Goku is back for a new adventure which includes a literal downgrade for him.
When Akira Toriyama sadly passed away in 2024 it shocked the world of manga and anime. While his passing was sudden to those confined to the fandom, he at least had one more adventure to deliver in the world of Dragon Ball that would be unveiled later in the year: Dragon Ball Daima. I’ll talk more about the series when I finally finish it (I had to wait for the English dub so I could enjoy it with my kids), but I definitely don’t need to see it all before I can talk about the toys. Daima figures were unveiled well before the series debuted and some of them have actually been out for a little while. I wasn’t sure how deep I wanted to go with the toy line, but when I saw the subject of today’s post on sale at a discount I figured “Why not?”
He’s a little fella.
The only thing you need to know about Dragon Ball Daima to enjoy this figure of a wee little Goku is that in the very first episode a wish is made that turns all of the main cast into children. If it sounds a little like the beginning of Dragon Ball GT then just you wait until you get deeper into the series. The inaugural wave of figures from the show in the Bandai/Tamashii Nations S.H.Figuarts line is three of the main characters in child form: Goku, Vegeta, and Piccolo. The Saiyan boys were released at the wallet-friendly price of $35 while Piccolo was a much more expensive $60 (I guess that’s one expensive cape he’s wearing). I was pretty smitten with the Goku, but not entirely sure I needed it. I figured I’d hold out for Bandai to revisit Dragon Ball era Goku with a similar approach as this new figure is far more appropriate in size, but obviously things changed.
This just makes me really want a new Dragon Ball era Goku.His head gets smaller the taller he gets.
This version of Goku is titled Goku (Mini) and he sure lives up to it. He comes in a standard sized box and there’s a lot of blank space around him. Take him out and he stands at approximately 2.75″ to the top of where his head likely is and only stretches to about 3.325 at the highest point of his hair. This is a little guy, but make no mistake about it this is still an SHF release. The styling is very much evocative of Daima so if you did want this Goku for a Dragon Ball display it won’t exactly work unless you’re willing to overlook the differences. His gi is a pale orange and the top extends past the sash in the middle which is atypical for Goku (his end of Z attire is similar, but that’s in blue and gray). The boots are a bit simplified as well as they’re now all blue with rope around the lower part which is now white instead of red. The faces in the show are illustrated in a slightly different style. To me, it looks more like a conventional “toon” approach and the figure reflects that. All in all, it’s a fine looking figure it’s just very much pulled from Dragon Ball Daima so if you’re not into the look of that series then it might not do much for you.
I love this little scrunched up expression. He looks like a toddler who just had his juice supply cut-off.
In typical Bandai fashion, paint is kept to a minimum with Goku. It’s basically reserved for the details of the face, the blue undershirt, the blue wristbands, the white ropes on the boots, and the soles of the boots. The paint is cleanly applied and the blue painted parts match well with the blue plastic parts. There’s no shading on any of the orange parts of the figure. While that does mimic the show fairly well which is bright in its approach, it can’t hide the fact that the orange plastic has a cheap appearance to it. Now, maybe one might argue that it should since this is a relatively inexpensive action figure for the line, but a low price does not mean it need look like a cheap product. It would be nice if they just hit the figure with a matte coat to cut down on that plastic look. The boots have a nice, almost satin, finish and if the pants did too that might improve the look of the figure. Given that it’s so small, the cheap appearance isn’t as detrimental as it would be on a five or six inch figure, but it’s not something that’s completely unnoticeable.
The power pole is back!
The low price point does not equate to a low accessory count. And even though this Goku is quite tiny, he has some pretty familiar accessories when it comes to the hands. Goku has a set of fists, gripping, martial arts posed, and Kamehameha hands. They may be tiny, but they aren’t hard to swap, just don’t drop one on a carpeted floor or you may have a hard time finding it. Goku also has four different portraits to swap between: smile, yelling, side eyed teeth gritting, and a frowny face that is kind of adorable. In atypical fashion, this Goku also comes with a second hair piece. He has his default look and a wind swept look which is becoming a little more common. Super Saiyan Gohan came packed with the same, though he wasn’t $35, and the new Lowest Born Saiyan Goku also has a windswept option. Since Goku goes back to his roots, so to speak, with Daima he also decided he needs to arm himself with his trusty Power Pole once again. Similar to the Dragon Ball Goku figures, this one comes with a sling and holster for the Power Pole that can be easily equipped. He also has a little nub of the power pole to slot into the holster, or you can remove it and arm him with an extended version. It’s shorter than previous Power Pole accessories and is kind of cheap looking since it’s just a red cylinder of plastic, but it gets the job done. It’s about 3″ and I think it could stand to be a bit longer, but I guess he can always wield an older model if you have one. Lastly, there’s an optional lower shirt piece that’s more dynamic and should give the hips more range when it comes to articulation.
That’s a better charge pose than a lot of adult Gokus.He can get his arms extended pretty effortlessly too.
The accessories are plentiful and Tamashii Nations also tried to make sure the articulation was up to par as well. Mini Goku has the standard double-ball setup in the head that lets him look around in all directions except for up. This is a bit of an issue for a little guy and it’s one largely caused by his hair. The shoulders are done pretty well as they’re ball pegs inside the figure giving him a butterfly joint then the usual ball-hinge on the outside. The small torso means the butterfly works pretty well and it also looks good as it’s similar to how they did Krillin and Super Hero Gohan. There’s a bicep swivel at the end of the sleeve and then single-hinged elbows that bend a little past 90 degrees with typical SHF ball-hinge wrists.
Kicks are a bit of a challenge since we’re dealing with tiny parts here.
The torso is where the figure feels more limited. Goku has a ball peg at the waist that lets him rock back a little, but not much forward. You also won’t get much tilt, but it rotates freely. The hips are ball pegs and even with the more dynamic lower shirt piece the figure can’t go out to the side for full splits. He is largely unimpeded kicking forward and back while the single-hinged knees allow for a 90 degree bend. The ankles have the hinge and ankle rocker combo we’re used to seeing on newer figures from Bandai. The hinge is pretty restricted, especially going forward, but the ankle rocker is surprisingly generous. There’s also a toe hinge for good measure.
He’s surprisingly easy to stand even with these tiny feet.
The articulation is probably enough. The single-hinged joints in the knees and elbows are not as restricting as one may expect and they do come with the added benefit of being more aesthetically pleasing than most double joints. I do wish the figure could look up better and I don’t see a good reason as to why it can’t raise the legs out to the side all the way. The shirt hides the hips so the designers were able to go bare bones in that region and yet the articulation is still impeded somewhat. A little tweaking there to give the figure more dynamic kicks would have really helped sell this one, but even so, it’s pretty good.
This is a fun little figure, I just wish I didn’t have to buy Goma to get Goku’s power pole effect piece.
Goku (Mini) is a fun little figure to mess with. It comes with a lot for the price point and those who like Daima and want a kid Goku from the show will likely be pretty content here. I do think some articulation tweaks would have gone a long way, and given that he’s so small, a flight stand feels almost like a necessity. If you want him posed on your shelf fighting adults or larger beings you’re going to need to get him on a stand. Given the $35 price tag, I’m not surprised at the lack of a stand, but I would have paid another 5 bucks to get one. Or rather, I wouldn’t have waited for a discount. Like I said though at the start, my initial pass on the figure wasn’t because I thought it was a bad deal, I just wasn’t sure if I needed anything from Daima. What i really want is an updated kid Goku from Dragon Ball as the ones Bandai already released are just way too big. A new one in this size with some styling evocative of the original manga/anime is quickly shooting up to the top of my personal “Most Wanted” list. Even if that never comes to be, this tidy Goku figure is still pretty damn good all on its own.
There’s plenty more Dragon Ball around these parts if you’re interested:
I was so happy with my Super Saiyan Vegeta from SH Figuarts that the very next day I purchased a second figure: Kid Goku. Now I’ve mentioned more than once here that I prefer Dragon Ball to Dragon Ball Z. It’s just a tighter and more fun series with better action sequences. The characters become…
My Dragon Ball collecting was once simply focused on the original series, Dragon Ball, but has been expanding over the years. I’ve definitely leaned more towards Dragon Ball Super of late, but one of my Dragon Ball Z purchases last year was the event exclusive Nappa. I don’t know why I like Nappa so much.…
When Goku shattered his ceiling and became the Super Saiyan of legend to topple the seemingly unbeatable Frieza, the story could have come to an end. Where could the hero go after attaining this awesome power and vanquishing the ultimate evil? The being responsible for not just the death of his father, but the destruction…
Technically a blast from the past, but these designs still feel new to me.
Who isn’t making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures these days? It’s becoming a far easier thing to keep track of than just who is making them. For years, it was the domain of Playmates Toys and only Playmates Toys. NECA tried to get in on that TMNT action in 2008 and it ended prematurely either due to poor sales or because Playmates killed it. That is no longer the case as I sit in my toy room and look around I see TMNT figures made by Joy Toy, Bandai, Hasbro, Mattel, and Super7 to go along with an expansive collection of TMNT by NECA Toys. That, however, doesn’t mean the Playmates influence is dead.
There’s definitely some interesting stuff going on here.
When Super7 secured a license to produce TMNT toys around 2019, the company decided the brand would be a perfect fit for its young Ultimates! line of figures. These approximately 1:10 scale figures were created with a goal of mixing modern production methods with an old school aesthetic. For TMNT, that manifested as basically an upscaled recreation of the vintage Playmates line with more articulation, more paint, and more accessories (and more money). If you thought it seemed weird that Super7 could basically just recreate the work of another company then apparently your intuition was right. This business model worked for a time, but Playmates reportedly wasn’t crazy about it and as the master license holder for TMNT they have quite a bit of sway. For whatever reason, that influence didn’t really begin to manifest until somewhat recently, but it’s prevented Super7 from following the blueprint it crafted at the onset which is how we ended up where we are today.
The 2003 version of TMNT had previously only been brought to plastic by Playmates (right).
Perhaps Super7 saw just how many companies were getting in on the action where TMNT is concerned that they decided to be proactive. If the Playmates thing was going to create a significant barrier to creating more TMNT Ultimates!, then Super7 would need a new subject. In 2003, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a brand was on life support. The fad so many adults predicted would be over in a year or so had finally come to an end. Co-creator Kevin Eastman had moved on leaving Peter Laird to carry the torch. For Laird, this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as it presented an opportunity to start over. He was able to find some willing partners in 4kids Entertainment and the Fox Kids Network to craft a new entry point for the franchise in the form of a new cartoon series. The show, simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, had the freedom to be a little edgier than the silly former cartoon. It stayed much closer in spirit to the original comics by Eastman and Laird while also doing its own thing. The art style was more mature and more evocative of modern comics and really the only obvious step back was the bland theme song.
New line means new packaging.
The 2003 version of the show was a success. Maybe not the success of the ’87 series, but successful enough to run for years and 155 episodes plus a TV movie. For fans who had enjoyed the original cartoon series, it represented one of that generation’s earliest forms of nostalgia while new kids were able to start from the beginning. The show is remembered fondly in the TMNT fanbase and it’s no surprise that a company like Super7 would want to make action figures based on it. It’s one of the few eras of the turtles to not get a modern action figure as really the only plastic representation out there is the original Playmates companion line. And with Super7 simply basing their figures on the animation, there is basically nothing Playmates can do about it other than keep them out of the toy aisle at Walmart. The fact that Super7 landed this “license” and not NECA came as a bit of a surprise, but apparently it was Viacom that proposed the idea to Super7. Maybe they were sick of managing the Playmates/Super7 relationship and wanted to give Super7 something else to do. Plus it probably came about as the show turned 20.
I think of these as the more heroic of the turtles.
Super7’s inaugural wave of 2003 TMNT figures went up for preorder last spring and are just now making their way out to customers. The first wave is both a surprise and predictable as it contains the characters Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Yes, all four turtles are being offered right out of the gate as opposed to the one per wave approach Super7 initially took with the license. Perhaps with this aspect of the franchise being untested Super7 felt they needed to show fans that they would get all four turtles and have a complete set. They could have split them up, but maybe they feared customers would doubt their ability to deliver additional waves (and they’d be forgiven for such since Super7 has run into that problem a lot lately) and hold out until all four brothers were available. This approach undoubtedly worked to extract the maximum amount of interest they’re likely to see. Hopefully the drop-off for wave two (Splinter, Casey Jones, Shredder, and a Foot Ninja) wasn’t precipitous.
These new ones are just a touch smaller than the original turtles by Super7.
Lead designer at Super7 for the TMNT license is Kyle Wlodyga who explained in various interviews that these are the turtles he grew up with and thus some care has been taken to get these figures to match the visual style of the show. He gets into it in great detail in this interview posted by the show Turtle Tracks. And it appears that’s the approach as they look to be pretty screen accurate. This contrasts slightly with the companion art for the show and some of the more lavish sequences created for the show’s intro. In both, the turtles had a more traditional superhero shape to their body with a torso that tapers in towards the abdominal region and limbs that appear a bit longer than usual. The turtles of the show were more stocky, like most iterations of the characters, with rounded shells. They all have blank, white, eyes like the comics, but feature unique skin tones like the Playmates toys (though the colors aren’t the same) and their expected colored bandanas. The elbow and kneepads are brown like the turtles from the big screen, so we really do have a mix of influences coming together to create these new (old) look turtles.
The rear of each turtle features a hard, bulbous, green shell. It’s not super shiny, but it does cheapen the look.
Packaging for this wave is pretty typical of the Ultimates! brand with a big window box adorned with artwork of the characters and a bio on the back. The brown shipper also made its return to better protect the contents. It’s a bit evocative of the Playmates blister card, which may have been the one minor hurdle to getting these figures to market. The artwork across the front and back looks to be stock licensing art for the show. There’s also no longer any sort of bio on the back while the plastic for the window feels thinner than usual. The style for each box is the same from turtle to turtle while the insert is color-coded for each brother. If you’re an in-box collector then this is probably fine, though they still take up quite a bit of space. And if you’re an opener like me, these boxes aren’t so nice that you will feel compelled to keep them. Plus the blisters inside are so damn tight you’re likely to mangle them getting the figures and their accessories out.
As is commonplace these days, Michelangelo does have real chain link ‘chuks.
Once freed from their rather tight confines, the turtles will stand around 5.75″ on whatever surface you place them on. They’re actually a smidge shorter than the other Super7 turtles, but I have no idea how tall Super7 envisioned those characters to be. Super7 kind of did its own thing with that line. These new turtles do look a lot different though as they’re bulkier which makes them look stockier. They have smaller heads by comparison, but those older turtles have some pretty large domes. Aside from something very obvious that we’ll get to in a bit, the approach Super7 took is still pretty consistent. These new figures are mostly bare plastic with just a touch of shading applied to the green. It helps to cut down on that plastic sheen, but it also draws attention to the areas of the figures where no shading exists like the kneepads. The rear of the shell is the biggest offender as it’s just a light shade of green. It’s also very bulbous, but this is pretty screen accurate. It’s the most plastic looking of the figures and looks very cheap by comparison. It is on the rear of the figure, but these are premium collectibles and it’s definitely an eyesore. The figures at least appear to have a matte clear coat applied to the entirety of the figures. Strangely, it doesn’t come across as well in pictures. I tried going with a low light setup as harsh lighting can make them shine more than they will in natural light.
I don’t remember Donatello having a birth mark.
Even though paint is kept to a minimum, what little is there can still be messed up. My Donatello has a big, green, spot on the side of his face that I may reach out to Super7 about. That’s the worst looking part, but the paint around the bandanas on all of the heads leaves a little something to be desired. Michelangelo also has a speck of white on one of his cheeks. Normally, I’d get out the Magic Eraser to try to get rid of such, but I’m worried it will mess up the clear coat. Instead, I’ll either learn to live with the shortcomings or just go with the neatest head for each figure and call it a day.
Those who bought all four from Super7 got a bonus head pack on a blister card.
These versions of the turtles are quite chunky, more so than I remembered. It presents a tough order for a sculptor as there’s an inelegance to the silhouette that belies the fact that these characters are trained martial artists. It’s something that can thankfully be posed away, but just standing straight up and down they look awkward. The turtles do share the same body across all four figures with the only differences being the heads and belts. Leo has his scabbards and Donatello his loop for his bo staff while Raph and Mikey are just supposed to cram their weapons into the sides of their belts. These guys also dropped the belt buckles in favor of plain knots which makes it even easier on Super7 when it comes to molds.
None of these heads are bad, but there sure could have been more variety. Two of Leonardo’s you need to really look close to notice a difference.
The default portraits across the four are pretty typical for the characters and each comes with a secondary option. Leonardo has a smirk and a teeth-baring smirk that reminds me of the Playmates figure. Donatello has an old school TMNT expression with his teeth showing on both sides of his beak as well as a smiling portrait. Michelangelo has a very similar smile to Donnie as well as an open mouthed smile embodying his party boy nature. Raph is the only one who doesn’t get to be happy as he has a pair of angry portraits. One features him baring his teeth while the other is a yell. That one is one of the best of the bunch as one eye is noticeably larger, and rounder, than the other which adds some more personality to the mix. And if you purchased direct from Super7, you got a bonus pack of heads with the following expressions: Leonardo (smile), Raphael ( full teeth gritting), Michelangelo (winking and smiling), and Donatello (a side smile taken from when he mugs for the camera in the show’s intro, also very similar to his Playmates counterpart). The extras are all fine in their own way, but there’s a severe lack of imagination on display. Why does Leonardo have 3 smiling portraits? Raph is all angry, which I guess is on brand, while Michelangelo is also nothing but happy. I would have liked a grim expression for Leo and a smile for Raph, even if it was more of a sinister one. Donatello is the only turtle who gets a wide range of emotions.
The Shell Cell is a downgrade from the Turtle Com.
For additional accessories the turtles share a lot of stuff plus feature their own weapons. For hands we have a set of fists, gripping, and open hands. Each turtle also has a Turtle Com or “Shell Cell.” It’s a bit of a throwaway accessory as the turtles can’t hold it convincingly. It’s in an open state too and it would have been more interesting to get an opened and a closed one. Donatello also comes with a set of goggles. They’re a little tricky to get on either head, but they also look a bit cheap so I’m not sure it’s worth it. This was kind of the start of Donatello always getting headgear of some kind which I’ve never been a fan of.
Donatello comes with some headgear. It’s nothing special, but better than what Leo and Raph get (which is nothing).
The rest of the accessories are the weapons and they’re what you would expect: swords for Leo, sai for Raph, a bo staff for Donnie, and nunchaku for Michelangelo. These versions of the turtles may have ditched the initialed belt buckles, but they did like color-coded weapons. This means colored wraps for Leo, Raph, and Mikey on the handles of their weapons while Donatello has purple tape in the middle of his bo. Unfortunately, this represents most of the paint on the weapons as the steel portions for Leo and Raph were left as bare plastic. The plastic is a very pale gray with the the sais almost looking slightly transparent and milky. As a result, their weapons look very cheap especially compared with past offerings from Super7. Raph’s sais are also puny and I can’t find any art, be it key art or from the show itself, backing this up. When stored his sai in his belt they tended to shrink, but in hand they look to be much bigger. Mikey does have real chain on his ‘chuks so they look fine while the brown plastic of Donnie’s staff looks more convincing. Michelangelo apparently was the favorite turtle at Super7 because he also gets effect parts. Like the NECA Michelangelo, you can detach one handle of his nunchaku from the chain and replace it with a whirling effect. He gets one for each weapon and it looks great, I just wish the other turtles received a similar effect part for their weapons like we saw with JoyToy.
A gathering of RaphsA sai comparison (left to right): NECA ’08, NECA toon, Super7 2k3, JoyToy 1:18 scale, Super7 original, NECA Mirage (Lawson)Raph got short-changed when it comes to sai size.
When these figures were announced last year the big talking point was double knees and elbows. For the first time in the line, Super7 decided to give the turtles double-joints at both spots. In the past, Super7 co-founder Brian Flynn has expressed a dislike for the aesthetic qualities of such joints. His background seems to largely be in soft vinyl figures and retro stuff so it’s not that surprising he’d feel that way. I think most modern collectors are fine with the trade-off and have always been since we’ve had double joints since the Toy Biz Marvel days. Super7 decided to change things up here, either because they felt the kids who grew up on this version of the turtles wouldn’t accept single joints, or because they caved to pressure that was both internal and external. Whatever the reason, the joints are here and they’re fine. Both are pin-less, but both also need to contend with what all turtle figures have to contend with and that’s the knee and elbow pads. To combat this, Super7 used a style of joint similar to what NECA used to use on some figures where you have a hinge ball above and below the joint. This creates two additional pivot points as well as the double-hinged bend. It works okay and certainly better than what we had. The aesthetics are a downgrade, but probably worth the trade-off to most.
Sais does matter.
Aside from that, most of the articulation should seem familiar. The head is on a double-ball peg and there’s also a ball joint at the base of the neck. These turtles have good range, but the shell prevents them from looking up effortlessly. The shoulders feature ball hinges and we have bicep swivels, the double elbows, and wrists that hinge and swivel. The gripping hands feature the proper hinge orientation for melee wielders while the elbows will bend past 90 degrees, but not far beyond that. There is a waist joint under the shell that mostly works as a pivot point than a full rotation. Hips are still ball-hinges, but the hinge seems much bigger and sturdier than typical Ultimates! figures. There’s a thigh swivel, double knees, and ankles that hinge and rock side to side. The knees bend past 90 degrees and the hip range out to the side allows for full splits. Kicking forward is a little limited since the shell forces the leg out to the side, but the range is there.
We’ll have Mikey demonstrate the new elbow and knee range.
Perhaps most important to all who have interest in this line is that the joints are all nice and tight. That doesn’t mean it’s all sunshine and roses though. While I wouldn’t say any joints are too tight, there is an issue with binding and scraping. The hinges in both the shoulders and hips function like ratcheted joints. There’s no smoothness to them at all. Most of these figures are also composed of a very soft plastic, but at the joints we have hard plastic. This causes scraping, cutting, and scuffing even if you’re careful. You’re also bound to have a stuck joint or two across the four figures in either the elbows or knees. The rotation in these double knees can aid in posing, but also drive you nuts as they keep spinning out of position during handling and become misaligned for using the hinge. The design and approach isn’t terrible, and this is better than the often floppy hips we get from Super7, but it still needed another pass before going into production. It feels like Super7 just looks at a test shot once and thinks they don’t need to review anything again or something. Hinged shoulders and hips aren’t anything knee and lots of companies do them without issue, but Super7 would have you believe those toys are freakin’ miracles. Or they could just finally ditch the hinged hips and go with ball sockets. That would make me happy, though I’m sure there would be growing pains there as well.
Splits are also on the table.
Perhaps this is all coming to a head. I do not like to kick someone when they’re down, but things have not been great for Super7 of late. Some of their lines appear to be dead, licenses have been pulled, and a major release like the Cat’s Lair was plagued with quality control issues that Super7 had to rectify at some cost to the company. And now we have tariffs to deal with. This wave apparently arrived at port during that brief window when tariffs on products imported from China were at 140%. In response, Super7 laid off about half of its workforce including 75% of the designers they employed. Among them was Kyle Wlodyga who has been the head designer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other licenses and was responsible for some really terrific stuff. I’ve always assumed TMNT was one of Super7’s best performing licenses so to see him laid off came as a shock. He also was vocally pushing for the company to tackle 2003 TMNT for awhile, but they didn’t do it until Viacom basically forced their hand. And what do you know, it was a big seller! At least, according to Super7. How shitty is that? The guy pushed for this, it finally happens, it’s a success, and he’s the one who gets shit-canned? Something smells there.
Thanks, Mikey – have a slice!
While I have sympathy for those at Super7 and I don’t want to see the company fold, as a reviewer, I’m not going to tell you to go out and buy an inferior product out of the kindness of your heart. I have to review these action figures as they are independent of the climate surrounding them and I’m forced to conclude that they’re just not worth the asking price. Super7 wants $55 each for these figures, perhaps more now that tariffs are involved, and they just don’t measure up to other figures in that price range. The appearance is too cheap in places and the articulation can literally damage your figures. They also don’t come with much and look especially light when compared with the other turtle figures Super7 has released over the years. If these were $35 then I could overlook most of that. The quality control would still be unacceptable to some degree, but also easier to swallow at that price.
These guys are a mixed bag, but if your standards are simply that you want something that looks like the show for your shelf then you’ll probably be content.
Objectively, I can say these figures aren’t worth the ask, but subjectively I can also say I don’t hate them. I don’t even dislike them. These are solid representations for an underserved era of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. If you want a set of 2k3 turtles for your shelf you’ll probably be content with these once they’re in place. I do wonder how deep Super7 can go with this line. Personally, I’m in for Shredder out of wave two, but no one else. If Super7 wants to give me Christmas variants I’d be interested in that, but I don’t plan on going deep at all on 2k3. Unfortunately, it sounds like Super7 is. In another interview with Turtle Tracks posted at the same time, Wlodyga said the vintage-inspired stuff was “on pause.” Rarely does “on pause” ever mean anything good. That’s really frustrating as we’re still missing key figures in that line, most notably Undercover Don and Heavy Metal Raph, two figures keeping collectors from a complete set of Playmates remakes. Even if Viacom is really pushing for Super7 to move away from that stuff, the company should go to bat for its consumer and tell Viacom that people really want and expect those figures from them. They basically did it for Rat King, they can do it again. I’m so irritated by that decision that it makes me want to boycott the 2003 subline. I guess don’t expect a ton of Super7 stuff from me going forward.
We may be light on Super7 coverage from here on out, but there’s no shortage of historical coverage:
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Lets blast through some new(ish) Simpsons figures!
Back in October, we took a look at the very first wave of action figures from Jakks Pacific based on The Simpsons. At the time, I only had two figures from that inaugural wave: Homer and Bart. It was a series of great interest to myself and other Simpsons fans since it’s existence basically meant that other recent Simpsons figures from Super7 were coming to an inglorious end. My feelings on Super7’s output was mixed, at best. Some of those figures I really like and some were really bad. I wish the two could have coexisted, but that was not to be. Jakks Pacific, for their part, crafts far more affordable action figures and also makes them available at standard retail outlets like Target and Walmart. While I don’t love giving either store my money, at least it means it’s possible to find these things somewhere nearby for visual inspection before buying. At the time of my first review, I wasn’t sure if I was going to continue reviewing the line since it is fairly basic, but now that I have quite a bit more I felt like it warranted a follow-up to see how things are going in Simpsons Land.
If you’re new to the Jakks experience, The Simpsons is split between 3 figure lines: 2.5″, 5″, and Deluxe. The primary line is that 5″ one which boasts the most articulation while the smaller line is centered around playsets which the smaller scale makes far more feasible. The deluxe figures are so far limited to three: Count Burns, Homer as the Incredible Bulk, and Radioactive Man. These figures have a bit more paint, but also a built-in gimmick. Radioactive Man has a light-up chest while Burns pops out of a coffin or something. I’m actually not sure what Homer does, but he by far has the most elaborate paint job of the lot seeing that he’s splotched with green and yellow flesh. They retail for 20-25 bucks depending on where you find them and are a curious set. The gimmick takes away from the presentation and makes them seem more like kids toys, but the deluxe price point does not. I’ve ignored them thus far. Burns has some appeal for me being that he’s a Treehouse of Horror character, but he honestly looks pretty cheap. Homer is all right, but I’m not paying that to get him.
I’ve basically stuck with the 5″ stuff though I’ve dabbled in the 2.5″ as well since they’re so cheap and at least two characters make a whole lot of sense for that scale. Since my initial review, I’ve managed to acquire the rest of the first wave as well as all of wave 2, save for the Homer repeat. I also grabbed 2.5″ Bart and Lisa to see how they scaled with 5″ Homer as well as the Walmart exclusive Bartman.
He’s pretty much the same as the old Bart……but he’s got a new slingshot!
Let’s start with Bartman since he’s the most familiar. This is basically the same Bart figure from the first wave, but with a new head, cape, and slingshot. He’s sporting the blue t-shirt which is what Bartman usually was drawn with as he was more of a licensing art character than a show one. The new head has a scowl on it befitting the character and it looks like it’s molded in two main pieces: the cowl and the lower head. Jakks sticks with colored plastic and avoids paint which is true of Bartman. His left hand has also been replaced with a fist when compared to regular Bart which helps to sell the illusion that he’s drawing his slingshot (which is held in his canonically correct right hand as Bart is a lefty). The cape is just plastic, but looks okay. You just can’t position it at all which kind of stinks since he does come with a skateboard. And that skateboard is the exact same one that comes with regular Bart. If you like that Bart then you’ll probably like Bartman. He has all the pluses and minuses of that release, but with a cool superhero motif.
Hey Otto Mann, can you play?Bart-dude, I was born to rock!
Rounding out wave one is the duo of Groundskeeper Willie and early season star Otto Mann, the bus driver and local burn-out. Otto features a somewhat involved sculpt, especially when compared to Homer and Bart. He’s sporting his hat, headphones, Walkman, and bracelet on his right wrist. His big hair is present which limits the posing of his head to essentially nothing. He looks pretty on-model though with his partially closed eyes and trademark overbite. Paint is sparse as even the headphones look like they’re composed of different colored plastic. The tape deck is painted as are the black lines on his shoes. Otto’s sole accessory is Bart’s left-handed guitar. The sculpt is nice, but the lack of paint is a detraction as it’s just a red brick for the body and a light brown for the neck and fretboard. It also lacks a strap, but it’s light enough that Otto can hold it without much trouble. He looks nice and if I had one nitpick about the sculpt it’s that he should be slouched a little more, but overall it’s solid.
Happy Scotchtoberfest!Hey! Stay out of my shack, you bloated gas bags!
Willie is another involved sculpt and a damn good one at that. He’s probably my favorite of the first wave. And even though, at a distance, it looks like he’d require more paint, it’s still mostly colored plastic. Even the green overalls are molded and laid into the gray undershirt. All of the red for his hair is separate and the only obvious paint is the white for his teeth and the black hair on his arms. He has an open mouthed expression like he’s possibly yelling at someone, but it also works with his bagpipes accessory. It too is mostly colored plastic and Jakks went to great lengths to not have to paint the red pattern, though they did paint the end of one of the horns with a metallic gold which was an unexpected flourish. Willie’s other accessory is a shovel which is comparatively plain and not likely to see much use as a result, but it’s still nice to see a figure with two accessories instead of one. Unlike Otto, Willie does have pretty bad posture which is appropriate for him. I’m not really getting into articulation because it’s basically all the same, but it’s good enough here that Willie can handle his bagpipes in a convincing manner.
So many scales going on here.
That concludes wave one, but before we move onto wave 2 I’ll mention the 2.5″ Lisa and Bart I picked up. I grabbed them thinking they may actually scale better with the adults than the 5″ line’s version, but as expected, they’re just too small. They don’t move much either and each has one accessory: Bart his skateboard and Lisa her saxophone. They look okay so if the smaller scale is more your thing you may like it, just don’t expect much.
This sax is pretty annoying to deal with.She scales about as well as Bart, which is not well.
The second wave of 5″ figures consists of Krusty the Clown, Lisa Simpson, Moe the bartender, and Homer again. The Homer is the same as the wave one figure so evidently Jakks felt it needed to make sure it kept shipping the Simpson family figures to keep them in a state of constant availability. And from what I’ve seen, you can walk into pretty much any store that carries this line and find a Homer and a Bart on the pegs, but not in huge numbers so I guess it’s working. We’ll start with Lisa since she’s a member of the titular family. Like Bart, she’s oversized for proper scale standing at about 3.25″. And it’s not so much that she’s too tall, she’s too big proportionately speaking. Her head looks huge compared with Homer’s. She’s also the worst articulated figure in the line so far since her skirt means that she can’t do much with her legs. She comes with her saxophone, which is a solid chunk of gold plastic, which she struggles to wield properly. A little hand was sculpted onto it as a cheat, but her tiny hands still struggle to hang on. You may need to heat it, shove it on, and forget about it.
Why am I always looking up?Krusty scales just fine with Homer, but not Bart because the kids are bad.
We next turn to Krusty who’s depicted in his standard attire. Like Homer, he suffers a bit from a bland expression. It’s a neutral one which just doesn’t work all that well for Krusty. I think of him as either “On” (Hey! Hey!) or miserable. This face just lacks any and all emotion. The pupils on mine also seem to be misplaced slightly so he’s kind of looking up all the time. The rest of the sculpt is fine though and captures all of the details one would expect. He has his huge clown shoes which makes him relatively painless to stand and they also feature the most generous ankle rocker in the line so far. The rest of the articulation is basically the same as Homer, though my figure’s knees were really stuck out of the box. For an accessory, he has a microphone and stand which is fine. I prefer it to a pie. It’s just too bad his mouth is closed so it doesn’t look like he’s actually speaking into his lone accessory.
Hey! Homer! No outside food!I see you have a rag too.
Our last character of wave two is the bartender Moe, inventor of the Flaming Moe. He is what you would expect and it’s kind of eerie how similar the figure looks to the Super7 one. Almost like it’s the same mold scaled down. The apron he wears is an overlay that can be removed if you want. It’s buttoned in the back, but I haven’t taken it off out of fear it might be hard to get back on. With it on, it severely limits the movement in his legs, but it is somewhat soft so it’s not impossible to move his legs if you’re determined. He has a neutral expression which works for Moe and he comes with two accessories: his rag and his phone. The rag is exactly like the Super7 version as it’s a piece of molded plastic so that it can hang from his fingers. The phone is slightly more elaborate as it features a removable receiver, also just like the Super7 accessory. I love these old phone accessories for some reason so I like it here, but it could use an angry head to go with it.
These miscreants can’t do much, but they look pretty good doing nothing.
I have two more characters to highlight before we’re done and they come from the 2.5″ line: Itchy and Scratchy. These little guys feel right at home in the smaller scale so much that I don’t think I have any interest in 5″ versions. They have the same limitations as Bart and Lisa which is no elbow articulation, knee, wrist, waist, and their legs move as one piece. Still, the sculpt looks great on both and they actually feature a solid amount of paint. Itchy comes with a club while Scratchy comes with a mallet. The limited articulation means they can’t do much with their accessories, but they look good in a pretty vanilla pose. It would be awesome if at least Scratchy could be pulled apart with gruesome wounds left behind, but Jakks is probably hoping to court some kids with this line so I get why that isn’t the case.
Death to Poochie!
The Jakks Pacific Simpsons line keeps on chugging and it’s hard to find fault with much of what’s here. My main gripe still remains the scaling between the adults and kid characters as well as Jakks’ utter avoidance of painted parts. Still, the figures are about 13 bucks in most places with the 2.5″ figures retailing for $5. Of the line so far, I think Willie is my favorite, but I also really like how Moe turned out. My only other gripe is just availability. These figures have been the kind that you can’t pass up. While I did eventually see Otto and Willie get restocked in a few places, I’ve never come across Moe and Krusty more than once. The 2.5″ are just as bad as I only saw Itchy once and could not find a Scratchy for the life of me. A fellow collector helped me out with him which was greatly appreciated. I assume they’ll be restocked at some point since the demand is obviously there, but Jakks has been slow to course correct so far.
If you do like this line, you can find it almost everywhere action figures are sold. Bartman is exclusive to Walmart and, at the time, was easy to track down. I’m not sure if that is still the case. I’ve found not many Walmarts around me carry the line. Most Target stores seem to stock it, but only at a case at a time so they go fast. They can also be found at Gamestop and the 2.5″ line has also shown up at Five Below. Online retailers do carry the 5″ line, but some force you to purchase by set or by case which is unfortunate. They also tend to add a buck or two onto the price and if shipping is a factor that can drive the price up. This isn’t a line that would survive at 20 bucks a figure because the quality isn’t there. They’re not terrible and look fine as-is, but a 20 dollar figure carries different expectations. Though in all honesty they’re not far off from your typical Marvel Legends figure when it comes to paint and accessories. I just wish Jakks made the parts on these guys easily swappable so we could get different portraits, but we’ll speak more on that when we take a look at wave three.
I think it was early this year that we found out Super7’s line of ReAction and Ultimates! action figures based on The Simpsons was ending after just a couple of years. That meant Super7 was done after four waves of Ultimates! and four waves of ReAction figures. We had seen figures for a possible fifth…
Our first two looks at the inaugural wave of Ultimates! from Super7 based on The Simpsons have been two very episode specific takes. One was Deep Space Homer from the episode of the same name where Homer went to space and the figure presents the character in his space suit. The second figure was Poochie,…
If you’ve been following along with my reviews on the second wave of Super7’s The Simpsons Ultimates!, then you will have noted that I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with this wave. For the most part, the sculpts and deco have been on point, it’s some of the little things that have been…
I am back! If you’re a regular reader then you probably didn’t notice much as far as content goes, but I’ve been out of commission for weeks now due to my laptop crashing. I was able to fix it, but it took some time to get around to it and it’s been a really long time (for me) since I’ve talked about toys. I’ve been going a little crazy not being able to do so because it’s a compulsion – I like to voice my opinions on the stuff I buy. I wasn’t sure where to start when it came time to finally making a new entry, but I figured I should make it as topical as possible and talk about a new NECA drop from its mega popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line and that’s Ultimate Shredder.
Original NECA Shredder on the left with the new Archie Shredder on the right.
Shredder was included as part of the inaugural release for this line way back at San Diego Comic Con 2017. That Shredder was a reworked version of the original Mirage Shredder that was cancelled (but eventually released) and then repurposed for a set based on the 1989 arcade game. Because of that, the likeness to the cartoon version of the character wasn’t perfect, but it was still far and away the best representation of the character ever committed to plastic. Not that the competition was stiff. I didn’t go back and re-read my thoughts on the figure (I think I will after I write this), but I’m pretty sure I was pretty happy with it. It’s a very good representation of the character from the show and it was done with a level of quality we hadn’t seen before. In 2025, the figure is certainly showing some age, but it’s still not even close to being a bad figure. The thing that stands out the most to me when I look at it is just the torso. It’s lacking in articulation and the figure doesn’t have the same amount of paint figures in the line are prone to contain so it looks a little cheaper.
He scales pretty well with the good guys.
NECA seemed to think that was enough to warrant a redo. And since Shredder is THE villain from the show, it makes sense. Revealed last year is this “Ultimate” take on the character. It’s a noticeably chunkier Shredder that largely corrects all of the aspects of the original release that were inaccurate to the source material. And as I theorized when I looked at the recent Archie Shredder, it contains some of the parts used to craft that figure (but probably not as many as you would have expected). And by and large, it’s an improvement. If you opened this review wanting to know if this Shredder is better than the old one then the answer is yes, in almost every way. The real question when it concerns this figure is will most want to spend $35 on another Shredder?
And he fits in pretty well with his crew.
Shredder comes in the Ultimate style packaging designed to mimic the old f.h.e. home video releases. Titled “Start Shredding the News!”, this is a figure sculpted by Tomasz Rozejowski with a credit also going to Kushwara Studios. Paint was handled by the frequent duo of Geoff Trapp and Mike Puzzo and Susan Capone is credited with tailoring. The artwork for the box was done by Aaron Hazouri and it’s a fun image of Shredder in front of several villains from the show all of whom have been captured in plastic by NECA save for Mr. Ogg (and I’m fine if he never gets a figure). There are product shots of the figure and it’s all pretty nice. I will say that Shredder looks off model to me, but I also don’t save the packaging so it’s not something I care about. And if you enjoy reading the little blurbs they put on the boxes, then you’ll probably get a kick out of this one.
Many plots in 80s and 90s cartoons revolved around a very important floppy disc.
Shredder stands at approximately 6.875″ tall to the tip-top of his helmet. If we bring in the old Shredder, we find he’s closer to 6.5″ while Archie Shredder is basically right at 7″. I do like this height differential when we bring in a turtle. More than the height though, this Shredder is chunkier, thicker, and it fits in better with the turtles than the slender old one. The wraps on the forearms are now accurate to the show as are the spikes on the shoulder pauldrons. The sculpt is all new compared with the original so there’s not much else to compare aside from the paint job and overall approach. That original Shredder had some embellishments on it to give it a gritty feel. Maybe it was a holdover from the Mirage take, but he has little scuffs and marks on his armor. The blades are also painted gray where as they’re white on the new Shredder which is more in-line with the show.
“For book club this month, we have this diary by the Kojima brothers. No, Rocksteady, not the guy who created Metal Gear…”
The paint is what stands out the most as a change. The paint on the original Shredder has cel-shading with grays and blues on the armored parts. On this new Shredder it’s all light gray with white blades. There is no cel-shading. There’s black linework throughout, but not shading like we saw with most of the line. I’ve always been kind of torn when it comes to NECA’s cel-shading. I don’t think it’s bad, it’s just not that ambitious and the black outlines and such seem good enough to me. I do wish this new Shredder had some shading on the helmet, at least. Just a little hit of white in places would help to create that illusion of steel the cartoon often utilized. A black line in the center of the faceguard might have worked well too, but that’s something that may have been tried and was nixed because it didn’t look right. Both the old and new have a soft approach to the chest in contrast with the Archie Shredder which is pretty faithful to the show. NECA reused the abs from the Archie Shredder which isn’t accurate, but it doesn’t look bad. I would have preferred total accuracy, and maybe just not doing the black lines for the abs would have done it, but it’s not ruining my enjoyment of the figure or anything.
“Hah, Donatello, I have the device!”“Looks like you’re missing an important part, bucket head!” “Blast!”
What is not different across all three figures is the cape and this cape kind of sucks. It’s a very cheap looking material and it’s an almost shiny purple. The cartoon Shredder had a softer purple color to his cape and the way this one bunches up around the neck also doesn’t look great. We should be able to see his neck, but it’s all swallowed up by the cape. And there’s no wire in it. There’s some tailoring around the neck to keep it in control, but it’s nothing extravagant. Capes are a weak area for this line with only Dark Turtle having a good one. It’s a shame that the big villain of the series couldn’t get a comparable one to the Loot Crate figure.
“Mommy…”“Perhaps mother would enjoy this necklace?”
This Shredder comes with a whole bunch of new stuff as is befitting the Ultimate release model. For hands, we get fists, gripping, open, and a left hand with a tight grip. That hand is designed to hold some of his smaller accessories like a wad of bills which appear to be Shredder bucks and a little blue floppy disk. He also has an amulet which he can hold in that tighter hand or with basically any hand since it’s a necklace. The gripping hands are for use with the Medi-Laser, an item from the first episode of the third season. It’s a gun that heals things, so not exactly a dastardly villain weapon, but Shredder stole it in the episode so that’s why it’s here. And it’s a new sculpt. It’s painted really well and looks pretty nice. The gray piece in the handle is also removable which I think is intentional because it was pulled out in the episode as a way to deactivate the gun. It’s tiny, so don’t lose it, but that’s a cool touch. Shredder also has a yellow book which is the diary of the Kojima brothers. It’s from a season 5 episode and Shredder used the book to summon some dead guys. Shredder also comes with a picture of his mother (aww!) which is in the same style as other pictures in frames we’ve seen before. The image inside is a render of the character and it looks okay, but it’s obviously not a figure and I wouldn’t hold my breath on one coming in the future.
“At last! The power is mine!”Useful for when he has to shave.
Lastly, we’ve got some extra heads to talk about. Shredder’s default portrait is what you would expect, but it has the creative inclusion of being able to remove the crest. This is useful for the other helmeted head which doesn’t have a faceguard. but has the crest with the completed Eye of Sarnath from the season two episode “Curse of the Evil Eye.” The face sculpt and paint looks nice and the crests swap easily so you can power-up Shredder if you want. It unfortunately doesn’t swap with the Baxter Stockman head with Shredder’s helm and I’m surprised the Eye wasn’t on that Baxter head. Removing the crest on either head allows for the use of the included chef’s hat. I think this is from “Pizza by the Shred” and it’s the kind of silly, goofy, inclusion I like. We need a proper delivery boy Michelangelo now. Lastly, there’s a completely unhelmeted head which is very well done. Swapping heads is, unfortunately, just as difficult with this release as it was with the Archie Shredder. Use heat and I guess try to keep the cape dry if using water. If you wanted to, you could also probably use any of these heads with the Archie Shredder, but I can’t get the head off of mine and I don’t want to heat it up and find out. The hands, at least, are pretty painless to work with. One note with my figure is the right gripping hand is really loose. All of the other hands are find, save for that one. A little coating of super glue on the post could possibly remedy that.
“How ’bout some pizza, dudes?”“The only currency that matters! Shredder bucks!”
Shredder looks pretty good and he comes with a lot of stuff, but can the thing move? As is often the case with NECA, the answer is “Ehh, for the most part.” NECA never sells out for articulation and this Shredder is basically the same as the Archie one when it comes to articulation. It’s completely pinless and the elbows and knees were lubricated at the factory so they move pretty freely. Nothing is loose or overly tight. With Archie Shredder, I couldn’t get the waist to do anything, but this one has a waist swivel that is unencumbered and moves fine, but it’s just a swivel. There’s no ball peg so all of your crunch is going to come from the diaphragm joint, and like Archie Shredder, it’s not very effective. It rotates and tilts a bit, but it barely moves forward and back. The posing is very basic. It’s better than the original Shredder from 2017, but not by a lot. It did drop the toe joint though, but since that old Shredder has a bad toe joint I don’t consider it a loss.
He’s a pretty handsome devil.“Get back here with my helmet you imbecile!”
And that’s NECA’s “Ultimate” take on the Shredder. Does it live up to that name? For the most part. It looks like the character from the show which is what the line places the greatest amount of importance on. There’s no real quality control issues and it comes with a lot of stuff for $35. I have seen some people complaining that he doesn’t come with a sword and I suppose that’s valid. If you have been collecting this line for awhile then you probably have no shortage of swords laying around so I don’t personally care, but if you’re going to call a Shredder release the ultimate version then I don’t blame you for thinking it should have a sword. The same could be said of the lack of a communicator, but again, that’s another thing I personally don’t need more of. My only real complaint is just the cape. I don’t like this cape, I’ve never liked it, and I know NECA can do better.
The battle that will never end.
If this release is something that interests you then you can currently find this guy at Target stores. As of this writing, the first online drop has not happened and I don’t know when Shredder is going to be made available there. I found this guy in stores and there were a lot of them. It’s part of yet another Haulathon and this time the figures are being stocked in a cardboard display stand which, from my experience, could be literally anywhere. I nearly missed it in my store because it was in a little opening between sporting equipment and home lighting. Yeah, really odd placement. He was stocked with Dark Leonardo, Hunter Leonardo, and the Mirage Battle Damaged Shredder. This is the only release I personally wanted and I’m not sure how much I’ll be buying from this latest round of releases (a pair of two-packs are expected, Panda Khan, and more Mirage figures), but this is the one I had to have. And since it’s Shredder, I’m guessing it will be the most sought after, but also the most plentiful so don’t panic if you haven’t found it yet and keep looking out. And help each other out, if need be. Good luck!
If you’re interested in more Shredders and all things turtles, we got you covered:
Conventions are always a great time, even from home, because lots of toy companies use them to show off their latest and greatest. Last year had a number of surprises from NECA where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were concerned. And some of those surprises were pretty damn big. When those conventions end, it’s always fun…
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the franchise that won’t go away for me. I’ve been involved with it since the 80s when the cartoon series debuted and the first line of action figures started popping up in retail. I dropped the series when The Next Mutation came around, but picked it right back up when…
We’re well into the cold of winter and spring feels like it’s just around the corner which means it must be time for another NECA Haulathon. Haulathon, if you don’t recall from last year, is basically a tandem promotion between NECA and Target which was just an excuse to get NECA some more visibility in…
The villain who can be anyone he chooses to be and this is what he chose.
I had a bit of an impulse buy a few weeks back with the Marvel Legends Spider-Man Unlimited action figure from the show of the same name. What I didn’t mention was that he was not alone for hanging on the pegs that day with him was The Chameleon. Like Spider-Man Unlimited, The Chameleon is based on his appearance in a Fox Kids animated series, it’s just that this one is based on the more popular, more celebrated, Spider-Man which debuted in 1994. I can’t say that I was ever particularly fond of The Chameleon. He literally doesn’t talk so he doesn’t have much personality in the show. He’s just a shape-shifter in a purple outfit who received a featured slot in his own episode before becoming more of an ensemble type of villain. And for a villain that isn’t going to banter with Spider-Man, he’s probably best suited for that type of role.
Chameleon with animated Venom and the Walmart exclusive animated Spider-Man.
I have not been collecting figures based on Spider-Man like I did X-Men. That largely had to due with Hasbro’s release model. I would have loved to have added Doc Ock to my display, but I had zero interest in paying for a cruddy looking Aunt May figure just to get him. The two-pack approach really killed my enthusiasm for that line. I was never going to be as into it was I was X-Men, but I definitely would have bought more if I could have just picked up the characters I actually wanted. Chameleon was at least released as a retro card all by himself. He’s in his animated duds and mostly looks the part. My affection for the show, and boredom at not having bought anything recently at the time (damn, that changed fast) is what motivated me to pick up this release. Was that a smart move? Ehh…
And now with the rest of the animated figures I own.
Chameleon stands at approximately 6.5″ making him look a great deal larger than the animated Spider-Man released on a retro card. That’s more of a problem with that Spider-Man than Chameleon, but he does seem really big. Everyone was kind of big in that show, ordinary people on the streets seemed to all be jacked, so I guess it’s not that big of a deal, but I did expect him to be all together smaller. I have no idea how much of this figure is reused, but I’d wager it’s some and maybe that’s how he ended up tall and pretty thickly built. Even though he’s from the cartoon there’s no cel-shading or anything like that on him. He’s played straight up. The head is really well done with a lot of deep grooves in his lethal expression. There’s a little bit of what looks to be an almost silver paint around the eyes and in the creases of his brow. That combined with the really well applied eyes gives him an eerie look. Almost lifelike. It’s striking and it really gives Chameleon the appearance of a cold-blooded killer.
This belt is a pain in the ass to get straight.
The rest of the body is essentially bare plastic. I don’t think there’s another hit of paint on this guy. The only painted part is the belt. Since it has a shoulder strap, Hasbro did it all in one piece. It’s an orange plastic which matches the cuffs on his sleeves. The actual belt portion is painted red and the device on his belt buckle is painted gold and green. It’s somewhat soft, but the choice to make it all one piece means you’ll likely have to mess with it to get it on straight. The harness is pretty tight with no real room for play so it tends to want to pull up on the belt. It’s really challenging to get that belt buckle centered, if not impossible, so it may drive some folks a little nuts if they hate stuff like that. I wish they had just done it in two pieces similar to what they did with the strap on Cyclops. His shoulder pads are also a softer plastic that are keyed into the shoulder joint. I’m guessing the peg for the arm goes through a loop to sort of hold it in place. It moves with the arm, but getting them to mirror each other is a chore. The shoulder pad on the right shoulder of mine is seated nicely into the body while the left one is not so more of it is visible. In trying to jam it back in I actually damaged it slightly with my thumbnail so I guess I should learn to live with it.
At least he has fists?
Chameleon has the usual accessories for a Legends release which is to say he doesn’t come with much. Though, he does come with more than usual. Out of the package, he’s equipped with two trigger finger hands and he also has a set of fists he can turn to. For those trigger hands we get a pair of guns: a pistol and a much larger gun. They’re both a dull silver and they are the exact same two guns that came with the VHS Mystique. And if you’re buying more of this wave, they’re the exact same two guns that come with Agent Venom. I think the pistol also came with movie Deadpool so Hasbro has certainly got a bunch of mileage out of these two. Lastly, we also get a “mask” of one J. Jonah Jameson. It’s designed to resemble a rubber mask that’s been pulled off of someone’s head and is just hanging from something – like a hand. It’s both creepy and kind of funny looking. I like it, but I hate that they sculpted finger holes for it in the back. If you want Chameleon to hold his arm out and have the mask just hang from his fingers it will look stupid. If he holds it as his side it looks passable, but a little odd. I wish they had just sculpted it with the mask coming to a point in the center of the head like it’s going through his fist. Hell, since it’s an all new sculpt, just make it an extra hand like Mondo did for the Venom hand holding Spider-Man’s mask or the Spider-Man hand holding the mask of the Green Goblin. That would have been the way to go.
He also has a bigger gun.
You can probably take one look at this figure and conclude that it’s not going to articulate all that well, and you would be right. The head is on the old ball-hinge, but the oversized collar renders the hinge nearly useless. He can basically just turn his head to the side. Arms feature the usual hinged ball at the shoulder, bicep swivel, double-jointed elbow, swivel and hinge at the wrist. The trigger hands have the superior vertical hinge while the fists go with an appropriate horizontal one. The torso feature an ab crunch that has crappy range going forward, decent range going back. There’s a waist twist, ball-socket hips that can almost hit splits out to the side, kick forward a decent, and a thigh twist in each leg. The double-jointed knees are tight, but otherwise fine. There is a boot swivel that’s pretty ugly, but there if you want it, and the ankles hinge forward and back and there is an ankle rocker. Range at the ankle is mediocre. This figure is pin-less so that’s nice, but it also means that knees and elbows are a slightly lighter shade of purple than the rest of the body so you’re swapping one eyesore for another. I will say, on this figure the miscolored parts aren’t as bad as I’ve seen it on some others.
Sure to be everyone’s favorite accessory is this JJ mask. It doesn’t make sense for this version of Chameleon, but who cares?
Chameleon is pretty mediocre when it comes to articulation. He’s going to just stand there on your shelf. I don’t know why they’d go with the ball-hinged neck given the big collar. The collar is a floating piece so I guess if you want Chameleon to have more range looking up and down you could remove it, but I’d have preferred a double-ball peg so he could have more tilt for nuance posing. I don’t need him to look up at the sky or down at his toes. No butterfly joint when he comes with guns is a bit of a bummer, but I do like the unbroken appearance of the chest. He’s actually pretty broad-chested compared with a lot of Legends and the proportions are pretty damn good. Chameleon is an example for how a character doesn’t need a complicated design to look good in plastic if you just get the proportions right.
Standing tall. Standing proud.
And that’s what it all comes down to for me with Chameleon. Yeah, he doesn’t impress with the articulation and there are some design flaws that bug me, but he looks like the character from the show. He’s a big dude and he’s sculpted as such. The matte finish across the board just makes him look nice and they really nailed the face. He comes with an extra set of hands, two guns, and the mask accessory which is practically a motherload for a Marvel Legends figure being sold at the standard price. For that reason, I can’t really be down on this guy. He’s fine. If you like Chameleon as he appeared in the Spider-Man cartoon from the 90s then I think you’ll be happy with this one. He’s not going to be one you fiddle with much, but when you look to your shelf and see him standing there staring a hole through your soul you’ll probably think “Man, Hasbro kind of nailed that one.”
We have plenty more action figure reviews from the Spider-Man cartoon of the 90s:
Last year, Hasbro celebrated the 30th anniversary of X-Men, the animated series that premiered on Halloween 1992 and would become a ratings hit shortly thereafter for the Fox Kids Network. It was responsible for getting a lot of kids into the X-Men and Marvel comics in general and the first, prime, benefactor of that rise…
When I was a kid, my dad took me to some local convention or trade show. I have no idea why because my dad wasn’t the type who would go to such an event. He liked car shows, but from what I can remember this was more of a hobby show. It was early in…
It was in 2021 that Hasbro released a PulseCon exclusive Venom figure on a Spider-Man retro card. The retro card series is meant to stir-up nostalgia for all of the adults who were buying toys and watching cartoons in the 90s as the retro card is a facsimile of the old cards Toy Biz used…
When it comes to Mezco and its action figure offerings I have a very specific taste. To me, the majority of their super hero figures look little better than Mego. Some people like that aesthetic, but not me personally, and I’m certainly not into paying 100 bucks for the honor of owning such. Some frequent readers here may be surprised that I never reviewed either of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles four-packs the company released last year and that’s because, to me, they looked like dried-out turds left out in the hot sun to bake. I saw plenty of folks singing the praises of that set and I think it’s great that they enjoyed it, it just wasn’t for me.
With Mezco, the stuff I typically am drawn to are their creations based on live-action properties. I love the look of their Batman ’89 and their Michael Keaton likeness under the cowl is spot on. I don’t love the approach they took with the silicon body, but if you want to read more about that there’s a link at the bottom of this one. I really liked their take on The Crow based on the 90s film. I didn’t get it, but I certainly gave strong consideration to doing so. And my favorite figure I picked up in 2023 was the Mezco Green Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It was a perfect character for Mezco to tackle because it was based on a live-action series where martial artists in spandex suits and helmets wield goofy weapons. The fact that the character is helmeted made it even more perfect because even though I said I prefer Mezco’s take on live-action properties, they don’t always nail the likeness. The Crow works because he’s covered in paint. The unmasked Tommy Oliver head they included with the Green Ranger is just okay. And that’s fine because I’d never display him unmasked.
It’s impossible to convey how huge this show was in 1993.
When I got that figure the plan was just to get the one. I’m strictly a casual MMPR fan who feels drawn to the toys of today because the toys of yesterday were so hard to come by when I was a kid and actively watching the show. The Green Ranger is the best of the rangers so it made sense as my lone representative for the series from Mezco. It turned out so well though that my attention turned towards the rest. There was a White Ranger released in 2024, but I don’t need two versions of the same character. Plus, I fell off the series right around that character’s debut. I have a full squad of rangers from the Hasbro Lightning Collection, but it’s merely adequate. Over time, as often happens, the flaws with those figures become harder to ignore. They’ve stood untouched on my shelf for years. I don’t intend to go down any extensive MMPR rabbit hole at this point, so why not splurge a little and get a set of Power Rangers that I’m really going to enjoy? Couple that with a milestone birthday in 2024 and I decided to say “screw it,” and gift myself an expensive set of Power Rangers.
Time went by. I scored a great deal on Entertainment Earth because of a promotion that applied even to preorders. Month after month would come and go with the product getting pushed out. Eventually, I got irritated by the whole thing and began questioning if I really wanted it. We had some expenses come up, the holiday season also came and went, and I just hated the idea of this expensive item coming due at any moment so I cancelled. Not a week later, product starts hitting. God damnit, Mezco. I lost the deal I had on the set and figured that was that. Then Big Bad Toy Store actually got the product and showed it as in-stock and ready to ship. And to my surprise, there was no additional markup. Usually with Mezco, BBTS will put up preorders at MSRP, but once the item actually hits, they jack up the price to capitalize on the FOMO purchases. Maybe they had a high number of cancellations on this one since it was sitting out there for so long (years, I want to say) and needed to just make sure they sell the product they have at the price quoted before they try to extract a little more. I don’t know. I ruminated on the subject a little then obviously gave in since we’re here today talking about this set.
Some nice new artwork for the box.Lots of plastic baggies to keep things as protected as can be.
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Box Set from Mezco checks in at a whopping $400. That’s a number more commonly associated with a video game console and not a set of action figures. Considering that most Mezco figures retail for $100 or more (I think the Green Ranger was $110) this set actually feels like a pretty good deal. That’s five figures each with a vast assortment of accessories at $80 a piece. I won’t call it a bargain because $400 is $400. Maybe a week long stay in a hotel for that kind of cash could be considered a bargain, but not action figures. The big question then is do these figures justify their cost? With the Green Ranger, my conclusion was a somewhat tepid “Yes.” The figure’s great, I just wasn’t convinced it absolutely had to cost what it did. And that was at a significantly higher price point. These figures are off to a better start by virtue of that fact, but an $80 action figure is still a pricey thing. I’m not sure if I spent that much on a single action figure in this scale in 2024. I did spend $75 on a figure so it’s not as if I’m far off the mark, but there is certainly something to prove with this set and expectations are and should be high for that price.
The accessory tray is pretty comprehensive.
The figures come in a pretty large box with multiple trays within. The box has what I assume is new artwork commissioned for the release and it’s all fine, but it’s not a window box so if you want to not only hold the figures, but just see them, then you’re going to have to open it. Once removed you have your five figures. It’s actually more like two figures as the male rangers share a body and the two female rangers share a body. And that’s fine as the characters were fairly similar in the show when suited and I wouldn’t expect a sculpt tailor made for each figure. Especially because the helmets and soft goods are unique enough.
And there they are.
Just standing them all in a row and taking it in the look is impressive. From a normal distance, they look like miniature versions of the characters from the show. The helmets are the right shape. The details are all in place when it comes to the sculpt work on the helmets or the stitching in the gloves and boots which are sculpted in. The colors are bright and vibrant and the white vinyl or decals for the diamonds on the chest is nice and opaque, even, and straight. As is the case with Mezco, we have a mix of soft goods and plastic. The heads, gloves, and boots are all plastic while the body is covered by the soft goods. If you get up close, you can see the threading in the suits which I suppose isn’t screen accurate, but I’ve also never been that up close and personal with a real Power Rangers suit. They obviously take on the look of the characters when using the American actors since the Yellow Ranger was played by a male in all of the Japanese footage. And that’s fine. For an American audience, Trini is the Yellow Ranger and it would look out of place if the figure had a male body, even if that’s what we typically saw on TV. I think it would be cool if Mezco did a one-off Yellow Ranger release on the male body for those who want a Super Sentai display, but I don’t know if such a thing is likely.
There should be a lot more black around that morpher.
The presentation is strong, but not perfect. Nothing is, and when a figure costs 80 bucks we’re going to scrutinize the Hell out of it. The helmets on the males look fine, but the females do stand out a bit as oversized. I do think some of that is other toys and media playing tricks on us. The Lightning Collection, and most action figure lines, scale down the helmet heads slightly. Some of the older lines scale them down a lot to the point where one would question if a human head could actually fit in them. They’re pretty big on the show, but if you’ve spent years looking at figures where they’re a little smaller then it’s going to have an effect. Similarly, the Yellow Ranger being a male in the show more often than not means the figures usually look out of whack. However, in this case, I do think the helmet size is too big. For the Pink Ranger, it’s mostly fine. That helmet always looked bigger on the show, probably because of the size of the actress, so it’s not standing out. The other drawback I notice right away is that the diamonds on the chest, in particular the ones on the sides, have a wavy quality to them. They should be sharp, but it must have something to do with the vinyl coating in use here. What may bug the hardcore fan the most though is that the morphers are not the right color. They’re all silver here when in the show only the front is supposed to silver. The sides should be black, which is an odd detail for Mezco to screw up since they went through the trouble of making the coins in the morphers look so damn good.
We may have a slightly different body than Green, though Billy somehow seems to be a bit taller than Jason and Zack.
We’ll talk first about the male rangers: black, red, and blue. To my surprise, these do not appear to be identical to the Green Ranger I already have. I think much of them are shared, but there are some differences. Or at least one noticeable one. Under the suit, it feels like there’s just a basic action figure body. The Green Ranger I have at a little over 6.5″ while these new ones are right around 6.375″ which surprised me a bit. It looks like the Green Ranger is getting a bit more length out of the torso so perhaps it’s not the same body underneath. I don’t know if either figure is truly 1:12 scale, but it looks fine to me. The suit is stitched in the back so it’s not removable and the belts are an imitation leather. They’re painted with black striping and the Power Morpher is nicely detailed and personalized for each character. The blade blaster holsters are removable and they just tab on and off.
Posing is going to be pretty solid with some limitations thanks to the soft goods.
Running your fingers over these figures will allow you to feel out the articulation. It’s impossible to know exactly what’s underneath without taking one apart, but I’ll do my best. It sure feels like we have a ball joint in the base of the neck and I know we have a double ball at the head. The shoulders appear to be simple ball hinges and there is a bicep swivel, double-jointed elbows, a glove swivel, and ball hinge wrists. The diaphragm seems to feature a double ball and there is a slight waist twist. Hips are a mystery, but they got to the side a little better than 45 degrees and kick forward about 90 degrees. There is a dedicated thigh swivel, double-jointed knees, boot swivel, and a hinged ankle and rocker. Because these guys have different gloves and boots than the Green Ranger, those had to be re-sculpted and Mezco made at least one notable improvement and it’s with the ankle rocker. The Green Ranger’s ankles are pretty poor, but these new ones should have little trouble keeping their feet flat on a shelf. The actual boots do have an odd shape to them. In some poses it looks like they’re curving out. I’m not sure if it’s the connection to the leg that’s causing that. It can be posed away, for the most part, but out of the box I was wondering if the left and right shins had been swapped at the factory.
I like that the hands are nice and soft so swapping is easy and getting weapons into hands is as well.
The articulation is all basically there, save for a butterfly joint. It’s just limited by the soft goods and your own courage. If you try to put these guys into splits you’re going to have to stretch the material. I’m not saying the figures can’t do it, but I’m not willing to try. I wish I was some semi-famous YouTube guy who gets review samples so that I could really go the distance with these, but I’m not and I’m out a considerable amount of money should I break something. The joints that feel the most limited to me are the waist, shoulders, and those hips and it’s all because of the soft goods. The waist, for example, doesn’t feel like it wants to turn much. The shoulders don’t like being raised out to the side a full 90 degrees. The material is stretchy and it can probably take more abuse than I’m willing to dish out, but it’s also form-fitted to each figure. They’re not frumpy, which means if you leave these guys in a position that’s stressing the material it could stretch out permanently and lead to a poorer fit. That’s always going to be the limitation with this setup and it’s the same with other scales too. Have some fun with them in hand, but maybe don’t leave them on your shelf in anything too crazy.
As expected, the females share the same body.
The female rangers are pretty much the same, only smaller, and with another detail I wasn’t anticipating. The pink and yellow rangers stand at just a tick under 6″ and I like the height separation between them and the boys. They have a more feminine shape with slender limbs compared to the males and a more defined hourglass shape to the torso without being unrealistically curvy. Kimberly, the Pink Ranger, has her skirt piece as well which seems to be just a separate piece that’s not sewn into place. The articulation feels to be the same, but the body underneath feels like it’s a silicon one. It’s my understanding Mezco tried this with a Spider Gwen figure and it’s being utilized here. The silicon body covers the torso, waist, and thighs and gives the figures a squishy feeling. These types of bodies are known for eventually cracking and tearing, but if it’s hidden underneath soft goods then who cares? I would think it’s an added expense so I’m surprised to see it in use here, but maybe this is a technique Mezco is going to utilize more going forward?
I find these two pose a little better than the boys. The torso and hips have a bit more range.
For whatever reason, this approach makes the women the more articulated of the pair. The actual articulation points are all the same, but they can really crunch forward and back in a way the males cannot. The legs seem to kick forward better as well and they also kick back all the way so they can theoretically do splits in both directions, though I still wouldn’t really advise it. The joints are stiff, but smooth, and if you have handled a figure like this in the past then you know what I mean. It’s a metal armature, basically, that’s inside the body so you do need to be somewhat mindful of that. Sometimes a joint can get pointed in a direction you weren’t expecting. As a result, the limb won’t move the way you want it to, but it’s just a matter of figuring out which swivel point got turned around and going from there. The one downside is it seems like joints can either separate or just aren’t tight enough. The right leg on my Pink Ranger doesn’t want to go out to the side and stay there. I don’t know if the hip is disconnected or if it’s just weak. It’s not floppy, but it sucks that the range isn’t there with her.
The boys.And the girls.The unmasked portraits are pretty hit and miss.
All of the characters come with an array of hands as well as an alternate, unmasked, portrait. The quality of the unmasked heads varies from character to character. I would say the Billy and Jason heads look really good, Zack and Kimberly okay, and Trini looks nothing like the actor. Billy doesn’t have his glasses which is technically accurate to the show, but for this era, I think most fans picture actor David Yost with his spectacles on. For hands, every Ranger comes with fists and gripping hands and then after that it varies. Red Ranger has a set of flat palms with his thumb to the side and a set of flats with his thumbs towards the palm. He also has martial arts posed hands (kind of his signature pose) and loose gripping hands. Black Ranger has the same, minus the martial arts posed hands, while Blue Ranger loses the flat palms with the thumb off to the side and the loose gripping hands, but picks up palm-striking hands. Yellow Ranger has the same spread as Black Ranger, plus a set of “Tiger Claw” hands. Pink Ranger has the most as she has the same spread as Yellow, but swaps the flat hands with thumbs turned inward in favor of splayed open hands like she just loosed an arrow. She also has an additional right hand specifically shaped for nocking an arrow. All of the male hands can be shared with each other and the same is true of the female hands, you just wouldn’t want to put a male hand on a female body and vice versa.
I’m guessing most will pose the Rangers with their signature weapons, but I’ve also liked the Blade Blasters.Remember the combined Blade Blaster attack?
Each Power Ranger comes with their trusty blade blaster. These little gun to knives accessories are identical to the one that came with the Green Ranger meaning they’re capable of going from knife mode to handgun mode just as they did in the show. They’re hard plastic and well painted but Mezco did not include the “Power Rangers” writing on them. Some require a little extra oomph to push the dinosaur head forward when converting to the gun mode which can feel a little scary, but I haven’t had any issues. The actual blade doesn’t fold out and is instead a separate piece that pegs in. Mezco included five so you can have all five Rangers wielding their blade blasters in knife mode if you please or firing with the included blast effects. They’re a thin, translucent, red and likely made of an acrylic so do be careful when handling them. If you don’t want your Rangers to brandish these arms, they can be stored in the included holsters which is probably where most are likely to end up. Upon doing so though, it becomes clear that the blasters are a tad oversized compared to the ones in the show. They look big in their holsters and even the promo shots for this set seem to show a smaller weapon. This wasn’t something I really noticed with the Green Ranger since he doesn’t traditionally carry one of these things, but it’s plain to see here.
These are the weapons most associate with the Power Rangers.
Each Ranger also has their signature weapon. For the Red Ranger, it’s the power sword which is lovingly painted and looks terrific. If you think it lacks a little something though there’s also the charged version which is basically the same sculpt but molded in translucent red. I honestly don’t remember the sword doing that in the show, but it probably happened. I doubt it looked like this though given the show had very cheap and simple special effects. It looks a little jarring in Jason’s hands and it’s not something I see myself using, but maybe I’ll come around on it. It does have the opposite problem of the Blade Blaster which is that it’s definitely too small. Mezco clearly played fast and loose with the scale on this stuff. For Billy the Blue Ranger, he has his lance which is sort of like a blue trident with a topper on both ends. In the show, he could separate it and brandish two, smaller, weapons so Mezco included a set of small, handheld, tridents. They also included two bigger ones and an adapter piece to facilitate connecting either set to form the actual lance. I’m not sure which is more screen accurate. One looks too big and one looks too small and I don’t think it had a silver center handle in the show. It’s at least made of a sturdy plastic. My Lightning Collection Blue Ranger’s lance always curved when held because the plastic was so soft. There are also some lightning effects for the lance included, which is always appreciated.
That foam gun is certainly something.
For Trini the Yellow Ranger, she has her daggers which also resemble sai. Again, they’re well painted and do what they’re supposed to, and unlike the other weapons so far, the size seems fine. Zack’s power axe also looks great and has a sliding handle so it can be wielded like a pump shotgun. Sizing for it seems fine and it can make use of the blast effects included. Kimberly has her bow (I guess power bow?) which also has a real string affixed to it which is stretchy. She has three arrows as well to wield and the weapon works well enough, though it’s always a challenge to get an action figure to pull off a bow look and she’s no exception. Also included are some optional weapons. For Billy, we get the Anti-Sonic Foam Gun which looks like an old Nerf double ball blaster, but painted blue. There’s a non zero chance that’s what the actual prop was. It has an optional effect part if you want Billy spraying foam on your shelf. I’m not sure that I do. There’s also three Thunder Slingers which are basically handheld slingshots, but made to look like something a Power Ranger would handle. They look great, but this is more stuff I’m likely to just look at once and then put away forever. And if you’re curious, yes, there were five of these in the show, but Mezco only provided three. I think they could also combine with the Blade Blaster, but no such functionality exists here.
This is a well put together piece of plastic.This is a contender for shelf pose.The blast effects probably need some tweaking.The more I look at it, the more I think they should have made this blast one piece.
When the Power Rangers combine their weapons they form the Mega Blaster. Rather than put tabs and holes into the weapons, Mezco just gives you an assembled Mega Blaster. Every component looks every bit as good as the individual weapons because I’m pretty sure its the exact same stuff just stuck together. There are even five effect parts so you can have the gun blasting the bad guys, which are going to have to come from another toy line for now. It’s cool and it at least makes things a little easier and lessens the risk of paint rub and such if we were expected to physically attach the weapons to each other. If I’m being honest with myself though, I kind of miss the fun of assembling the weapon. That’s part of the appeal of Power Rangers for me: combining weapons, combining robots. The blast effects are seemingly colored correctly, but tough to get straight and flimsy. I wonder if it would have worked better as one, big, piece?
For when they want to cosplay as Tommy.“Hey guys, what gives?”
We’re not quite done yet though as we have a few more accessories in the box. Both the Red Ranger and the Black Ranger wore the Dragon Shield at points during the show so Mezco included two Dragon Shields and the armbands that go with them. They’re the same parts as the ones included with the Green Ranger so if you want a trio of armored up Power Rangers on your shelf you can do so. The arm bands are loose enough that you can slide them on without having to pop the gloves off. That also means they won’t fit the smaller female arms, but the shield itself is also way too big for them. Lastly, we have a stand for each figure which features a circular base with their respective Power Coin image printed on it and an articulating, transparent, plastic, armature. This is the standard Mezco stand, and while the base does take up a lot of real estate on a shelf, they do work well. A good stand is something every premium collectible should come with.
And who could forget about the individual stands?
That is a lot of stuff and a lot of words. What have we learned after reading all of this? That these Mezco Power Rangers are as advertised. They capture the look of the American version of the show quite well. The Mezco approach is perfect for this property and this is basically a match made in Heaven. The articulation is pretty good, though the format will always breed some apprehension when it comes to extreme posing, but I think most will be satisfied with what these figures can do. There’s basically nothing left out when it comes to extra stuff. We get the unmasked portraits, 54 individual hands, weapons, blasters, extra weapons, the Mega Blaster, stands, and even some extra Dragon Shields. Oh, and those little baggies Mezco always includes for storing accessories if you decide to ditch the box. There’s nothing missing, as far as I’m concerned. I guess some folks may want individual morphers, but that’s an accessory for plain clothes Power Rangers, if you ask me. There are all kinds of other one-off weapons in the show, but none made an impact with me to the point where I want them included. I guess the Power Crystals might have been cool? Again, I’m reaching here as I would be unlikely to ever do anything with such in my display.
That’s not to say everything is perfect. While I think the proportions for the male rangers are pretty damn spot-on with the American show, there’s no denying that the Yellow Ranger looks off. The shape of the white diamonds on the torso of all of the figures are also off. It might be something where if you play with the suit enough you could smooth those lines out, but it’s certainly a hassle. The scale with the weapons is all over the place and the morphers on the belts are the wrong colors. Depending on your point of view, that’s either a bunch of nitpicking or a bunch of problems for figures that cost $80 a piece.
Blue Ranger helps illustrate the difference in proportions between the two brands.Hasbro Black is definitely better equipped to wield the Power Axe in blaster mode.One has a big head and one has a small head. Too bad we can’t split the difference.If you like the laser arrow, then the Hasbro one has a leg up, but look at those mismatched pinks.The Hasbro Red Ranger is horrible proportioned and the colors are all over the place, but the Mezco Jason definitely has sword envy.What you’ve been waiting for, direct comparisons to the Lightning Collection. These are the originals, not the Remastered editions.
That means the real question is are these figures worth it? There is a part of me that looks at the price tag for this thing and can’t fathom how it could possibly be worth such an investment. Even big time Lego sets are usually in the $300-$350 range. This is beyond even that and when this thing was first announced I don’t think I could have envisioned me picking it up. On the other hand, if these Power Rangers were released individually over a couple of years at $80 a piece would I feel differently? Yes. My brain looks at an $80 Mezco figure of this quality and is able to both realize it’s still a lot to pay for a toy, but it’s not outrageous in this market. Mondo is doing The Real Ghostbusters at $101 a piece spread across probably 2 years, when all is said and done, and I’m in on them. And a Mondo sixth scale X-Men figure sets me back over $200 by itself and I’ll probably buy anywhere between 4 and 6 of those this year alone (if Mondo hits its goals).
No matter how you pose them or what you place in their hands, these are going to look good on your shelf.
This is an expensive hobby. Action figures are not thought of as luxury goods because the term luxury makes people think of limousines and monocles, but that’s what they are because they’re just baubles. Things no one needs that don’t perform a function; they just exist to be admired and fiddled with. They’re not even proper children’s toys which have some nurturing capabilities. Accepting all of that, I can definitively say that, for me, these figures are worth every penny. They’re fantastic for what they are. These are the only Power Rangers I will ever need. I have no use for my Lightning Collection set any longer and I cannot fathom buying another Power Ranger for myself for the rest of my life. These are exactly what I want as they look and feel like 1:12 scale Hot Toys figures. It’s the perfect format for me and for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
There’s no denying how awesome this looks.
And I’m apparently not alone as this set now appears to be sold out everywhere. That doesn’t mean it’s gone, the very popular TMNT set has been reissued already and had a variant set released as well. Maybe Mezco wants to do a variant with the other actor likenesses? Maybe they want to do the movie suits? I don’t know, but Hasbro is more than willing to license the brand out so I wouldn’t rule anything out. And like most companies, Mezco likes money and if they feel the demand is out there then they’ll make more. You just never know with them because their communication is so terrible. If you’re a big fan of the property then I think you should get these and it might even be worth paying over MSRP. If you value each figure at $100 then $500 isn’t much of an overpay, or you can wait it out. And if you get it and completely disagree with what I’ve said here then I bet you’ll have no trouble unloading it at cost. It makes the set almost a risk free proposition. I don’t think that’s going to happen though. Most people who get this, aside from those who may run into quality control issues, are going to be thrilled with what they have.
If you want to check out more Power Ranger and Mezo talk then look no further:
Remember San Diego Comic Con? That event back in July? Well, it turns out people are still waiting on product tied to that event. It’s become such a huge event in the world of collecting that most companies that attend have some sort of event exclusive to either sell or give-away. The action figure producers…
We continue to bang out action figure reviews here in 2023 just in case there’s one that needs to sneak onto a year-end best of 2023 list. Is today’s figure such a contender? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth talking about. Super7 has managed to crank out three waves of Mighty Morphin…
When it comes to the world of more high end action figure collectibles, I’ve been able to get my hands on a few. Some rather prominent companies have yet to cross my path though, and it’s not really for any reason other than they either don’t make what I like or I don’t really like…
Whether you’re a Jiren fan or not, it’s hard to deny that this figure looks pretty cool.
It would seem that FOMO, the fear of missing out, is my primary motivation for purchases in Bandai’s S.H.Figuarts line of Dragon Ball action figures. The last one we looked at was a big one for me in Future Trunks from Dragon Ball Super. That dreaded FOMO was strong enough that it got me to buy a figure I knew was compromised and had no chance of truly satisfying me, but buy it I did. Today’s FOMO purchase was done almost for the opposite reason. Really, it happened only because I initially decided not to get that Trunks figure and put my money towards this one instead. And I am talking about Jiren.
This dude must live in the gym.
Jiren is the big bad guy from the so far final arc of the Dragon Ball Super anime. The series has continued in manga form, but as of right now there’s no real concrete proof the anime will resume. In terms of Dragon Ball bad guys, Jiren isn’t very interesting. The plot of that final arc is that the Gods of the many universes have decided to pit each universe against each other in a battle royale. For the victor, a wish from the Super Dragon Balls which are capable of granting any wish one can think of. For the losers, total annihilation in the form of getting wiped out of existence. It’s not even death, it’s just deletion. As a result, all of the warriors competing against our favorite heroes are just fighting for self preservation. While some are certainly bad guys, most are just like Goku, Gohan, and all the rest in that they just don’t want to be ended.
He’s more bulk than height.
Jiren, for his part, is not a bad guy. He is supremely confident bordering on arrogance, but he’s not the taunting type like Vegeta. Instead, when he determines that no one is worth his time he chooses to sit in a meditative state. It comes off as arrogance from the outside, but whenever he’s challenged he backs it up so it’s not like his arrogance is unearned. Furthermore, as a character design he’s a little boring for an Akira Toriyama character. His defining feature would be that he has a massive upper body and comparatively small legs. His head is almost like that of your garden variety alien just without the massive cranium. He also has those Frieza-like ear holes which show up in many character designs. As a result, he’s really just like a random video game boss from a plot-less arcade brawler. Our hero Goku just needs to get to him and then find a way to overcome him. Jiren isn’t evil, he’s also not exactly heroic, he’s just a guy.
“Don’t make me throw this at you!”
Because of my attitude towards Jiren I’ve never felt much of a pull to add him to my collection. I saw the figures before I ever saw him in the anime and was feeling incredibly underwhelmed by the design. The figures came and went though and they actually seemed to receive high marks from those who bought them. The sculpts, the way the articulation was implemented, and the overall size made them seem like really good action figures. Ordinarily, that’s not enough to get me to buy a figure of a character I’m not attached to, but then I went and got Ultra Instinct Goku and the desire to add a Jiren to pair with the figure manifested. When I felt similarly underwhelmed by Bandai’s 2024 convention exclusives, it was Jiren that I decided to preorder and Jiren alone.
He probably would need a bigger aura than the standard one. Maybe that’s why one wasn’t included?
Jiren comes in the standard event exclusive packaging with a black and red color scheme. This is Jiren as he appeared at the very end of Dragon Ball Super his body hulked up to gargantuan proportions and his uniform in tatters. Like Trunks, this event exclusive version has a new paint job and it’s trying to replicate Jiren’s red aura. His ordinarily pale purple flesh has a blush of pink to it while his black pants also have a shiny, red, hue applied that almost makes him look like he’s candy-coated. His flesh has a matte finish so this high gloss approach is far less distracting on Jiren than it is with Trunks. The only thing I don’t really care for is that his white gloves, once the pearlescent red overcoat is applied, makes them blend in a little too much with his arms. There’s not much contrast there aside from the gloss. The same is true for the boots, but since he’s still wearing pants it doesn’t look as noticeable. All that is to say that I don’t hate this approach and it’s executed well enough, but if I could have the standard paint job I’d probably choose that over it.
He’s destined to battle Goku for as long as both are on my shelf.
The selling point with Jiren is not the paint, but the sculpt. This is a big, beefy, boy. He’s really not extremely tall by SHF standards. He comes in at roughly 6.75″ making him noticeably taller than Goku, but he’s still shorter than a figure like Nappa or Orange Piccolo. What really stands out is just the bulk. Jiren has this huge, puffed-out, chest that really captures the look of the show’s art. If I have one consistent criticism with this line it’s that the chests on most figures aren’t big enough. They’re usually plenty broad, but view the figure from the side and it’s like their pectorals are nonexistent. It’s almost like they just drew their muscles on with a sharpie. Jiren does not suffer from that which makes him an interesting figure to look at and handle. I love chunky figures, and Jiren certainly fits the bill. His arms are massive as well and while his legs look small by comparison, they’re still thicker than Goku’s. I may not love the character design, but it would be hard to argue that Bandai didn’t nail what was presented to them.
Tag! You’re It!
I was pretty disappointed with how the Trunks figure had a bunch of accessories cut. With Jiren, that’s not a problem. He seems to have retained everything from the standard release including all four portraits: neutral, teeth-gritting, yelling, and a closed eyes with teeth gritting. The closed eyes head captures his frustrations when he finds he’s being overpowered late in the fight and also works as an expression for when he’s taking a blow on your shelf. They look good and the only aspect of them I don’t really care for is the thin, white, outline around the eyes. It makes it look like Jiren just has massive pupils, but when I look at stills from the anime it sure looks to me like he’s supposed to just have big, black, eyes. Any other colors are just shading and trying to create the illusion of a somewhat reflective surface.
I was surprised by the double-ball peg wrist joints.
For hands, Jiren has four sets to choose from: fists, clenching, chops, and splayed open. For his left, clenching hand, he also has an effect part. It’s basically a little handheld fireball and it’s made out of translucent orange plastic. There’s an indent for that specific hand which allows his thumb to slot into it so he gets a good grip on it. You don’t need the indentations if you just want to stand him with his palm pointed up holding it, but if you want to pose him like he’s going to throw it then you’ll want to stick it in his left hand. It’s always good to get an effect part, but it is pretty small and not something likely to stand out on your shelf. As was the case with Trunks, what we’re really missing is just an aura effect to pair with this exclusive paint job. A red aura makes too much sense here, but Bandai didn’t want to throw one in. He already cost $75 so I guess I can’t be too upset about the omission as I doubt I would have been willing to pay much more than that for a character I’m lukewarm on.
Looks like you missed, Jiren!
A bulky body presents challenges for anyone looking to cut it up and apply articulation, but it’s something the folks at Tamashii Nations are pretty adept at. Jiren’s torso is certainly cut-up for articulation, but not distressingly so. There’s no gapping at the base of the neck and he gets decent range there. The heads pop off very easily, but at least they go on just as easil, as they use that drum setup we’ve seen with figures like Krillin and Nappa. His shoulders are on big, butterfly, joints and they get okay range come across the chest, but that chest is so big that it can only do so much. It doesn’t go back really at all which is more disappointing than the range going forward. Range at the shoulder otherwise is fine and you get a bicep swivel, double-jointed elbow, and ball peg wrists. The double-ball peg wrist was a surprise as normally they use a ball hinge. It functions well enough, but if you want to get the most range you’ll have to accept a gap between the wrist and hand.
And now Jiren must pay the price for failing to land a blow.
The torso features what I assume is a double ball peg in the diaphragm. It’s mostly for tilt forward and back as there’s really no rotation. You get a little of that at the ball-jointed waist. Between the two, the crunching forward and back is nice and you get just enough rotation to make it work. This hips go out to the side almost to a full split and kick forward 90 degrees. He does have a sculpted ass so there’s nothing going back unless you kick the leg out to the side. The figure has thigh swivels, but mine won’t budge. I don’t know if that’s a common issue or not. It could be caused by the new paint job since it seems like a thick coat which may have required some tiny adjustments to the tooling that weren’t made. Or I just need to hit it with a hair dryer. Double-jointed knees are fine and the ankles are hinged. They didn’t leave enough space for the ankle rocker though so it’s pretty limited. There’s also the customary toe hinge if you want it.
Oh the agony of defeat – better luck next time, bud!
Jiren’s articulation is probably going to be good enough. He’s meant for strong, powerful, poses and he has the capability of pulling off such feats. I wish the diaphragm joint allowed for some rotation. I think their old hinged-ball joint would have made that possible. More so, I’m disappointed in the ankle rockers as he has some pretty small feet relative to his size and not being able to get them flat on a surface in some stances can make keeping the figure upright a challenge. It’s enough though and the combination of sculpt, paint, and articulation makes this a worthwhile release. It wasn’t the re-release I was hoping for, but it’s not one I regret buying. He fits in nicely on my shelf opposite Goku and now I kind of want a proper Dragon Ball Super Frieza to add to the confrontation. It looks like Bandai has taken this listing off of their website as he was available in February as an in-stock item, but that doesn’t mean he sold out. They may be holding back stock for in-person sales at conventions and pop-ups. For that reason, it may not be terribly expensive on the secondary market. If it’s a figure you feel like you need, then I do recommend tracking it down. If it only retails for a small markup then I’d consider it worth it as I don’t think we’re ever going to get another Jiren. What is out there is likely all that ever will be.
For more Dragon Ball Super action figure reviews look no further:
It’s sort of interesting to me that the first Dragon Ball action figure I review after the passing of creator Akira Toriyama is one based off of the artwork of his protege – Toyotarou. Toyotarou basically lived the dream of fanfic artist and writer turned official. It’s rumored that he worked on the fan-fic manga…
Our last look at an S.H.Figuarts release was the Dragon Ball GT Super Saiyan 4 Goku. Now, we look at a figure from the series that effectively replaced GT: Dragon Ball Super. And perhaps the most popular villain from that new series is Goku Black. Without getting into spoiler territory, Goku Black is basically an…
When Akira Toriyama set out to draft the plot for Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero his original goal for the film was to take a favorite character of his and give him an upgrade. That character was Piccolo who had basically been left behind by the likes of Goku and Vegeta way back at the…
Trunks is back from the future and needs help cleaning up yet another mess.
When looking back on the anime adaptation of Dragon Ball Super, I think my favorite arc is the Future Trunks/Goku Black one. It does get messy at times, and like most things Dragon Ball it goes on longer than it needed to, but it had some real, emotional, stakes which isn’t often found in Dragon Ball. The time travel stuff is always a ton of fun and Dragon Ball has its own spin on how time travel works with new wrinkles introduced in Super. And it marked the return of fan-favorite character Trunks, the boy from the future. The future version of Trunks is much different from the younger one in the main timeline. That Trunks has had a relatively carefree life (though he technically did die once) whereas the future counterpart has only known hardship. And he’s basically just another son seeking his father’s approval, but he just so happens to be the son of Vegeta, not the sort of touchy feely dad. The saga provided some closure there, and unlike the Cell arc from Dragon Ball Z, Trunks got to be the hero of his own story as opposed to sitting on the sidelines waiting for someone else to take down the big, bad, guy. Though he still needed an assist from God.
I liked this version of Trunks so much that I even got the Dragon Stars version. It’s the only Dragon Stars figure in my collection to this day.
It was years ago that Bandai and Tamashii Nations released the Super version of Future Trunks in the S.H.Figuarts line. 2018, to be exact, and at a time when I wasn’t collecting this line like I am now. Even so, I considered getting it, but it seemed pretty pricey to me at the time. I had not yet been conditioned to the SHF pricing model (some would say that’s a good thing) and I decided not to get it. As you can probably guess based on where this has lead, I ended up regretting that decision. The figure is even more expensive now on the secondary market as it has never been re-released. And perhaps worse, the secondary market can be tricky to navigate when it comes to a figure as old as that one because bootlegs are a real problem. And since it’s an older figure, it’s also a bit dated and spending the extra coin in today’s dollars might just leave me with a serious case of buyer’s remorse. No, instead I’ve opted to bide my time in hopes that Bandai would return to Trunks. He is, after all, a fan-favorite and probably a safe bet to sell well. It’s just a question of whether or not the Super version is as popular as the one from DBZ.
The height is okay, but damn is Trunks tiny next to Goku and Vegeta.
2024 ended up being the year where my patience paid off. Maybe. Future Trunks was announced as a convention exclusive, but like most exclusives, it meant he was going to be a variant of the original release. To be specific, this is considered the Gallick Gun edition. Trunks has adopted one of his father’s signature moves and with it comes a purple aura. To achieve this effect, Bandai gave Trunks a coat of pearlescent paint with a purple hue to it. They also went with the translucent Super Saiyan hair which they’re rather fond of when it comes to convention exclusives. I didn’t love the look, but it wasn’t going to be a deal breaker. What bothered me more than the new deco is the cut in the accessory load-out. Gone is the standard Trunks head even though he can certainly perform the maneuver when not in his Super Saiyan form. Worse though, is the removal of the Hope Sword. In the anime (spoilers if you have yet to watch it), Trunks has his sword break while battling his foe. When all hope seems lost, Trunks basically creates a Spirit Bomb out of his broken sword. The effect part was this big, translucent, blue, sword that I think even necessitated its own stand. It was pretty awesome in the show and seeing it in figure form was a huge draw to that original figure for me. Having that get cut, plus an MSRP of $75 for this new version, really soured me on it.
And he’s even tiny next to…Trunks!
So I didn’t get it. What? But this is a review for that figure, you’re probably saying to yourself as you read this. Yes, obviously, I changed my mind. The regret of passing on that original figure was pretty hard to get over and still is. I didn’t preorder this figure, but unlike in past years Bandai apparently made more than what was ordered. Future Trunks was stocked after the fact on their webstore along with some other exclusives, and to make it even more enticing, Premium Bandai ran a free shipping promotion on its website for a week. And damnit, they got me. They got me for the Vegeta we looked at last week, they got me for the Trunks we’re looking at this week, and damn near got me on the Mini Goku, but I figured I was already giving them enough of my money. Now that I have paid for this figure, it’s time to sort out some feelings.
The paint job here is trying to sell the idea of an aura around him. Problem is, I don’t have the right color or know if they even make one in the proper shade.
Future Trunks comes in the event exclusive style box which, in this case, goes for a black and pink color combo. I’m surprised they didn’t go with more of a purple considering the theming, but whatever. It’s just trash to protect the figure inside. Trunks is, as advertised, in his Super Saiyan form and stands approximately 5.25″ to where I assume the top of his head would be with his hair extending far beyond that. Out of the box, he won’t have his scabbard across his back and to put that on you will have to remove his head. It’s not really one of those SHF heads that’s designed to come off and go back on easily and the spiky nature of his hair doesn’t help things. I went ahead and dunked him him in some hot water to make it easier. You will also likely need to remove the scarf piece that’s around his neck which tabs into the chest. The scabbard can then slide over an arm easily enough and there’s an extra tab hole behind the right shoulder to secure it in place, though it isn’t really necessary.
The Gallick Gun pose – it’s kind of goofy, but it’s what Bandai chose to hone in on with this edition.
It should be stated that this version of Super Saiyan Trunks is what some fans have dubbed Super Saiyan Rage. Trunks, during his battle with Black, taps into another fountain of power through sheer rage. His hair sticks up higher and becomes even spikier than usual similar to his Ultra Super Saiyan form from Dragon Ball Z, only this time it comes without much added bulk. His eyes do white out and his yellow aura develops a blue core which seemed to signify to the viewer that this was similar to Goku and Vegeta’s Super Saiyan Blue. It’s also seemingly just as powerful as he’s able to go toe-to-toe with Black in this form. It is an anime only thing, so who knows if Toriyama considered it canon, but Gohan’s Beast form sort of follows in its footsteps as a form that’s unique to half-saiyans.
We have a few charging effects in this line, but we’re really lacking in the beam department.
Bandai got the hair right, but not much else when it comes to the look. The outfit is all there and fairly accurate. Trunks has a more traditional jacket than the half one he used to sport and his pants are pretty much the same as they’ve always been. The figure though is just very slight. Put the new Vegeta next to him and they look like they’re two different scales. The height is okay, but the face, the arms, the torso – they’re all narrow and thin which isn’t something I see much in Dragon Ball. Place him beside the somewhat recent Future Trunks from the DBZ line, and it’s even more stark. That figure looks like it’s the more mature fighter, not this one who should be much older. Some of that is likely due to the jacket being all part of the sculpt. There isn’t a body underneath an overlay. It makes for a clean presentation, especially compared with the somewhat janky recent Future Trunks, but it definitely slims the profile. In order for Trunks to exist under this jacket, he’d have to be around 100lbs. He would be a very small man, which is not befitting the character from the show.
He’s still carrying that old blade. Well, actually, it must be a different one since he’s broken them before.
Aside from that issue, and it’s a rather big one, Trunks looks okay. The portraits have been given some enhancements and they’re nice and crisp. The paint on the body is clean and this new finish seems to achieve what it’s going for, whether I subjectively like it or not. The translucent hair is still kind of a sore subject for me. That might be going too far, but I don’t prefer it to painted hair. I think the best would be to go with a pale yellow and then a shiny coat of paint over it. The hair is coated like the rest of the figure so it has a shiny quality to it. I know it’s supposed to be the result of an aura, but it mostly reminds me of soap bubbles and the colors that dance around on their surface. It is what it is and I don’t hate it, it’s just not an improvement over what we had before. And since he doesn’t come with an aura effect to go with it, it does feel incomplete to me.
Silly boy, you can’t stop a god with a knife!
I’ve already mentioned how accessories were cut for this re-release, so just what was maintained? Well, for starters we get four portraits: smirk, teeth-gritting, yelling, and yelling with a side eye. They’re fine, but what’s missing is just a stoic, or grim, expression which is the expression I think of first when it comes to Future Trunks. I don’t think we really need the smirk, to be honest. And it would have been awesome if one of the yelling heads had whited-out eyes. For hands, we get a set of fists, gripping, splayed open, clenching, and one left, relaxed hand. I think the relaxed hand is here for him to hold his scabbard, though I don’t know for sure since it’s not in any of the pictures. The right, clenching, hand also has a hole in it and it’s for the effect part which is a little, translucent, purple, energy ball. It comes on an acrylic post that’s maybe a third of an inch long and it pegs into the hand via a ball socket. This is for his Gallick Gun charging pose which is one awkward pose. I guess Vegeta couldn’t have a Kamehameha stance so he does this thing where his palms are always pointing out as he charges the maneuver with his hands together. It’s achievable, but weird looking. Maybe that’s why he pretty much stopped doing it in favor of other attacks?
I warned you.
Lastly, Trunks has his trusty sword. We get two versions: regular and broken. The broken one serves a narrative purpose, but also it’s easier to slot into the scabbard. The hilt is painted green while the blade and pommel are silver, but like the figure itself, there’s a hit of pink on the blade so it matches the whole aura theme they’re going for. And like the DBZ counterpart, the pommel comes off so the sword can slide into the gripping hands. It only goes on one way, which is a bit annoying when you’re fiddling with such a tiny thing, but the figure gets a very tight grip on the handle. Almost too tight as it takes some elbow grease to get it out of his hands once there.
Everybody talks about the Father-Son Kamehameha, but what about the Father-Son Gallick Gun?
One area with this figure I have little to complain about is the articulation. Since the figure doesn’t utilize an overlay for the coat, all of the articulation is cut right into the figure and since the scabbard is secured via a sling, it doesn’t fall off constantly. The head is on a hinged ball peg, which I hate, but it does function fine. The scarf will limit his range though, and while it is removable, it leaves behind a giant hole in his chest so that’s not really a viable solution. Shoulders, biceps, elbows, and wrists are all standard stuff. The figure does have butterfly joints in the shoulders and they work well enough coming forward, but offer nothing going back. There’s a joint in the mid-torso that pivots a bit side-to-side and allows for some forward and back. A waist joint is where you’ll get most of your rotation and he can crunch forward and back thanks to it and the hips. Since this is an older release, he doesn’t have those annoying, sculpted, butt cheeks. Mai may be disappointed, but it allows for full splits going forward and back. Out to the side, you get about 45 degrees. If you can find a way to get the caps in his hips to slip over or under the thigh swivel then you may get more, but it’s hard plastic and not very forgiving. Beyond the hips, Trunks kicks forward well and the thigh swivel affords some pivot. The knees and ankle hinges are fine while the rocker is limited. There’s also a toe hinge if you want it.
How I imagine it would look to be in the presence of the Father-Son Gallick Gun.
I don’t want to overstate the articulation here. It’s not elite or anything by the standards of the line, but it’s functionally sufficient. Trunks can hit all of the Trunks poses well enough. He can hit his downward swing, jab, or have his hand on the handle while the blade is in the scabbard. It will work, and what holds the figure back is not the articulation, it’s almost everything else. The paint job is executed well enough. It’s something you either like or you don’t. The sculpt is dated and not true to the character. He may look off when posed with the new Vegeta, but that Vegeta sculpt is actually just as old. His proportions were never right and this is a version of the character begging for a redo just like the DBZ version received. The reason to get this figure is if you really like the character and feel better paying $75 for it as opposed to the $120 or so you’re likely to pay for a secondhand version of the old figure. That figure will have more stuff and a more true-to-the anime paint job, but will have all of the same problems as this one plus the older face printing. And if you’re thinking of using the updated face plates with the old figure, it’s probably not going to work. The flesh tone here has a purple hue to it. It may not be apparent when looking at the figure by itself, but place it beside another character and it stands out. He’d basically look like poisoned Trunks if you tried to mix and match.
He’s still Trunks and he’s still cool, but he could be so much better.
Am I content with my purchase? I still don’t know. This is an obvious compromise for my collection. It’s a character I want in my display, but not the version of the character I would like. If I could get the older version for a hundred bucks or less then I would not have bothered. Both are compromised takes on the character, but the original less so. And that Hope Sword is pretty damn cool. If you have that old figure and decide to get this one too then you could probably use the depowered head on the new body. The necks won’t match, but the scarf will hide it if you want. The only reason to do that though is if you really like Future Trunks. This version is okay, but not what I want. I would have much preferred they just give him a blueish hue and make him Hope Sword Future Trunks. At the very least, he should have his own aura to go with the Gallick Gun. A Hope Sword Trunks could have created his unique yellow and blue aura and would have looked way cooler. Plus such a display would lend itself well to being off on its own in a different part of your collection making the size issues less of a concern. Oh well. If you’re like me and really regret passing on the Super version of Future Trunks, I guess you may as well grab this one if you’re okay with the price. Once it’s gone though (and it’s no longer being offered on their website, but it may be making the convention and pop-up store rounds) I wouldn’t entertain paying so much as a dime more than MSRP. Hopefully, something better for Future Trunks is in our future.
If you like Trunks or are just really into Dragon Ball Super then you may like checking out these reviews:
In the waning days of Toys ‘R Us, I found myself at one of the nearby stores in need of something. What that something was, I don’t recall, but since everything was hitting clearance I had a look around the store. TRU had started carrying the Bandai/Tamashii Nations S.H.Figuarts line of action figures which, at…
The most captivating character in all of Dragon Ball Z for me back in the 90s was unquestionably Trunks. The offspring of Bulma and Vegeta who traveled back in time to warn the heroes of the day about impending doom on the horizon was unique for many reasons. For one, he actually looks like a…
My isn’t that title a mouthful? This version of the classic character Goku comes to you from Bandai via New York Comic Con. If I were to simplify that title, I’d call it shiny Super Saiyan Blue Kaio-Ken Goku, which is still pretty wordy. I guess blame Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama for the obsession…
I guess we’re making the first week of March Vegeta Week here on The Nostalgia Spot, and why not? He is royalty, after all. This one should be a short one since we’ve looked at this figure before. Multiple times. Bandai has been able to extract a lot of value out of their Super Saiyan Vegeta mold which I believe was an early 2.0 body for the S.H.Figuarts line. It was also the first figure in the line I got way back in 2018. It’s funny to look back on how smitten I was with that figure and now I look at it and seem to only notice the flaws. What has at least held up over the years is the overall look of the sculpt, which is good since Bandai hasn’t really changed it. It’s not perfect, but obviously good enough for me to keep buying it. I now have four versions of this figure, plus two more that also share some parts. For awhile, I had just one Vegeta figure and now there are many, but since he is Saiyan royalty I guess that’s fitting.
Goku could use a similar upgrade.
Much more recently, Bandai reissued it’s Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan Vegeta for the line’s 15th anniversary. That figure was one I had been hoping would see a revision because I had missed it back when it first came out and I have come to really enjoy the look of Super Saiyan Blue. I was, however, disappointed with the reissue because there were no updates to the original figure. In more recent times, Bandai has reissued figures aplenty, but always with improved face-printing. They didn’t do that for their special 15th anniversary figure and the result was a figure that looked dated. Fast-forward a few months after release, and we find out that another Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta is on the way and this one was ticketed to be part of the budget-friendly $35 subline. These are the figures shipped to brick and mortar stores that typically are of the most popular characters and are designed as an entry point for newcomers. Even though the price was far better than a lot of new figures in the line, I was still annoyed by the release since I had just spent good money on a lesser version. I got over it though, and when the Premium Bandai website was offering a free shipping promotion in February I decided to just grab this new Vegeta to seemingly right the prior wrong.
I have no shortage of Vegetas.
Dubbed Unwavering Saiyan Pride, this Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta is indeed very familiar. The body is exactly the same as the previous release, but the deco has been refined. The original was white and brown on the armor with a shade of blue for the bodysuit that bordered on purple. It’s a similar color to the manga. The re-release from a few years ago (which I didn’t bother to review) saw the blue altered to a more royal blue with the straps and plating on the armor lightened to a shade of tan. The white portions of the suit are a more off-white. This new Vegeta keeps the off-white while pairing it with a dull shade of yellow-brown that basically sits in between the prior two figures. The bodysuit is a new shade of blue with a touch more yellow. It reminds me of the ocean in the Caribbean giving it an almost warm feeling as opposed to the usual coldness blue imparts.
The faces on this one are so good.
This updated shade is likely here to play off of the new head sculpt. As far as I know, this portrait is entirely new. The shape of the hair is different from all of the other Vegeta figures I own. It fans out more which does seem to match his depiction in Dragon Ball Super – maybe we should think of this as a Toyotarou version? The hair is a light blue with a pearl finish. Like the body, there’s a touch more yellow making it lighter than the previous Super Saiyan Blue figure. It does help to give off the illusion of a radiating Vegeta and this figure would pair well with an aura effect.
He’s got the hands for a classic Vegeta stance, but those hips won’t let him go much lower.This pose makes me wish he had an effect part, but for 35 bucks one isn’t expected.
I like the overall approach by Tamashii Nations here, but the execution is a little suspect. I suppose it should be expected at the lower price point, but there’s no reason to skimp on quality either. After all, it’s the same company on the box no matter the price. Paint is a little sloppy in places and most noticeably around the neckline. The blue is fuzzy and my figure has a blob of brown on the back of the neck which I guess is from the armor straps. The edgework around the armor isn’t as clean as it could be, and like the recently reviewed Old Style Battle Clothes Vegeta, some of the steel in the right elbow joint is visible suggesting it was slightly misaligned during assembly. More annoying though is the miscolored parts as the crotch piece is a darker blue from the rest of the legs. I think this is caused by the crotch being a slightly harder plastic and the legs having a little bit of a wash applied to them. I don’t know how well it shows in pictures, but in-hand and under normal lighting conditions it’s pretty noticeable.
Maybe my least favorite expression of the bunch, but it still gets the job done.
What did turn out well though are the portraits. These are Bandai’s best Vegeta expressions yet and they alone are worth the upgrade. We get four expressions this time: stoic, yelling, teeth showing, and a smirk. Maye instead of stoic I should call this Vegeta Resting Bitch Face because he looks kind of pissed. He looks really ticked off with the teeth-gritting expression and the smirk is the perfect, cocky, Vegeta we all know and love. I love all three, while the yelling one is a bit more specific. It’s also longer as a result and looks a touch off to me, but not terribly so. The rest of the accessories are the same old, same old: fists, clenching hands, martial arts pose hands, open hands, and a right thumb gesture. He also has the old style crossed-arms piece that connects at the biceps. I didn’t bother to try it out this time because I already have it on two of my Vegeta figures, three including the Namek Vegeta.
“Step aside, boy, I’ll handle the rest.”
Articulation is exactly the same as the past Vegeta figures. The new head doesn’t function any better or worse and they’re still sticking with that annoying hinged ball peg for the neck. The hips are the most restrictive part of the figure while the hinged joint in the mid-torso feels welcomed after handling the last two Vegeta figures that lacked it. It’s mostly fine, but showing its age here. We could use a Vegeta with better butterfly joints as well as better hips. The ball peg ankles also need to be fired into the sun.
Kick that imposter’s ass, Vegeta!
Is this a figure that’s worth $35? Absolutely. It’s not perfect and some aspects of it are dated, but compared to other brands at this or a similar price and it’s still damn impressive. It gets right what it needs to and that’s the color pallet and the expressions. This is probably the best Vegeta figure yet unless you really like Super Saiyan 4. I prefer a more traditional Vegeta and while Super Saiyan Blue might not be anyone’s idea of traditional, I do think the guy looks good in blue so if I had to get rid of all of my Vegeta figures but one this would be the one to keep. I do think we could do with an update and hopefully Bandai is willing to go beyond the anime and give us Vegeta figures from later in Super. Those would present an opportunity for something new. They also haven’t done his maxed out blue from the end of the anime. Perhaps an ascended Super Saiyan Vegeta on a new body could be in the cards? That would lend itself well to redos. We’re also getting a new base form Vegeta via the Dragon Ball Daima line this year and I’m interested in checking that out. For now though, I’m happy with this Vegeta and glad I didn’t pass on it. Even if I now have a small army of Vegetas.
When a toy line is as long in the tooth as Bandai’s S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z line, producers tend to start looking in all of the various crevices of the property for new material. We recently looked at a figure that did just that in Mecha Frieza, a version of the chief villain of the…
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Bandai/Tamashii Nations action figure line, S.H.Figuarts, Bandai turned to the fans. There was a large roster of releases eligible for re-release to mark the occasion, and anyone who wanted to could cast a vote for their five favorites. The winner was, not surprisingly, Vegeta. And in particular, it…
We’re back with another action figure review from everyone’s favorite version of Dragon Ball: Dragon Ball GT! And really, the only thing people remember from Dragon Ball GT is the Super Saiyan 4 transformation. Designed to bring the Saiyans back to their more primal roots, the Super Saiyan 4 transformation is pretty much on an…
Vegeta is a character who has had a few looks throughout his time in Dragon Ball Z. Almost all of those looks are some variation on his Saiyan armor from his debut with minor tweaks and modifications. Since Vegeta has become one of the most popular characters from the long-running manga/anime, most of those looks have made it into plastic. At this point, it’s easier to pick out the few looks that haven’t received representation in the Bandai and Tamashii Nations action figure line S.H.Figuarts. Despite Vegeta’s popularity, his most recent figures have seen him locked behind the Premium Bandai delivery method. This is essentially a made-to-order process that comes in at a higher price than a general release item. For example, there’s currently a Vegeta hitting Target stores and other vendors for $35 since it’s mostly a reissue with updated deco. This Vegeta, despite also being mostly reuse of the prior Premium Bandai release, was marked at $60, but if you have always wanted to have Vegeta in his Frieza Saga look then you had to swallow your pride and pay the piper.
Did we need two different Namek Vegetas? Yes, of course.
The Old Style Battle Clothes Vegeta is what the fandom commonly referred to as Namek Vegeta back in the day. Even though he featured two distinct looks, the first one was so similar to his appearance in the Saiyan Saga that this is the look that ended up standing out. And it’s not drastically different from the former. It’s basically Vegeta in a black bodysuit with torso armor that looks largely the same as the previous armor just minus the giant shoulder pads. When Vegeta outfits Gohan and Krillin with battle suits he’s asked why his is different and he says it’s an older model and was apparently all that was available in his size on Frieza’s ship. As a look, it’s a little less dramatic and a little more subtle than what he had before. It does differentiate him from the rest of the bad guys in this era of the show and maybe that was the true point, or creator Akira Toriyama was just sick of having to draw those shoulder pads. It’s also a little bit of a preview of the look he’d feature in the Android Saga which basically just adds straps to the shoulder area and goes back to a more royal blue for the body suit.
The extra battle damage parts are the big draw here, I suppose.
I’m a bit of a Vegeta sicko so I was interested in adding this look to my collection. I was also curious how Bandai would integrate the battle damage into it as well which they showed off in the solicitation images. I was slightly hesitant though because I was a bit underwhelmed by the last Vegeta released via this method: Vegeta 24,000 Power Level. That one wasn’t a disaster, but it had some obvious flaws that ultimately frustrated me. This figure is built off of the same foundation and it was apparent even in the glamour shots. That’s not automatically a bad thing, but when the base of the figure is one that disappointed then it becomes more of a concern.
“Give me the Dragon Balls or die!”
Vegeta stands at about 5″ to where his head most likely would end and close to 6 1/8″ to the tip of his hair. I didn’t go back and check to see what I wrote for measurements on the 24k Vegeta, but they’re the same size. And as expected, there’s a lot of shared parts between the two, but not as much as I thought which might actually be a bad thing. What’s shared are the arms, neck, and everything below the waist. What’s not is the torso, which is expected since we’re talking a different sculpt with the need to integrate some new functionality. What also isn’t shared are the heads. The hair shape on the new Vegeta is a bit more narrow, the black has more of a satin finish, and as a result the faces are different. It’s a slightly frustrating choice because it means the faces aren’t interchangeable between the two. That would have been something fun to make use of, but we’ve been denied.
“Please, Kakarot, don’t let me be remembered like that idiot Yamcha!”
The look of the figure is something of a mixed bag. Even though I wish the heads were the same for some shared functionality, I’m not disappointed in how the Prince of all Saiyans looks from the neck up. The portraits are exquisite and I like this new finish on the hair. The torso is less flat looking than it was on the previous release, but the diaphragm cut still needs some work. I don’t want it gone, but it’s not particularly elegant. The neck is still a problem as there’s almost always a gap between the base of it and the torso. It needed to be larger and have a flange at the base that closes up those gaps. It’s a real bummer because the figure can’t look up using the head alone, but we’ll get more into that with the articulation. The armor is a nice white this time, which I prefer to the off-white of the 24k Vegeta. The body suit is navy as opposed to black which perhaps comes from Toriyama’s notes, but in the anime it’s clearly black. I would have preferred black, but I’m not particularly bothered by it. The shoulders though look awkward. They don’t seat into the torso very well, probably because they were designed for a figure with giant shoulder pads to work around. You can shove the shoulders deeper into the apparatus inside which is the better silhouette, but Vegeta loses his ability to place his arms at his side. If you pull them out slightly for better range, they look bulbous and disconnected from the body. I feel like they could have done a better job here as this just isn’t their best work.
“Oh Vegeta, you never fail to amuse me.”
And to add to that sentiment, we have minor QC issues on this one. The right ball hinge isn’t seated all the way into the wrist and protrudes more than usual. I’ll have to see if I can heat it up and force it in. The left elbow also has some of the steel joint inside visible as if the joint was misaligned slightly during assembly. It’s not a major eyesore, but it is uncharacteristic of this line. If you’re curious, this one was manufactured in the Vietnam factory which has had some great figures come out of it, as well as some that were of a noticeably lesser quality.
“I wish I was a Super Saiyan!”
Paint on Vegeta is, as expected, pretty minimal. It’s mostly limited to the face, the visible part of the torso around the neck, and the battle damaged parts. The paint on the torso doesn’t match the plastic used for the neck and face which is disappointing. The painted battle damaged parts look nice though and there the flesh matches much better, though it’s also aided by the distance between the abdomen and neck. We might as well talk about the parts now, but you have an optional chest piece, abdomen, upper back, and lower back. These pop off pretty easily and are a hard plastic. Vegeta was blasted through the abs by Krillin and the resulting damage is captured well. You have the brown panels, the exposed flesh, and the tattered remains of the bodysuit all sculpted and painted. They look great, no complaints here, though it does add to the gappy nature of the diaphragm joint since the upper part of the chest is a smaller piece than the default one.
“Are you crying?!” “How dare you call yourself the Prince of all Saiyans!”
In addition to the extra armor bits, we get the standard array of Vegeta hands: fists, clenching, open, and Big Bang Attack hands. For portraits, we get five different ones: neutral, shouting, teeth-gritting, sleeping, and weeping. These expressions are how the figure really sets it apart from other Vegeta figures and captures a moment in the series. The sleeping portrait is amusing as he does take a nap in the show which allows Gohan, Krillin, and Dende to sneak off with the Dragon Balls (it’s maybe Toriyama’s laziest solution to a problem) and make their wishes. The teeth-gritting face features terrific details with painted lines and beads of sweat. This is basically Vegeta realizing he’s screwed as he tries to take on Frieza. The weeping head is basically from the moment he accepts that he’s failed and the result of his pride being damaged beyond repair. It’s not from when he’s pleading with Goku to defeat Frieza, though you could probably use it as such if you really wanted to. They’re all very well detailed and I continue to be impressed with the expressions on these latest figures in the line though I’m surprised we didn’t get a cocky portrait from when he was boasting about being a Super Saiyan to Frieza. Again, if he could just share portraits with the prior release this wouldn’t be an issue. The final accessory is old reliable: the crossed arms piece. It’s the same as the 24k Vegeta’s crossed arms piece that separates in the middle and connects at the shoulder, it’s just color-matched for the new bodysuit.
“Gah! Bulma!”
Vegeta’s articulation is pretty much the same as the 24K Vegeta with all of the same pluses and minuses. I already mentioned the limited articulation at the head which is intended to be moved with the neck, but it’s gappy. Same for the torso joint which mostly rotates and is pretty limited going back and forth. The butterfly joint features poor range while the rest of the joints in the arms function as expected. The waist is basically just a pivot point as it doesn’t bend forward and back much at all, nor does it tilt to the side. The hips are able to kick forward just fine, back a little, but suck going out to the side for no real reason. The thigh twists and knees are fine while the ankles are on double ball pegs and don’t work very well. You also get a toe hinge which is fine.
There’s no sugar-coating that this is one of lesser releases in this line when it comes to articulation. It’s one thing for a NECA or a Super7 figure to not articulate all that well because those companies tend to be more aesthetic-focused. Tamashii Nations is all about the P.O.A. and it’s disappointing that they didn’t rework the 24k Vegeta more to make this Vegeta a better experience. These ball-peg ankles have got to go. They finally ditched them on Goku with the Legendary Super Saiyan release and it’s time for them to do the same with Vegeta. This torso also needs to be retired because the diaphragm joint is just bad. They stopped doing the hinged joint in the torso awhile ago, but it would have helped here.
And now it’s time for Vegeta to take a little nap.
Are the problems with the articulation going to matter much in the end? Yes, but maybe not as much as they would normally. If you’re buying this Vegeta it’s because of the very specific look. Bandai did a decent job there by providing the extra parts to capture the battle damaged look Vegeta had when he took on Frieza in his final form. There’s a good amount of portraits and the hands are as expected. The crossed arms piece is going to come with basically every Vegeta and at least it’s the newer version. The only things missing that could have added to the package would have been a new tail for Frieza Fourth Form designed to hold Vegeta in place since it’s a memorable portion of their fight. And then it also would have been nice to get an effect part which is something I wish came with every release. And since we’re paying a “premium” for a Premium Bandai figure, why not start including stands with those releases? A lot of these releases feel a little short when it comes to the value component and something as simple as a generic Tamashii Nations stand would help.
Since this is indeed a Premium Bandai release, the only way to get this Vegeta now is on the secondary market. Some e-tailers like Big Bad Toy Store might stock it, but since they have to pay MSRP like the rest of us it’s going to come at an inflated price. And with these things, it’s hard to know if the price will rise or fall on the secondary market. Bandai did just put Cooler back up for preorder so they have created the precedent that these aren’t just one and done. There’s always the possibility of a recolored edition for a convention exclusive as well, maybe in black? At $60, this Vegeta is already a hard sell. It’s relying entirely on one’s fondness for this specific look. I really can’t recommend anyone extend themself beyond that MSRP for this one as it’s just not good enough.
The Frieza Saga of Dragon Ball Z has been well-represented in action figure form:
Frieza is the villain from Dragon Ball who just refuses to die. His initial battle with the heroes of Dragon Ball Z spans a whopping 30 episodes! Thank goodness that DBZ was a weekday show or else it would have taken more than half a year to see Frieza get taken down. And that’s just…
I can remember a time in my life when I was just dying to see Goku, the hero of Dragon Ball Z, become that which was prophesized: a Super Saiyan! The seed for such a transformation wasn’t planted very early in the show and really only started being mentioned as the original version of the…
When a toy line is as long in the tooth as Bandai’s S.H.Figuarts Dragon Ball Z line, producers tend to start looking in all of the various crevices of the property for new material. We recently looked at a figure that did just that in Mecha Frieza, a version of the chief villain of the…
The Nostalgia Spot 