ZEO COG

POWER RANGERS: LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Every iteration of Power Rangers gets its own set of faceless mooks for the teens with aititude to beat up. Well, okay, Morphin had a few different ones, what’ with it actually being a few different shows. But the others tend to narrow in on just one. Zeo had the Rangers facing off against the Machine Empire, whose particular brand of mooks were the Cogs.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Zeo Cog was released in Series 11 of Hasbro’s Power Rangers: Lightning Collection. The Cogs were initially added to the line as a Pulse-exclusive two-pack, before this slightly modified version was put out on his own. The figure stands just over 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation. The Cog is built on the line’s generic spandex-clad body, with a new head, forearms, and boots, as well as an add-on piece for his belt. I find the head sculpt on this one particulariy impressive; it captures the signature elements of the show design, but cleans: them up just a bit, for that “the way you remember it looking” feel. The rest of the body is a bit more by the numbers, but generally works alright. He’s technically missing a pair of discs at the shoulders and elbows, but those are likely a symptom of the re-used body. The color work on this guy goes for the silver style of Cog, which is usually the one to get the marketing push. The silver is actually a semi-transparent plastic, which makes for a rather fun look. The painted elements are pretty ceanly handled, so he generally looks prestty sharp. The cog is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and a fist/open gesture combo), a staff in long and short configurations, and an alternate head with the face plate raised. Additinaly, the Cog gets two extra pieces that arent actualey for him: Zeo Blue’s tonfas! Since Rocky was the first Zeo Ranger, he was the only one not to get his power weapons, which was a definite bummer. So, Hasbro rounded out the team’s weapons via this release, which is honestly not the worst way to handle it. At least they didn’t make people buy Zeo Blue again.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I almost jumped on this figure right away when he was released, but I realized it was largely just for the tonfas, which is a hard justification, for buying a full priced figure. So, I held off, and, through a wacky set of circumstances that I can’t fully detail here, I got an incredibly good deal on one. He’s fun. Not as fun as the Rangers but still fun.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.