerings were on opposite sides of the rather nebulous 6-inch scale, and kind of both off on their own. This line definitely scales a lot closer to Figuarts. They're a little taller, but it's close enough scaling that it'll work more or less. At the very least, this version of Tommy will fit in alright with the Figuarts releases of the main five Mighty Morphin' guys. Like the scaling, the styling of this figure's sculpt falls somewhat between the two prior collectors lines. While he's definitely got a little more bulk to him than the Figuarts stuff, he's nowhere near as crazy buff as the Legacy stuff was. It's actually a rather nice happy medium, and I think my favorite styling so far. The sculpt on this figure is all-new, of course, and a pretty strong recreation of his design from the show, in a pretty realistic fashion. The details aren't quite as crisp as the Figuarts stuff, but that's largely due to the slightly more rubbery plastic, which ultimately makes the figure feel a lot sturdier than those guys did. I do miss the ability to remove the holster on the belt, like you could on the Figuarts, but beyond that, I like it a lot. The White Ranger's paintwork is decent overall, but I did encounter a number of issues from figure to figure when I was looking through them. I picked the best of the bunch, and he still has a few issues, so there's definitely some flaws to be had. Overall, though, the issues I encountered were all pretty minor; I was just being picky. The White Ranger was packed with two sets of hands, one in fists, the other in a karate chop/gripping combo, as well as his Saba Sword, an effect piece for the sword, and an un-helmeted Tommy head. That's quite an impressive accessory compliment, and I hope Hasbro can keep this up for future offerings.
I passed on the Figuarts White Ranger when he was released, so there was this White Ranger-shaped whole in my Power Rangers line-up. I sort of filled in that spot with the 20th Anniversary Movie White Ranger, but it wasn't quite the same. When this guy was on the list for the first line-up, I was actually pretty excited and I've been waiting for this line to hit. After being kind of let-down by the Legacy Collection, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from these, but I gotta say, I'm really happy with the end result. He's a little sturdier than a Figurarts, which makes him a lot more playable, but at the same time, he scales pretty well with them, meaning there's less of a need to rebuy everything again.
I grabbed the White Ranger from All Time Toys, where he's still available here. If your looking for other Legends or other toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.
#1555: Gold Ranger
Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with Bandai, Gold Ranger, Legacy, Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo January 24, 2018
GOLD RANGER
POWER RANGERS: LEGACY (BANDAI)
I don't review many Power Rangers figures on this site. And when I do, they're pretty much always from the Mighty Morphin' incarnation of the show. It's amusing, because, while I certainly have an appreciation for MMPR, since it's the original and all, I only caught it fleetingly in its original run. I've touched on this somewhat in past reviews. Power Rangers in Space is actually the first Rangers show I got actively invested in, but the first incarnation I owned any toys from was Zeo, Mighty Morphin's follow-up series. My favorite Ranger design of all-time is definitely Zeo's sixth member, the Gold Ranger, who I'll be taking a look at today.
The Gold Ranger was released in Series 4 of Bandai's Power Rangers: Legacy line. He's one of the three Zeo-based figures in this series, alongside the Green and Yellow Rangers (the other two figures are the Blue and Red Rangers from Dino Thunder). The figure stands 7 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation. That's slightly less posability than the Red Space Ranger, but the missing joints were mostly redundant on that figure and ended up adding a bit of extra work to pose him so that none of his extremities were oddly twisted. With this figure, he's definitely less contorted looking right out of the box. That being said, I do feel it's important to note that this guy does *not* have mid-forearm cut joints like the last figure. I gave one of them a small twist on my figure and the glue holding his wrist in place came undone, which was a pain to fix. The Gold Ranger's sculpt uses the same basic starting point as the Red Space Ranger, so he has the same exaggerated, superhero build the Bandai America likes to give to their Rangers, for better or for worse. He also has the same wonky shoulders that I wasn't super crazy about, but fortunately those shoulders are mostly covered by his chest plate, so the issue is lessened. In general, the new armor additions really help this figure out, since they cover a lot of Bandai's usual sins on these figures, and in general help to keep him looking far more in line with his onscreen counterpart. The armor pieces also off Bandai the chance to add a little bit more intricate detailing to the figure, thus keeping him from being quite as simplistic and bland as some of their other sculpts. I also quite like his head sculpt, which does a great job of capturing the show's design, and manages not to look too small in comparison to the rest of the body. The paint on the Gold Ranger is the source of some controversy. The prototype and all promotional shots of the figure showed him with armor that was actually gold, matching up with the show depiction. When he arrived on retail shelves, his armor was more of a orangey yellow, with only the slightest metallic twinge to it, which has upset a lot of fans. I can understand the complaint, and I'd probably be happier with the figure if he were in the proper colors, but I don't find myself all that upset with the final product. As it stands, I think the color's close enough to work, and his overall appearance hasn't been altered all that much. I suppose it might bug me more if I had the Green or White Rangers, both of whom have a different shade of gold, but just on his own, I think this guy looks fine. As a sixth ranger figure, the Gold Ranger doesn't include a piece of his team's Megazord, but he does include his Staff of Gold, which is pretty cool.
This guy's really the whole reason I got into the Legacy line in the first place. I've wanted a Figuarts version of him since I got the Mighty Morphin' team, but the odds of that getting made are kind of slim at this point. So, when this guy was shown off, I was pretty pumped. It took him a little while to get here, but I can't begin to describe the excitement when I found him. He's got his flaws, but I'm overall very happy with this figure!
#1227: Red Space Ranger
Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with Bandai, In Space, Legacy, Power Rangers, Red Ranger March 2, 2017
RED SPACE RANGER
When most people think "Power Rangers," they think of the Mighty Morphin' incarnation, which launched the show. That's pretty fair, as it's by far the most distinctive, and represents the franchise at its highest point in terms of popularity. I was born in '92, so, while I still remember a little of Mighty Morphin's original run, it's not what I consider *my* Power Rangers. That would be the show's fourth incarnation, Power Rangers In Space, which is actually pretty well-regarded in the community, and is widely considered the season that saved the show, following the less than stellar performance of Turbo. Unfortunately, nowadays, there's very little product for any Power Rangers that aren't either the current incarnation or the Mighty Morphin' Rangers, meaning I'm mostly reliant on my old figures from the show's original run. I'd love some Figuarts, but those are little more than a dream. Lucky for me, Bandai America is offering the next best thing, courtesy of their Legacy line. I picked up Andros, the Red Space Ranger, which I'll be looking at today.
The Red Ranger is part of the second series of Power Rangers: Legacy. He's one of the two In Space Rangers included in this set, with the other three figures hailing from Mighty Morphin' (the rest of the main In Space Rangers are in Series 3, and the Silver Ranger is as of yet unannounced). Though the line has been touted as being about 6-inch scale and the figures are clearly designed to mimic Hasbro's Marvel Legends, the Red Ranger stands 7 inches tall, placing these figures more in scale with the Masters of the Universe Classics or something from NECA. There's no commingling with the Figuarts Rangers, that's for sure. The figure sports 36 points of articulation, which is certainly an impressive count. The movement on the joints isn't terrible, but there are some slight oddities on a few of the joints, which means it can take a fair bit of careful posing to make sure he doesn't look a little mangled. Still, it's a pretty major step-up from the last Banda America Ranger I looked at. In terms of sculpt, the US Rangers figures have always skewed the proportions a bit more to the side of super-heroic. This guy does some of that, but reigns it in a bit, resulting in a final product that is somewhere between the old figures and the actors in the suits. I don't mind the look, and it's consistent with all the others from the line so far. The sculpt is of varying quality. The helmet is by far the best work on the figure, and it's a pretty much pitch-perfect recreation of the helmet from the show. The body is decent, but the articulation sticks out more than a little bit, especially on the hips and shoulders. The shoulders in particular feel like they're set too far out from the torso, as if they got the length of the pegs off or something. Also, it would appear that the forearms have been reversed, which makes them look rather strange. By and large, he's pretty solid, but there's still some of that Bandai America flavor of "why would you do this?" In terms of paint, the Red Ranger is pretty straight forward. Everything is pretty basic color work; all the lines are nice and crisp and the colors are pretty much on point. For extras, Andros includes his trusty Galaxy Blaster, as well as the torso and head of the In Space Megazord. Bandai's doing something slightly different with these figures and only packing corresponding Zord pieces with each Ranger (i.e. the Mighty Morphin' Zord is only packed with those Rangers and so forth), meaning each Zord is spread over a minimum of two series. Time will tell how this works out for them, but the fandom seems rather split.
I caught the first series of this line several times, but I don't really have any attachment to Ninja Storm and I've already invested in the Figuarts versions of the original team, so I passed. As soon as I learned the In Space figures would be part of the Series 2 line-up, I started looking out for this guy. He seems to have been the hottest figure in the set, at least initially. I finally tracked him down at my closest Toys R Us, back in January. Ultimately, the figure's okay. I can't say he's fantastic, but he's better than the usual Bandai America product. I'm holding out to hear if there's going to be a Silver Ranger before committing to the rest of the In Space team, but I can see myself picking up the occasional figure from this line (especially the Series 4 Gold Ranger). If you don't have the Figuarts stuff, I'd definitely recommend checking this line out. I think lack of comparison may do these guys some favors.
#0711: Lord Zedd
Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with Bandai, Lord Zedd, Power Rangers, Super Awesome Fiancée October 3, 2015
MIGHTY MORPHIN' POWER RANGERS 20TH ANNIVERSARY
Remember yesterday's discussion of US-exclusive looks from the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers? Well, prepare to meet the king of the no-Japanese-counterpart brigade, Lord Zedd. Yes, one of Power Rangers' coolest bad guys was not in the original source material. That seems almost criminal. Fortunately for Zedd, he hasn't been as absent from toys as the movie-style Rangers, but it's still kind of a big deal when he gets a figure with the same level of care devoted to him as the Rangers.
Lord Zedd was part of Bandai's Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers 20th Anniversary line, which, like the movie line, was released exclusively at Toys R Us. Zedd was the line's one non-Ranger. The figure is a little over 5 inches tall and has 17 points of articulation. Like yesterday's White Ranger, his range of movement is hindered by his lack of some key joints, but this is a little less of an issue for Zedd, who did a lot of standing there looking menacing. Zedd's sculpt was all-new to him, and it's a decent enough sculpt. He's a little devoid of texture, and he's definitely got a bit of a pin-head thing going on, and his articulation is even more obtrusive than the White Ranger's, but the overall sculpt is alright. What really ends up holding him back is the paint, which does the sculpt no favors. The lack of any sculpted texturing or fine detailing is only made more obvious by the straight, shiny colors. Rather than being a truly frightening, skinless monster, he's just kind of this….red mess. It causes him to lose pretty much all of his menace, which really sucks, cuz that's most of what Zedd's got going for him. In addition, the silver paint is all over the place, with tons of bleed over, so it's not even well applied! Zedd includes his signature Z-topped staff. It's okay, but not great. It definitely feels too short, and it's got this random bit in the middle where it's just wider, for no real reason.
I picked up Zedd at the same time as yesterday's White Ranger. He too was purchased by my far too supportive Super Awesome Girlfriend. I'd actually looked at this Zedd figure a few times before. Since he's not in the Super Sentai stuff, it's highly unlikely he'll find his way into the SH Figuarts line, meaning this is likely the best we're going to get. All-in-all, he's not a bad figure, just kind of a mediocre one.
Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with Bandai, Power Rangers, White Ranger October 2, 2015
In the mid-1990s, Power Rangers was pretty big, big enough to warrant getting a full-length movie, anyway. Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie presented a slightly different continuity from the show, and offered some slight redesigns of the Rangers costume, one assumes to make them more visually interesting on the big screen. The designs were wholly original to the American-ized version of the Rangers. There were no pre-existing toys of them in Japan, meaning that no toys of those designs were released at the time of the movie. However, with the 20th Anniversary of the Mighty Morphin' Rangers, Bandai has decided to finally offer film-accurate versions of the characters. Today we'll be looking at the White Ranger.
The White Ranger was released as part of Bandai's Mighty Morpin' Power Rangers: The Movie line, which was released exclusively at Toys R Us, at least initially. He is, as noted, based on the design of the White Ranger from the movie, which, in contrast to the other Rangers in the movie, was actually more streamlined than the TV version. The figure stands a little over 5 inches tall (which is just a smidge shorter than the SH Figuarts Rangers) and has 19 points of articulation. While he certainly has a fair amount of articulation, the lack of lateral movement at the biceps and hips, as well as the complete lack of any sort of torso articulation does make anything much more exciting than a slightly askew "ready for action" sort of pose pretty much impossible. Power Rangers figures have typically had a tendency to be a lot more bulked up than their real life counterparts. While he's certainly not as proportionally balanced as the Figuarts stuff, the White Ranger actually manages to have fairly modest proportions. The more armored look also helps to mask any sort of extra bulkiness, so it's really not noticeable. The details of the sculpt are pretty decent, but some areas are a little softer than others, especially the torso. Also, most of the articulation is worked it pretty smoothly, but the hip joints stick out like sore thumbs. The paintwork on this figure is pretty decently handled; there's not really any slop or bleed over. However, the colors are kind of flat, and he feels much too shiny overall. The White Ranger is packed with his talking sword, Saba, which can be held (loosely) in his hand or plugged into the side of his belt.
I ended up passing on the SH Figuarts White Ranger when he was released, since I'm more of a Green Ranger fan. When I did finally look into getting one, the prices had jumped beyond what I was willing to pay. So, when I saw this guy at a local TRU while accompanying Tim on a quest for Nerf guns, I figured he was worth the investment. Unfortunately, I didn't actually have the money on me to buy him, but Super Awesome Girlfriend was there, and, as we've established, she won't let me put a figure back. He's not a bad figure, but I will admit to being a tad disappointed by the movement once I got him out of the box. Still, you could do a lot worse.
#0674: The Putties
Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with Imaginext, Mattel, Power Rangers, Putties August 27, 2015
IMAGINEXT POWER RANGERS
Minions. Minions are what make the world go 'round. No, not the little yellow guys in overalls (though they do seem to have infiltrated every facet of our lives…), just minions in general. All the best villains have a legion of near identical followers, who can do their bidding and serve as cannon fodder for our charming heroes. Darth Vader has the Stormtroopers; Shredder has the Foot Clan; Dr. Doom has the Doombots. Almost every iteration of Power Rangers has had its own set of faceless minions, starting way back in Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, with the clay warriors The Putties.
The Putties were released in a pack of three figures as part of the first assortment of Imaginext Power Rangers figure packs. The pack is made up of three identical Putty figures. They're based on the Putties' Season 1 appearance, before they were retooled by Lord Zedd. The design is a little more streamlined than future designs would be, and it's when the characters were the most prominent. The figures each stand 3 inches tall and feature 8 points of articulation. The sculpt is fairly basic, which is fitting for the Putties. The body sculpt is pretty standard; the proportions are on par with the rest of the Imaginext line, and the basic parts are nice and cleanly sculpted. The heads are more detail filled than the body; on the show, the putties faces were a bit slap-dash, so replicating them can be a bit of an issue. Imaginext has opted to refine them a bit, which looks decent enough. I only wish they'd done up their hands to match, as they did in the show. The paintwork on the figures is pretty simple, but done well enough. The figures are molded in a slightly metallic grey, which replicates the spandex costumes from the show pretty decently. They've got painted details for their belts and eyes, as well as the black marks on their chests. The paint is pretty clean overall, though there's some variance to the chest markings between the three. The Putty pack includes no accessories, but three Putties cost the same as two Rangers, so I guess, in theory, one of the Putties is an accessory to the other two.
The Putties are really what sold me on the Imaginext Power Rangers. The Figuarts versions of the Rangers are the be-all-end-all versions of the heroes, but Bandai has yet to make any movies toward Putties in that scale. So, for someone who wants a few Putties to bat around, there aren't many options. Add in the rather low price-point of the Imaginext stuff and I'm definitely sold, at least on a few of the figures.
#0673: Green Ranger & Pink Ranger
Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with Green Ranger, Imaginext, Mattel, Pink Ranger, Power Rangers August 26, 2015
GREEN RANGER & PINK RANGER
Man, I really didn't think Power Rangers was a thing I'd ever get back into. Then all these toy companies had to go and start making all these cool Power Rangers toys, and I had to go and have no self-control when it comes to cool toys. What are you gonna do, right? I can definitely tell you that a few years ago I would have never imagined that I'd be buying Imaginext stuff. They've really stepped up their game, and, more importantly, they've started making a lot of things I want to buy. Like Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. They've just released a bunch of Rangers merchandise, including several of the Rangers' individual Zords, a really cool combined Megazord, and several smaller figure packs, for those who aren't quite ready to dive all in. I just picked up Green and Pink Rangers, so let's see how they turned out.
THE FIGURES THEMSELVES
Green and Pink were released as a two-pack in the first assortment of Imaginext Power Rangers figure packs. They're probably the most sensible pairing of the bunch (given that they were a couple in the show), and it looks like they're both currently exclusive to this particular pack, though Kimberly's already been slated for a release with her Zord, and I'm sure Tommy won't be far behind.
GREEN RANGER
The Green Ranger is the first identity of Tommy Oliver, the original Sixth Ranger, who would take on another four Ranger identities over the course of the various Ranger series. He was also portrayed by Jason David Frank, an actor of near legendary status in the Power Rangers community. So, the Green Ranger's kind of a big deal. The figure stands 3 inches tall and has 8 points of articulation. Aside from the legs both being on the same joint (which still kinda baffles me) the movement is all pretty good, especially for a figure of this size and style. Tommy's technically based on his appearance in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, but there are a few changes, aside from the obvious stylistic ones. The Rangers in this set all appear to be an amalgam of sorts of their show and movie designs, taking the general design cues from the show, but also possessing the movie's armored bodysuits and more detailed gloves and boots. It's an interesting choice, doubly so on the Green Ranger, who was not in the movie. Also, there's one glaring thing missing from this guy: his Dragon Shield! Yeah, he doesn't have the extra armored bit that set him apart from the others, which is, admittedly, a bit odd. Sculpturally, Tommy uses the same body shared by all of the male Rangers in the line (so far, anyway). The proportions are slightly tweaked, so as to bring him in line with the rest of the Imaginext figures. The body has a lot more fine detail work than what I've seen before from Imaginext, and it's certainly very impressive. Tommy also gets a unique head sculpt, which is a pretty good translation of his dragon-styled helmet, with the same level of detail as the body. The mouth is painted, rather than sculpted, but that keeps him more or less in line with the un-helmeted characters. As far as paint goes, the Green Ranger is handled pretty well, though he does make a few more deviations from the source material. For one thing, the gloves and boots are just straight white, as is the belt. One presumes this was done as a way of simplifying the designs just a bit. Interestingly, the other big change is not a simplification. For whatever reason, they've painted the ridges on the top of the helmet grey, presumably to set them apart from the rest of the helmet. However, on the show, that part of the helmet was just straight green. I'm not sure why they changed that particular thing, but it certainly doesn't look bad, so I can't really complain. The Green Ranger includes his Dragon Dagger, up-scaled a fair bit to meet safety standards. It's nicely sculpted and pretty well painted, though it's worth noting that the details on the blade are sculpted on the opposite side of the one they were painted onto, which is kinda funny.
PINK RANGER
The Pink Ranger was actually one of the set's main draws, at least initially, since it's the only way to get her in the initial product release, and she is one of the original five, after all. Unlike Tommy, Kimberly would only be the Pink Ranger for one incarnation of the show, but she's still the original, and that's kind of important. The figure is a little under 3 inches tall and has the same 8 points of articulation as Tommy. She too is an amalgam of her show and movie designs, keeping the basic layout and the skirt from the show design, but still adding the stitching and armoring of the movie design. Due to the presence of the skirt (which the Yellow Ranger does not have), the Pink Ranger gets a mostly unique sculpt, apart from a re-used set of arms. Once again, the proportions have been slightly tweaked, so as to make her fit stylistically with the rest of the Imaginext line. I must admit, it's refreshing to see one of these "kid-ified" lines not horribly under-sizing the female characters. It's especially great when it comes to the Power Rangers, who should all be similarly sized. I'm not 100% sold on the head sculpt. It's not bad, but it seems her helmet just didn't translate as well to the style as the others. She kinda looks like one of those stereotypical aliens. Kimberly's paintwork isn't all that different from Tommy's; it still lacks some of the extra details on the gloves, boots, and belt. She's also missing the patch of white on the back of her helmet, which might actually be what's throwing her head sculpt off for me. Also, the mouth on this one is mis-aligned, which makes her look a little wonky. She includes her Power Bow, which is once again up-scaled a bit for safety. She can't really hold it, but it's decently sculpted, and it includes clips so that you can assemble the Power Blaster if you get the other Rangers.
I saw the various Imaginext Power Rangers stuff a few times before picking this set up, mostly due to this seemingly being the most difficult to obtain set. I wound up finding at a Target near a convention I was attending, and these two just really drew me in. The Green Ranger's definitely the star here, even with his handful of inaccuracies, but both of these figures are just a lot of fun!
#0664: Silver Ranger
Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with 90s, Bandai, In Space, Power Rangers, Silver Ranger August 17, 2015
SILVER RANGER
POWER RANGERS IN SPACE
When I was a fair bit younger, I was pretty into Power Rangers. That shouldn't be a shock, seeing as I was a boy under 10 in the 90s. It was sort of a rite of passage. Once I hit 10 or so, I moved away from the series, though, unlike a lot of other people, it wasn't because I suddenly found the series lame, but rather because none of the new seasons could live up to Power Rangers In Space, which had been by far my favorite iteration of the series. I recently sat down and watched a few episodes from the show and I was actually pleasantly surprised to find out that the show was actually as good as I remembered it to be. Like just about every Power Rangers incarnation, In Space had a "Sixth Ranger" added to the team as the show progressed, called the Silver Ranger because he was…well, silver. He was super cool. Let's look at a toy of him!
The Silver Ranger was an interesting case as far as figures go. None of his figures were in the initial offerings of toys, as his character had not yet appeared. When he did finally appear, Bandai had to do a handful of special offerings to ensure that he got a few figures that would fit with the other Rangers. This particular version was released in a set with a Galaxy Cycle in silver. The figure stands roughly 4 ½ inches tall and has 13 points of articulation. Silver is built on the exact same body used for all of the Galaxy Cycle Pack-in cycles (yes, even the girls). It's an interesting body because, unlike all of the other Power Rangers In Space figures released in the US, the figures on this body aren't overly musclebound. That's actually kind of nice to see. That said, the body ends up being exceptionally simplistic in general, which doesn't win it a lot of points. Aside from the slight detailing on the mouth of the helmet, and some decent work on the belt buckle, the figure is more or less devoid of any real detail. It looks somewhat like a crash test dummy. Also, the hands are ginormous, to almost insane levels, which looks rather silly on an otherwise skinny figure. It's not a bad sculpt overall, but it was out of date even when it was brand new. The paintwork on the figure is just about as simple as the sculpt. He's mostly just molded in the appropriate colors, which leads to some oddness, especially where the gloves go up past the elbows. The head gets the best detailing, with several different colors and no real issues with bleed over and slop. The details on the torso aren't actually painted. Instead, they're just decals, which definitely didn't hold up in the long term. The Silver Ranger originally included a blaster, as well as the previously mentioned Galaxy Cycle. However, my figure has neither of these, so no review for them. Sorry guys!
Silver Ranger was purchased at Yesterday's Fun while I was on vacation this year. I never managed to find any of the basic Silver Ranger figures growing up, and they've since shot up in price, so I was actually pretty excited to find him. Yeah, the figure is definitely dated, and not in the greatest condition, but it's the Silver Ranger. He's just cool! And that kind of outweighs the negatives.
#0284: Green Ranger
Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with 90s, Bandai, Green Ranger, Imports, Power Rangers, SH Figuarts August 1, 2014
BANDAI FIGUARTS
Let's just keep those Birthday Reviews coming, shall we? Today marks Part Five, and there;s still a few more to go! I'll be looking at another figure from the set of Power Rangers I received this year. This time around it's the Green Ranger, the first guise of frequent Ranger Tommy Oliver, way back when he was the original sixth ranger. The Green Ranger actually died in the original Japanese show, but he proved to be too popular to kill off in the US, so the producers did their best to keep him in the show, before eventually resorting to using footage from a different Sentai show, and having Tommy become the White Ranger. Tommy had actually stopped being the Green Ranger by the time I started watching, but for some reason, I've always like him more in that role than as the White Ranger. Go figure.
The Green Ranger was the second release in Bandai's Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, a sub line of their main S.H. Figuarts line. He saw release last year, shortly after the Red Ranger. The figure is about 5 ½ inches tall and features 36 pints of articulation. If you want to be nitpicky, he should be a tiny bit taller, because he's currently the same height as the Red Ranger, who he was definitely taller than in the show, but that's minor. He actually doesn't have as many reused parts as one might expect. He has new upper and lower arms, new shins, a sheath in place of the usual holster, an add-on piece over the basic torso for his armor, and an all new head. That's a fair bit of new stuff. Everything looks pretty great, though the interrupting elbow joints do end up hitting Tommy pretty bad, completely cutting off the trim on the front of his gloves. The armor add on is removable in theory, I suppose, but I doubt it would go back on easily. The helmet is once again a near perfect replica of Tommy's Dragon themed helmet from the show, which is certainly impressive. The paint work on the Green Ranger is pretty good, though there are a few areas that could be tighter, particularly the gold bands on his arms. Still, there aren't any really bad screw ups which is always good. Tommy is a bit lighter on the accessories than others, with just a sword and dagger, and five pairs of hands: fists, dagger gripping, sword gripping, open gesture, and dagger playing. You know, so he can use the dagger as a flute, like the show. Don't question how it worked through the helmet, just don't!
The Green Ranger is the final figure in the selection of Power Rangers my really stupendous parents bought me for my birthday. I know what you're thinking: "where's yellow?" Yellow ended up being a gift to myself. She's all here and ready to be reviewed in a few days, after all the birthday stuff. Anyway, the Green Ranger is a pretty great figure, and offers a nice bit of individuality to the Rangers display. Plus, he's green, so…
#0283: Pink Ranger
Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with 90s, Bandai, Imports, Pink Ranger, Power Rangers, SH Figuarts July 31, 2014
Well, the Birthday reviews continue at a steady pace. Today marks Part Four, and believe me, we still have a ways to go! One of my big gifts this year was a near complete set of the Rangers from Bandai's latest take on the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. I've looked at three of them so far, and I'll be looking at another one today. This time around, it's one of the show's two female characters (and the show's ONLY female character in Japan), The Pink Ranger!
The Pink Ranger was the fourth release in Bandai's Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers subline of the larger S.H. Figuarts line, released at the tail end of last year. The figure is just over 5 inches tall in height and features 36 points of articulation, the same as her male compatriots. Unsurprisingly, the Pink Ranger features a completely new sculpt, given the lack of potential re-use from the male figures. The body is decently proportioned, probably more accurately than the male body, in fact. Also, the elbow and knee joints seem less intrusive this time, which is funny, what with the arms and legs being smaller. She features an add-on skirt piece, which has been split at the sides to allow leg movement, although it still impedes it a bit. At first glance the helmet seems a tad oversized, but looking at some reference, it actually seems pretty accurate to the size on the show. The paint work on the Pink Ranger is just as straight forward as the rest of the rangers. It looks pretty good, although the plastic used for the elbow and knee joints is a slightly different hue of pink than the paint used on the arms and legs. It isn't too noticeable in person, but it's fairly apparent in the pictures. She's got a pretty impressive selection of accessories, including a Blade Blaster in folded up form and a Thunder slinger, which are the same two pieces included with all the basic rangers, as well as her Power Bow, and eight hands: a pair of fists, a karate chop, a loose hand, a pair for gripping the Slinger, one for holding the bow, and a hand with an arrow molded to it. Pink Ranger has one of the better hand selections of the group, and they really add a lot to her display potential.
The Pink Ranger was part of the selection of Rangers I received from my totally cool parents for my birthday this year. She offers a nice bit of diversity to the set, which is certainly cool, and it's nice to see a female figure without super weird proportions. She also lucked out with some of the cooler accessories the line has to offer, which just gives her more points. All in all a pretty great figure!