The recent news of a new Playmates Power Rangers line has inspired me to finally post the last few Ranger figures in my queue. No one really knows what the Playmates figures will look like yet, but the five-year Hasbro run seems to have drawn to a close (2019-2024). Dino Thunder was the eleventh iteration of the US Power Rangers franchise and the first to revisit the dinosaur theme since the initial Mighty Morphin series. This series is personally notable to me because the Bandai Dino Thunder figures were the toys on the shelf when I began collecting action figures a an adult in 2004. The toys were pretty simple and having only one lone female character in the roster kept my interest mild. I never made any purchases, although I did recently pick up a great vintage piece I will review soon. I only have one more Lightning Collection figure to review after this one (plus the two Street Fighter crossovers). It's a sad close to a powerful toy line, but excited to see what the future holds. Let's check out Dino Thunder Yellow below!
UNITING ALL WOMEN OF PLASTIC
Showing posts with label Power Rangers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Power Rangers. Show all posts
Sunday, February 9, 2025
Power Rangers - DINO THUNDER YELLOW!
Friday, February 7, 2025
Omega Rangers - BLUE AND YELLOW RANGERS!
In the pages of Go Go Power Rangers #32 (Boom! Comics, 2020), we were introduced to the space-faring Omega Rangers faction when Zack, Trini, and Jason became the Black, Yellow, and Red Omega Rangers. Kiya Kyatyl was blue-skinned Khoodjah who eventually became the (third) Blue Omega Ranger. (She also eventually became the Blue Drakkon Ranger on a team with Ranger Slayer). I never read these comics and didn't know anything about the characters when this Pulse-Con 2023 boxset was released. But the character design really appealed to me (as do most of the Boom! Comics characters) so I didn't hesitate to order them. It's a great set, the only disappointment for me was the lack of unmasked heads (like we typically see with the Lightning Collection figures). And honestly, that's only because a quick google showed me that the Blue Omega Ranger was a blue-skinned alien and I'm a sucker for inhuman hues. But alas, I just have to imagine her face. Let's check out Trini (or Puram) and Kiya (or Haza) below!
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Power Rangers - BEAST MORPHERS YELLOW!
Power Rangers Beast Morphers is the 26th and 27th seasons of the US Power Rangers franchise from 2019 and based on the 36th Super Sentai series Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters from 2012. The series is notable for being produced by Hasbro's own production studio (Allspark) as well as having all the toys produced by Hasbro (as opposed to Hasbro distributing Bandai product). The series is also apparently a direct sequel to Power Rangers RPM (2009), neither series of which I have watched. But I've purchased lots of figures from both series, mainly because I love when a series has an animal theme. Beast Morpher Yellow is a little amusing because at first glance her costume looks like a (serious) Kamen Rider design with riding leathers and goggles. But then you notice the cartoonish bunny on her forehead and it gets very lighthearted. Zoey's animal motif is a Jackrabbit which enable her to jump very high (and conversely fatigue fast). She's a fun Ranger. Let's check out Zoey below!
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Power Rangers - LOST GALAXY YELLOW!
Power Rangers Lost Galaxy is the seventh season in the Power Ranger franchise from 1999 (based on the 22nd Super Sentai series, Seijuu Sentai Gingaman). The series is notable for having the first sentient Zords in the franchise. Each Ranger is paired with a Galactabeast from an unnamed wild planet that the Rangers rescued from captivity. Galaxy Ranger Yellow's Galactabeast is a large yellow wolf. A key weapon for each of the Rangers are the Quasar Sabers. They were all hidden on the planet Mirinoi, a seemingly peaceful and simple planet (perhaps void of technology?). The Sabers were embedded in stone there until retrieved by the the Rangers when they arrived to the planet and removed them Sword-in-the-Stone-style. Maya was a native Mirinoi girl who withdrew the Quasar Saber Yellow and became the Yellow Galaxy Ranger. This figure was a Gamestop exclusive in 2023 and continued to tradition of Gamestop filling in team gaps with missing female Rangers. Let's check out Lost Galaxy Yellow below!
Friday, January 19, 2024
Power Rangers - LOST GALAXY PINK!
Power Rangers Lost Galaxy is the seventh season in the Power Ranger franchise from 1999 (based on the 22nd Super Sentai series, Seijuu Sentai Gingaman). The series is notable for having the first sentient Zords in the franchise. Each Ranger is paired with a Galactabeast from an unnamed wild planet that the Rangers rescued from captivity. The Pink Ranger's Galactabeast is a large pink alien wildcat whose design I love. This series is also notable for having the first Ranger "death." The first Pink Ranger (Kendrix Morgan) was killed while saving her fellow Rangers. The actor, Valerie Vernon, had to leave the show to be treated for leukemia. The treatment was a success and she returned for the finale. This figure represents the first Galaxy Pink, Kendrix. The second Galaxy Pink was Karone, the brainwashed villain Astronema (for which we've seen two figures so far). I don't know why this toy, of all toys, doesn't contain a second head representing Karone. Let's check out Galaxy Pink below!
Thursday, January 18, 2024
Power Rangers - DINO FURY GREEN!
Power Rangers Dino Fury is the 28th-29th season of the Power Rangers franchise (using footage from Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger, the 43rd Super Sentai series). It also continues into the 30th season with Power Rangers Cosmic Fury. Izzy Garcia is my favorite character of the season as the Green Ranger. Beyond the notoriety of being a female Green Ranger in the main team lineup, she also represents the LGBTQ community in a way this franchise hasn't embraced before. In fact, her girlfriend Fern becomes the Orange Ranger in Cosmic Fury. (I would really love some toys of her to add to the spectrum!) One of my favorite Izzy scenes is when she gets frustrated with her costume mid-battle and tears off her skirt. It's a pretty iconic moment and an interesting commentary on the ranger skirt trope. The toys for this line seem to have slowed down a lot. There are figures left unproduced or totally missing. Hopefully Cosmic Fury pushes more toys to finish the lineups. Let's check out Dino Fury Green below!
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Power Rangers S.P.D. - YELLOW RANGER!
Power Rangers S.P.D. (Space Patrol Delta) is the the 13th season of the US Power Rangers franchise based on Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, the 28th Super Sentai series from 2004-2005. For a long time, this season was my least favorite by a longshot. When there are themes of mythical creatures, wild animals, dinosaurs, and other toyetic individualized avatars, the idea of space police just seemed boring. Plus the large numbers emblazoned on their torsos (Yellow is 4) just seemed unexciting. But these Lighting Collection figures have really made me appreciate the designs on their own merits. Also, I learned that all the Rangers have genetic powers in addition to any abilities gained through Morphing. S.P.D. Yellow, aka Elizabeth "Z" Delgado (played by Monica May) has the ability to duplicate herself. Also, I love that the main Ranger roster here is the "B-Squad" and the original "A-Squad" have been corrupted and are antagonists of the series. A very cool plot twist. Let's check out S.P.D. Yellow below!
Monday, January 15, 2024
Power Rangers - WHITE ALIEN RANGER!
Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers was the second series in the US Power Rangers Franchise, beginning right after the 3rd season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers in 1996 (although the footage was from the 18th Japanese Super Sentai series). The team is known as the Alien Rangers of Aquitar (notably the first team and only series to not use the word "Power" in the official title). The Alien Rangers are from the planet Aquitar and are summoned to Earth to help when the original MMPR team is rendered unable to morph and fight. The Alien Rangers series is only 10 episodes and acts as a transition between MMPR and Power Ranger Zeo. The White Alien Ranger of Aquitar, Delphine, is the leader of the team. She is notably the only full-time female leader of a Ranger team. Other female characters have become temporary leaders, or end-of-season promotions to the role, but Delphine was the leader from the start. I'm really glad she made it into the Lightning Collection. Let's check out Delphine below!
Monday, February 27, 2023
Power Rangers - NINJA YELLOW RANGER!
Aisha Campbell was the second Yellow Ranger in the American Mighty Morphin Power Rangers franchise. halfway through season two, three of the original Rangers left the show (rumor has it they unsuccessfully demanded more money). In the show, the three characters left for a peace conference in Switzerland, and three replacements were introduced. The original Yellow Ranger, Trini Kwan, was in 88 episodes, but Aisha Campbell (played by Karan Ashley) appeared in a not-too-shabby 65. She started as the typical sabertooth-themed Yellow Ranger, but her story arc eventually had her become a Ninja Ranger (along with all the others) in Season 3 and in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers The Movie. Technically in the movie they were Ninjetti, which had slightly different costumes, but luckily these Lightning Collection figures contain all the costume variations in a single purchase. I truly appreciate the variety and economy of that decision. Let's check out Aisha Campbell and Ninja Ranger Yellow below!
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Power Rangers - NINJA PINK RANGER!
The Ninja Rangers are an iteration of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that I was honestly unaware of until these Lightning Collection figures were announced. I only peripherally watched the original MMPR (my friend's little brother would always be watching it when we were waiting to play Super Nintendo.. which accumulated in a surprising amount of MMPR imagery in my brain). The Ninja Rangers were a power-up in Season 3 that was technically less-powerful than their standard forms, but useful in hand-to-hand combat. I think it's pretty cool that this iteration finally visually embraced the martial arts that were a focal point of whole franchise. In 1995 there was a 5.5" action figure series as well as a 3" PVC line featuring these costumes. The modern Lightning Collection figures are exclusive to Target and include both a Kimberly and Katharine version of Ninja Pink. I only picked up Kimberly since she was released first and I don't typically display unmasked heads. Let's check out Ninja Pink below!
Saturday, December 10, 2022
Power Rangers in Space - PINK RANGER!
Power Rangers: In Space was the sixth season of the American Power Rangers franchise from 1998 based on the 21st Super Sentai series, Denji Sentai Megaranger, from 1997. The series was notable to me for two things. Firstly, having a bizarre TMNT crossover episode (featuring the fifth turtle Venus de Milo!), and secondly, having a lot of very interesting female characters. The traditional Pink and Yellow Rangers were of course present, but more fascinating were the evil antics of Divatox, Rita Repulsa, and Queen Machina, the mysterious brainwashed Astronema and her constantly-changing hair, and of course her Psycho Rangers which have some of my favorite costumes in all of Super Sentai. As far as female action figure go, Power Rangers: In space has the most representation of any season. In fact, this Pink Ranger Cassie Chan marks the sixth In Space lady in my collection (seventh if you include Rita, which I do not). Now we just need Divatox. Let's check out In Space Pink below!
Friday, December 9, 2022
Power Ranger - S.P.D. A-SQUAD PINK & RED!
Power Rangers S.P.D. is probably my least favorite of the Power Rangers franchises. It stands for Space Police Delta and is probably the most militant of all the Super Sentai iterations and seems more like a Sci-Fi series than Sentai. But the real reason I didn't like it was because it was missing the interesting design theme like dinosaurs, wild animals, mythological creatures, etc. Instead the S.P.D. Rangers were differentiated simply by color and a number on their torso. However, the toys of these characters always appeal to me. They have a certain tactical detail that stands out among my other Ranger toys. The two figures in this post area identical sculpts with different paint jobs. The A-Squad was a team of Rangers that vanished without a trace and paved the way for the B-Squad to be promoted to active duty and be the focus of the series. But I always like the darker palette's of the A-Squad costumes. The Red figure was a Fan-Channel exclusive and the Pink figure was exclusive to Gamestop.
Thursday, December 8, 2022
Power Rangers - DINO CHARGE PINK!
Power Rangers Dino Charge (and it's sequel Dino Super Charge) both hold a very special place in my heart. I have always loved dinosaurs, I love Super Sentai, and a I love female characters. The original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series is obviously the most popular dinosaur-themed iteration of the franchise, but I was at an odd age when it first aired and the lore just wasn't strong enough to get me over the choppy effects and cheesy dialogue. When Dino Thunder came out in 2004, I was much more receptive to the genre, but there was only one female Ranger and I didn't have cable to watch it. Flash forward to 2015 and the premiere of Dino Charge: Streaming made it accessible, the special effects had 25 years of improvement over MMPR, and there were three female Rangers (including the first time Purple and Cyan Rangers (both female)). Shelby Watkins is the Triceratops-themed Pink Ranger and is a wonderful addition to the Lighting Collection. Let's check her out below!
Wednesday, November 23, 2022
Super7 ReAction - YELLOW RANGER!
I'm really curious to see what characters future waves of Super7's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ReAction figures will include. Because I only ever saw four core female characters (Kimberly, Trina, Rita, and Scorpina) in the show, and this Yellow Ranger marks the fourth and final one to get a figure. Unless they expand to other seasons or give us unhelmeted variations, this might be the end of my MMPR ReAction collection. Trini Kwan as the Yellow Ranger was always my favorite because her Sabretooth helmet design is so recognizable. (Prehistoric mammals have always been way more appealing to be than dinosaurs). Plus her duals-sais weapons made me realize the that Ranger weapons were representative of their Zords (Trini's Sais looking like smilodon fangs, Kimberly's bow looking like pterosaur wings, Billy's 3-pronged lance looking like triceratops horns, etc). I love a multi-level design theme and Power Rangers always give you that in spades. Let's check out the long-awaited Trini ReAction below!
Thursday, July 28, 2022
Super7 ReAction - PINK RANGER!
I remember being an adult toy collector and being very resistant to the Power Rangers franchise. I was in high school when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers first hit the US. I was plenty nerdy at the time, I watched Robotech and Birdman every morning before school, I read comics fiendishly, and every Friday I would watch Are You Afraid of the Dark? with my friends. But for some reason I just never got into MMPR. As I got older and my peers would lump the show in with other (1980s) nostalgic properties I would get irrationally angry about it. But when Bandai started to reintroduce MMPR characters to the toy shelves decades later, I started to dabble. A lot of this was because the female Ranger toys finally had distinct female bodies. Plus I had become obsessed with Japanese pop culture in my post-college years. Either way, I'm a big fan now and I have more Power Rangers toys than ThunderCats and TMNT combined. Let's check out my newest Pink Ranger ReAction figure below!
Wednesday, July 27, 2022
Super7 ReAction - SCORPINA!
I don't think any single ReAction figure I've seen so far exemplifies the potential of the line more than this Scorpina. For a character who I personally feel has the most interesting and unique design of the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers show, she has has shockingly little merchandise produced. And despite her recently getting a nearly perfect Lightning Collection figure last year, I think this small retro-styled figure from Super7 is my favorite. Her complex asymmetrical organic costume somehow works extremely well with a simple 5-point body construction and the mix of flat colors and metallics really pops. When I look back to one of my first ReAction purchases, the MOTU Sorceress, (irregular sculpting, bad paint, awkward posture) and it's hard to believe these are from the same line. Most of the modern figures are great, but have simplistic designs by nature (G.I. Joe, ThunderCats, etc) so I focus on Scorpina as an example of how Super7 handles complexity. And they kill it. Let's check her out below!
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Power Rangers - ASTRONEMA (V2)!
Astronema is one of those characters that everyone seems to love but that I have never seen on screen. My first exposure to her was her blue-haired figure from two years ago. I taught myself a little about her at the time, and this time around I learned a little more. Karone was a young girl from Planet KO-35. She and her brother Andros (future Red Ranger) dreamed of being Power Rangers, but Karona was kidnapped and raised by Ecliptor to be evil. As an adult, she became Astronema, a major Antagonist in the In Space and Lost Galaxy seasons. At one point her brainwashing became undone and she became the second Galaxy Ranger Pink. Only to adopt the Astronema identity again to infiltrate the bad guys. I'm not sure which iteration of Astronema this lavender-haired figure represents, but she is known for sporting a wide variety of hair colors and styles. I wonder if this will be the last... I could so with at least one more for a punky trifecta. Let's check out Astronema (v2) below!
Friday, April 1, 2022
Power Ranger - MIGHTY MORPHIN PINK!
I normally get very angry when us toy collectors are forced to re-buy figures in multipacks in order to be completists. But in this case, I was happy to get a second Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Pink Ranger. I know this is technically Kat, the second MMPR Pink after Kimberly, but I don't display unmasked heads, so in essence this is a duplicate figure. But the Kimberly figure was the first Lightning Collection female and I always felt she needed some tweaks. My Kimberly had oddly misshapen upper arms and multiple tones of pink plastic that looked distracting. At some point, these issues were fixed and this Kat version of MMPR Pink looks great. It was a smart idea to include her in a 2-pack with Zeo Pink. Having both versions of Kat together gave collectors a fun opportunity to swap unmasked Kat heads back and forth, giving us a reissued MMPR Pink, and including a Zeo Pink when there are several other single-packed Pink Rangers (Dino Charge, and In Space) currently on the shelves. Let's check out Kat below!
Monday, February 21, 2022
Power Rangers - DINO FURY GREEN!
It seems that lately the inclusion of female characters in the Power Rangers toy lines has greatly improved. The Lightning Collection in particular doesn't shy away from producing lots of female figures, often with a few variations included. But one area that is always lacking is the non-collector figures and vehicle packs. These assortments almost always exclude any female rangers. How many times have we seen zords, motorcycles, armor packs, and role playing items made only for Red, Blue, and Black Rangers? I can't even count. This small Dino Fury Green Ranger figure is the first female ranger toy outside of the main figure assortments in recent memory I can think of. It's especially nice because she's unique in the fact that she's a Green Ranger (a role usually filled by a male character), and she's also one of the few LGBTQ+ characters in the whole Power Rangers franchise. I also just read that she's getting a 12" figure later this year. Times are a' changin! Let's check out Dino Fury Green below!
Thursday, February 17, 2022
Power Rangers - ZEO PINK!
I never really watched much Power Rangers. When Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuted in the US, I was in high school and my only real exposure was my best friend's little brother who was obsessed (and was also insistent I looked just like Tommy the Green Ranger - I did not). But I was aware of the property and I loved seeing the flip-action morphin' toys at Walmart (a gimmick I hadn't seen since TigerSharks). Then about five years ago I started watching Dino Charge and really enjoyed it. But everything in between is a blur of pink and yellow that I have trouble keeping straight. My only exposure to all these chapters of Power Rangers is the toys. The Zeo toys always stood out to me because of their intricate gold adornments. There is something ancient and historic about the design that you don't see in other Ranger lineups. Plus the masks with their bold visor shapes and non-silver lip sculpt remind me of the first Sentai series Himitsu Sentai Gorenger from 1975. Let's check out Zeo Pink below!
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