The Nostalgia Spot

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 of the world all go about distributing those in different ways. Some companies strictly sell product at the event on a first come first serve basis. Others like to make the product available online too for non-attendees. Some setup preorders that ship after the event while others open preorders for a future production run. In short, the whole concept of an “exclusive” is barely hanging on, but no one cares because if a company has a neat figure ticketed for the show then most would like to be able to buy it without going to San Diego.

For Mezco, one of their exclusives this year was the Green Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Mezco opted to sell the figure at the event and also allow fans to preorder one before the event which would ship once the event was concluded. NECA did the same thing and I got their set several weeks back. Mezco took their sweet time though and even though the event ended nearly two months ago, I’m just now getting my Green Ranger I paid for back in June. And that was after it sat in “label created” purgatory for a month in the FedEx app. Speed is clearly not Mezco’s strong suit. This figure, after all, was first unveiled more than 2 years ago. At least with this one Mezco didn’t put it up for preorder and take everyone’s money back in 2021, lord knows it was a long wait for Batman. Making the most popular Power Ranger a convention exclusive though was surprising, but maybe Hasbro limited the distribution. Either way, the figure is out and in people’s hands now and I’m here to tell you if it was worth the wait.

My experience with Mezco is very limited which I detailed in my Batman ’89 review not that long ago. In short, most Mezco figures don’t appeal to me. Their bread and butter is soft goods clothing and most of my interests are taken from animation or comics and soft goods on most superhero bodies just look frumpy and bad, to me. I wouldn’t pay 10 bucks for most Mezco figures, let alone the $95 and up many go for. Where Mezco’s strength lies with me is in live action properties. I got the Batman figure because it was based on a live-action movie and I wanted a figure that looked like it stepped off of the big screen, but at a smaller scale than what Hot Toys provides. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fits that aesthetic very well. Plus, it gets to compete with other versions of the characters released in just plastic. It’s apparently quite challenging to get these simple designs to translate well to plastic making the soft goods approach very intriguing. When Mezco first showed off its render of the Green Ranger, I knew I wanted it because it looked almost perfect. I’m basically a casual fan of MMPR, but I’ll grab a Green Ranger when it’s interesting or otherwise just looks good and I can be happy with just that. Mezco’s offering figured to be the most expensive Green Ranger I’d ever get, but it also looked like a safe bet to be the best.

The Green Ranger comes in the standard One:12 Collective box with insert tray inside. There’s some artwork on the front of the character which is repeated on the back. There are no product shots and no window, but since it was sold only at a convention where one was on display or online I guess it doesn’t matter. The figure comes covered with bits of plastic to protect the paint and soft goods, but isn’t otherwise held down by anything in the tray which is nice. Once placed on a surface, the figure cuts a pretty nice profile, though Mezco clearly took some liberties with the design. The figure is a little bulkier than the actors who played the character on television as well as taller. I mentioned this in my Batman review, but I find it amusing that an action figure line that lists the scale right in the name seems to play fast and loose when it comes to scale. Jason David Frank (R.I.P.), who played Tommy the Green Ranger in the American broadcast, was only 5’11” but this figure is about 6.5″ making it half an inch too tall. And if you’re thinking maybe Mezco was trying to match the height of the Japanese broadcast, that actor was actually a touch shorter. The scale isn’t really a huge concern for me as this is a one-off in my collection, but it might bother some.

The figure itself is quite impressive in hand. The helmet looks to be pretty spot on to the show, including sculpted seams and belt buckles on the rear. The helmet is a very saturated shade of green with a bit of a matte finish. Some may have preferred a glossy finish, but I really like how this turned out. There’s plenty of gloss on the visor and the painted details like the red diamond and silver dragon teeth are cleanly applied. The only detail it appears to lack are the nostrils for the dragon portion. The Dragon Shield is modeled after the Japanese costume and is painted gold with a slight pearl finish to give it that shine it had on television. The black is cleanly applied in the center and the arm bands match the finish of the shield. The Power Morpher is glued down to the belt and has all of the right details in place. The paint there is terrific, as is the black linework on the belt itself.

The soft goods costume is stretchy and feels almost like a nylon material. The texture is a bit off from the show, but that’s going to happen at this scale. It also lacks that silk-like shine the material in the show had, but that would have likely been quite hard to duplicate and on a shelf this is going to look pretty damn good. You do have to accept that there are going to be seams in the costume, but most can be posed away. Where the suit is sewn shut on the rear of the figure’s torso is a bit ugly, but it’s also on the back and should be out of sight. The only real nitpick I have for the appearance is that the green triangles on the gloves and boots don’t quite fill the area carved out for the paint. Aside from that though, the presentation is terrific right down to the zipper placement on the gloves and boots. The white diamonds are present on the shirt portion and they’re printed on. The shield is removable (I have yet to remove mine as it looks like a pain to get back on) as well should you wish to display your Green Ranger without it. The arm bands are floating, but in order to remove them you would likely need to remove the entire glove first and I don’t know if they’re designed to come off.

This figure comes loaded with accessories, many of which will feel familiar to those who purchased the Super7 Green Ranger. I suppose that’s because there aren’t a whole lot of obvious accessories for a Green Ranger figure, so companies end up doing the same thing. We do get a non-helmeted head featuring the likeness of the late Jason David Frank from his first appearance on the show when he had long hair held back by a green sweatband. The green is a dingey green and it has some brown paint over it to make it look dirty. He’s sporting a cocky expression that’s at least different from what we’ve seen out of other toy makers, but the likeness isn’t quite there for me. It’s not terrible though and the portrait is well-painted. Even if it was perfect, it’s not something I’d ever use for a display.

The Green Ranger also comes with an assortment of hands. Out of the box, the figure features fists, but he also has five other sets of hands to choose from: clenching, gripping, trigger finger, open, and a set of flute/Dragon Dagger playing hands where the right hand is posed as if it’s pressing the buttons while the left is a gripping hand with two fingers extended. They obviously pair with the Dragon Dagger which looks fantastic. The little, gold, buttons on it are separate pieces though and I’ve read reports of them popping off for some folks so do be gentle when trying to slot the dagger into one of the hands. It pairs with the included black holster that just clips onto the belt. It has a strap on it that’s designed to come off to allow the dagger to slide in, but it’s really stubborn and took some courage to pry open.

If you don’t want to display the black holster on the figure’s hip, there’s also a white holster which is what the other Rangers use to carry their Blade Blaster. The Green Ranger only used a Blade Blaster once, that I can recall, and it was when he was a villain, but Mezco still included one anyway. It’s pretty neat because it actually functions like the one on the show with just one alteration. That means it can convert from pistol to dagger mode and the only cheat is that the blade portion is a separate piece that pegs in. Everyone else who does Power Rangers at this scale or near it just does multiple pieces for the Blade Blaster so it’s pretty cool that Mezco was able to do one that works. The paint is also pretty nice on it. I normally would never consider displaying a Green Ranger with a Blade Blaster, but Mezco did such a nice job that I’m really tempted to.

And that’s not all as we have three more weapons to talk about. All three were also included with Super7’s Green Ranger (I bet they’re happy they managed to beat Mezco to market) and they are the Sword of Darkness, the Sword of Power, and the Mega Heater. The Sword of Darkness is the best version of this weapon we’ve ever received. The sculpt is perfect, there’s no bending or warping like there was with the Hasbro version, and the tassel was done with a black wire so it can be posed. The paint is also very nice and, once again, I’ll be really tempted to use it in my display because I just always loved the look of this blade. The Sword of Power is fine, but I don’t like the look of this weapon so it will never see action for me. The Mega Heater also looks like it should and this figure can hold it with both hands. It’s fine, but it’s just not as interesting to me as the other weapons available.

To spruce things up with said weapons are some effect parts. For the Dragon Dagger, we get two, green, lightning effects with one being shorter than the other. They can slot over the blade and add a little drama to your posing. You can also attach them to the clenchy hands, if you wish, which I think he did when he was evil in the show, but I could be mistaken. Both parts are done with translucent, green, plastic and have some bend to them, but they’re not so soft that they can’t hold their shape. There’s also a green wave type of effect that the Dragon Dagger slots into. I don’t recall this from the show and I also don’t think it looks particularly good. It just makes the Dragon Dagger look like an oddly shaped lollypop. Your mileage may vary.

For the Blade Blaster and Mega Heater we get some blast effects. They’re done in traparent plastic and painted red. The smallest, and thinnest, of the three is intended for the Blade Blaster when in gun mode. It does not slot in very easily, but I was able to get it in there. These pieces are a bit brittle feeling so you’ll want to be careful not to snap them. There is a little flex towards the end, but not where the peg is. My small one is slightly warped too, but it looks okay in the weapon. The other two blasts are for the Mega Heater. One is long with a more pronounced muzzle flash while the other is shorter and seems to get thicker as it stretches out from the gun. I definitely prefer the longer one, but both definitely enhance the otherwise ho-hum Mega Heater for me to the point where I could talk myself into using it at some point. Lastly, we have the traditional Mezco stand which has three hinges in the armature and ends in a rotating claw. The base is black with the Dragon coin painted on in gold and it looks fine. It also gets the job done for more dramatic poses or serves as a base.

That’s a whole lot of stuff in the box, but can the figure make much use of it with its articulation? Figures in soft goods are always limited to some degree when it comes to articulation because clothing over plastic is going to be more cumbersome than bare plastic. That’s just a fact. It doesn’t mean the figure needs to be articulated poorly though. The head is on a double-ball peg and it can look up and down a bit with plenty of room for nuance posing. The shoulders are likely just ball-hinged joints that can’t quite come out to a horizontal position. There’s forward and back rotation, but given the soft goods, you probably shouldn’t try to rotate all the way around. There is a biceps swivel and the arm bands slide out of the way easily to access that. Following that is a double-jointed elbow which bends past 90 degrees smoothly. The forearms swivel where the glove meets the arm and the hands are on ball-hinges so they have all of the movement they’ll need.

In the torso, it feels like a ball-joint in the diaphragm area. Tommy can arch back and forward some, though the Dragon Shield will get in the way a bit if it’s on. It also rotates just fine and bends to the side nicely. At the waist, it feels like there may be a twist, but it’s very tight and I don’t want to force it. The hips can go out to the side almost to a full split, but don’t quite hit 90 degrees kicking forward. There’s no range kicking back, but there is a thigh swivel under the clothes. The knees are double-jointed and bend well past 90 degrees and there’s a boot swivel below that. The ankles hinge forward and back an acceptable amount while the ankle rocker is pretty limited rotating in. It actually has more range going out which is a bit odd and not really useful.

Mezco’s Green Ranger, in some respects, moves better than I expected. The shoulders are a bit finicky, but the rest is all nice and smooth. There’s some trepidation that comes with the design because if that costume rips it’s game over, but it’s very stretchy so it’s not as scary to move as it could be. I probably wouldn’t leave it in too stressful a pose, but most should be fine. Really, the only thing I don’t care for is that this figure still can’t really play the Dragon Dagger. It can get close, and if you force it the dagger can reach the helmet’s lips, but once you stop forcing it the arms will snap back into place. It’s definitely easier to fake it with this figure than it was the others, but for $95 I feel like we shouldn’t have to. The Dragon Shield is pretty stiff and rigid, but it doesn’t appear to be causing any issues. The figure probably just needed a butterfly joint to really be able to pull it off, but Mezco declined to include such.

That $95 price tag is really the biggest negative about this figure. Especially since most are going to have to pay a shipping charge to get it, unless you happened to get it at San Diego Comic Con. And since the item is waitlisted it may cost even more to acquire at this point. I don’t know if any figure in this scale should cost that much, but at least with this figure I feel like we have the best Green Ranger figure to date. And that goes for larger scales as well. It’s not a perfect 1:1 likeness to what was on television screens in 1993, but it’s 95% of the way there and the only differences seem to exist for the figure’s benefit. He’s not as skinny as he could be, but not jacked like some of the other action figures released. The soft goods give it a close to screen accurate look without the overly sculpted wrinkles and such we’ve seen from Hasbro. All of the little details are there and you’ll be hard pressed to want any additional accessories. Maybe the green candle?

Mezco’s Green Ranger was a long time coming, but it was worth the wait. If you have the spare coin and a love for Power Rangers, then give this one a look. I think it’s an easier sell when you’re like me and don’t need the whole team because that’s a serious investment. As a one-off splurge, this figure is quite a treat. If you think getting it will tempt you to get the other five then I guess make sure you’re prepared for such an expense.