Toybox REVIEW: S.H. Figuarts Hurricane Red

The last of the Akibaranger tie-in S.H. Figuarts releases takes things out of the 90s and moves us forward to a series that this year celebrated its 10th anniversary. After brief visits to the 16th and 17th Super Sentai shows its time to revisit the 26th - Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger and Hurricane Red. Hurricane Red is the only Hurricaneger to be receiving mass release in Japan, with Blue, Yellow and the Gouraigers following as web exclusives in December/January (Shurikenger is still unannounced). This figure has also been released in America by Bluefin under the Power Rangers Ninja Storm banner, with an alternate box that displays "Red Wind Ranger" instead.

Figuarts boxes have been getting pretty good lately, but there's a few things about Hurricane Red's box that I especially like. Firstly the siler/red combo works exceedingly well, just like the silver arms on the suit itself. The little shuriken icons add a little more "ninja" to the mix, and the back is laid out really nicely (with the Akibaranger window not clashing for once!). Finally, special praise has to go for the use of the Hurricaneger wind logo which even makes its way onto the inside backing card! It's not very often we see themed backing cards on a Figuarts release, and I for one welcome it on more in the future.

While the Hurricanger suits may be predominantly one colour, there's a notable amount of bands and decoration to break up the solid red. Most importantly are the silver arms, which are nicely textured to replicate the mesh material of the actual suits. On top of that there's plenty of gold and black, as well as the striking white symbol on the chest. The Hurricane Gyro looks absolutely fantastic for something at such a small scale, and the Hawk symbol on the helmet has a level of detail that even puts Zyuranger's bucklers to shame.

The articulation is the usual fare for a Super Sentai Figuart, but just how much more manageable the shoulder joints have become in recent toys makes the lack of a bicep swivel far less of a drawback. The separate pieces merge into the torso well enough to make it feel like a single piece of clothing, while the double joints and swing down hips are just as perfect as ever. The back of the figure has a small hold to peg the sword sheath into, and the sheath itself has a removable hilt should you want to keep it there while using the sword for extra accuracy.

The highly impressive accessory count of Ryu Ranger is a tough act to follow, but Hurricane Red certainly doesn't do badly in this department either. In total we have 13 hands, the portable ninja sword Hayatemaru (both sheathed and unsheathed) and finally Red's personal weapon - the Dry Gun (which looks pretty damn good for a gun based off of a hair dryer). Hurricane Red's hands are particularly good because there are quite a lot of unique ones such as ninja gesture hands and widened open palms. The accessory count isn't perfect however - the most notable absence is the Hayatemaru in combined gun formation, but a red parasol to recreate that iconic roll call wouldn't have gone amiss either.

And of course, last but not least there's the figure's special Akibaranger bonus - although this is probably the most lackluster one of season two. Included is a snap on Shurikenger vest which Akiba Yellow makes in an attempt to help Hurricane Red remember who he is. It doesn't appear in the show for very long, and doesn't quite have the same effect the Powerful Ranger or China Red parts do. Still, it's a nice little bonus for fans of Akibaranger (note: this is not included in the Ninja Storm release of the figure).

Hurricane Red is the first Super Sentai figure I've bought that I had almost zero attachment going into. With Hurricaneger mostly unsubbed (I haven't resorted to HK subs yet) and Ninja Storm my least favourite Power Rangers season, I can't honestly say I was looking forward to him as much as the Zyurangers of Ryu Ranger. However credit where credit is due, Bandai have absolutely knocked it out of the park once again with this figure. The sculpt and finish are fantastic, there's a great selection of hands and an acceptable (if slightly incomplete) accessory count. I'm enjoying this figure so much I'm suddenly tempted to collect the rest of the team to go with it. It's a shame that this is the last of the Akibaranger tie-ins, because these last four have undoubtedly been the finest Super Sentai figures in the S.H. Figuarts line.

Series REVIEW: Power Rangers Ninja Storm

Power Rangers Ninja Storm is the 11th season of the Power Rangers franchise, the second to be made under Disney copyright and the first to be filmed in New Zealand. While Ninja Storm is considered by many to be a parody of sorts, lovingly poking fun at both Power Rangers and ninja tropes alike, its also a series that meets mixed response.

Shane, Tori and Dustin are students at the Wind Ninja Academy. One day, the academy was attacked by Lothor, a banished ninja master who has returned to take over. Shane, Tori and Dustin are the only three remaining students, and along with Sensei and his son Cam, retreat into the underground Ninja Ops. There, the three are given morphers, which allow them to transform into Wind Rangers to protect the city of Blue Bay Harbor from Lothor's forces. Lothor soon raises the stakes by sending his new allies to battle the Wind Rangers - the Thunder Rangers Blake and Hunter, who are on a mission to destroy the Wind Rangers' Sensei, who they believed to be responsible for their parent's death, when in reality it was Lothor responsible for the deed. The Thunder Rangers soon realise and join Wind Rangers in the battle against evil.

They are later joined in the field by Cam, who travels in the past to retrieve the Samurai Amulet, which he uses to become the Green Samurai Ranger.

The initial three rangers are fairly bland - none of them are awful (although some of the acting did make me think otherwise at certain points) but at the same time none of them stand out in any shape or form. Blake and Hunter's introduction as "evil" power rangers was promising, but the story arc concluded far too soon to have any lasting impact. Once they join the team, they join the other three in their blandness, all five of them walking stereotypes of extreme sports fans. Cam, who is by far and large the best character in the show, initially plays a very integral role as the rangers' tech expert yet somewhat bitter at the fact that he's not a ranger himself. This development goes somewhat out the window when he eventually becomes a ranger himself, falling into the background moreso than before and becoming as forgettable as the rest of them. Sensei Watanabe isn't a bad character from a mentor standpoint in a vocal sense, but visually he's a CGI guinea pig, and a bad one at that. The idea became more bearable as the series went on I'll admit, but sights like a CGI guinea pig fighting or riding a miniature halfpipe (yes, seriously) are a pretty bitter pill to swallow.

While I had no qualms with the overall suit aesthetic, the open visor looked did bug me a little. It seemed heavily overused (they were opening the helmets to talk mid-battle at points) and reminded me far too much of those awful concept helmets for the Power Rangers movie. The thunder ranger suits were probably my favourites of the six, but with PR's tendency to always name rangers after colours, I didn't think crimson and (even moreso) navy ranger were the most exciting of names.

The villains are just as bad, if not worse. Lothor does little to live up to his reputation of an all-powerful space ninja, instead lazily sitting around his spaceship making bad jokes and blaming his failures on his equally inept subordinates. Zergane's badassery is extremely shortlived (and by that I mean the last two episodes he's in) and if anything I thought Choobo was the sympathetic character of the series, being the one to bare the brunt of most of Lothor's wrath at the beginning of the show when he achieved more than anyone else did. The other generals who are introduced later in the series (Vexacus, Motodrone and Shimazu) have their own focus episodes initially, but then they sort of slink off into the background until the build up to the final two episodes. And the less said about Marah and Kapri the better - I thought the series was going to be going somewhere when they were revealed as being somewhat competent (which happened right at the end ANYWAY), but that turned out to be false hope.

The story itself feels more generic than other Power Rangers shows, as the plot doesn't really advance whatsoever until the final few episodes. The rangers seem to completely forget about trying to save the captured ninja students, not even mentioning them until a dues ex machina from an early episode is brought up once again. Lothor's attacks don't seem threatening whatsoever (at one point he attacks an environmental conference just because he wasn't invited) and his 36 episode span of bumbling is basically explained by showing that he was following a scroll that accurately depicted events up to that point.

The zords were one of the few positives of the show, but even they weren't free of some flaws. The Storm Megazord was a good combination of animals and was well designed, I even liked the way the zords would appear once they were summoned (although a roller coaster becoming a lion was pretty bizarre). The Thunder Megazord was even better, being made up of two vehicles that felt HIGHLY reminiscent of the assault vehicles from Juuko B-Fighter/Big Bad Beetleborgs (a lot about the Thunder Rangers reminded me of Beetleborgs) and the megazord being a completely different aesthetic from the Storm Megazord, yet still working in the series. The combined Thunderstorm Megazord mixed the two well, but I have to criticise whoever came up with the lackluster name of 'minizord', and also whoever thought that voice was a good idea. Cam's Samurai Star Chopper/Samurai Star Megazord reminded me of an earlier mecha too, only this time it was the Super Zeo zords from Power Rangers Zeo. Its combination with the Storm Megazord was awful, being nothing more than a ridiculously oversized arm, but the shoulder-gun combo with the Thunder looked great. Put the the three together and the end result was the best of all, the Hurricane Megazord took all the best aspects of the three megazords and slammed them together into one great looking robot.

Finally there was the 'Mighty Mammoth' zord, which I'm not really sure how I reacted too. Its purpose was simply a zord carrier that could also fire ninja spheres like a crazy reverse hungry hungry hippo. It was also controlled via a guitar, which put an 'interesting' spin on zords controlled via music I guess. It didn't look bad, but felt more like a novelty than anything else.

The thing about parodies is that they need to be funny to work properly, and Ninja Storm simply isn't. Even ignoring the humour issue, aside from Cam the protagonists aren't likeable, and the antagonists worse. The dialogue feels forced, the soundtrack is often unfitting and there's never any real feel of struggle of good vs. evil until the last episode - and even that is pretty anticlimactic. I usually try to find atleast SOME good in a show, but Ninja Storm made it pretty difficult for me since everything I liked about the show had already been handed to them from Hurricaneger. Your mileage may vary when it comes to parodies, but in my opinion this is one Power Rangers adaptation that's best left alone.