Toybox REVIEW: Power Rangers Megaforce Vrak

I'd like to first begin this review with a happy new year to all of my readers. Thank you for taking a look at the blog last year, and I hope that you'll continue to do so throughout 2014 as I continue to badly write my way through reviews of the toys and shows that interest me. With that out of the way, we begin a new year of reviews with a figure that's been out for a good while now across the globe, but also one that I hadn't seen in person until a lucky trip to Asda over the weekend. With both Vrak and his Japanese counterpart Buredoran being my favourite character in Power Rangers Megaforce and Tensou Sentai Goseiger, there was no way I could go without picking up this 4" figure from Megaforce's main figure line.

Toybox REVIEW: S.H. Figuarts Gosei Knight

While we have the entire teams of Shinkenger and Gokaiger released in the Figuarts line, the Super Sentai series that falls between them hasn't been so lucky. At the time of writing, only one character from Tensou Sentai Goseiger has been released - the evolved Groundion Headder and sixth member to the team Gosei Knight. But with Goseiger have new life breathed into it via Power Rangers Megaforce, maybe this is the year we'll see the rest of the team. Gosei Knight was released as a Tamashii web exclusive back in April 2012.

Gosei Knight has a fairly simple packaging design, entirely in gold and with a faded image of the figure in the bottom right-hand corner. The spines also feature similar images, while the back has solid colour images of the figure and its accessories on top of a black background. Open it up and you'll find the accessories included on the plastic tray, although the cards are mounted to the back of the silver backing card in a plastic bag.

Upon first glance Gosei Knight looks like he might be shorter than the average Super Sentai Figuart, however this isn't the case. His bulkier, armoured build plus lack of visible neck give the illusion of this. Technically not being a ranger (although Gokaiger seems to count him as a sixth ranger rather than an extra hero, so make of that what you will), his design and aesthetics are very different to any other Sentai figuart - in some areas feeling much more like a Kamen Rider release. Aside from the obvious bits of detail like the headder port on his back and segmented armour, there's some brilliantly done finer detail on him like his head crest and multi-tone red visor. Sadly, Gosei Knight is a figure that's become somewhat renowned for its quality issues and sadly mine is no exception - there's some mould flash on his side, and paint scuffs all over the place where the silver and black bits meet. If it were a mass release figure I'd perhaps let it slide a little more, but with web exclusives commanding a higher price tag its a more bitter pill to swallow.

While the articulation is to the usual Figuarts standard, one element of the design severely hinders the poseability - his shoulders. Not only are mine loose and pop off at the smallest sign of movement, but they are an absolute nightmare to mess around with as they get in the way of most dynamic posing. I'm not quite sure how Bandai could have got around this, but I have no doubt they could have if they'd given him a little more thought.

As far as the accessory count goes, things seem impressive but upon closer inspecting things aren't as special as you might think. Included in total are 12 hands (2x closed fists, 2x card holding hands, 2x open hands, one pointing right hand and a number of weapon holding ones), a closed version of the Leon Cellular, an opening version, the Leon Laser, the Leon Laser Sword, the Vulcan Headder, the Leon Laser with the Vulcan Headder and Leon Cellular attached finally a selection of Gosei cards. It sounds like a lot, but why exactly a second version of the Leon Laser with the pieces attached is included is baffling when you realise that the Vulcan Headder and Leon Cellular can be attached to the other Leon Laser and it looks EXACTLY THE SAME. So essentially the same thing has been included twice. It'd have been much better if they'd included a black-visored "Dark Gosei Knight" head as he appeared in episode 46 of Goseiger. The best accessory for Gosei Knight comes with Figuarts Gokai Green - Navi the robotic parrot.

I really want to like Gosei Knight - it's a great design and significantly different to any other Super Sentai Figuarts that's been released thus far. But the problems are just too significant to ignore, especially considering this was a web exclusive. The shoulders are so awkward that anything other than "dramatic arm out" is difficult, paint scuffs are too common to ignore and the amount of accessories misleading. I don't buying this figure, but I'm glad I didn't pay the price it would have commanded on release and I recommend potential buyers seek out a similar deal before pulling the trigger.

Series REVIEW: Tensou Sentai Goseiger

Unknown to the people of Earth, there is a branch of humanity called the "Gosei Angels" whose mission is to protect the Earth. When the Earth is targeted by an evil alien invasion force called Warstar, they destroy the Heaven's Tower, the bridge between the Earth and the Gosei World, home of the Gosei Angels, to keep them from interfering. However, five apprentice Gosei Angels are on Earth at the time and, while finding a way to return back home, they become the Goseigers to battle the advances of the Warstar. Tensou Sentai Goseiger is the 34th Super Sentai series, airing in 2010-2011.

Out of everything a Sentai series needs to be successful, a good, strong main team is probably the most important. Unfortunately, Goseiger does not have this. All 5 of the Gosei angels are simply awful. I get that they were trying to enforce the 'in-training' aspect of the angels with their ages, but the team are all far too young and fail to impose any sort of authority. Sure they've grown by the end of the series, but I can't help feel that for the majority of the series their victories were simply down to dumb luck (which is quite fitting to Alata's annoying "It'll all work out" catchphrase). Alata and Eri's overall cheeriness is grating, and Moune and Agri's feelings of superiority aren't much better (these do die down as their team bonds become stronger). Hyde is definitely the most interesting of the five due to his backstory, which could have benefited from much more depth. The sixth Goseiger, GoseiKnight is a more interesting character due to his origins, and even more so when you take into consideration that he doesn't actually become a proper team player until around two thirds into the show. However, he can't carry the show on his own, and often his struggle to understand humanity falls into the realms of cliché. The supporting cast are very weak - Nozomu proves to be a further example into why child main characters don't work in these sorts of series, taking far too much time away from the angels. His bumbling father is an injection of slapstick comedy that the series really didn't need.

Next we come to the villains, who are arranged a little differently in Goseiger. There are three main groups of villains in the series - the alien Warstars, the monster Yuuma Beasts, and the robotic Mantrintis Empire. When one group is defeated, the next takes over from them. As these groups differ greatly in both tactics and aesthetics, it does help add a little diversity to the series. What also differs greatly though is the quality - the Warstar are by far the strongest of the 3, feeling the most fleshed out and threatening (since they are ones who destroy the Tower of Heaven in the first place). The Yuuma Beasts are far less interesting - their leaders are among the weakest costume designs in Goseiger and their plans recycled straight from Engine Sentai Go-Onger two years previously. The Mantrintis had the potential to be a very good addition, but their overall story arc despite several interesting moments (such as Metal Alice's development) seemed very much like an afterthought. The only constant, and in fact the series greatest triumph overall, is Buredoran. Despite being the main antagonist of the series, Buredoran simply sulks around in the background for the first half of the show, eventually making a bid for power in the tail end of the Yuuma arc. He then goes on to have some interesting developments as a Mantrintis, and then the reveal of his true identity and goals proves to be the best moment for the series in terms of plot. Buredoran lies to anyone and everyone, friend or foe, changing forms several times in the series to fit in with whoever he allies himself with. Not only is he by far the standout character in the series, but also probably my favourite Super Sentai villain I've seen thus far.

The actual show aesthetic is particularly pleasing - the Goseiger suits look very grand and the helmets inclusion of the moulded mouthplate invoke memories of older series such as Carranger, Gingaman and (especially) Zyuranger to name a few. The weapons are also very nostalgic, complete with a combined cannon form. The inital mecha are excellent - Gosei Great and its headder combos being among the most visually pleasing aspects of the series. Gosei Ground and Gosei Ultimate aren't quite as good as Gosei Great, but their designs still retain the elegant qualities of the show and it is nice to see a single ship mecha again. The show's main gimmick, the Tensou cards (which also tied into the Super Sentai Dice-O game Bandai were promoting at the time) is particularly obtrusive though. As the Goseiger's main powers come from these cards, almost everything in the show revolves around them. The super mode upgrades also leave a lot to be desired - the Goseigers just wear giant golden animal heads on their chests and their weapons look like gumball machines.

With three different groups of villains to include, one could imagine that there's quite a lot of plot to cram into a 50 episode series. Well, this is true, but it doesn't stop pretty much every episode of Goseiger feeling like filler. The endless amounts of one shot episodes are completely forgettable, failing to serve any sort of character development or growth. The only memorable episodes are the ones where villains are either introduced or defeated. The series' climax, despite having excellent set-up, is particularly disappointing, with the final fight being over and done with half way through the episode.

So, Tensou Sentai Goseiger isn't completely devoid of positive features - it has an excellent lead villain and the overall aesthetic for the series is very pretty. Other than that though, it falls completely flat on its face. An unlikeable main cast and a terrible balance of mountains of filler and seemingly rushed main plot makes Goseiger an incredibly disappointing series. Sandwiched between the excellent Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, if there's any Sentai series of recent years that's probably worth a skip, it's this one.

The Future of Power Rangers?

With Power Rangers Samurai currently in its mid-season break, and me currently watching both Tensou Sentai Goseiger and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (the two Super Sentai series that succeed Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, which is what Samurai is based off), I find myself wondering about the future of Power Rangers. Despite its popularity (something I'm very happy about) I've found Power Rangers Samurai to be a somewhat disappointing, and the next two Sentai series may prove difficult to adapt for the US. After all, Goseiger has an angel theme (religion being a touchy/no-go area for US kid's TV) and Gokaiger is an anniversary series that covers 15 years of Sentai that never existed in Power Rangers continuity. Just for fun, I'm going to briefly discuss the areas I think Power Rangers Samurai went wrong (I'll do a more detailed review of the overall series once the series has finished) and then my ideas for how Saban should adapt both Goseiger and Gokaiger. A lot of my ideas are wishful thinking, but I thought throwing a few ideas down on paper might be a good idea.

POWER RANGERS SAMURAI

Where its going wrong:

* Americans as part of a Samurai lineage - Power Rangers Samurai so far is pretty much a literal translation of Shinkenger, so the concept of each ranger being part of families where the ranger powers have been passed down for generations has remained. From a story perspective these seems really silly, especially since the beginning clearly states that the Nighloks attacked ancient Japan in the past. I feel the series would have made more sense if the ancient Samurai rangers were Japanese, but following the defeat of the Nighloks the origami animals (which could have also acted as the source of the powers) became the stuff of history - moving around collections, museums for many years. Then, in the present when the Nighloks return, the animals would awaken and choose their partners - which would be the teenage members of whichever families seem to possess them at the time. Cue Master Ji, who's from a lineage of the families that served the original Samurai rangers, who would go on to teach the new rangers the ways of the Samurai. This then would present the problem of introducing the second red ranger (for those who don't want Samurai's big twist spoiled, I won't go into too much detail), but even that could be passed off as the heir to red ranger powers returning to claim them.

* Mega Mode suits - I'm going to start off by saying that I love the Mega Mode suits - their nicely designed and help distinguish the series from Shinkenger well. The problem is what their being used for. Why exactly do the rangers need to be armoured when they're piloting giant robots? The Mega Modes would have worked much better as some sort of super mode (think the Legend modes from MagiRanger/Mystic Force), with the Red Ranger also getting a battlizer mode as is PR tradition (and if its anything like the toy, it should hopefully be something very special). This would of course meaning creating more American footage, which brings me on to my next point.

* Lack of original ranger footage - So far, the story has stuck horrifically closely to that of Shinkenger. Sure there have been a few differences here and there (Deker's origin being the most noticeable), but otherwise its mostly the same. This is obviously proving cost effective for Saban, who don't need to create any new ranger footage for the fight sequences. Hell, we've hardly had any civilian fight sequences so far. With the money the toyline is apparently making, I'm hoping Saban have something planned for the future of Power Rangers, especially since the final episodes of Samurai seemed to take a noticeable turn from the events of Shinkenger.

* The cast - I'm not going into go to great detail here, but Samurai's cast is collectively among the worst in Power Rangers. Until Antonio showed up, they were horrible to watch. Steven Skyler has already proved to be the best actor among the 6 of them, and with Antonio's inclusion the group has picked up (I'm still not fond of Kevin though, and I don't think I'll ever like Emily). I know Power Rangers isn't the most glamorous of jobs, but I find it hard to believe that these were the best people who turned up to casting.

ADAPTATION OF GOSEIGER

Bear in mind I still haven't watched all of Goseiger yet, so I'm basing this on what I've seen so far. Even so, despite it not being a particularly great Sentai series (a full review will be up in the next week or so) I feel it has a lot of potential to be a great Power Rangers series.

My ideas:

* Drop the angel theme - This is a given really. However there are plenty of other possibilities for the series. Goseiger has a very majestic aesthetic to it, both in the costumes and weaponry. Therefore I propose something along the lines of mystic/celestial knights. Change the morphing sequence to remove the angel wings, and you're all set. The knights can still be from the three different elemental clans (skick, landick and seaick) like in Goseiger, just change the origin up a bit. Hell, Master Head is already a very Zordan-esque figure - just do something along the lines of Mighty' Morphin, Goseiger looks pretty much like MMPR mkII anyway.

* Tone down the card gimmick - It's impossible to get rid of this altogether since the series weighs so heavily on it, but since its pretty unlikely the Dice-O card game is going to make it to the West giving it such exposure seems pointless.

* Get rid of Datas - I'm hoping Saban will do this anyway, because he doesn't look like he'd fit in well with a Power Rangers series anyway. How you'd do this when Datas grows, battles and combines with the series Megazord I don't know, but at the very least he'd need some sort of character change.

* Make the cast better than Goseiger's - There isn't much else to say here. Goseiger's cast is awful. If Saban followed Goseiger to the bone like they did with Shinkenger, this cast would be worse than Samurai's.

ADAPTATION OF GOKAIGER

This is going to be a very idealised adaptation of Gokaiger. My suggestions rely almost completely on Saban's willingness to film new footage, something I'm hoping they'll do anyway given the lack of it in Samurai (cost cutting for the future?) and just how difficult it'd be to do Gokaiger without it anyway. I'm also well aware my ideas sound like complete fanwank, but then Gokaiger is complete fanwank anyway, and that's brilliant. I don't see why the same can't work for Mighty Morphin' Pirate Rangers (NB. This isn't what I think it should be called). Also, its based on what's happened so far in Gokaiger. Its only just coming up to halfway through, so anything could happen between now and the end of the series.

My ideas:

Switch the story around - here's an crazy idea, how about ending adaptation with the Great War? Think about it like this - the Zangyack (or whatever their Western version would be called) have conquered the galaxy and erased the legacy of the Power Rangers. Cue our band of pirates - who could still be searching for the 'ultimate treasure' ala Gokaiger (I don't see why their backstories need to change that much), who are in possession of the ranger keys (the last remaining powers of the morphing grid) and the powers of the past rangers. They meet past rangers, which in turn awaken the powers in the keys and restore a portion of the morphing grid. Then, when all the powers have been collected, end the series with the footage of the Sentai war, with the rangers being physical manifestations of the keys. This accounts for rangers who had the same identity (MMPR through to In Space) being in the same place as once. Zordon could even be brought into it somehow (hell, it'd seem silly not to have Zordon in it). Just don't make him AkaRed, because that would be silly...

Use the ranger keys less - Now anyone who knows me knows I'm a massive fan of Gokaiger, but one of the few areas it disappoints me in is the lack of fight sequences in Gokaiger mode. The rangers morph, shoot some enemies and then pretty much use the keys straight away. With 16 less ranger teams to use this gives the opportunity for an adaptation to use the Gokaiger suits a lot more. Obviously you can't rule out the pre-Zyuranger teams altogether due to their inclusion in the Sentai War footage - so pass them off as alien ranger teams and give them far less focus. But, at the same time - do it better than Masked Rider did.

More variety in guest rangers - Reds are always exciting in Super Sentai, but the can't be said for Power Rangers. Therefore guest spots in an adaptation of Gokaiger shouldn't just be limited to past red rangers. While Cole is the obvious choice for the Wild Force episode, RJ would be a far better choice for a Jungle Fury episode and Cam for a Ninja storm one (As the Hurricaneger episode is still yet to air, for all I know Gokaiger might use Asuka for the episode). The only real problem is tackling Power Rangers RPM, as you have to establish whether that happened in the future or in a parallel universe. But then, there's nothing to say a Gokaiger adaptation couldn't happen after RPM and the fall of Ventrix.

A new GokaiSilver origin - I haven't really given this one much thought yet as Gai is still relatively new to the series, but I can't see a Power Rangers fanboy really working as a character. Especially when you consider the ghost rangers that gave him his powers (Dragon Ranger, Time Fire and AbareKiller) didn't die in their respective Power Rangers series. I always thought some sort of Zangyack bounty hunter would work as an introduction. The GouJyuDrill would work fine as a spaceship, and Silver could be working alone to get the powers until he meets up with the rest of the rangers. As I said I haven't put that much thought into this (I literally came up with that explanation as I typed it) but I don't see why that couldn't work.

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So yes, these are some of the thoughts I had on how the future of Power Rangers should be shaped. It was very much a 'for fun' post that I came up with while bored, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. I very much doubt anyone working for Saban will ever read this, but on the off chance you are - feel free to steal my ideas. If it makes future programming more like the glory days of Power Rangers, then I'm all for it.