Tag Archives: Blue Ranger

#3830: Blue Time Force Ranger

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

BLUE TIME FORCE RANGER

POWER RANGERS: LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Way back in 2020, I discussed my last true hurrah with Power Rangers, Power Rangers: Time Force.  It’s a show that resonated pretty well with me, and ranks as probably my fourth favorite iteration of the series (after Space, Zeo, and Mighty Morphin, in that order).  I brought it up during its introduction into Lightning Collection, which, as it turned out, was also most of its presence in Lightning Collection, since they did Red, and then had a rather large gap.  The only other team member, added not too long before Hasbro wrapped up the line, was Blue.  I guess I’m okay with that.  Here he is!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blue Time Force Ranger was added to Power Rangers: Lightning Collection in 2023, as part of a deluxe offering that included both the figure and his time cycle.  Today’s review is just of the figure, since I do not have the time cycle.  I apologize to all the time cycle enthusiasts on that one.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  His assembly and articulation set up is very similar to Time Force Red, with the only major change-up being the removal of the visible pins on his elbows and knees.  Two figures in the line-up, and they don’t even have internal consistency.  Oh, Lightning Collection.  Otherwise, it’s all very similar.  Honestly, the Time Force Red sculpt was quite a nice offering, and lacked some of the weirdness of the MMPR-based bodies, so it’s actually a pretty solid starting point.  It’s pretty sleek and clean, and looks the part well.  His paint work is the main differentiating thing, of course, with the major palate swap for the coloring, as well as the tweaked shaping on the visor.  It all looks quite sharp, and the application’s generally well handled.  He’s packed with the same Chrono Blaster and Sabers as Red, as well as his own unmasked head, and hands in fists and gripping.  And that’s all without the Bike parts!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Early in Lightning Collection, when Time Force Red hit, I was genuinely planning to get the whole line-up.  As we progressed, that plan shrank down to maybe just this guy and the Quantum Ranger.  Well, it became clear Quantum Ranger wasn’t getting made, and then this guy got bundled with the cycle, which I didn’t really need.  But, Max ended up wanting the cycle, but not the figure, setting us up for one of our classic Ethan-and-Max-split-a-set-they-both-don’t-need-to-be-splitting-but-they’re-doing-it-anyway situations.  Ah, the good ol’ EAMSASTBDNTBSBTDIA set-up.  Ultimately, he’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a late-run Lightning Collection figure, which is to say very solid and by the numbers.

#3788: Mighty Morphin “Metallic” Blue Ranger

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

MIGHTY MORPHIN “METALLIC” BLUE RANGER

POWER RANGERS: LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)

There’s never been a *ton* of Power Rangers coverage here, but there certainly used to be more than there has been recently.  A lot of that lies with Hasbro’s Lightning Collection sort of fizzling out last year, leaving the brand a bit dead in the water until Playmates starts pushing their product, which will, of course, be Mighty Morphin focused again.  Look, it’s what sells, guys.  And I’m not helping matters here, because my last Rangers post, almost a whole year ago, was MMPR, and today’s post…is also MMPR.  I assure you, this one’s different!  He’s maybe a little bit sparkly!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mighty Morphin “Metallic” Blue Ranger was a Hasbro Pulse-exclusive Power Rangers: Lightning Collection release.  He was released alongside the other five Rangers, and they put them out between the original releases and the “Remastered” releases with the updated bodies.  They were sort of a palette cleanser, like when you get sherbet between courses of a meal.  Do normal places still do that?  Or is it just, like, a disaffected rich person thing?  I don’t know.  I’m getting sidetracked, sorry.  I would like to note that the quotation marks on “Metallic” are present on his name on the front of the box, which feels weird to me, but that’s official.  I guess he’s not *really* metallic?  I don’t know.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  He’s using the first MMPR mold, which isn’t terrible, but also has its drawbacks.  Most notably, he has some difficulty properly putting his arms down to his sides.  That being said, it’s what they had, and it’s also not bad by any stretch, especially pre-Remastered body.  He *does* get an updated helmet mold, though, so it’s not as weirdly shaped as the initial one.  The paint work proper is essentially the same, with the main change-up here being that the blue plastic is now translucent and it has little flecks of glitter in it.  It’s actually kinda cool, and I dig how it looks when it’s all lit up.  It’s gimmicky, of course, but it’s Power Rangers.  The accessories here are fairly similar to the standard release; he gets two pairs of hands, his power blaster, the Power Lance in both separated and combined forms, an unmasked head, an effect piece, and a Zeo Crystal.  All of the Metallic Ranger’s got new unmasked heads, which in the case of most of the others was because they were new actors, but since David Yost was the one that stayed the whole time, we just get an alternate Billy, this time without the glasses.  I’m not sure this one really works as well for me, but it’s *alright* I guess.  The Zeo Crystal is definitely in the running for “most likely to get lost.”

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t *need* any of these, so I didn’t get one new.  And, honestly, I didn’t even think about it all, until a full set came into All Time, and I was getting the Pink one for Rachel, making getting this one for myself pretty easy.  He’s nifty.  I don’t know that I’d go beyond that, but nifty’s not a bad spot to be for a Power Ranger.

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.

#3559: Blue Ranger

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

BLUE RANGER

MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS ULTIMATES (SUPER 7)

Fun FiQ Fact #0038:  David Yost’s Billy Cranston, aka Mighty Morphin Blue, had the longest run of the original five Power Rangers, making it halfway through the fourth season before departing.  He was the only of the core Mighty Morphin cast not to gain a replacement during the original run.

I keep *sort of* being done with Power Rangers, but in that sort of fashion where I know I’m not *actually* quite done.  What can I say, I’m a sucker for Blue Rangers, especially when they’re Mighty Morphin Blue.  If there’s a new line of Rangers, I’m pretty much a lock on picking up a Blue, as is the case with today’s offering, which is a Blue Ranger from Super 7’s Ultimates imprint.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Blue Ranger is part of the third wave of Super 7’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Ultimates line.  Each assortment gets two of the Rangers, and in this case, it’s Blue and Black.  The figure stands about 7 inches tall and he has 32 points of articulation.  Movement can always be a bit touchy on an Ultimates figure, and that’s somewhat maintained here.  His arm movement, especially on the elbows, is restricted.  He does get okay movement on the neck, as well as the mid-torso and waist.  He’s a little stiffer than other Ranger lines, but he’s not terrible.  You can get some decent poses out of him with a little bit of work.  But, by usual standards for Super 7, not bad.  The sculpt on this guy is largely shared with the other male Rangers in the line.  It’s a pretty good one.  We’ve gotten all different manner of builds on the Rangers in differing lines from differing manufacturers.  This one goes for the lighter build, which is pretty accurate to what we see on screen.  Detailing is generally pretty basic, but generally lifelike.  He gets a unique head with his signature triceratops helmet.  It goes for his cleaned up “toy style” helmet, and it does that pretty well.  Like his Lightning Collection counterpart, he’s also got a slightly tweaked belt, featuring his proper emblem on the buckle.  Blue’s paint work is basic, but quite clean, and pretty much exactly what it needs to be.  Blue gets a quite impressive selection of accessories, which includes two unmasked heads, five pairs of hands, three different configurations of his Power Lance, four different styles of the Blade Blaster, his power blastert-thingy, his morpher, and power coin.  While most of the other Rangers use the two heads to cover both people who use the identity, Billy instead gets early and late run head sculpts.  The early sculpt is goony and a little silly (but the paint is pretty good), while the later run sculpt sports what is probably the best David Yost likeness I’ve seen on a Billy head.  For the Power Lance, there are extended and compacted versions of the show-accurate look, plus a toy style version.  The Blade Blaster gets folded up, blaster, blade, and toy style versions, and the hands are designed to work pretty well with all of those differing configurations.  The gripping hands are all a little loose when holding the accessories, which makes for some tricky posing.

THE ME REMAINDER OF THE EQUATION

You know, way back in 2014, when I got my Figuarts Blue Ranger, I really thought that was going to be it, but here I am with yet another version.  Honestly, I knew I was grabbing this one as soon as he was shown off.  Of course, he was beaten to market by the Remastered edition of the Lightning Collection release, which hits some of the same marks as this one, albeit in its own unique way.  I like them both for different reasons.  Based on what I’ve seen, Blue looks to be the nicest of the Super 7 Rangers, which I appreciate as someone who only collects Blue Rangers.  On his own, he’s not perfect, but there’s quite a bit about him that I really, really like.

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.

Matty’s Corner #0004: In Space Blue Ranger with Galaxy Glider

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Matty's Corner and tagged with , , , , ,

IN SPACE BLUE RANGER & GALAXY GLIDER

POWER RANGERS: THE LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Hi, Ethan here!  Welcome to Matthew’s Corner, where I’m collecting the mad ramblings of my 6 year old Matthew, who also likes to talk about action figures.  What can I say, I’m sympathetic to his need to ramble about action figures.  So, I’m just gonna let him take it away…though, for what it’s worth, I’m still transcribing for him.

Presenting the Blue Space Power Ranger!  *Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech*  [Yes, he actually screeched–E]  Okay, I don’t mean that screeching anymore.  If you saw, that step at the end of the screech was actually my father writing a note.  Don’t write another note.  I am going to review the Space Blue Power Ranger.  If you heard that, in the starting, with the screech.  Is that the end of the preview?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Blue Power Ranger is in the Lightning Collection toyline.  This Blue Power Ranger is a deluxe figure.  Apparently, my dad cannot remember when this figure was out.  *Farting noise*  The figure has 34 joints.  This figure’s height is 6 inches and 1/4.  The sculpt is, well, I feel like the knee pads are a little too straight.  Other than that, it’s probably good.  I really like head of the figure.  Both heads.  He can move well, a little bit on the arms is a little hard and a little bit on the right knee is hard to get, but otherwise it’s okay.  Okay, reviewing all of the colors in one.  Starting off with the head, which has blue on the chin and over the mouth of the hat.  The eye strip has a little bit of black and white on the outside, but not all white.  There is a little tiny gold strip, if you look in.  A bit on the top of his head is black.  The mouth strip is grey.  And the rest is all blue.  Okay, the rest of the figure. That does not include the head.  The neck is white, with a little gold strip around.  The top of his body is blue with white strips on the arm and a little in the middle.  Now, what’s in the middle that does not include some white is on the color strip in the middle of the body.  There is black, yellow, red, pink, and blue.  Then below all that is just a lot of blue and a belt that includes white and gold, legs with a blue strip and the boots, white.  The arms start blue and then there are some white gloves.  Back to review of the normal figure.  No more color scale.  My favorite accessory is the gun and the blast.  The sculpting of the blast looks really hard to make.  He also comes with hands and an axe, and he comes with another head.  And!  He comes with a galaxy glider.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got this figure because I really, really, really like Space Power Rangers and Blue is my favorite color.  My dad came home with a Blue Space Power Ranger because every Monday we watch Space Power Rangers.  I love, love, love, love, love, love, loooooooooooooooooooove the figure.  I will see you next time with Venom!  Good night, folks!

#3122: Mighty Morhin Ninja Blue Ranger

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

MIGHTY MORPHIN NINJA BLUE RANGER

POWER RANGERS: LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Wait, another Power Rangers thing?  Wasn’t I supposed to be done with these?  I mean, I finished my two times, right?  Okay, but hear me out: Blue Ranger.  Yeah.  See how that instantly changes the dynamic?  Makes so much more sense now.  Which Blue Ranger, you ask?  Well, it’s, uh, Billy again, but, you know, in a different outfit.  What’s the deal with that?  Well, depending on which continuity you’re going by, the Ranger’s source of power was destroyed by either Rito Revolto or Ivan Ooze, and they had to go train to gain new powers, which meant getting new “ninja” suits.  Boom.  Perfect excuse for new toys.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mighty Morphin Ninja Blue Ranger was, alongside Mighty Morphin Ninja Black, the debut of the Target-exclusive Ninja Rangers sub-set of Lightning Collection.  That said, they seem to have more or less hit at the same time as the White and Pink Ninja Rangers.  They’re all hitting in solid cases, though, so it’s probably just a regional thing.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  This version of Billy uses the newly developed parts used for all of the male Ninja Rangers.  The articulation scheme for this one is similar to the standard Rangers for the line, albeit with some slight adjustments to match up with more recent Hasbro figures from their other 6 inch lines.  The butterfly shoulders have a tendency to pop out of place, but otherwise, the range of motion is pretty solid.  He’s also got the pinless construction for the elbows and knees, which works better from an aesthetic standpoint.  The sculpt proper is pretty solid; it takes the design from the show, which is admittedly kind of sloppy and hokey, and does its best to make the design notably less sloppy and hokey, while still looking the part.  The figure gets three different head sculpts.  There’s the fully masked look, which is the same across all of the male Rangers, plus the movie-inspired hood and half-mask combo, and the unmasked with headband look, as well as two different styles of collar piece to match up with them.  Of the heads, the hooded appearance is definitely my favorite, as I think it looks the sleekest.  It and the fully unmasked head both sport pretty solid likenesses of David Yost, on par with the one included with the standard MMPR Blue.  Ninja Blue’s color work consists of a bunch of molded blue plastic, plus painted accenting for the other colors.  The white is a little fuzzy on the edges, but the rest of the details are pretty sharp.  The two heads with the face visible use the printing for the details, which works pretty well. The unmasked head has a stray smudge of brown on his chin, which is kind of frustrating. The eyes on the fully masked head are also printed, but it’s not quite as effective for that piece.  Ninja Blue is packed with two pairs of hands (fists, and a flat and striking gesture pair), as well as an effects piece for the hand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I’m largely done with Lightning Collection at this point, and I’m also done with store exclusives (or at least hunting them down), this guy piqued my interest when he was shown off.  I do like my Blue Rangers after all, especially when they’re Billy.  That said, I didn’t put much effort into it.  I just wound up finding him during a quick stop at my local Target for some other things.  He was a rather nice surprise.  He’s a solid figure, and honestly a noted improvement on prior offerings from the line.

#3022: In Space Blue Ranger Vs Silver Psycho Ranger

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , , ,

IN SPACE BLUE RANGER VS SILVER PSYCHO RANGER

POWER RANGERS: LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Hey, the Power Rangers In Space-themed reviews are getting closer together!  This is something that I can definitely get behind, my guys.  Have I mentioned that I really like that show?  I definitely have, but is it really possible for me to say it too much?  Probably, but it’s my site and I set the rules around here.  So, you know, there it is.  Slowly but surely, we’ve been assembling the main team from the show, as well as a few of the foes they faced.  Thus far, we’ve gotten four of the six team members, as well as all five of the evil Psycho Rangers.  The remaining two main rangers are both slotted for release, quite soon.  So soon, that I’ve in fact already got one.  And also, there’s a sixth Psycho Ranger.  Bet you didn’t see that coming!  Especially because it’s actually the seventh!  I’m bad at counting, you guys.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

In Space Blue Ranger and Silver Psycho Ranger are one half of the third assortment of Power Rangers: Lightning Collection two-packs, with the other half being MMPR Yellow and Scorpina.  This pack specifically calls out being based on the episode “Five of a Kind,” the fourth episode in In Space‘s Psycho Ranger arc. That’s mostly in regards to the presence of Psycho Silver, but the Blue Ranger is also really central to that particular episode as well, making for a pretty natural choice pairing him off with Silver for the set.

IN SPACE BLUE RANGER

TJ Johnson, aka the Blue Space Ranger, is another entry in my list of “Red Rangers being way cooler when they’re not Red Rangers.”  As Turbo Red, I didn’t care, but as Space Blue, I’m quite a fan.  Of course, I guess I’m just a little bit biased towards Blue Rangers.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  As expected, TJ shares his construction with Andros, Carlos, and Zhane.  All of the male Rangers have the same approximate build, and have classically shared their parts when it comes to toy form, so this is all fairly sensible.  It helps that it continues to be a rather serviceable sculpt on its own, so there’s not really anything that warrants changing.  The paint work is the same as the others, but, of course, with blue in place of the other main colors.  The application is nice and clean, with no notable slop or bleed over, and they’ve made the appropriate adjustments to the shaping on the edge of the visor, so as to give him that extra bit of uniqueness.  TJ is packed with two sets of hands (gripping and a fist/flat combo), his Astro Axe, Astro Blaster, an effects piece for the axe, and an unmasked head.  The unmasked head has an okay likeness of actor Selwyn Ward, but he does seem a little bit serious and dour for how TJ tended to be portrayed.

PSYCHO SILVER RANGER

Rather amusingly, the Psycho Rangers are one of the two most thoroughly-explored Rangers teams in the line thus far, down to even getting both of their add-on members.  The first was Psycho Green, a later addition from the comics, while the second is today’s other focus, Psycho Silver.  In “Five of a Kind,” as part of a ploy to defeat the Psycho Rangers, the whole team disguises themselves as Space Blue, while Zhane pretends to be an all-new Psycho Ranger, his own evil counterpart of Psycho Silver.  Originally, it seemed that Psycho Silver was going to follow the trend of all of the Psychos barring Yellow, in being released prior to his main team counterpart.  However, regular Space Silver snuck in under the wire, and they wound up showing up at about the same time.  That’s pretty cool, I guess.  The figure is 6 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s identical to all of the male Psycho Rangers, again as expected.  It’s a good sculpt, probably even a bit better than the main Space sculpt, and all of the costumes on the show were the same, so it makes sense.  The paint is the main change-up, as he gets silver in place of the accent color seen on the others.  Psycho Silver gets the same alternate effects hand as the other Psychos, as well as a new Psycho Silverizer piece, and an unmasked Zhane head.  The unmasked head is unique from the one included with the standard Silver.  The hair is sculpted to the head this time, rather than being a separate piece, and the expression is just generally a more stern one.  While the hair seems a little better on this one, the face’s likeness seems a little too angular for Justin Nimmo.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’m slowly chipping away at the In Space team here, so there was never any doubt that I was picking up this pairing.  Both figures here are, admittedly, rather by-the-numbers in terms of construction and such, but that’s also exactly what they’re supposed to be, so I can certainly dig it.  They do what they need to, and they do it well, so I’m very happy to have them.  And, hey, I’m only one Ranger away from the whole team!

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

#3010: Blue Ranger

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

BLUE RANGER

MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS (THREEZERO)

Oh man, I haven’t reviewed any Power Rangers since last year!  …get it?  Because we’re only two weeks into the–okay, yeah, it’s not that funny, I guess.  Also, it’s a joke I’ve already pulled once.  So, you know, there it is, I guess.  Look, I’m not proud of it either, okay?  Let’s just get to the actual review, I guess.  As far as Rangers reviews go, the original incarnation, Mighty Morphin, has become a bit rarer around here, what with me having already gotten the whole core team in my preferred scale some time ago.  I do have a soft spot for the Blue Ranger, of course, so that does leave me more avenues to review the occasional release here and there.  While we’re here and there, ThreeZero has recently picked up the license for the purposes of some 1/6 scale figures, which includes my boy Blue, so I’m taking a look at their take on him today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Blue Ranger was released at the same time as the other five Rangers in ThreeZero’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers line, hitting late last fall.  He and the others were available both as single releases and in one boxed set for the whole team.  Obviously, mine’s the single release, but the actual figures are the same between the two styles of box.  The figure stands just shy of 12 inches tall and he has over 30 points of articulation.

In true 1/6 form, the most prominent piece of sculpting here is the head, or in this case more specifically the helmet.   Blue’s triceratops-inspired helmet is nicely recreated here.  It’s not quite a perfect match for the on-screen helmet, but it gets all of the elements, and it’s pretty close.  It’s quite sleek in its implementation, and the sculpting is all properly clean and sharp in its detailing.  The paint work is likewise clean and sharp.  The extra panel lining on the edges isn’t strictly show accurate, but at this scale it helps to make the sculpted elements pop a bit more, which is a plus.  The overall finish of the helmet is glossy, in proper fashion for how it looked in the show…most of the time, anyway.  There’s no alternate unmasked head included with these releases, which is on one hand a slight letdown compared to other 1/6 stuff, but on the other hand totally understandable given how much lower the price point is on these figures compared to others on the market.

In contrast to my last two ThreeZero reviews, where the figures were fully sculpted, and a mix of plastic and diecast parts, the Rangers are more classic 1/6 scale figures, making use of cloth costumes with plastic accents and underlying body.  It’s appropriate, what with all the spandex involved with the actual costumes and all.  The main suit is a spandex-like material, which scales well to the body and is generally well-tailored to match.  Obviously, some of the stitching is a little larger than it should be, but not by much.  The metallic finish on the material matches the original Sentai costume, and is just overall very sleek looking, which I’m all about.  The white elements are applied via a rubberized paint, which is clean, sharp at the edges, and offers consistent coverage.  The belt piece is a mix of cloth and plastic, with the main belt being a pleather like material, and the buckle being plastic.  The back of the belt is a little bit rudimentary in its design, but otherwise the piece works well.  The cuffs for the boots and gloves are sculpted plastic parts.  They’re nicely fitted to the body, and help to further keep the costume in place, as well as maximizing the posability on the wrists and ankles.

The body under the suit is clearly designed for function over form, as you would hope for this style of figure.  It shapes well under the suit, but is largely built for being well articulated.  There’s a rubbery sort of a padding on the mid section for more proper shaping, which does its job nicely.  The articulation is a little stiffer than I’m used to at this scale, but that makes it more practical for holding poses.  It just takes some getting used to hearing the joints make a rather noticeable squeak every time you pose them.  All things considered, this body certainly competes well with the top end of 1/6 scale bodies, which is a definite plus.

The Blue Ranger is pretty decently accessorized.  He includes 4 pairs of hands, his Power Lance, and the Blade Blaster.  The hands are great for all manner of poses, giving you a lot of options.  The Lance and Blaster are notable for actually being fully transformable.  The Lance can be used in the separate dagger forms, as well as combined, and full extended.  Likewise, the Blade Blaster is capable of all three of its forms, in one piece, rather than three separate versions like we tend to see.  The weapons getting their full compliment of set-ups was actually a pleasant surprise for me, as I’d fully expected them to just be in their collapsed forms, since that was how the Figuarts release handled things for all the non-Reds.  Ultimately, the combined form on the Lance is a little wobbly, but it’s still cool that the functionality is actually there.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

ThreeZero has been a rather pleasant discovery for me in the last year.  I really liked both of the prior offerings I’d grabbed, and when I saw this guy go up for order, I was definitely down to at least give him a try.  I was expecting him to be a passable figure at least, but at the price point, I wasn’t expecting him to be nearly as impressive as he wound up being.  For less than half of the price of your average Hot Toy, you get a figure that’s maybe not *quite* the same quality and is a little lighter on the accessories, but it’s not as much of a gap as you might think.  This is another win for ThreeZero as far as I’m concerned, and they certainly have my attention for future releases.

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

#2922: Lost Galaxy Blue Ranger

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

LOST GALAXY BLUE RANGER

POWER RANGERS: LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)

I go back and forth on my favorite Rangers from a given season of Power Rangers, generally finding myself most enjoying the changes of dynamic that the sixth ranger brings along.  Of the core team, however, my initial connection to Billy, the original team’s Blue Ranger, has always given me a little bit of affinity for the Blue Ranger of any given line-up.  The Blue Rangers do have a tendency to be the unsung heroes of any given season, being pretty central most of the time, but also just shy of being the most central.  What I’m getting at is, really, where’s my “Forever Blue” crossover?  Seems like a missed opportunity.  Well, I’ll just build my own crossover.  With blackjack!  And….okay, actually, forget all that.  I guess I’ll just stick purely with the Rangers.  Anyway, while we’re on the topic of Blue Rangers, let’s look at another one, specifically Kai Chen from In Space‘s follow-up, Lost Galaxy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Lost Galaxy Blue Ranger is another figure from the ninth standard assortment of Lightning Collection.  He’s the third Galaxy Ranger in the line, and the second of the core team members, following Red back in late 2019.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Structurally, he’s, unsurprisingly, largely the same as the Red Galaxy Ranger.  Kai’s another rather average sized person, and the elements were shared between the Ranger costumes in the show, so it makes a degree of sense.  Kai does get a brand new helmet sculpt, which does a nice job capturing his gorilla-themed helmet from the show.  Otherwise, it’s pretty standard issue stuff, and it all works just as well as it has all of the other times.  Kai’s paint work more or less matches up with the Red Ranger in terms of how it works, just with blue in place of the red.  He does get a fair bit more detailing on his helmet design, which is cool, but he’s also still got the slight fuzziness on the transitions from white to blue, like Galaxy Red.  Galaxy Blue is packed with an unmasked head for Kai (sporting a pretty strong likeness), two sets of hands (one set gripping, the other fist/flat combo), the Quasar Saber in both forms, his Transdagger in Cosma Claw form, and a lightning effect for the saber.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I do really like Blue Rangers, and I was still kind of in on the Power Rangers thing for Lost Galaxy, but I didn’t really ever have much of an attachment to Kai, for whatever reason.  I think I was just distracted by the awesomeness that was Magna Defender.  But, if I’m game on this whole Forever Blue thing, Kai’s kind of necessary.  He’s honestly not bad.  Pretty straight forward and by the numbers, but I do like him just a bit more than Galaxy Red, so that’s cool.

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.

#2587: Psycho Rangers

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

IN SPACE PSYCHO RED, BLUE, BLACK, YELLOW, & PINK RANGERS

POWER RANGERS: LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Remember yesterday, when I was talking about Power Rangers In Space, and how it’s my jam, man?  Well, that continues to be the case.  While the main team of Rangers from the show is just now starting to make their way into Hasbro’s Lightning Collection, we do already have one complete team of Rangers from the show, specifically the Psycho Rangers.  These evil counterparts of the main team were notably absent from the show’s tie-in toys at the time.  They eventually surfaced in Bandai’s Legacy Collection, but the line was cancelled before the whole team could be completed.  The Lightning Collection initially started out with seeming plans to release each Psycho Ranger individually, but then rather quickly threw in that towel and just dropped the whole darn team all at once.  So, uh, here we are.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

The Psycho Rangers were released as an Amazon-exclusive boxed set, as part of the Lightning Collection line-up, hitting towards the end of the summer of this past year.  Black, Yellow, and Pink are exclusive to this set.  The Red and Blue Psycho included in this set are indistinguishable from the prior releases, reviewed here and here, though there is also an effects piece included for Red’s sword, albeit one re-used from elsewhere in the line.

PSYCHO BLACK RANGER

Psycho Black was fortunate enough to be one of the ones Bandai got to, by virtue of being largely a parts re-use of the other male Psychos.  Hasbro’s version sticks with that, rather unsurprisingly.  He’s still 6 inches tall and he still has 34 points of articulation.  The articulation on this body, specifically the arms, is a bit on the limited side, but otherwise, I do really like this sculpt, and I certainly don’t have any issues with its re-use here.  Obviously, he swaps out the paint scheme, with the primary color accents of the least two being changed to black here.  I do appreciate that they kept the shinier finish to the accented parts, thereby keeping those parts from getting too lost in with the rest of the black on the costume.  Psycho Black is packed with his Psycho Rod, and two sets of hands in gripping and a fist/electrical effect combo pairing.  I’m bummed that he didn’t get an effects piece for his weapon, but it’s worth noting that his effect hand is actually a unique sculpt from the other two male Psychos.

PSYCHO YELLOW RANGER

Absent from Bandai’s attempt at the Psychos were both female members of the team, Psycho Yellow included.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 34 points of articulation.  The articulation here is pretty similar to the male body, with the slight limitations on the shoulders and all.  The double elbows are swapped out for the universal joints, as is usually the case for female bodies, but no major posability is lost.  On my copy of this figure, there are a lot more loose joints, notably in the arms and the neck.  This means she struggles a bit with holding a pose and staying standing, but fortunately not as bad as some figures, but it’s still annoying.  While Black was a total re-use, Yellow, being female and all, is mostly new, apart from the helmet, which is identical for all of the Psychos.  The sculpt matches up well with the other version, and it means she slots in beside the other three team members just fine.  The paint on Yellow pretty much matches up with everyone else, with the accents changing to Yellow, of course.  Yellow is packed with the two sets of hands to match the male body’s and her Psycho Sling.  Again, no effects piece, which is a shame.

PSYCHO PINK RANGER

See what I wrote above, about Psycho Yellow?  Great, you can pretty much just swap the word “Pink” in there and you’re good to go.  Okay, maybe not quite, I guess.  The joints on my copy of Pink are a little tighter than on Yellow, so that makes her a slightly more easily used figure.  At the very least less frustrating.  Paint’s more or less the same, color change aside.  She gets the same hand selection as Yellow, plus her Psycho Bow.  Also, somewhat astoundingly, she gets an effects piece, the firing arrow that MMPR Pink and Ranger Slayer got.  I guess that’s not too bad.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As cool as the Psychos are, and as much of a fan of In Space as I am, I will admit that I was kind of cold on this set.  I was all prepped for picking them up one by one, and that’s why I’d gone and gotten Red and Blue.  I was waiting for the other three, so when they decided to drop the whole set of them all at once, it sort of felt anti-climactic.  Not helping things was the fact that Red and Blue are included again and are also completely unchanged for this round, meaning I was only actually getting three new figures in a set of five.  And, of course, one of those three new ones is a straight repaint, and the other two are the same mold as well.  It’s just a lot of sameness all in one go, I guess.  So, I opted not to jump right in on this set.  Max, on the other hand, did, but upon receiving them, was iffy on keeping them.  Since I’m a big In Space fan, and I did want to get them eventually, I was happy to take them off his hands.  Ultimately, the set’s fine.  Nothing amazing, and I still think spacing them out would have been better, but I’m glad I have them.  Now, I need to figure out what to do with the extra Red and Blue, I guess…

#2478: Mighty Morphin’ Blue Ranger

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

MIGHTY MORPHIN’ BLUE RANGER

POWER RANGERS: LIGHTNING COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Continuing on yesterday’s Lightning Collection theme, today we’re jumping just a little bit back in Rangers history, with a Mighty Morphin’ era figure.  Hasbro’s been slowly weaving the inaugural team into the Lightning Collection line-up, and the latest to join them is Billy Cranston, the Blue Ranger, notable for being the only member of the MMPR team to stay with the show for its whole run, before being retired from active Ranger duty during the events of Zeo.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mighty Morphin’ Blue is part of the fifth series of Lightning Collection figures, and is the MMPR offering for this particular set.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 34 points of articulation.  Billy is largely built out of the same bank of parts as the other male MMPR Rangers, which is fairly sensible, and also fairly expected.  It also means he’s a pretty straight-forward figure in terms of what he does.  The new helmet’s a nice enough piece, though as with all of the MMPR figures, I think I do prefer the Figuarts one. Something about the proportions on this one just seems a little off.  Of course, it’s still got all the important Blue-specific elements, so it’s still very identifiable as Billy’s helmet.  As with Red and Black, Billy gets a slightly tweaked belt, with the proper belt buckle, which continues to be a really cool, and not immediately expected element.  Billy’s paint work is pretty straight forward stuff; if you know general Hasbro paint, you know how this one goes.  There’s minimal slop or bleed over on my sample, so that’s certainly good.  For me, the part where this figure really shines is the accessory selection.  He gets an unmasked head (with a pretty solid David Yost likeness; it’s easily the best of the MMPR likenesses), two pairs of hands (in gripping and fists), his power lance in separated and fully extended form, and a blue lightning effect.  The unmasked head is definitely a lot of fun, but I was also really happy to get the fully extended Power Lance, given its absence from the Figuarts release.  Now, between the two, I have the full accessory complement.  Yay!

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

While I generally haven’t felt the need to pick up the MMPR cast in the Lightning Collection style, thanks to already having the Figuarts and still being quite happy with those, Billy is by far my favorite member of the team, and just one of my favorite Rangers in general.  Given the extra unmasked portrait and the extended lance, this one was pretty easy sell for me.  Not gonna lie, he’s making it harder for me to stick to the my plans to skip MMPR, because I do really like this figure.  I think I’ll be able to manage holding out on the others, though.  Whatever the case, this guy’s pretty sweet.

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