Today, we move on with our Ultimate Christmas Special Rankings starting with number 199. As you can probably guess, we’re going to generally stick to 10 a day in order to have this neatly conclude on Christmas, but we’ll have a couple spots where we’ll have to do more. This isn’t one of those spots as you just get 10 today. Like yesterday, these specials are what I would consider to be genuinely bad, for the most part, but we’re working our way to the “meh” part of the rankings. We’re also going to kick things off with one I probably dislike more than most. There is a part of me that feels like I’m being unreasonable, but I pretty much loathe number 199.
Hah! It’s a snowman with a nut right where…his nuts…you know…
The Ice Age franchise had a nice run for itself, commercially speaking, during the 2000s. I can’t say I really loved any of it, but my memory of the movies I did see are that they were fine. Decent family entertainment that I never have to see again. For some reason, I hate this Christmas special. Maybe I was just in a bad mood when I went back to it last year for the countdown, but I just hate-watched the damn thing. Every plot point irritated me, it was so predictable, cliche, and talked down to the viewer. The attempts at humor were supremely irritating. I think this style of humor just didn’t age well. The competent CG doesn’t come close to rescuing it and I get no feels from it other than white, hot, rage. I honestly expect most people to see my take and not quite get it. Most probably see this as a pretty by the numbers, ho-hum, Christmas special. Let’s move on though as I’m already sick of talking about Ice Age.
Okay, this is a bad Christmas special. Very bad. It’s also entertainingly bad and it helps that I didn’t make my parents spend $30 on a VHS of this thing when I was a kid. It’s brief which helps. If this was your more typical hour long special then it would likely be intolerable. The only bummer for me with this one is that it’s the only Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Christmas special from this era. The ’87 cartoon had an episode where the turtles met the freakin’ Easter Bunny, but no Christmas episode. Instead we got this: repurposed live show costumes with unrecognizable voices and actors. It’s bad, and the budget must have been almost nothing. The songs suck in such a way that they’re funny, and the special is so well known now that we even got some NECA toys last year based on it. What a time to be alive.
He’s laughing, but there’s nothing funny about this one.
This one is barely a Christmas episode as it’s a made-up version of the holiday by Mario to supplicate some cave people he deems as lesser than him. Poor, misguided, cave, people, if only they had a holiday to believe in? Mario the missionary brings them Christmas and it just turns one cave person, Oogtar, into a spoiled brat. He almost ruins Fake Christmas, that little Ratgoo, but everything turns out fine in the end. It’s just phenomenally stupid and the Super Mario World cartoon was pretty terrible. There’s a reason why Nintendo wants nothing to do with it or its predecessors these days.
In this holiday special, the Smurfs are tasked with saving some kids from Satan. Yes, you read that correctly.
Oh boy, this one took a pretty surprising turn. The Smurfs holiday themed episodes manages to be both forgettable and also get mixed up in my brain. The other Smurfs holiday episode I covered is a better Christmas special, but so unmemorable. This one? This is the one where the Smurfs have to take down the god damn devil! What other conclusion is there to draw from the villain? Every other plot point here is pure corn, just garbage, Christmas, stuff. The Smurfs are a pretty terrible franchise that has somehow endured – I guess people really like little, blue, men?
Another video game mascot with a Christmas special, and it’s not much better. This is a cheaply thrown together episode of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, the wacky cartoon and not the more serious Saturday morning one. I hate the visual style and the plot is nonsense, plus an unspeaking Sally Acorn role? They did her wrong. It just manages to be memorable because of the wild turn at the end. Spoilers if you haven’t seen it, but Santa Claus retires! Yes, the big man hangs them up, but don’t worry as he has a successor ready: Sonic the Hedgehog. In the world of Sonic, he is now Santa Claus. It’s canon and I’ll hear no argument against it, I’m just patiently waiting for one of the video games to acknowledge this fact.
Pretty convenient all of these video game cartoons landed so close together, eh? It’s by design. This list has a subjective element to it where I did try to group things together to some degree. Especially when it comes to kids specials and the more subversive adult comedy ones. And spoiler alert, tomorrow very much has a theme to it. Anyway, this is another lousy Super Mario Bros. cartoon that takes place during Christmas and this one has a more conventional holiday plot. Koopa is out to take over Christmas and Mario and the gang have to save Santa. Toad learns a lesson and Luigi gets to help out. It’s all pretty conventional. There’s some awful animation and if you watch the full episode this is from you get some live-action stuff that has nothing to do with Christmas. Seriously, what a wasted opportunity. The only redeeming element to this one is basically the same as the Super Mario World cartoon: Koopa. I find him entertaining. Oh, and it’s also really short.
The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had one Christmas episode and it came during the White Ranger era post the departure of the original red, yellow, and black rangers. In other words, it’s from an era of the show I didn’t watch as I fell off during the second season. I came back for the White Ranger mini series falling for the hype, but didn’t stick around. This one is pretty damn stupid. The Rangers have to go to the North Pole and stop the forces of Lord Zed who have taken it over. It’s an episode that was clearly conceived of on the US side because we don’t get a single shot of the Rangers in action. They stay in their teen persona so there’s very little action. Instead, there’s lots of bad acting that wouldn’t even be passable for a soap opera. The storyline back at Angel Grove with the sad kid or whatever? Terrible – no one cares. I wanted to see the Megazord slice and dice some massive reindeer monster or something and this did not deliver.
I have to admit, I don’t remember anything about this one. Or rather I didn’t until I went back to it before writing this. And yeah, it’s not very memorable. It’s from an era of cartoons on television where budgets were very small and the animation was very limited. This thing is capital U Ugly and I find nothing charming about the character designs. The audio quality is poor as well, though that may be a preservation problem and not something that was apparent at the start. It’s very similar in tone and quality to Tennessee Tuxedo, but shorter and therefore better. And for a character named Krazy Kat, she’s not very crazy. The craziest thing about her is her choice in grammar.
It’s big, beefy, dino-men in Santa hats – did you expect something else?
When it comes to cartoon dreck, there isn’t much lower than the direct-to-syndication cartoon that only exists to sell toys. And it gets even worse when that toyline is just a blatant rip-off of a more popular one. That’s Extreme Dinosaurs for you, which was an extension of Street Sharks. It’s terrible. It is the sort of cartoon where it can look okay in still shots because the character designs are big and colorful, but once things start moving around it turns to shit. I hate all of the attempts at “extreme” language or whatever and this is the sort of show that somehow makes dinosaurs seem lame. As for a Christmas special, it’s another let’s help Santa plot. Not a full-on The Santa Clause, but yeah, dinosaurs are going to help save Christmas.
Mickey does not subscribe to the whole “love thy neighbor” thing.
Around the turn of the millennium, Mickey Mouse tried to make it again in shorts and the results were mixed at best. Mickey’s Christmas Chaos is one of those shorts and it’s tonally kind of a mess. Mickey behaves more like a Warner Bros. character here as he goes to war with his neighbor Mortimer as each tries to one-up the other with their Christmas decorating. The animation is so flat that it limits the impact the gags can have. Plus, there’s really nothing new here. There are no pieces of physical comedy that feel original or offer a new twist on an old concept. I get trying to redefine Mickey or show a different side of him, but this isn’t it. Paul Rudish would figure it out much later. At least this one has a nice ending for best boy Pluto, and if you’re someone who disagrees and actually likes this one then good news! There are a pair of Christmas episodes from the House of Mouse series full of crap like this!
That’s all for now. Come back tomorrow as we move into the bland and the meh that also happen to be free and easy to view. We’re going into the public domain, folks!
Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:
Nothing puts one in the Christmas Spirit like carols about the refrigerator. Or so Dinosaurs would have you believe. Not that Christmas is actually mentioned at all in today’s special because it takes place in a setting on Earth millions of years before the Christ in Christmas was born. Back then, the sentient beings of…
In 1995, Warner Bros felt it was a big enough entity that it could launch its own broadcast television network. Dubbed The WB, it would try to compete with the big four of ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox, but never really achieved that level of success which is why it no longer exists. The strategy…
In 1994, Nintendo and developer Rare Ltd. released unto the world Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo. It was a pretty big deal because with Sony prepping its 32-bit PlayStation console for release, and Nintendo no where near ready to unveil the Nintendo 64, the company needed to eke out a few more years…
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…
I don’t usually do year-end wrap-up posts. My collecting is usually too narrow to really warrant it, but this year I felt a little different. I probably spent way too much on my hobby in 2023 as there were a lot of releases that came in bunches. It’s probably going to have a somewhat negative impact on my collecting in 2024 as I try to narrow things down and stick to what I really want as opposed to what just looks cool. I’ve already made the decision to not collect NECA’s The Last Ronin line as I just have too much TMNT as it is and I don’t love the designs from those books enough to warrant figure purchases. Plus, where would I put them? I’ll probably be scaling back on Turtles in general since most of what I want has already been produced. Am I going to stop? No, not entirely, but I’m finally at a point where I can see something new on the shelf and not feel like I have to buy it.
That’s 2024’s business, let’s talk 2023 one last time. Rather than just rank the figures I reviewed in a top 10 or something, I figured I’d do it more like an awards show only my awards are both celebratory and dubious. You can’t have good without the bad, so if you’re one of those types that just hates anything that could be perceived as negative then maybe skip those. I’m also limiting this to figures I purchased in 2023 that were also current. Getting a figure that was new to me didn’t qualify if it was released prior to 2023. On the other hand, release dates are pretty loose so it’s possible you personally got something on my list in 2022 that I received in 2023. That’s just the action figure business at work. Let’s get to it though as so that we’re not here forever.
This figure took so long to come out that I was starting to think it was never going to come out. Mezco isn’t known for its communication so folks who had preordered this thing, and paid in full, in 2020 were left completely in the dark. Maybe it would come, maybe it wouldn’t? 2023 ended up being the year where that wait finally came to an end. Was it worth it? Probably not. If I had a category for most interesting release of the year this figure would win that as well. It’s certainly an experience. Mezco did nail the Keaton likeness though which was the most important factor for me. I just question how well this silicon body is going to hold up over the years. Runner-Up: Super7’s The Simpsons Wave One
I mostly collect 1:12 and 1:10 scale action figures, but every now and then a company gets me to dip my toes in something else. Usually that something else is 1:18, but Mondo has absolutely been killing it with its 1:6 scale line of figures from X-Men the animated series. There have been 3 releases in 2023: Magneto, Jubilee, and Sabretooth, and it’s Sabretooth that takes the crown for me by just a smidge. He looks awesome, poses well enough, and came loaded with accessories. These figures half shelf-presence for days. The only negative is the cost and space and that Mondo solicited 5 figures in 2023 which really did some damage to the old toy fund. Gambit should be arriving any day now too with Logan and Omega Red coming in 2024. I better make room! Runner-Up: Mondo Magneto and Jubilee
Worst Company – Hasbro
Sorry to kick you while you’re down Hasbro as the company just announced a layoffs to take effect next year, though maybe look at the top of the company instead? Either way, Hasbro keeps getting worse with its action figure offerings. The Power Rangers brand is stale, the Dungeons & Dragons stuff based on the old cartoon were riddled with quality control issues, and prices keep climbing on Marvel Legends and Star Wars while accessories and paint apps get cut. They’re putting out their most bare bones releases ever in those lines, but at a price greater than we’ve ever seen for those lines. More expensive plus poorer quality is not a recipe for success. I currently have two Hasbro action figures on pre-order and I’m not looking to add anymore. Runner-Up: Super7
Best Company – NECA
A more conventional round-up of the best figures of 2023 would have included these boys.
Basically, see what Hasbro did in 2023? NECA did the opposite. For the most part. Yes, their prices have gone up as well, but we haven’t seen a reduction in the product to go along with that price hike. NECA still keeps putting out tons of unique sculpts that are fully-painted with a generous assortment of accessories. They also managed to deliver their long-awaited Turtle Van and the product turned out pretty damn awesome. Now, lets just not talk about the pricing debacle that is the TMNT Sewer Lair. This is supposed to be a positive entry. Runner-Up: Jada Toys(even though I didn’t review any of their stuff here)
Super7’s The Worst is their own collection of takes on popular, villainous, tropes, I suppose. Their first wave in their Ultimates! collection didn’t thrill me, but I could not keep myself away from wave two’s Robot Reaper. This thing is just a fun, clever, design and it’s also a fun action figure to mess around with. Some of the accessories I could do with out, and part of me feels like a sucker for paying full MSRP knowing full well it’s sure to be discounted, but when a company puts out something good I don’t mind paying full price. Runner-Up: Boss Fight Studio Saurozoic Warriors
Medicom’s MAFEX brand is basically known for being super-articulated and super expensive. Figures routinely cost over 100 bucks for those of us who dwell in the west and it’s hard to figure out why. Sure, some of the licenses they grab don’t come cheap, but Bandai puts out similar or better products for considerably less. And sometimes even for the same license. This Scarlet Spider figure is one I enjoy quite a bit despite feeling like it’s not worth the tasking price. It’s a better figure than what Hasbro is set to release very soon (one of two I have preordered), but I could very easily make the argument that the Hasbro one is a far better value which trumps any advantage the MAFEX figure brings to the table. Runner-Up: Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Robotic Rocksteady
I’m not sure if Super7 has ever made a prettier action figure than Goldar from its line of MMPR figures. I mean, he is a sort of dog-faced monster, but the gold armor they sculpted and painted looks terrific and the character looks like it stepped right out of a television set in 1993. I can’t say the same for basically anything else in Super7’s MMPR line. It’s also the figure that I’ve seen break on camera in figure reviews more than any other. Whether it be the neck, wrists, or those damn wings, this is a finicky, fragile, mess of a figure. I don’t even like handling it as a result. I basically selected the head I wanted and the wing options and I don’t intend to change anything or move much. In some respects, it’s a terrible action figure, but also a great one. It’s a conundrum. Runner-Up: None
Go ahead Venom, squeeze the life out of this twerp and his weird-shaped head.
This is one of those figures you may have received in 2022 that I got in 2023. Walmart put it up for preorder in the fall and didn’t ship them for awhile, if at all, while some were able to find it in-store in December. No matter, it’s my pick for worst figure of the year that I personally reviewed. And it’s kind of getting it on a technicality, as the worst figure I bought in 2023 was a reissue of an old figure in the McFarlane Batman – The Animated Series Mr. Freeze (what’s with figures based on 90s animated shows getting the shaft?). This Spider-Man is the infamous cel-shaded one, but I’ll defend the cel-shading to a point. It’s not awful like most of the X-Men figures were in 2022, though it’s nothing special. It’s fine. Everything else sucks though. The head is a bizarre shape and looks stupid, the body is way too undersized for the character this figure is based upon, and while it articulates better than some Hasbro Spider-Men, it still does some weird things. The accessories, which include two extra sets of hands and some web splats, are also terrible and since it was a Walmart exclusive it was really annoying to have to track down. Hasbro did a whole line of figures based on the ’94 cartoon series and yet they didn’t make the central character, Spider-Man himself, available in his red and blue threads to a mass audience. What a stupid decision and another deserving reason for Hasbro’s status as worst action figure company of 2023. Runner-Up: Marvel Legends X-Men ’97 Magneto
I’m just sorry I don’t have an actual award to give him.
When Mezco first unveiled its take on the Green Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers I had a feeling it had a chance to be THE Green Ranger for me. I’d have no need for any other. It was another long wait, and the figure was released annoyingly enough as a convention exclusive, but it lived up to the hype. This figure is not perfect, but it’s the best representation of the Green Ranger in 1:12 form. The details look great, the proportions suitable for the source material, and the soft goods actually enhance the figure and not detract from it. It has all of the accessories you could want plus a flight stand. There are effect parts and even an extra holster for the Blade Blaster, if you want it. I was skeptical, and I almost put this guy in the runner-up category for the too expensive, but Mezco delivered a great product. It’s so good that I’m almost tempted to get the rest of the MMPR team, but then I look at the price tag and I feel pretty satisfied to just stick with Greeny here. Runner-Up: None, this figure was in a class by itself
Those are my thoughts on 2023. To my surprise, I didn’t pick anything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but then again, that brand had a lot of good releases in 2023, just nothing exceptional. I considered doing a “Best Toy Line” and that probably would have gone to NECA’s cartoon TMNT line, but I didn’t feel that strongly about it, nor could I come up with a corresponding worst toy line. As for 2024, I’m looking forward to it. I have a ton of stuff preordered with Bandai and its Dragon Ball line including some figures that I’m already eyeing as potential Figure of the Year when 2024 is nearing an end. And then there’s Mondo X-Men that I have preordered and we’ve seen artwork for Rogue and Cyclops so that line figures to expand. As for Mezco, I may have given them top prize for 2023, but I’m not planning on picking up anything from that company in 2024. Their brand is pretty specific and it often doesn’t appeal to me. It will take a perfect marriage of enthusiasm for a brand on my part and their unique talents to get me to buy another one. And while I may scale back my toy buying in 2024, don’t expect to see my reviews vanish anytime soon. There will still be plenty to talk about.
Looking for toy-related posts that are more broad than a single review?
It’s been probably 13 or 14 years since I’ve purchased a Marvel-branded action figure. This is somewhat shocking to me because from the age of 7 to around 25 I spent who knows how much money on Marvel action figures. I was there for the inaugural Toy Biz line of Marvel Superheroes and X-Men…
It’s the first Turtle Tuesday in a little while that I don’t have some new TMNT review to post. Given that, I think it’s time to revisit the rankings I did last year for NECA’s toon line of action figures. This has become NECA’s most popular line, and while it has cooled a bit since…
Wednesday, August 18th, ended up being quite an eventful little day in the world of toy collecting. There were some reveals from major toy companies, leaks, and even those long neglected Street Sharks fans got something to get excited about late in the day. Personally, it was a good day for me too as I…
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 Power Rangers Ultimates! in 2023 after a lengthy delay to get the line off the ground. The reception has been so-so. There have been figures I thought turned out rather well, and others I wasn’t too thrilled with. Not all have been reviewed in this space, but basically I’ve been disappointed in the actual Power Rangers while the zords have pleased me quite a bit. That’s why my lone purchase from Wave 3 is the Megazord, or Dino Megazord if you want it narrowed down a bit more.
A lot has changed since 1993, though I still maintain this old Bandai Megazord is a damn fun toy.
When Mighty Morphin Power Rangers premiered in 1993, the Megazord was their ultimate weapon. At least for a little while. Then the Dragonzord came along which meant the Megazord could level-up to the Mega Dragonzord. Then they added Titanus and suddenly the Ultrazord was a thing. And on the toy front, the Megazord was every bit as cool in plastic as it was on the screen. The Bandai Megazord was such an awesome toy that I wanted it badly, only I never got it so I had to purchase it as an adult to make it up to the kid in me. The toy is a blast because it’s five in one. Five robot dinosaurs (okay, well, three robot dinosaurs and two mammals) which can combine into a massive robot. In order to pull that off, the final product had to sacrifice some of the aesthetics when compared with the character on television. This may come as a shock, but the costumed person punching and kicking as the Megazord was not, in fact, made-up of five robots and had the proportions of a normal human. The toy basically couldn’t duplicate that look while maintaining the play functionality, but I don’t recall anyone who had it caring at the time.
“Are you my dad?!”
When Super7 got the license from Hasbro to do Power Rangers it can be assumed it was like the Transformers license which meant no transforming and no combining. No problem. Doing just straight toys of something like the Tyrannosaurus zord or Megazord without having to incorporate that function means they can focus on screen accuracy. Now, if I were still a kid I’d think a Megazord that can’t break down into five robots sounds useless, but as an adult collector? I’m intrigued.
Since I have it, we might as well compare this one to the Hasbro combining Megazord. Super7’s clearly looks better, though the Hasbro one can at least brag about its elbow articulation.
Super7’s version of the Megazord comes in the usual Ultimates! packaging. We’ve moved on from the brown shipper, but we’re still getting the slipcover for now. The box may surprise since it’s not nearly as large as the T-Rex or Dragonzord, but that’s because the Megazord doesn’t feature a giant tail. Don’t be fooled though as this is still a big, chunky, action figure that has substantial weight for something in this scale. The window box display is as nice as ever, though Super7 must have been concerned about paint rub as the figure is basically surrounded (not wrapped) in plastic in the tray which does downgrade the presentation for in-box collectors. Not that Super7 should care. The packaging is meant to get the product to your hands in pristine condition. Anything else is just gravy.
The Megazord more or less seems to scale with the rest.
Out of the box, Megazord stands about 8.625″ to the tip of the “fin” on its head. This line is a 1:10 scale line, but that obviously does not apply to the zords. Instead, this figure is meant to just scale with the other zords and the monsters and pass the eyeball test in doing so. I will say, he looks mostly okay beside the Dragonzord. Maybe a little undersized, but certainly good enough. It looks ridiculous beside the T-Rex though which is too big. Considering it’s technically impossible for these two robots to appear side-by-side, it’s not a big deal, but if you remind yourself that the T-Rex is technically the torso of the Megazord then it becomes laughable. It looks pretty good opposite Goldar, better than the other zords if you ask me, and it’s probably more important for this particular figure to scale with the monsters than the others so I like that.
These two don’t always see eye-to-eye…
As for the figure itself, it looks pretty damn good. The head and shoulders are properly sized and the proportions look much better than the other combining figures out there. Even better though, is that seemingly every inch of this thing is painted. I believe the black portions are where the bare plastic is, but even they look like they at least have a matte coat on them. The silvers are nice and shiny and I think they nailed the shade of red this character possesses. The face, in particular, is really well done and pretty clean. Closer inspection of the figure in other places will uncover some blemishes and subpar linework. The nose of the sabertoothed tiger has a blemish and there’s a silver spec on the snout of the triceratops foot. The white on that same foot is a bit thin and I could say the same for some of the yellow. These blemishes are mostly invisible from the shelf and the only one that bothers me is the tiger foot. The hands are the same shade of silver as the other silver parts of the figure and I think they were darker on the show, but that could have been due to ware and tare on the suit itself. Otherwise, this somewhat garish mix of colors looks as good here as it did on TV and it’s nice to see this amount of paint on what is a fairly expensive collectible. The figure also has a nice weight and feels sturdy, just the like the zords that came before it.
The main accessory here.
It’s important that this figure nail the presentation because it doesn’t have much else to rely on. The accessories are very light with this one as we get just one extra set of hands: fists and gripping. They look fine, but I would have liked some style-posed hands as well. For those gripping hands we get the power sword and mastodon shield. The sword looks great. It’s painted silver and has some nice etching near the hilt that’s painted a soft gold. The handle is painted as well, though if I was going to criticize one aspect of the item it’s that it’s too big. Super7 has a tendency to go bigger with weapons (just check out their Conan) and that apparently happened here as the sword on TV wasn’t quite so large. The mastodon shield also looks great and the paint on it is very crisp. I wasn’t sure if I’d even display my figure with it since it showed up in the show rarely, but I love the finish on it so it’s likely going to make the cut. The trunk is short and curled in though so it can’t be pointed at an enemy like it’s about to unleash a cloud of freezing air, not that it would have an effect piece for such. That’s the easiest room for criticism as a laser effect for the sword would have been neat or some crackling lightning, but this is basically it.
At least the new ones have the white diamonds painted on. Really makes the Red Ranger look like shit. I don’t know why they can’t all have a hit of black for the visor like the Green Ranger.
There are a couple of other accessories in the box, but they’re not really for the Megazord to use. Call them indirect accessories, if you will. There are two, miniature, Power Rangers in a summoning pose: Pink and Yellow. They’re the exact same sculpt which means the Yellow Ranger has a skirt piece which is inaccurate to the show, but I don’t know if that’s something that will bother people or not. They look okay, and if you’re keeping track that means we have two Red Rangers, Green, Pink, and Yellow. What’s missing is Blue and Black. Since the Megazord is the combined robots of all five of the original Power Rangers, why not just include Black and Blue in this box and get it over with? I’m not sure what else would make sense for them to be packed in with. The Mega Dragonzord? I’m not sure how much enthusiasm is out there for that one. Lastly, we get a power coin. One one side is the Megazord logo which features the portraits of the five robots that make it and on the reverse is the Zyuranger logo, one of the few remnants in the show of its Japanese origin. It’s the same high quality coin as the prior two and it’s fine. If it’s here at the expense of more accessories for the Megazord itself then I’d consider it unwanted.
In a contest to see who can bend their elbows the farthest, we’re going to have to declare a draw.
You likely need only take one look at this thing to figure out it doesn’t articulate particularly well. This is a boxy design and it’s not like the actor on the show was capable of much when in costume and this figure is pretty much the same. The head is on a ball-joint, probably a single, so it rotates and gets some tilt. The figure can look up a little and down some as well, though when looking down it’s just staring at the top of its own torso. The shoulders are ball hinged and rotation is fine, but you probably get about 70 degrees worth of range going out to the side. If they had put the shoulder pads on pegs so they could move out of the way it would have minimized this. There is a single hinge at the elbow that pegs into the upper arm which is essentially your bicep swivel. The hinge on the elbow offers less range than that of the shoulder and we’re pretty much in Optimus Prime territory here. The design of the character presents a challenge, but they could have done this better to get at least 90 degrees of bend here. Even the Hasbro combining Megazord can do better. The wrists swivel and the fists have a horizontal hinge while the gripping hands have a vertical hinge. They’re recessed pretty far in the forearm so range is mediocre, but you can pull them out slightly to get better range.
“Foolish Power Rangers! You’ve come into a sword fight with only fists!”
There is a waist twist on this guy, but it’s damn near useless because of the shape of the crotch area. Even though Super7 did that crotch with a soft, rubbery, material, there really isn’t enough flex to turn the waist and you do have to be mindful of paint rub. The hips appear to be the standard hinged ball pegs, and something that may annoy some, is they can’t be straight up and down due to how bulky the shins are. This appeared to even be an issue with the actual suit so I can’t fault Super7 too much for not being able to do better. The oversized diaper piece severely restricts what these hips can do. Rotation is fine, but going out to the side is minimal and the figure doesn’t have much range kicking forward and back. I would say it actually has no range going back, and going forward is basically one “click.” There is a single hinged knee below that which pegs into the thigh so there is some pivot, but not much due to the shape. The hinge is super tight and my left leg doesn’t seem to want to move much while the right will bend just a little. It’s more or less useless as there isn’t much clearance. The ankles are likely supposed to hinge and rock, but they do next to nothing. They basically wiggle just enough to let you know there’s a joint there and if there is a hinge it’s totally blocked by the sculpt.
“Oh no! A sword!”
The Megazord was never going to be a figure that’s super-articulated, but even with low expectations it still manages to disappoint. From the waist down, it’s practically a statue. The thigh swivel is okay, but everything else is borderline useless, especially the ankles. Super7 really should have borrowed a page from Bandai and used plastic “scales” that peg into the figure instead of the diaper. That would allow for plenty of range at the hips and it would still look fine if done properly. At the knees, they really should have just added a centimeter or less for clearance for those knees. Instead, they seem far more concerned with hiding the knee joint, but this thing is an action figure. If people don’t want to see the joints, they can go for the vinyl version or something. The joints are at least fairly tight. There’s some wiggle at the calves, but that’s it. The left arm at the shoulder could be just a touch tighter as sometimes the arm will droop when holding the mastodon shield, but it usually stays put for me when I set it. I guess time will tell if it gets worse or not.
Let’s get one last comparison in before we put a bow on this one. Here’s the Megazord with Super7’s take on Voltron.
Super7’s take on the Megazord is about as good as the two previously released zord figures. To no one’s surprise, they went heavy into the aesthetic and trying to match this to the show as much as possible and the results are pretty damn good. There were some things to nitpick, but overall they delivered on that end. Where they could have done better is in the accessory department and definitely with the articulation. I’ve said it before, but I feel like when Super7’s designers run into an obstacle with the articulation they don’t put any effort into actually coming up with a solution and instead give us a joint that doesn’t work. It makes me wonder if they even want to be in this business or if they’d be much happier just doing ReAction and the vinyl stuff. The only other real negative here is that this figure comes in at the inflated sticker price of $65. At $55, I felt the T-Rex and Dragonzord were a good enough value given the size, weight, and paint apps. At $65 here, I’m really not seeing where that extra ten bucks went. I’m not unhappy with my purchase, but in general, at this price point I think I need to see a bit more value in the box or I should at least be getting something that earns the term “action” figure better than this one. This figure is also likely to end up on clearance at some point, as that has been the trend, making it a hard sell at its current price.
If you’ve been buying the zords up until now then I suspect you’ll get this one since it probably is the most popular of the three. And it certainly is the most popular of all of the Megazords that followed. It will be interesting to see if there is an appetite for more. Collectors and fans already rejected Super7’s attempt at the White Tigerzord which came in at $65 and was probably more sparse than this release since it didn’t feature a shield of any kind. Super7 had to cancel it due to lack of interest. Do fans want a Mega Dragonzord? Maybe they want the Thunder Megazord? Or Dragonzord Battle Mode? If Super7 can’t get them onboard with the zord of the most popular Power Ranger then it’s hard to say what they will buy. For me, I probably don’t need any other zords so this may very well be my final word on Super7’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers line. And if it is, I would say it filled a niche for me and did a good enough job at it. Others may disagree.
If you’re interested in what I had to say about some of these other Super7 Power Rangers releases, then check these out:
Today we are wrapping up our look at Wave 1 of Super7’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Ultimates! action figures with the lone zord of the wave: the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord. The T-Rex zord was the vehicle of the Red Power Ranger and main body of the Megazord. It was basically the only one of the original…
Last week, when we took a look at the first Power Ranger in Super7’s line of Ultimates! action figures based on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers I expressed some surprise that Hasbro would license out this brand since it competes with their own Lighting Collection. I do feel like the actual Rangers are pretty safe. People…
After a long delay, wave one of Super7’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers line arrived earlier this year. And after a delay of basically just as long, wave two is now upon us. For the first wave, we took a look at three figures: Green Ranger, Goldar, and the Tyrannosaurus zord. For wave two, it’s just…
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.
The Green Ranger is only my second figure from Mezco joining the 1989 edition of Batman.
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.
I’m not a huge fan of soft goods costumes on figures, which is why most of what Mezco puts out doesn’t appeal to me, but this figure works with about the only eyesore being this seam on the rear of the figure.
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 Lightning Collection (left) might be closer to true 1:12 scale. The Super7 version (right) is supposed to be 1:10.
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.
“How dare you exclude The Shredder from the comparison shot?!”
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.
It would be great if the suit didn’t have this lined texture, but on a shelf it won’t be as visible.
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.
Mezco went for a different look with the unmasked portrait. I don’t hate it, but I’ll also never use it.
In terms of capturing the Jason David Frank likeness, I might give the edge to Hasbro.
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.
He has the required Dragon Dagger and the hands to “play” it, but getting him to pose with it is trickier than I’d like.
It is possible to fake it, but as you can see, the button pressing hand won’t actually be on the dagger. The button pressing hand also doesn’t actually grip the dagger so you can’t just do a one-handed pose with it.
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.
Does the Green Ranger really need a Blade Blaster? No, but I’ll take it.
And it even converts into “pew pew” mode!
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.
Did you want the Sword of Power? No? Too bad!
Now that’s the sword you want! And it should probably go without saying, but this version is far better than the Hasbro or Super7 one.
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.
It’s lightning time!
There’s also some bigger lightning.
Blade lolly!
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.
Here we have the little blast.
And here’s the big blast! These things actually make the Mega Heater worth displaying.
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.
And lets not forget the stand. It can be used as a foot peg stand, or you can attach the armature for something more dynamic.
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.
Did the Green Ranger ever make lightning snap from his hands? I feel like he did.
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.
If you don’t care about screen accuracy then you can have your Green Ranger play the flute one-handed.
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.
I bought this with the expectation being that it would be the best Green Ranger figure in this scale out there and I do believe it has delivered on that. I don’t begrudge those who wish to spend less and feel happy with one of these other two though.
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?
This one is expensive, but damn does it look good.
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.
Interested in more Mezco or perhaps you want more detail on past Green Rangers?
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…
We continue to finally offload some long standing preorders this year and up next is Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from Super7. It was June 2021 when these figures were announced to the surprise of many. Why? Because Power Rangers are now owned by Hasbro, probably the biggest toy producer in the world who has its…
In the early days of the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic I found myself filling the social hole in my heart with toys. That has continued, but in the earliest days I went backwards. I grabbed some toys that I had wanted as a kid, but never got, and I talked about them here. One such toy…
After a long delay, wave one of Super7’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers line arrived earlier this year. And after a delay of basically just as long, wave two is now upon us. For the first wave, we took a look at three figures: Green Ranger, Goldar, and the Tyrannosaurus zord. For wave two, it’s just one: the Dragonzord. I’m not all-in on this line, clearly, because I’m a pretty casual fan of MMPR. I’m basically a Green Ranger guy, but where I see room to supplement the small collection I have, I’ll pounce. And being a Green Ranger guy, I had to get the Dragonzord.
You’re going to need a deep shelf for this guy as this is as far as the tail will bend.
He’s got fists, but no reach.
Super7’s take on the Dragonzord should feel pretty familiar to those who purchased the Tyrannosaurus zord. This is a line where the zords are non-combining so it’s strictly an action figure. Super7 seems to see this as an opportunity to make their figures look more like the actual suit costumes in the show. It’s a freeing approach and it allows Super7 to make these things big and chunky. No need for hollow plastic to hide parts or anything like that. The figure comes in a massive version of the Super7 Ultimates! box that’s probably close to the same size as the T-Rex zord’s box. I’d tell you how it compares, but I didn’t keep that box and I don’t plan on keeping this one either. Unlike that figure though, this one was made in China as opposed to Vietnam. I’m not opposed to figures being produced in Vietnam, but we’ve seen a lower quality product out of that factory compared with the stuff out of China.
I wish the head/neck better matched this image from the box.
The Dragonzord stands at approximately 9″ in height. It’s a little fungible as this is one of those characters intended to stand with its legs bent, but 9″ is close enough. The tail is around the same length as the heigh of the figure so this guy takes up a lot of real estate on a shelf. In terms of likeness to the show, there’s good and bad here. There’s quite a bit of paint and the parts that should be shiny are, and the ones that should be more matte are as well. There are spots here and there where it could be better. The red lights on the chest are slightly off and there’s some scuff marks in various spots on my figure. They’re things only apparent when handling the figure and not the type of thing that will show on a shelf. The painted patterns on the figure match the show as opposed to the vintage Bandai figure which basically did its own thing when it came to decals. I like the big, chunky, feet on this guy and the segmented tail with drill tip. There aren’t any missing paint apps that I can see, which wasn’t the case with the Tyrannosaurus zord.
The new one is actually a little smaller than the vintage release.
The big thing people are likely to note with this figure is the head. It’s just not accurate to the show. It’s much too wide and stocky with the black frame around the face too thick. The head should taper in towards the top, but here it’s more like a square. The brow also extends further down than it should basically touching the snout. And if you’re not sure how off it is, Super7 included a handy-dandy image of the actual Dragonzord on the back of the box for you to compare it to. Probably not the best idea. From the side, it looks fine, but it’s bizarre to see it look so obviously off when viewing the figure from the front. With this line, I sometimes get the feeling that Super7 is trying to match the show while also being an homage to the old toyline. If that’s the case, they still missed the mark as the original Bandai Dragonzord has a completely different head shape than this. Am I nitpicking? Perhaps, but it’s a pretty important detail and this isn’t a $25 figure, after all. Whether or not it matters to you is more subjective.
The old one may be taller, but it’s probably going to have some tail envy.
It’s important for this figure to nail the likeness because it’s not going to articulate well. I wasn’t expecting much out of it, because the suit from the show doesn’t offer a whole lot in that department, but even with those low expectations I was still let down a bit. The torso, which includes the head, neck, shoudlers, and diaphragm, is one solid piece. You get nothing except jaw articulation. The waist is on a ball peg so the figure can roll around on that part. You won’t get much forward and back, but you get plenty of rotation and tilt. The arms are essentially just forearms which attach to the torso via hinged ball pegs. They do next to nothing. You get maybe 45 degrees of up and down via that hinge, but rotation is basically nil. If you’ve seen the solicitation images for this figure, there’s one image where the Dragonzord’s arms are out to the side a bit firing missiles from its hands. This figure cannot do that which is a bummer because it should. At the hands, we get more hinged pegs. They rotate fine, but they’re recessed pretty far into the wrist area so the hinge is of little use. You can pull them out a bit though to get better range there.
Probably the comparison people are going to care about most. The two are about the same, though the Dragonzord should be taller.
Below the waist there isn’t a whole lot to speak of. The legs connect via big hinged ball pegs. They can kick out to the side a little bit, but there’s basically no forward and back range. The thigh twist there works okay though and below that is another hinged peg for the knee. The range on that hinge is maybe 25 degrees, it’s basically just enough to give the figure that crouched stance. You can rotate there, though it’s more like a pivot. The ankles work okay though as they hinge forward and back a reasonable amount and there is an ankle rocker. For the tail, we get a segmented approach just the like the Tyrannosaurus zord before it. I think it’s a bunch of hinged pegs so you get some play throughout. It’s not as robust as a bendy tail, but it at least looks good. It’s just not terribly functional. The drill tip at least rotates.
These two have a very similar feel, though I think the Dragonzord turned out just a tiny bit better as the black plastic just looks nicer than the red.
The figure is severely limited when it comes to articulation and that largely can be attributed to the design of the suit from the show. What’s more of a Super7 problem is the looseness. This is a heavy figure with heavy limbs and some of the joints just aren’t up to task. The waist and hips especially are pretty floppy. The heavy tail is constantly pulling back on the torso so it can be hard to get the figure in a forward hunch. The joint where the tail meets the body is also pretty loose further limiting how you can pose the tail. It’s a consistent problem with Super7, but the saving grace here is the big feet and that tail mean this figure is easy to stand. No shelf diving here unless you do something crazy, but it should be better.
Careful, it’s loaded!
The clear best accessory in the box. And obviously I’m talking about the tiny Green Ranger on its shoulder.
The Dragonzord isn’t a character that really cries out for accessories, but it does come with a few. Mainly, they’re alternate hands. The figure comes with open hands, but it also has a set of fists, flat hands with the missiles poking out of the fingers, and the missile firing effect hands. The open hands are the only ones with horizontal hinges while the rest have vertical ones, which is fine. I’m not sure the fists needed vertical hinges, but I don’t think it really matters. The red tips on the missile-ready hands could be better, but they’re fine. The effect hands are probably the ones most are likely to use because they are pretty damn fun. It looks like the smoke trails are done with translucent, yellow, plastic that’s been airbrushed. The only other accessories is a tiny, in-scale, Green Ranger playing his flute and an actual power coin with the Dragonzord logo on one side and the zord symbol on the reverse. The little Green Ranger is okay, the painted shield makes it looks better than the Red Ranger that came with the Tyrannosaurus zord, but it’s nothing special. The coin is what it is. As far as novelty coins go, it’s well done, but I don’t know that it’s really necessary. On the other hand, we’re not missing anything. Maybe some arms that could swap in that are angled so it can fake some better range there?
There’s also a coin, if that’s something you value.
A less important comparison, but why not?
Super7’s take on the Dragonzord is not without its flaws, but it’s also pretty much as expected. This is a what you see is what you get, as long as you’re not looking at that image where the arms are going out to the side. It’s a chunky, solid, beast of an action figure. It won’t do much on your shelf, but it’s default look isn’t really lacking in shelf presence as it is. The effect hands really help sell the figure as it allows for something a bit more dynamic. Is it a package that’s worth $55 though? If you can overlook the inaccuracies with the head, I think so. The market has come towards Super7 making the price tag not as egregious as it was when this figure went up for preorder more than 2 years ago. If it were solicited today, I bet Super7 would have charged $65 for it like they did with the gold and black variant recently sold at San Diego Comic Con. I’m not saying that makes this one a bargain, but it’s definitely a better value than a lot of Super7 releases. If you’re all-in on this line, then you likely already have this. If you’re picking and choosing I think this is a solid addition to your zord shelf provided you have room. I’m curious to see if Super7 comes back and does a Battle Mode or Fighting Mode Dragonzord in the next wave (the White Tigerzord failed to get enough orders to go into production – ouch!). That one isn’t as fun looking as the standard version, but it would probably move better. They’d also get to recycle the Megazord legs so why not do it?
Suck it, Goldar!
Interested in reading about more Super7 offerings from the world of Power Rangers?
Today we are wrapping up our look at Wave 1 of Super7’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Ultimates! action figures with the lone zord of the wave: the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord. The T-Rex zord was the vehicle of the Red Power Ranger and main body of the Megazord. It was basically the only one of the original…
Last week, when we took a look at the first Power Ranger in Super7’s line of Ultimates! action figures based on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers I expressed some surprise that Hasbro would license out this brand since it competes with their own Lighting Collection. I do feel like the actual Rangers are pretty safe. People…
We continue to finally offload some long standing preorders this year and up next is Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from Super7. It was June 2021 when these figures were announced to the surprise of many. Why? Because Power Rangers are now owned by Hasbro, probably the biggest toy producer in the world who has its…
Today we are wrapping up our look at Wave 1 of Super7’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Ultimates! action figures with the lone zord of the wave: the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord. The T-Rex zord was the vehicle of the Red Power Ranger and main body of the Megazord. It was basically the only one of the original five zords that could function on its own in a meaningful way. The other four rarely did anything, but on occasion, the T-Rex went into battle and took on some monsters in its dino form. As such, it made sense for Super7 to do a figure of this particular zord since it can standalone as an action figure while something like the mastodon or pterodactyl really would not. And it’s also because Super7 either isn’t allowed to produce, or has no desire to produce, zords that can combine into other zords like the famous Megazord.
Packaged for maximum width.
For me, a very casual Power Rangers fan, the appeal of this line is that Super7 can produce zords that are more accurate to the show. Whenever a company makes a combining one, they have to work within that framework. The zords in the show existed as both models, or puppets, and as actors in a suit. When the Megazord was formed, it then transitioned to a costume which could basically cheat the proportions. As a result, any figure that does the same isn’t going to resemble the one on TV. It does in a general way, but usually the proportions are off (especially the head) and any articulation the figure has needs to be able to be integrated without causing an issue for one of the individual components. When I look at my vintage Bandai Megazord, it almost feels like they prioritized the individual zords over the Megazord. Or, they simply determined that was the best way to go. The head is tiny, but since it needs to fit inside the head of the T-Rex that was something that couldn’t really be avoided. The shoulders are huge as well and the body is quite thick. There’s also the issue of the T-Rex tail which kind of just disappears. It’s still a tremendously fun toy, especially for 1993, but for collectors that want a screen accurate Megazord it’s not really going to cut it.
This is amusing to me.
For the T-Rex, the same is basically true as it needed to be more narrow to accommodate the transformation. The head also needs to fit in the chest and something has to be done with that tail. Ignoring that allows Super7 to just look at the character onscreen and let that dictate where the figure goes. It obviously can’t scale with the Power Rangers in the line so that part is essentially made up, but Super7 is a company that tends to feel bigger is better and that’s certainly the case with the T-Rex. The box alone is massive. I was pretty amused when I got my figures in the mail as I ordered just the Green Ranger, Goldar, and the T-Rex and each box was different in size. I knew this one would likely be the biggest, but I still wasn’t quite prepared. And that’s mostly due to Super7 packaging the figure from the side and leaving the tail fixed. They could have sent it out disassembled, but what’s the fun in that?
He can stand upright.
Or he can stand “Jurassic Park” style.
The Tyrannosaurus stands at roughly 8″ in height. I say roughly because this is a character that’s always going to have its knees bent to some degree so I’m basically selecting what I feel is a neutral position. Lengthwise, he’s going to need about 10.5″ of shelf space for that tail and that’s with a gentle curve in it. Not only is the figure pretty big, but it has some heft too. It’s solid which helps give it more of a premium feel over the other figures in the line and really over just about every other Super7 figure I own. And in terms of show accuracy, I’d say it’s pretty damn close. There’s a lot of paint on this figure and the metallic portions have a nice shine to them. There’s some black linework on the shins and around the silver portions of the tail. There’s lots of places that are just blocks of color consistent with the look of the show and most of the paint is cleanly applied. There’s a little slop on the linework on the left shin of mine and the right eye could have been better. It’s also missing linework on the top of the head which is disappointing (the paint is present on the promo images) as the head is one of the few places where there’s a plastic look to the figure. Basically everywhere on the body, Super7 decided to paint this guy, except for the head which is mostly red plastic. Normally, you would see the opposite as we did with The Simpsons since the eyes are naturally drawn to the head. I wish they had painted it, but it is what it is. The proportions also strike me as a touch imperfect when comparing it to the suit on the show. The head should probably be a little bigger and the hands boxier. The knees also should indent on the sides, but here they’re basically flush, and the red areas around the shoulders should be more rounded off. These are nitpicks, for the most part, and the only thing I really miss when comparing it to the screen is just more of that black linework., but I think most people will be happy with how this figure looks.
This one is probably not going to scale with any Power Rangers in your collection.
He’s sized well for battling Goldar.
There may be some temptation to display this guy with past iterations of the Dinozords. I only have one such era of releases, the 1993 and 94 stuff from Bandai. I did also get the Hasbro Megazord for my son, but that thing is pretty small and neither vintage nor collector grade. As for the old Bandai stuff, this figure isn’t that much bigger than the Tyrannosaurus released back then. He’s just a little taller, but way more bulky. The vintage one does have the proper linework on the head though so at least it has that going for it. The Dragonzord is another one some may want to place with this figure and, size wise, it more or less works. That Dragonzord is pretty damn chunky and not exactly screen accurate, but it’s a fun companion. If you want to go battle mode with your Dragonzord, then it suddenly dwarfs the T-Rex. That’s to be expected since the Megazord does the same to the Dragonzord. There was apparently just no way to get those forms right as a combining toy, and since it was for kids, it’s not like Bandai was that concerned about accuracy. This figure will presumably scale much better with future Super7 zords.
Meeting some old friends.
He’s big.
Naturally, a big, robot, dinosaur isn’t going to articulate particularly well. Super7 basically got most of the joints one would expect into this figure, it’s just not particularly functional. The head is on what feels like a double ball peg and can look up and down pretty well. The large panels on the side of the head prevent natural rotation in that the head will always want to turn to the side when trying to rotate, but it has a lot of room for nuance posing. The base of the neck is where you get your rotation and it’s on a ball hinge so you can get a little extra “up” range as well. For the arms, it’s the silver parts that move. The “shoulders” are on ball hinges and can move up and down and you get about 90 degrees of movement. Their range out to the side is very minimal. There are elbows that get you something less than 90 with a swivel as well and the wrists swivel and hinge and those are fine. There’s a basic twist in the waist area which begins where the silver portion of the chest ends. The hips are big ball hinges that go out the side a small amount and rotate a minimal amount. The knees are hinged joints that barely move and are rather useless and the joint is mostly going to be used for a swivel as the lower leg can rotate there a decent amount. The ankles are on hinges that don’t go back very far, but do go forward a decent amount. There is an ankle rocker but the range is pretty limited, but it’s enough to accommodate the range at the hips. The tail is on a series of ball joints. The first segment doesn’t move, but each one after that does so you get full rotation at each segment and a little up and down movement that allows the tail to be curled. If you have a heavy duty stand, you can even get this guy into his kicking attack pose where he stood on his tail in the show. Lastly, there’s also a hinged jaw and that works fine.
There’s 30 years of toy advancements staring right at you.
I’m actually surprised at how comparable they are in size.
The Tyrannosaurus isn’t going to do a whole lot on your shelf aside from stand there and look cool. I like the range at the head as it imparts some personality, even though I think the suit in the show didn’t allow for that. The hips are limited, but allow the stance to be widened which looks nice, or you can go for a more straight up and down pose. There’s also enough range going forward at the hips that the figure can be posed like one would pose an actual T-Rex which is more horizontal. It’s a pretty cool look, though not something you would have ever seen on television out of this character. It’s also easy to stand and there’s not much rub at the joints that will impact the paint as they mostly go as far as they’ll go and then stop. In the end, I think it’s fine as this isn’t supposed to do a whole lot and it’s technically more articulated than it is in the show.
Here’s some tiny Jasons for your dinosaur to play with.
If you like novelty coins, you get this too.
The accessories for this figure are also another area of limitation. What really can this thing even come with? Super7 decided we needed some hand options so we get a set of fists, open hands, and more neutral hands. I’m a little surprised they didn’t just make the hands articulate, but this is honestly probably better for us. There’s also a pair of mini, in-scale, Red Ranger figures. One is posed with the hands on the hips and the other is in a summoning pose. They’re very minimally painted as they’re just red, slug, figures with the white of the gloves, boots, and belts applied. I certainly wouldn’t expect a fully painted figure at this size, but I feel like those tiny, novelty, figures are better painted than this. Adding a white diamond to the chest would have helped to break it up a bit and some black for the visor. Without it, these look too cheap to really do much with. Lastly, we get a replica Power Coin that features the snarling T-Rex on one side and the zord symbol (I think that’s what it is) on the reverse. It’s a really heavy, chunk, of metal and it features some shading which looks nice. It’s neat, but not exactly practical and I have no idea what I’ll end up doing with it. I wasn’t expecting much, but I do think we could have used an effect piece for the mouth cannons. I honestly don’t know if it ever used them in the show, but who cares if it didn’t? Some little blast effects or something like a breath attack would have been pretty damn cool.
Making friends with the other dinosaurs. This guy will probably pair nicely with the upcoming Grimlock Ultimates! from the Transformers line.
“I gotta get me one of these!”
Ultimately, which is how I pretty much have to end a review of a Super7 Ultimates! release, I think this figure gets the job done. It’s supposed to be a more screen-accurate depiction of the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord from the TV show and it succeeds in that department probably better than any other release I’ve seen. There have been some really cool, and really expensive, Megazords over the years, but usually the T-Rex has to be compromised in some way to facilitate the transformation. Here, we don’t have to worry about that. Aside from some missing paint on the head, I’m really happy with how this figure turned out. It’s a chunky, hunk of plastic that moves about as well as can be expected and will look great in any Power Rangers collection. He doesn’t scale at all with the Rangers, which is to be expected, but will look fine battling someone like Goldar and I assume the monsters to come will follow suit. For me, this line is all about the zords and monsters so I’m generally pleased with what I’ve seen. I decided to pass on the Yellow Ranger and Putty, so this will be my final review of the first wave. I do plan on picking up the Dragonzord when it comes out and eventually I’ll have the Megazord as well. And like Goldar, this is a Super7 release that actually meets its asking price of $55. I’m actually surprised they didn’t try to get more for it as they will with the Megazord so I guess be happy for that. This is an easy recommend for me though.
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We continue to finally offload some long standing preorders this year and up next is Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from Super7. It was June 2021 when these figures were announced to the surprise of many. Why? Because Power Rangers are now owned by Hasbro, probably the biggest toy producer in the world who has its…
Last week, when we took a look at the first Power Ranger in Super7’s line of Ultimates! action figures based on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers I expressed some surprise that Hasbro would license out this brand since it competes with their own Lighting Collection. I do feel like the actual Rangers are pretty safe. People…
It was now a couple of weeks ago I posted about some toys I always wanted as a kid, but never got. Shortly after, I rectified some of those decades old injustices by purchasing the Dragonzord with Green Ranger from Bandai’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers line of action figures from 1993. The Dragonzord was my…
Last week, when we took a look at the first Power Ranger in Super7’s line of Ultimates! action figures based on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers I expressed some surprise that Hasbro would license out this brand since it competes with their own Lighting Collection. I do feel like the actual Rangers are pretty safe. People who are into MMPR will buy a set of Rangers from both companies and be happy. When it comes to the monsters though then I think Hasbro could have an issue. In truth, the monsters have been a relatively small part of the Lightning Collection. The few that have been released have been of the deluxe variety with an increased cost relative to the Rangers. They’ve also been kind of terrible from what I’ve seen. A few look like they’re sculpted well enough, but Hasbro really cheaped out on the paint apps for most of them and they just look awful as a result. It’s surprising because MMPR is an in-house brand for Hasbro now. I may not like it, but I understand when a Marvel Legends figure or a Star Wars release has less money put into it because those have the additional burden of a licensing fee, but that’s not the cast with Power Rangers.
Goldar has some size on Tommy, and I’m happy to see he doesn’t completely dwarf a Lightning Collection release.
Since Hasbro has declined to make any monsters worth my money, I naturally saw Super7’s line as a potential replacement. I like having villains, especially monster types, that are bigger than the heroes so the larger scale of Super7’s figures didn’t seem like an obstacle to me, but really a potential benefit. Though so far I’ve only committed to buying one such figure, but if it’s any good I may change my mind. And that figure is Goldar. I don’t need or want a big MMPR collection, but Goldar always felt like a character worth having. He’s Rita Repulsa’s general and basically her right hand man…monster. Despite his inability to actually defeat the Power Rangers, he was kept in that position when Lord Zedd usurped Rita’s throne and attempted to take matters into his own hands. As an enemy, I think Goldar was the first monster the Rangers battled in their Megazord, though I also haven’t gone back to watch the show in years so I could be misremembering. I always liked him as a design. He’s some sort of armored wolf, and as the name implies, he seems to like gold. He looks scary, and even though he wasn’t exactly batting a thousand, I always felt like he was a threat to the Power Rangers and not the show’s version of a Bebop or Rocksteady.
It’s probably not screen accurate, but this works for me.
Super7 apparently felt like Goldar was rather important and he was chosen to be the main villain in the first wave of Ultimates! Like Tommy, he comes in the same Ultimates! styled box with a green slipcover over a window box inside. He does get his own “power coin” logo on the slipcover and there’s a bio and still from the show on the back of the inner box. Once removed, Goldar stands a mighty 8″ or so to the top of his head, a touch taller if you count the horns of his helm. He looks rather resplendent in his golden armor which appears to be fully painted. Like the Green Ranger, it looks like Super7 committed to giving us a nice finish by casting the figure in the appropriate color, but then painting over it with the same. It gives the figure a much more “premium” appearance which is a good thing considering he’s priced at $55. The inner parts of his suit are painted red in accordance with the character design and there are a few gems or something painted as well. The face looks really nice as it’s blue with shading around the eyes. The teeth are cleanly painted and the furry…things…that drape over his shoulders look fine too. The crown of his helm is done in a translucent, yellow, plastic that almost looks like stained glass. It’s an unexpected, but welcomed, embellishment. If I am to nitpick the paint I’d first go to the black strap on the calf area which do nothing to convey the illusion of an actual strap. They’re flatly painted and unconvincing. Some of the red could have also been applied cleaner. It’s pretty hazy around the kneepads and some of the hands are a bit messy. In Super7’s defense, the hands are hard to paint as there are gold plates over the digits with red underneath. Hasbro declined to attempt such a thing and I’ll say for the most part they look good enough. I also feel like the feet could have used some shading as they’re the only part that looks “plasticy” to me.
Goldar is also sized well to compete with zords. I’m curious how he’ll stack up against the upcoming Megazord.
I figured we should sneak in a comparison to another Super7 figure featuring some gold accents that a lot of people seemed to have issues with. And we might as well put him up against another big boy in Apocalypse.
As for the sculpt, well there’s really little to complain about. Super7 absolutely nailed the portrait with Goldar which is something I wasn’t sold on with the Lightning Collection release. This looks like the character to me and I feel like if he started talking on my shelf I wouldn’t even be surprised. Most of the body has a nice texture to it as the gold is dented like a golf ball in several parts. I am not an expert on the show, but it looks accurate enough to me. All of the details I associate with the character are present like the giant codpiece and the bundled up tail on his rear. Super7 has received numerous criticisms from me over the years, but rarely is sculpting an issue and this guy is no different. He might really be one of their best which is not faint praise.
This ornately designed chest looks pretty damn nice.
These things are less interesting, but you get five of them!
Goldar has a rather expensive look to him so I was expecting Super7 to skimp on the accessories, but he’s actually pretty robust. For heads, we have two options which are essentially mouth closed and mouth open. Both look great, though I think I like the open one just a little bit more. For hands, we get a whole bunch: fists, gripping with horizontal hinges, gripping with vertical hinges, and open hands. For those gripping hands he has his rather large sword which is painted very nicely with hits of silver and gold and the red gem in the center. He also has his little wing nubbins on the back which can be removed and replaced with open, black, wings that also look quite nice. They’re entirely sculpted in plastic and the feathers are nicely textured and the paint is clean. In addition to all of that, we get some episode specific stuff. There’s an elaborate chest that contains the power coins after they stole them or something. The chest has a hinged lid so it can open and close and the paint job is pretty damn spectacular. Goldar also has the five Badges of Darkness which I think he gave out to the Putties to create evil, clone, Power Rangers. They’re identical and they just resemble grey stones with a light blue gem in the center of a star carving. Nothing special, but those more interested in episode-specific trinkets will get more mileage out of them than I. His extra stuff at least feels more purposeful than most of the stuff the Green Ranger came with.
The alternate head is definitely a keeper.
“I will destroy those teenagers with attitude!”
Goldar is not a character that looks like he’ll move very well, but again, Super7 kind of surprised me here. For starters, his head is on a hinged-ball peg. I do not like that, but at least he looks up and down okay and can turn his head. He just doesn’t really get much in the way of more nuanced poses. His head sits high on the ball, so he gets more than the Green Ranger, but Super7, please just go back to using double ball pegs. The shoulders are the hinged ball joints that peg into the arm and he can lift his arms out to the side past horizontal. This really surprised me as he’s got some rather large shoulder pads, but they do a solid job of getting out of the way. Rotating the arms all around isn’t going to happen, but you get enough. He has a biceps swivel and a single-hinged elbow that can’t quite hit 90. You also get a rotation point at the elbow as well. The wrists rotate and he has the proper hinge for the gripping hands, so that’s a plus. They are a tad loose though and his heavy sword can be a touch finicky to pose, but it seems to hold in position well enough. In the diaphragm, we get what’s probably a ball joint of some kind that lets the figure rotate, but also tilt to the sides. He arches back a little, and crunches forward a little as well. In both cases, it’s more range than I expected. He does have a waist twist below that and some hinged ball joints at the hips. Goldar can just about hit a split before the armor at his hips gets in the way and he can kick forward to almost horizontal, though he can’t really kick back at all. You get some rotation at the thigh and the single-hinged knee can go about 90 degrees. It also rotates a little at the joint. The ankles feature the usual hinge and rocker, though the shape of the plating of the armor does restrict things a bit. The hinge goes back well enough, but you don’t get much forward. The rocker is also limited, but I think you’re going to get enough out of it to keep his feet flat even in some rather wide stances.
He’s not some super-articulated ninja figure, but he can look tough and swing a sword so that works for me.
I would say Goldar articulates pretty well for such a design. I admit, some of that opinion is colored by my low expectations going in which were influenced by both the look of the figure and my own experience with Super7. I think they did a good job though and I don’t really feel like other companies would do much better. Yeah, you could slip in some double joints at the elbows and knees and maybe get a little better than 90, but is that really going to up one’s enjoyment of the figure? I think the easiest point for criticism is the head as Super7 should ditch the hinged ball peg. I suppose a hinged joint in the diaphragm could get more ab crunch? That’s probably a little more expensive to implement though and presents gapping issues usually. He basically reminds me of a NECA figure and his range is pretty comparable to Warduke. And since he has a less restricting his torso, he probably moves better than that figure. That figure is probably a little visually more impressive, but it’s definitely more subjective than usual. At least Super7 is comparing well to something that’s much cheaper since usually they present worse and cost more, a true double whammy.
A lot of people have had a lot of issues with these parts so do be careful.
I think the wings are worth the hassle as they do look rather nice once applied.
One thing I do need to talk about though is the quality control issues people have been having with this figure in particular. I have seen and heard from lots of folks who had issues with the head and wings. I didn’t actually mention the wings in the articulation portion, but they do connect via a ball and socket joint on the figure’s back and they have a hinge as well. The left wing seems fine, but the right is a bit iffy. The socket feels like it’s off just a tiny amount, probably not enough to notice with the naked eye, but it’s noticeably tight. People have been snapping the peg when trying to rotate or use the hinge. I noticed before even inserting that wing that the hinge also stressed the plastic when pushed all the way. I guess naturally that means don’t push it all the way, but it still should not be. With the head, I’ve seen folks have a hard time getting the alternate head on and snapping the post as a result. One person I talked to snapped it just rotating the head after getting it on. I mentioned in the review that the heads seem to sit high on the ball and I think that’s by design to help clear the stuff around his neck. If so, it’s a bad design because every toy collector is going to think they need to seat that head all the way down and if that’s breaking things then Super7 deserves to have to eat some costs replacing them. Just elongate the post, or find another solution, this one feels half-assed. Out of an abundance of caution, I heated the little wing nubs on my figure before removing them and also heated the wings before inserting them. Once in, I’m just leaving them alone as I posed them via the hinge before inserting them. For the head, the default one came off without any issues and I heated the open mouth one before putting it on. It seems fine, but it doesn’t really want to rotate so I won’t force it. I prefer the look of the open wings with the open mouth so I would have been bummed if they had broke in some way. I technically didn’t have any issues with my figure, but I feel like a lot of others had to suffer broken Goldars in order for me to have such an experience. I guess tread lightly and make sure you purchase from a place with a good return policy if it comes to that.
“Buy my toy!”
Quality concerns aside, I think this is one of the best Super7 figures I own. It’s rare that they hit in all three phases for me: sculpt, paint, articulation. Usually they try to close the gap by tossing a bunch of junk into the box with their figures, but with Goldar that’s not needed. And better yet, most of his “junk” actually feels purposeful. While I liked the Green Ranger as a figure, I couldn’t help but feel like it was overpriced. With Goldar, I don’t really get that feeling. I think he’s actually pretty damn good and for $55 he’s the rare Super7 figure I can say is worth it. I have a lot of Super7 figures that I’m happy with, but objectively feel are overpriced. Goldar gets to be both objectively and subjectively a good figure. If you’re one of the folks who had a different experience with the head or wings then you might feel differently, but I’m reviewing both the figure and my experience with the figure and for me this is exactly what I wanted out of this character. He looks good with the other releases in the line, and extra menacing with the Lightning Collection Rangers. He can face off with Super7’s Green Ranger, and look good battling the T-Rex zord and he’s probably the star of this inaugural wave. If King Sphinx or Lord Zedd turns out this good then I may need to add some more bad guys to my collection in the future.
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We continue to finally offload some long standing preorders this year and up next is Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from Super7. It was June 2021 when these figures were announced to the surprise of many. Why? Because Power Rangers are now owned by Hasbro, probably the biggest toy producer in the world who has its…
If it wasn’t obvious after my White Ranger review, I have decided I need to assemble a team of Power Rangers on my shelf. Specifically, the Mighty Morphin era. I’ve already posted my thoughts on both the Green and White Rangers, devoting a write-up to each figure, but for today I’m going to do some…
Last week we took a look at the male members of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from Hasbro’s Lightning Collection. Back when the show was red hot in the early 90s, all of the action figures of the Rangers were the same figure with a different head and decal on the chest. That isn’t going…
We continue to finally offload some long standing preorders this year and up next is Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from Super7. It was June 2021 when these figures were announced to the surprise of many. Why? Because Power Rangers are now owned by Hasbro, probably the biggest toy producer in the world who has its own line of action figures to sell. This has become somewhat the norm though as Hasbro has licensed out both Transformers and G.I. Joe for action figure lines, both to Super7. Is Super7 just paying a tidy sum that Hasbro is happy to take? Or is it that Hasbro just doesn’t view anything that Super7 could produce as actual competition to what they’re doing? That’s probably likely as Super7 deals in a different MSRP from what Hasbro does and is going for a different aesthetic. Well, sort of. With Transformers, Super7 is doing figures based on the cartoon that don’t transform. Hasbro probably knows that Transformers fans aren’t going to stop buying Transformers that actually transform, so have at it, Super7! With G.I. Joe, Hasbro has the Classified line which is somewhat of a reimaging for the franchise. It’s also in the 20-25 dollar range and sold everywhere. Super7’s G.I. Joe figures are based on the cartoon, in a different scale, and cost roughly twice what Hasbro is putting out so it seems easy to see where the confidence is coming from. With Power Rangers though, that’s a bit more confusing. Super7 is, so far, just doing the Mighty Morphin era of the show, by far the most popular. The figures are 7″ scale and, like the comparison with G.I. Joe, basically double the price of Hasbro’s figures. Conceptually though, they’re not much different since both companies want to mimic the show. The larger scale, more paint, and more accessories also have a chance to make Super7’s offering look a lot better than what Hasbro is doing. About the only restriction it would seem placed on the Super7 version is there’s no combing zords. Or Super7 doesn’t have interest in doing those. Either way, out of all of the Hasbro properties Super7 has started making action figures for, this is the one that seems most likely to negatively impact Hasbro’s sales of its own line. As long as it’s good.
The Super7 packaging we all know…and love?
It took awhile, but Super7’s first wave of MMPR figures is here. When the line was first unveiled, I wasn’t sure where my money would go. During the great lockdown that was 2020, I started buying a lot more action figures. One line I dabbled in was the Lightning Collection. At first, I just wanted the Green Ranger as that was the character I liked the most. Toys for MMPR were insanely hard to track down in 93-94 and that toyline from Bandai is one of the black holes of my youth. Also not helping matters was the odd space the show occupied. As a 4th grader when it premiered, I wasn’t sure if I was too old for it. It debuted at the tail end of summer vacation where I lived, so kids like me got to decide if we liked it largely free of peer pressure before school started back up. At that point, it became clear the consensus was that MMPR was a baby show, you would be ridiculed for admitting you liked it, even though it was the highest rated children’s show on Fox so likely everyone was watching it and just lying about it. At any rate, the only figure I would ever own of a Power Ranger as a kid was the auto-morphing Green Ranger and I only got it because we happened upon a fresh case at the store. I was with my grandmother, who was usually good for a toy or something on an outing, but even she was excited by this as she had tried in vain to score Power Ranger toys for my sister and I with little success so she eagerly shoveled out the cash for a pair of figures for the two of us. Had one of my friends been there though when that happened, I may have had to pass out of peer pressure. It was such a conundrum and I hated the pressure to outgrow toys.
It is time for morphing.
I’m only sharing those details to enforce that I have a special attraction to the Green Ranger as a toy because of the scarcity and pressure to not even like the show as a kid. During 2020, I also finally acquired a vintage Bandai Green Ranger and Dragonzord and that was the gateway to get into Lightning Collection. I eventually added the entire MMPR team, but since then, I’ve been able to avoid adding more (not counting the TMNT crossover figures). The first wave from Super7 would contain the Green Ranger, Yellow Ranger, Goldar, Putty, and Tyranosaurus Zord. Goldar had some appeal as I didn’t care for the Hasbro offering, and the T-Rex looked cool, but did I need another set of Rangers? No, but I obviously gave in for my boy Tommy. There was some temptation to just wait it out as Super7 figures have mostly hit clearance at some point, but my will wasn’t strong enough to wait.
Nice knife.
The Green Ranger comes in the standard Ultimates! packaging. There’s a green slipcover, which is consistent across the line and not a Green Ranger thing, and once removed you get a nice window box and a bio on the back. The Green Ranger stands at 6.5″ and it’s likely all of the male Rangers to follow will be featured on this same mold. The body is of a lean man which is consistent with the in-suit performer of the show. The shade of green in use for the costume is a more olive green than the brighter color Hasbro used for its figure. There’s really no sculpted folds in the green and the presentation comes across as very clean, and maybe a touch minimalist. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I suppose Super7 could have attempted to add that sheen the spandex suits seemed to possess, or even dirty up the boots and gloves, but simple was apparently the approach. The dragon shield is the Japanese version that the character was most often shown in as opposed to the frumpy, shiny, one used for the scenes shot in the US. The gold is a somewhat matte, yet metallic, finish and it’s a good approximation for how it looked on TV. There’s some black paint around the diamond and it’s cleanly applied. The helmet has a glossy appearance which also matches up with the show. The paint of the red diamond in the center and the teeth around the visor looks good.
Cool sword, but what is with that massive handle?
Other areas where the paint looks nice is the black trim of the belt and the morpher in the center. The words “Power Rangers” are even legible on the morpher which is impressive. Areas where the paint isn’t so great is the gold trim on the gloves and some of the green triangles on the gloves and boots as well. The right forearm on mine has one triangle that stopped short so there’s a gap of white between it and the gold band. On the left forearm, some of them just weren’t applied with enough opacity, or a residue of some kind got onto it after the fact. I left it in place for the images here, but after completing them I actually swapped the forearm on my left arm with the alternate left arm that comes in the box (we’ll get to that in the accessories). I’m tempted to do the same for the right arm, but my alternate right forearm doesn’t have great paint either. Aside from those issues, I do think he looks rather sharp. This shade of green just does something for me and it was the main driver of why I decided to get this figure. He does have his show accurate, black, holster for the Dragon Dagger on his left hip and all of the details of the gloves and boots are in place. There is one line missing from the helmet that should come out from the diamond and I’m torn on if I wish there was some black linework added there. Would it be too much, or would it add more pop to the presentation? It also looks like the red diamond should be outlined in gold and not the silver Super7 went with. One thing this figure does have over the Hasbro one though is that the white diamonds on the costume are painted on as opposed to ignored. Overall, I think I like the presentation of this figure vs the Lightning Collection offering, but concede it may fall short for those who want a more “stepped out of the TV” version of the character.
This sword is less impressive.
Because this is a Super7 Ultmates! release, we get a whole bunch of accessories. Tommy has a set of fist hands, gripping hands with a vertical hinge, gripping hands with a horizontal hinge, open/clenchy hands, a flute playing right hand, and a two-finger gesture left hand that I think is also intended for the flute. The Green Ranger’s signature weapon is his Dragon Dagger and Super7 included a damn fine representation of that weapon. The sculpt looks great and the paint is super impressive. I like that the center button on the handle is depressed so it slots into his special right hand very well. You could also have him wield it with his standard gripping hands too, but that’s not as fun. If you think the Green Ranger needs something more impressive to wield, he does come with the Sword of Darkness. It’s well-sculpted though the paint isn’t as crisp as it is on the dagger. I don’t like the very chunky handle which I’m assuming is show accurate, but maybe a little creative license could have helped here. It does have a real tassel tied to the end which is a nice touch and at least it isn’t warped and bent like the Hasbro version. If you don’t like it though, there’s also the Sword of Power. I don’t remember this thing, but it’s a big, black and gold sword that honestly I think looks stupid, but maybe I’m in the minority. He also has a gun which the internet tells me is the Mega Heater. I don’t remember it at all. It looks rather goofy, a very DIY type of thing made-up for the show, but if you like it you have it.
The figure comes with 3 different heads, but when two of them are this bad do they even count?
If you prefer your Rangers un-morphed and therefore unmighty, there’s a pair of unmasked heads. These are supposed to resemble the late Jason David Frank, but the likeness is terrible. Not helping things is that the paint is also poor. It’s not that it’s sloppy, it’s just unimaginative. The face is a solid color with no shading and the sculpt is too soft to create natural shading so it looks like a blob of nothing. One head features Tommy with a ponytail and the other he has the headband and a more tortured expression as it’s supposed to be Tommy from when he was under the control of Rite Repulsa. If you do happen to like these heads though, swapping them is pretty painless. You also get an activated morpher he can hold which is just as well-painted as the one on the belt. Sure, it makes no sense for him to be already in costume while in the process of morphing, but Super7 apparently felt like it had to include a morpher with each figure. The handle on it can slot onto either the gripping hands or even the clenching hands. It is pretty tiny though, so good luck in not losing it.
Shiny shields and one-color accessories, if that’s how you want to roll.
Lastly, we get some vintage toy inspired accessories. The Green Ranger comes with a shiny, vac-metal, dragon shield that can replace the show-accurate one he comes wearing. This shinier shield is a callback to the 8″ Bandai figure as well as the auto-morphing one and it snaps together in pretty much the same manner. To complete the look we also get a set of spare arms that lack the gold bands around the bicep. The old toys didn’t bother with that detail. They also didn’t have the gold trim on the boots and gloves or the green triangles instead of diamonds, but Super7 can only give you so much. Plus, the extra arms allow you to display your Green Ranger “naked” without the shield as he did pass it off to the Red Ranger on at least one occasion in the show (though I think the gold bands stayed on his arms when he did, but I could be wrong). I doubt many will want to display their figure in that way, but at least Super7 gives you the option. More likely is that some fans will want to buy doubles of the Red and Black Rangers to display with and without the shield. If Super7 had wanted to juice sales of this guy, they would have made the shield specific to him, but it looks like that’s not the case. Lastly, this figure also comes with two vintage style weapons in the form of a gray dragon dagger and a white blade blaster in gun mode. The dragon dagger is a replica of the one that came with the auto-morphing figure while the blade blaster came with the larger scale figure. It’s possible it came with the auto-morphing one too and I’m forgetting it. I don’t have that figure anymore though so I can’t comment on how well they nailed that weapon’s likeness, but the blade blaster is pretty spot-on to the one I have. I don’t know why anyone would ever use it, but it’s here.
I guess the gun is okay, but do we really need it?
The last thing we need to talk about with this figure is articulation. Being that this is a character from a martial arts-based show, he needs to move pretty well. Unfortunately, that has never been Super7’s strong suit. They openly dislike things like double-joints and seem loathe to break-up their sculpts in other ways. They did try something new with this figure, but in general, articulation is the one area where Hasbro’s Lightning Collection is always going to win out. One joint that it does have in common with that line though is the ball-hinged neck. I don’t know why Super7 went in this direction and away from double-ball pegs, but it is what it is. This figure looks up and down pretty well and you get full rotation, but there’s no nuance posing afforded by this design. The helmeted head doesn’t want to slide around on that ball at all. The shoulders are the usual ball-hinge design and they get full rotation while also being able to raise out to the side. The hinge feels tight, maybe due to how the arms had to be designed to be removable easily, while the rotation is pretty loose, but not so loose that he can’t hold a pose. Both style of arms feature a biceps swivel which looks better on the arms without the gold bands, but there’s not much Super7 could do there. The elbows are single-hinged and they do rotate at the joint as well while the wrists swivel and hinge and get plenty of range.
Maybe Super7 includes stuff like this to remind us of how far things have come?
In the torso, we get a joint I absolutely hate. Super7 felt the need to add an ab crunch to these figures and I think that’s fine. With the women Rangers, it’s a diaphragm joint that’s on a ball or double ball peg, but the males get this hinged ab crunch that looks awful. It’s basically an inverted design compared to what most companies will do where the hinge in the middle of the abdomen is the thin portion. Most companies will thicken that part to make it less noticeable and they also often have some chiseled abs to work around that this design wasn’t going to benefit from. Still, what Hasbro did looks much nicer while this looks awful. I continue to be shocked that a company that thinks a double-jointed elbow is too ugly to feature on one of their toys would okay this thing. Just do ball-pegs like the women! To add insult to injury, the joint doesn’t even work that well. The figure bends back a decent amount, but going forward is just so-so. Plus, this figure has the shield to contend with most of the time (though that also helps to hide the joint too) so the joint is largely just an eyesore and they would have been better off skipping it entirely. Below that is a waist twist, which is just a basic waist twist, so it’s fine.
“Oh man, I feel so naked!”
For the hips, Super7 is using a hinged-ball peg that goes into the crotch. Going out to the side, the figure can basically hit a split, or at least it would if the scabbard wasn’t in the way of the left leg. There is a thigh twist there, but it doesn’t have much range and might only get you about 45 degrees rotation going out away from the center of the figure. Kicking forward, the figure can basically do 90 degrees and it can kick back maybe half that, more if you want to really flex the diaper piece that is over the crotch. The knees are single-hinged and can bend back about 90 degrees. There’s a little shimmy to them, but I don’t think it’s truly intentional as the knees are cut in such a way as to prevent rotation. It’s not needed anyway as there’s a boot cut below that and the ankles are the traditional hinged and ankle rocker setup. They work fine as they go back pretty far and the rocker has generous range to help keep the figure’s feet flat on whatever surface you place it on.
You can sort of fake a playing pose with the dagger, but it’s a lie and you’ll always know it’s a lie.
In terms of posing, the figure is okay. He’s best suited to stand in a ready position with a weapon in-hand. He’s not going to be very good at kicking poses or sword-swinging ones either. The lack of butterfly joints also means he can’t do a proper morphing pose with the Power Morpher, but considering he’s not un-costumed I don’t think that’s a terrible loss. What is borderline unforgivable is that this guy can’t play the Dragon Dagger. With some forced perspective type shots, you could fake it for a photo, but that won’t do you much good for the shelf. Id you don’t need him actually squeezing the buttons then you can get the mouthpiece to the mask, but in order to do so I had to make the figure grip the very end of the dagger and it looks pretty silly. Limitations aside, the joints at least feel solid. The only loose ones are the shoulders, but they’re not giving me problems. The hinge in the head is also very loose, but again, it’s keeping the head where I want it so it’s not an issue at the moment. The figure does possess somewhat of a cheap feel to it, though it’s not awful. It’s mostly with the arms which again I think is a symptom of the removable design. The floppy hinge joint in the neck looks awful, but that’s only apparent when the figure has no head.
“Ha ha! Foolish Ranger! I am so much more ‘premium’ than you!”
The big question with this release, and it’s often the case with Super7, is the figure worth the $55 asking price? It’s a bit of a hard sell at that price and some of the other figures in the line aren’t really helping the cause. It’s a 6.5″ figure with okay paint for the most part, a decent sculpt, mediocre articulation, and a bunch of accessories. This is one of those Super7 figures that feels like it started with a price of $55 and then someone had to get the final product up from a much smaller cost to justify the price. And that’s apparent in the abundance of accessories that no one is really asking for. The vintage inspired stuff is cute, but how many people are actually going to use that stuff? The heat gun, the Sword of Power – these are all things I can do without and would actually prefer to not have around if it meant the price could come down. Super7 seems to have this thing where every figure in the line has to be $55, but other figures can certainly top that, but that $55 is a hard floor and in some cases it does the product no favors. More people would buy this if it were $40 and it wouldn’t look silly beside the likes of Goldar and the T-Rex zord. From Super7’s perspective, it makes people who buy the more impressive looking items feel better about that price, but I don’t know if it works that way. And it could be, and quite likely is, that Super7 would argue those other figures should be priced higher than what they are and maybe that’s true. All I know is, I’d like this figure a lot more at a cheaper price. I still willingly paid $55 for it and I don’t hate myself for it, but the pragmatist in me would advise others to wait for a sale. It’s the Green Ranger, he’s popular and not going out of stock anytime soon so there’s no harm in waiting. Where the price really hurts is that I’m only willing to get my favorite Power Ranger at $55 and he’s likely to be lonely on my shelf as a result. He’s just going to have to make due with being placed beside his Bandai and Hasbro counterparts.
Is Tommy Oliver your favorite Power Ranger too? Maybe you would like to check these out too:
In the early days of the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic I found myself filling the social hole in my heart with toys. That has continued, but in the earliest days I went backwards. I grabbed some toys that I had wanted as a kid, but never got, and I talked about them here. One such toy…
So a week ago I did a post that I titled The Toys that Got Away. It was about toys that I had pined for as a child, but for one reason or another, was unable to ever acquire. It wasn’t intended to be a sympathy piece or anything, because I had an awesome childhood…
When Mighty Morphin Power Rangers arrived on Fox Kids in 1993 it quickly became a ratings juggernaut. It was the hottest property around aimed at kids and seemingly everything got knocked down a peg as a result. By contrast, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was embarking on its downturn. The third film wasn’t nearly as successful…
We’ve looked at the two-packs from Hasbro’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers x Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line of action figures based on the comic book crossover, but have we saved the best for last? Coming in on his own is the arch nemesis for the turtles: The Shredder! And since this is a line specializing in combining the two properties, he can’t just be regular old Shredder, he needs to be something more! Now, maybe there was a thought to having Shredder somehow acquire Lord Zed’s staff or even Rita Repulsa’s magic (imagine Shredder in a Rita costume), but rather than do that they just gave him the powers of the former evil Power Ranger, Tommy, and his Dragonzord coin.
Is it just me or does he look huge in the box?
Shredder as the Green Ranger is a design unique to him. There’s obviously elements of both the traditional Power Ranger costume and Shredder’s, and the design is involved enough that he couldn’t be directly lifted from an existing figure. That is likely why this figure did not arrive in a two-pack but as a single carded figure with the MSRP of around $30. He comes in an oversized Lightning Collection box with new art and he looks sort of massive from the outside, though he’s not demonstrably larger than other figures in the line standing right around seven inches. Some of the body here is likely recycled from other figures in the line, or from other Hasbro lines in general, but there is quite a bit that’s new for us to dig into.
There’s a lot of good here, but some not so good.
First off is the head sculpt. Shredder comes with his helmet permanently affixed to his head, which is often the right way to do a proper Shredder. The base look of this Shredder gives me strong 2003 vibes as his face is all black with red pupils and the mouth guard is painted silver. It makes him look pretty bad ass, but also accomplishes the task of merging the helmet with the Green Ranger helmet since having his exposed flesh painted black conforms to there being a visor there. Atop the helmet is the Green Ranger’s dragon theme with the red eyes and ridge in the center. The center diamond is there as well and then it’s rimmed with the silver “tines” customary to Shredder helmets. The sides are silver and they’re staggered in the design resembling blades one after the other. It’s a very striking Shredder design and I think the artists involved did a great job blending it with that of the Green Ranger. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of the factory as the main head and the top of the helmet are separate pieces glued together. The top of the helmet is on crooked and set back too far on my figure and looks terrible. He should look like the box art with the center of the top piece lining up with the center of the mouthguard and the two should nearly touch. It’s not terrible enough for me to attempt an exchange or try to order from somewhere else, but terrible enough to drive me nuts. I’m very tempted to try to pry it off and re-attach it because it really does ruin what is otherwise a solid sculpt.
That mis-aligned helmet is driving me nuts. Even more so than the yellow knees.
Below the head we have the customary Dragon Shield. Shredder’s version of it is a bit weathered looking with sculpted spikes near the shoulders. They’re less pronounced than the comic art, but it’s still cool that Hasbro sculpted a new Dragon Shield. His arms are bare and end with his Shredder gauntlets, only now they’re gold with the actual blades on the back of his hands in silver. His belt is a purple sash and the Power Morpher is off-center, which is a nice touch to differentiate Shredder from the others, and he’s sporting a soft goods, purple, tattered, cape. It would have been cool if it was a wired cape, but it has some personality by virtue of the holes cut into. The only thing, design wise, I’m not crazy about with this figure is below the waist. He has the same gold and silver combo for the greaves on his shins, but the knee portion is a separate piece so there’s visible green in-between the knee and boot. From what I can tell, this isn’t the case in the book either and it’s supposed to be one piece. I’m not sure why Hasbro did it this way as they didn’t have to and it wouldn’t have cost any more money. And they also sculpted the kneepad in gold which creates unsightly gold lumps of plastic above the knee on the joint. The better move would be to simply paint the kneepad, especially since it’s actually the top of the boot, but Hasbro likes to cut paints apps wherever possible.
I always like open hands with Shredder, even going back to the Playmates original.
The boots and misaligned helmet are the only true eyesore to be found on this guy from a design point of view. The straps on his forearm gauntlets aren’t painted, so on the open hands he has “flesh-colored” straps that look kind of dumb, but not as bad as the knees or helmet. Those looking for true comic accuracy will likely be a little disappointed that the blades aren’t more pronounced, but this is a toy intended for a mass market release so some safety measures likely play a role. Aside from that though, the only other issue from a presentation is one also found on the standard Green Ranger and it’s the omission of the white diamonds on the shirt. On the Green Ranger, Hasbro kept the white pieces for the butterfly joint so he had a hint of the side diamonds, but with Shredder they just ignored them all together. This is fairly common with Hasbro and the manner in which they cut costs as they often eliminate painted details. It’s been acceptable for the company when their prices made them perhaps the best bargain in the hobby, but with their prices creeping up into NECA territory it’s becoming a problem. I’ll have more to say on that subject in the not-too-distant-future. Here, it’s relatively minor though I do think a little dash of white on the torso would have done the figure well.
Go ahead, Tommy, try and take back your Dragon coin.
This guy commanding a premium price might have lead you to believe he’d come with a bunch of stuff, but that’s really not the case. He comes with open hands in the box and a set of fist hands. The claws were straight on 3 of the 4 hands I got, with the open right hand being bent in the package. It’s nothing a little hot water can’t remedy though. He also has a pair of effects pieces. I guess they’re an energy effect or something? The claws slide into them and they’re a translucent blue. They actually can poke all the way through as there are slits on both sides so you can adjust the effect as you see fit. You could also have them shooting forward from the blade, but I think they’re intended to be more of a slashing effect and that’s how it’s depicted on the box. They’re fine, though personally I would have gone with more of a lightning look as the flame look Hasbro appears to be going for makes them look like water. One of mine also has some black flakes of plastic within it, which is a bit of a bummer, but honestly only noticeable from up close. That’s it though. No sword, no alternate head, just two sets of hands and two effects parts. It’s not terrible, but not exactly overwhelming either.
Shredder triumphant!
The articulation on Shredder is mostly as expected. If you’ve handled a Lightning Collection Ranger or a Marvel Legend then you should know what to expect. He has a ball hinged-head and probably some articulation at the base of the neck, but if so, it’s useless given the cape and Dragon Shield. He’s able to rotate and look up and down fairly well with basically no tilt due to the size of the helmet. His shoulders are ball-hinges with a butterfly joint. The spiked pauldron is pinned above the actual shoulder so it moves with the butterfly joint and doesn’t really interfere all that much with the range. It’s quite good and the cape and shield help hide any gaps left behind when the butterfly joint is fully extended. The left shoulder on my figure is really tight and hard to rotate, but I don’t feel like I’m going to break it, it just needs more breaking in. He has a biceps swivel and double-jointed elbows that give you about a 90 degree bend. No forearm swivel which stinks because the gauntlets are frozen in place which makes posing a bit annoying at times. The hands peg in, per usual, and can rotate and also feature a horizontal hinge.
There are some out there who wish the green on Shredder was a bit more like the Green Ranger, but I enjoy the muted shade.
In the torso, we have a diaphragm joint that’s pretty floppy. I don’t really like it as a result, but you can swivel there and get Shredder to bend forward and back an acceptable amount. He has an ab crunch below that, but the sash gets in the way so it doesn’t offer a ton. It’s a floating belt, but it’s way too tight. There also appears to be a seem underneath it that might be a waist twist, but I can’t get him to go. At the hips we have the standard ball pegs with thigh cuts below them. He can kick forward to about horizontal, but his cheeks prevent his leg from going back. The knees are double-jointed and work fine, which is good since I already mentioned they’re ugly. He does have a boot cut and at the ankle we have hinges and a rocker. The rocker works fine, though it’s a little loose while the hinges appear to be ratcheted. They’re annoying though because I can’t quite get the feet into a neutral position. The toe seems to always be pointed up a little, or down. I guess it’s not a huge problem as it just makes the most vanilla of posing difficult, but it is odd. I don’t have too much trouble getting him to stand even with the loose rockers. The only hindrance, really, is the floppy upper torso as he tends to bend back after being set down.
I think they scale pretty well. Shredder is taller and leaner, but still pretty damn beefy.
What we have with Shredder is what should be the best figure in this line if not for a few errors. I genuinely like the color palette on this guy as the muted green contrasts well with the bright Turtle Rangers and original Green Ranger. The gold paint and texture of the metallic parts of the armor look awesome, which is why the gold plastic knees really stand out as an eye sore. That torso really could stand to be tightened up though as I don’t like it. I’m more forgiving when it comes to the ankle hinges as I’m sure they had to use that ratcheted design for a reason and a standard one probably would have been too loose. The low accessory count is a bit of a bummer, but he does look great just armed with his claws and, even though it isn’t wired, I think the cape turned out very well. He’s a striking figure, but he is sold at what is a premium price for a Hasbro figure so I do think some of the flaws should not be readily overlooked. At the same time, he looks a million times better than the monsters released in the Lightning Collection so at least he has that going for him.
Group shot!
Shredder is the final figure in this line and is currently still available for preorder at various online stores. Gamestop is stocking this line as well and they can be found both online and in-store while supplies last. I would say normally if a line like this is a success then it will likely get reissued, but I have no idea what kind of arrangement Hasbro made with Viacom when it comes to the TMNT license so it’s possible they’ll be one and done. I wouldn’t wait on it if you’re interested. Given how terrible the helmet turned out on my figure, I would say take a look locally if you can to make sure the one you’re buying looks okay, but I suspect most will have to resort to online orders and hope for the best.
The Nostalgia Spot 