There have been a pair of 2-packs already and I've got plenty of ideas for which characters can be paired up with one another. I came up with the likes of In Space Silver vs Psycho Silver, Time Force Pink vs Ransik, Wild Force Lunar Wolf Ranger vs Zen-Aku, a Thunder Ranger team-pack, Triassic Ranger vs Mesogog, Dino Thunder Black vs Zeltrax, Red Mystic Ranger vs Korragg, Samurai Red vs Deker, and a Megaforce Red/Robo Knight team-pack. These allow you to better boost your collection count without having to worry about individual releases and even give you villains that we'd never get in the line. It's something I've always love since the concept began, and I love the versus-packs even more with the 2020 releases because of what we got. Let's take a look at the siblings of Power Rangers in Space, which consist of Andros the Red Space Ranger and Astronema!
This set was given a Spectrum variant, which much like the Wave 7 figures, consists of unchanged toys that have new, shiny packaging in black with colorful foil details and altered package art that depicts the characters facing a different direction. While the regular releases depict the package art with 3-quarter profiles of the heads and the original 2-packs depicting the characters with forward-facing heads, the Spectrum line has the characters facing the entire left or right (which makes sense for the 2-packs as it's got Andros facing against his sibling). Almost reminds me of the Yes Chad memes that make me want to photoshop Dino Thunder Red saying "STFU I'm not reading all that).
Here is Andros the Red Space Ranger in-hand. This guy has one of the more basic suit designs of all of PR, as you have a basic helmet with a mostly color-coded spandex suit and a chest decal that has the five colors. It's really hard to screw up the Space Ranger suits, and we don't really get many issues with Hasbro's take on the Red Ranger. If anything, he has about everything I'd expect from him, including the holster in the right spot and so on and so forth.
Head sculpt looks a little off to me. Like when viewed from the sides, the helmet looks good; when viewed from the front, the visor shape looks slightly off, and almost liek a bootleg version of the toys that keep on reusing the Red Space Ranger design if they're not content with mimicking some of the Disney-Era stuff. Also, while there are some panel-lines, there are none that truly show he's got one for the visor so they made it hard to add it properly. Adding to that are the paint application methods used for the white outline being two different parts. The articulation is the same as with every male figure, so no need to go over it here.
Here are the accessories he comes with, which are the Spiral Saber, the Astro Blaster, a civilian head, and two alternate hands.
The display options are always neat, though I was first doubtful on how the Andros head would look because of the beige hair details on him not looking right. His Astro Blaster and Spiral Saber look fine as they are (though the Bandai Legacy one looks even better). Of course, the Toku fans would act like the inability to separate them into two guns or combine them with the weapon is a massive turn off from buying the set. Here's the truth: it's more important for SPD Red's Delta Blasters to combine than for this guy's basic pistol and drill on a stick.
Here is Hasbro's Red Space Ranger next to the other versions of the character. I've gotta be honest and say that the Bandai Legacy version was pretty good overall, what with the helmet details and the more pronounced chest pattern. They both have different approaches to the white shoulder details, though the more perfect appearance of said details lies somewhere in-between. The Action Hero one was a good toy overall, and one that was great to own for fans to at least have every Red Ranger (aside from Lauren) on the same scale and style to match up with the 20th-anniversary lineup. The old 1998 toy is dated as hell and also began the trend for Bandai's love for more pronounced muscles (which are more defined than the ones that were on the 8-inch figures).
Here is Andros next to Ashley. These two look great together, though I'm pretty sure Andros being 5'10" and Ashley being 5'8" might throw this scale somewhat off. Also, I just noticed that Andros's suit has a yellow...handkerchief?...while Yellow's is gold. Pretty cool!
And now onto Astronema, the sister of Andros once named Karone. One thing I love about these recent 2-packs is the fact that while we had versions of Andros and Sky in the past, these sets are the first time we've gotten Astronema, and as I'll showcase tomorrow, the A-Squad Blue Ranger. This Astronema figure uses the female Ranger body, which does make sense, but Hasbro did give her some new forearms and some chest armor to better reflect her appearance. The leg brace is a separate piece. While the chest armor could be a little shinier, it at least has a faint metallic look to it, and I like the included necklace.
Her head sculpt looks perfect to her appearance in the show, with a strong likeness, a headband, the gold on her hair, and the hair itself has some dry-brushing to make it look like the blue hair she had in the show instead of blue plastic. Her articulation is the same as the rest of the female figures, though much like with Ranger Slayer, her ankles swivel as well as hinge and pivot because she has no designated boot that can swivel. And weirdly she looks like she's running weirdly or something. Additionally, turning her head is hard to do because of how stiff the hair is.
Here are the accessories she comes with her Wrath Staff, two fists, a boomerang, and her lightning effect part which is pretty big to compensate for her height (don't even joke about it).
Maybe I'm an idiot, but I can't seem to get the lightning piece to look good on her staff. It's just too big and kinda hard to make it look convincing. If you thought the lightning effect piece was too big, then take a look at how Drakkon Evo 3's stuff looked.
And here we have Astronema next to not just the Ranger she attempted to hide as, but also a Marvel Legends gal in the form of Domino! Many complained about how Astronema looked a little too petite, and it especially shows when put next to Domino. The thing that many don't know is that the girls in general are shorter than the guys. It's like that sometimes, but I'd rather we don't have every female Ranger in the same height, especially if you consider how some are taller than others or are of different age. One Ranger that stands out to me is Katie Walker of Time Force fame; she is a bigger Ranger than most females are, and I'd really be disappointed if Hasbro reused Trini's body instead of making a new mold that's feminine but still accurate to her appearance in the show.
So what do I think about this 2-pack? It's a solid one, though one that kind of has a few imperfections for each figure. Mainly it involves Red's helmet looking slightly off, Astronema's height, and now that I'm thinking about it, maybe Andros could go for a different body frame. And as mentioned earlier, with certain rangers having certain body frames, I do hope we get a Time Force Yellow that feels correct to her proportions in the show and a Super Megaforce team that doesn't feel too much like a group of martial artists. I say that because while the Ranger body we have here fits Jason, Tommy, etc well, it doesn't feel too right for Andros. Maybe TJ would wear it better.
While there are imperfections to this set, it's still neat to own a version of Andros as well as having our first Astronema ever. And what better way to make a two-pack than with the siblings shown from In Space? This is a set you should get, but know of the flaws worth mentioning.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
No comments:
Post a Comment