Wednesday 30 March 2022

Toybox REVIEW: Power Rangers Lightning Collection Mighty Morphin 'Metallic' Blue Ranger

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Release Date: December 2021
RRP: $27.99/£24.99

With Hasbro mixing Power Rangers Lightning Collection waves up to ensure most (but certainly not all) teams get some representation, fans might be in for a bit of wait when it comes to completing their favourite teams. Unless their favourite team is Mighty Morphin that is, which is now approaching completion of a SECOND version. Following the release of the Metallic Armour Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger at the end of 2020, the rest of team (sans the White Ranger) all followed as Hasbro Pulse exclusives at the end of 2021. Among these is of course the Lightning Collection Mighty Morphin 'Metallic' Blue Ranger, who at this point in the series was now the longest serving member of the team.

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Anyone buying Metallic Armour Power Rangers figures should definitely have a love for glitter, and that's before even discussing the figures themselves! The Lightning Collection Mighty Morphin 'Metallic' Blue Ranger comes in a specially done version of the standard packaging, throwing a mass of sparkly blue glitter across both the character artwork and name card on the front to properly set it apart from the standard release. The back of the box features a single render of the figure inside, showing off all those accessories and that glittery metallic finish. Interesting, unlike the metallic Pink Ranger this (along with the other three metallic rangers released at the same time) don't package the figure with the civilian head attached to the body as opposed to the helmet and stick with the helmet as per the rest of the line.

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As per the other Metallic Armour releases the figure is largely identical to the previously released Mighty Morphin Blue Ranger, but now in glitter-injected translucent blue plastic with pearlescent white areas. While the end result isn't quite as glittery as the in-show suits are, the effect has been carried over relatively well and at the very least the change in colour shade is accurately reflected. Even if they aren't AS glittery, the fact they're glittery at all puts them a step above previous "metallic" figure offerings. Like the original release the detailing on this figure is pretty good – there are minor nitpicks like the diamonds on the back not lining up very well but all the important things look correct. Even the squished up Morpher on the belt buckle has an obvious Triceratops sculpted into it. Most of the core detail however is in the helmet, which again looks pretty faithful to the onscreen version. Hasbro have struggled with some of the helmet details on previous releases (most notably the Mighty Morphin Red Ranger), but Blue doesn't appear to be a figure affected by any of these issues.

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As arguably the foundation characters in the entire line, the Mighty Morphin base mould is presumably what every other ranger has been built off of and so represents the main things the Lightning Collection has to offer. When it comes to articulation the figure features; 
- Ball jointed head, upper torso and hips 
- Single hinge neck and ab crunch 
- Swivel hinge shoulders, wrists and ankles 
- Butterfly joint shoulders/pecs 
- Double hinged elbows and knees 
- Bicep, thigh and boot swivels 
Though the main issue with the joints is a fairly minor one in the grand scheme of things, it is one that's fairly obvious straight away. Those arms just can't rest parallel with the body. It's a problem that seems to plague most Hasbro figures, and although it doesn't really make much of a difference in action poses it can look a little unnatural if you're displaying the figure in a more neutral pose. Other than that though the figure has all the highs of the Lightning Collection articulation with little of the lows, and importantly no notable restricts to any of the joints is capable of plenty of fantastic action poses. The semi-translucent plastic may result in the joints being a little stiff at first, but with a bit of working that will soon pass.

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The accessories are mostly identical to the ones included with the standard release, albeit with a few little additions/alterations. Altogether the figure comes with a pair of alternate closed fists, Blade Blaster in gun mode, Power Lance, separated Power Lance, a translucent blue swirl effect part, alternate Billy head and Zeo Crystal segment. The Blade Blaster is moulded in opaque red plastic just like the standard edition, but the Power Lance pieces are moulded in pearlescent plastic similar to that of the gloves/boots on the figure. Since these are just remoulds of the standard edition weapons, the separated Power Lance pieces are primarily for the combined Power Blaster (which had been long retired from the show at this point) but can be used as singular weapons. The full lance is an especially nice piece though, and compared to other Blue Ranger figures (including the S.H. Figuarts) actually a reasonable length for once. The effect part is one that has been seen across numerous Lightning Collection figures by this point (starting with the SPD Shadow Ranger), but works quite well wrapping around the top of the lance.

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The (season one) Billy Cranston head from the standard release is notorious for being among the worst alternate heads the Lightning Collection has offered, and while the metallic release's season three head is a huge step up from that it still isn't perfect. This is based on the glasses-less look Billy rocked for the latter half of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (and into Zeo) and the likeness to David Yost is definitely there, the lips do seem a touch oversized. Thank god Hasbro went for a more neutral expression on this one though, because for whatever reason it always seems to be the smiling heads that come out the worst. Complaints aside though it's still a definite improvement on what came before it, and it's nice that there are two distinctly different Billy heads available in the Lightning Collection now.

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Like the other metallic Rangers Billy also comes with a segment of the Zeo Crystal, and with Billy not having gone on his own Zeo quest in the series (as well as the current absence of a Metallic Armour White Ranger) this confirms that Hasbro are matching the segments to Ranger colour rather than character). This means that Billy comes with the Zeo Blue Ranger/Zeo Ranger III segment, as evidenced by its triangle shape which matches the Zeo Ranger visor. The crystal is made of a cloudy white plastic, and can be comfortably held in either of the figure's accessory holding hands. While it doesn't have much function on its own, these surprise little accessories will look great with all five brought together – and even more if Tommy ends up coming with the combined version.

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While it's understandable that fans are already sick of endless MMPR variants (especially with Hasbro now tackling Boom Studios! comic variants as well), but as suits that actually appeared in the show the Metallic Armour is a sensible variant to drag out and credit to Hasbro for not dragging their heels on getting (most of) the team out. The Lightning Collection Mighty Morphin 'Metallic' Blue Ranger is another solid outing for that standard male Mighty Morphin body, with nice little bonuses like the season three Billy head and Zeo Crystal segment making it that little bit more special. It's just a shame that Hasbro Pulse didn't think to re-release Pink along with the rest of this wave, or at the very least make it more accessible for those outside of the US.

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