Toybox REVIEW: Power Rangers Lightning Collection Mighty Morphin Red Ranger & Zeo Gold Ranger

Release Date: July 2019

RRP: $49.99

If there’s one thing Hasbro know, it’s how to make a great convention exclusive. So when the company announced that they would be taking over the Power Rangers brand, naturally fans were eager to see what they had in store for San Diego Comic Con. They certainly hit the ground running with the Lightning Collection Mighty Morphin Red Ranger & Zeo Gold Ranger set, celebrating the forms of veteran ranger and original team leader Jason Scott Lee. The Red Ranger figure also depicts him wearing the Dragon Shield armour, passed on to him by Green Ranger Tommy Oliver following the loss of his powers.

Toybox REVIEW: S.H. Figuarts Tyranno Ranger

With the popularity of the S.H. Figuarts Dragon Ranger still as high as expected, a new month has rolled around and Bandai have graced us with a second Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger figure. This time it's none other than Tyranno Ranger - team leader and adopted Yamato tribe prince Geki. Of course, if you're a Western fan reading this and are unfamiliar with Super Sentai, you'll be recognising this figure as the original Red Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. As such US Tamashii Nations distributor Bluefin have also released the figure in exclusive Power Rangers packaging, which does not include the bonus Akibaranger pieces that come with the Japanese release.

Following a similar theme to what we saw with Dragon Ranger, Tyranno Ranger's box has the ancient Zyuranger-feel, only replacing Dragon's green and gold with equally fetching red and silver colouring. The box does a good job of displaying Tyranno Ranger with all of his accessories (he does come with rather a lot), and the Akibaranger windows still stick out like a sore thumb. Once again Bandai are using a smaller top tray to keep the figure contents in place, which leads me to suggest that this is the style of inner-packaging we'll be seeing from now on.

While Tyranno Ranger may not have the gold chest shield and armbands that were so visually striking about Dragon Ranger, that doesn't make his sculpt any less impressive. Though the Zyuranger suits are arguably among the most simple Super Sentai designs, they are still one of the most visually striking and that detail has been perfectly recreated in figure form. The weird glove-cut present on Dragon is still here to make the joint accessible, but due to the more basic colourscheme its much less noticeable here.

The only little oddity with the sculpt is how the diamond/teeth pattern extends onto the shoulders pieces. Since these need to be moved about to achieve certain poses, you could end up with an obviously contorted suit pattern. Luckily the shoulder pieces are really easy to move around, so after you've moved them to position the arms you can tweak them again to line the suit up properly.

Where do we start when it comes to accessories? Tyranno Ranger comes with pretty much everything a fan could want from a Zyuranger figure, and Power Rangers fans might even be hard pressed to remember one particular accessory. Included are a total of 10 hands (sadly no open palms, but there are ones to reproduce his role call pose), the Ryugekiken (or "power sword" for you PR fans), the Ranger Stick in both sword and blaster formation, the Thunder Slinger and then Ranger Stick/Thunder Slinger combo - the Ranger Slinger. While the Thunder Slinger was seen a few times in Zyuranger, from memory it only popped up in one memorable episode of MMPR and then was never seen again!

The detail on these weapons is fantastic, with even little details like the Tyrannosaurus emblem on the sword present. Once again Bandai not only prove that they can include everything a figure needs, but make them look damn good at the same time.

Of course, as this is the Japanese release of the figure it also comes with bonus Akibaranger parts seen in the second season of the show (where he and his brother made an appearance). Like Dragon Ranger, Tyranno Ranger comes packed with the American flag belt and neck pieces to turn him into the hilarious stereotypical "Powerful Ranger", from a delusion where Super Sentai is an adaptation of an American-made show. While it isn't pictured, the holster from the standard belt can be unclipped and added to this one.

Team him up with Powerful Green Ranger for a good dose of 'Murica!

You probably predicted this was going to be the verdict anyway, but Tyranno Ranger is another real winner for both Figuarts and Super Sentai/Power Rangers toys as a whole. Though the basic Zyuranger lacks that extra "umph" (for want of a better word) that Dragon Ranger has, Tyranno Ranger makes up for it by not only including a ridiculously impressive amount of detailed accessories but by also making sure every the figure itself looks the best it possibly can. With two fantastic figures in a row (among the best of my ever growing Figuarts collection) this makes me really excited for the rest of the Zyurangers. Ptera Ranger is coming in October, and the rest will soon follow. For the strictly Power Rangers fans, there's also the White Ranger coming in September and even a Western exclusive female-body Yellow Ranger.

Between Akibaranger's celebration of all things Sentai and the 20th anniversary of the Power Rangers franchise, it's a damn good time to be a fan.

Toybox REVIEW: Power Rangers Super Samurai Shogun Mode Red Ranger

It's been over a year (and 44 toy reviews) since I last looked at a Power Rangers Samurai toy, which just goes to show how long this series has been running for now. While I did like the 3 1/2" Mega Mode Red Ranger figure I previously reviewed, I haven't been tempted to pick up any of the other figures Bandai of America have put out. That has all changed with the release of a Shogun mode Red Ranger in this scale, which is the battlizer of this season and one of the better US-only creations that have come from Power Rangers.

There's nothing particularly excited to say about the packaging - its your typical card/blister pack you get with Western action figures. Like all of the other toys, it refers to the character as the fire ranger rather than the red ranger. The back of the card features images of the rest of the toys included in the assortment.

Like the onscreen suit, the Shogun mode is a more subdued maroon colour rather than the fiery red the other red ranger suits are. There's a huge amount of detailing on here - from the notches and grooves all over the armour to the fully detailed shogun belt buckle. The golden head crest is smaller and much more rounded than its real life counterpart (and larger battlized ranger figure), but even without the chrome the gold plastic stands out nicely with the dull silver. As far as articulation goes the shoulders and hips can rotate 360 degrees, but this is limited by the shoulder pieces (which do swing back) and the skirt. The elbows and knees are hinged, while the hands and boots can also turn around 360 degrees.

The Shogun ranger comes with two weapons, a Mega Blade and the Bullzooka. Sadly neither are painted, but both have a fair amount of moulded detail. Like on the Mega Mode figures the blade can be pegged to the side of the figure, and the Bullzooka horns can move forwards and backwards (they come unattached in the packaging). As an added bonus, the two weapons can be combined into the Shogun Spear.

If you're a fan of these new smaller scale figures (which to be fair seems to be the standard for American action figures now) then the Shogun Mode is a great purchase. The suit design is fantastic and this toy retains all the little details of it, even if many of them remain unpainted to keep this as a budget release. It might not be to the standard of a Figuart or toy of similar price range, but for its cost (around £7 at a UK store) it comes as one of the best ranger figures in the Power Rangers Samurai line.

Mega Bloks Power Rangers Super Samurai Battle Damaged Gold Ranger, Mega Mode Blue Ranger & Mystery Figure

 

Rounding off wave 2 of the Super Samurai Mega Bloks blind bags are these three guys, two of which are common and the other the super secret rare "we don't even tell you what it is on the flyer" figure.

First up we have the battle damaged Gold Ranger figure, which is essentially a scuffed up version of the first wave's Gold figure. The sash is messed up as well as the black marks all over the figure, and quality seems pretty good overall. He comes packaged with his barracuda blade once again.

Secondly there's the Mega Mode Blue Ranger figure, who like his Mega Mode wave mates comes with a jointed Mega Blade weapon (Pink is feeling pretty left out right now). Its a reasonably good figure, but the weakest of the three types of blue rangers included in these bags thus far.

Finally comes the "mystery figure", who is in fact a solid red version of the Super Mega Mode Red Ranger and not the standard Mega Mode like I'd said in an earlier post. I still hold that its a pretty underwhelming mystery figure and looks like some sort of prototype, but in hand I found it does have some noveltly/unique value to it and is currently the only Super Mega Mode in the blind bags.

So that's wave two over and done with. It seems unlikely there'll be a wave three since nothing has been heard about it yet (and Samurai is on the way out), but if it does come I'd like to think it'll feature a more interesting range of characters. So far we've had 4 types of Red, 3 Blues, 2 Greens, 2 Gold, 1 Yellow and 1 Pink. At the very least I hope they manage to sneak some sort of morphed Yellow minifigure into the mix.

Mega Bloks Power Rangers Super Samurai Super Green Ranger & Translucent Mega Mode Red Ranger

The next two figures I've gotten from the Power Rangers Samurai Mega Bloks blindbags are the "rare" Super mode Green Ranger and translucent Mega mode Red ranger. Much like the three figures I've already showcased, these two are really nice figures with tons of detail - but are let down a bit by some shoddy QC. Both have some poor white paintwork (particularly on Green's left arm) and sprue marks on the bodies. Usually I wouldn't moan about such cheap figures, but when I've already seen the top notch job on the first wave I'm just sad that it didn't continue.

On the plus side, unlike wave one's Mega Mode Pink, Red comes with a Mega Blade! The detailing is pretty simple, but the fact its jointed is a great touch for such a small figure.