Hasbro's third entry into making a set of Zords happens late into the line's run once again, with this succeeding the 5 Dual-Changing and Triple-Changing Zords from Beast Morphers and the Megazord from MMPR. At first, I groaned at them adapting Ryusoulger because I felt that the season itself was very weak and not worth delving into, especially with me thinking that the gimmick was lousy and the Zords to be mostly pitiful. After seeing how Dino Fury turned out and the Zords revealing more of how they'll work overtime, I started to warm up to it all. That being said, I'm happy to say that with Hasbroi's handling of the Zords in the past, these offerings would end up being great to own as we've discussed with the Beast Morphers and MMPR Zords, but how can Dino Fury beat those two in terms of solidity and quality? Let's find out!
Here is the full set in-hand. 5 Zords, 5 Keys, and extra pieces for two sets of Zords. Take a look at all this because we're about to go in-depth with today's review!
The keys themselves are different from the Japanese version, which I have come to expect, and while I can see why some would want them to do the flipping gimmick, these at least look much nicer than the ones that come with the figures, as we'll get to in a bit. The heads look nicely sculpted and painted, and I like how distinct they are from one another beyond the deco and dino antenna.
You can take off the backs of the heads to reveal the unpainted yet nicely sculpted Knight torsos, which don't look too bad if you ask me. One bit of attention to detail that they didn't have to include but did anyhow was a Ranger inside the cockpits with distinct poses. That's a nice way to make the set feel a little more complete! They work with the morpher and make the same sounds, but Black has Pink's sounds and Green has Blue's sounds.
For a Key comparison, on the right is the Red Ranger key that comes with the basic figure You can see how different each one is from one another, the Zord key is nicely sculpted yet unpainted while the figure key is nicely colored yet is a flat sticker. I think the way the Zord keys win is with the Zord head because hot mama do the details look better! The added paint apps, denser plastic, and sharper sculptwork makes them look so much better than the ones from the basic figures; they're not as washed out or cheap if you ask me.
And here are the comparisons for the Zord faces of Blue and Pink, both of which look much more complete and uncompromises, especially Pink with a painted face and everything! And yes, they have neck articulation!
Here is the T-Rex Champion Zord in-hand, and right of the bat, I love the name; it has an identity of its own compared to his predecessors on top of a unique design. Mighty Morphin is classic, Dino Thunder was more organic, Dino Charge was cartoony, and Dino Fury is straight up aggressive, with guns on the back and drills as well as spiky hands to boot. Even the head is kind of aggressive thanks to the gray part being more in-line with a knight helmet while the jaw is the bare "skin". Design-wise, it's a solid mix of looking badass and toyetic at the same time. I guess some details could go for a little more paint, but at least the sculpted details are nicely made on this toy; it's on-par with the WFC figures in terms of intricacy! The red teeth does look cheap, but that is to be blamed on the Japanese version and how it looks on the show. As far as articulation is concerned, the jaw opens, the arms move up and down, and the legs move front and back as well as in and out somewhat. The knees don't bend back, sadly.
Of all the pieces this guy has, this faux Tiger Claw piece feels the most random of them all; it's just not befitting of where it's placed, and it doesn't have the proper compatibility with the rest of the Lego-like ports. It's main purpose is for the aesthetics in the Warrior formation.
For a size comparison, here he is next to another knight-themed Tyrannosaurus in the form of Age of Extinction Grimlock from Studio Series! These two contrast each other in terms of appearances and franchise, but hey, why not put them together in a single pic? They're both big leader-sized Dinosaurs overall, and they're cool in their own right. If you want, you can pose the Red Ranger and recreate some of the scenes of Optimus Prime riding Grimlock in AOE.
Transformation is very simple, as you rotate the upper torso around, rearrange the cannons onto the arms, extend the legs, reposition the tale onto the back, and place the head on the slot. It's very straightforward and not the most interesting apart from the torso swivel, but while it'd be boring on a normal Transformer, I'll make it an exception for this guy given how Power Rangers isn't known to be complex in terms of Zords. The resulting Warrior Mode for the T-Rex Champion Zord (IDK if we'd call it a warrior mode yet) is very lean and mean, even with the dino head sticking out. It's also skinnier than Tyramigo is, which does a disservice to the design when you see how athletic that Megazord is. Even Hasbro rectified that with the added articulation that we'll touch up on. Beyond that, he's basically a humanoid T-Rex with arms and a second head!
The articulation on this guy is what sells the most: his head is on a ball joint, shoulders move front and back, in and out, bicep swivels, elbow bends, forearm rotation, wrist swivels, hips that move front and back, in and out, bends at the knees, and ball-jointed ankles! This guy's got the most amount of articulation for a mainline Zord than anything that came before it (and no, Tamashii Nations nor Mini-Pla don't count). You can have more dynamic poses that the show presents, especially in stop-motion! Compare that to the bricks of the previous lines! I know that's from the way the design works, but come on, this is awesome!
For a size comparison, here he is in-between the Dino Megazord from 2020 and the Beast Racer Zord from 2019. These two are definitely the most poseable that a Mainline Megazord has received, but as far as height is concerned, they're about even, though T-Rex Champion is the tallest of the three overall.
The levels of articulation is very nice, as he can either be posed running, fighting, etc. Even simple things like elbow bends and head swivels help give him some personality that you wouldn't get with a normal brick; even his articulation is the most naturalistic, compared to the limited legs of the Dino Megazord or the awkward leg movement of the Racer Zord due to its transformation!
And here is the Tricera Blade Zord up close, which has a rich amount of sculpted details on top of having some nice silver paint and a bit of black around the red eyes. It helps give it a complete look if you ask me, muc like with a gundam's face. I also love how the gray plastic looks, with it not being too cheap nor dull. Also, check out that blade!
And now here we have the Ankylo Hammer Zord, same points to this gal as with the Tricera Blade; nicely sculpted details, appropriate shade of gray, and a good use of paint on the sides and the eyes. These two were pathetic on the Japanese versions, and while they're still not mindblowing here, I at least value the added articulation and the sculpted details.
For a size comparison, here they are with a ChibiMasters Sailor Moon. Like I said, puny and kind of sad, but at least they're better than the Bandai versions with the ball-jointed heads and the sculptwork. Nice job, Hasbro!
Next up, it's the Stego Spike Zord! He's probably the least weakest of the intermediate Zords given how the gray is inconsistent with the silver, and he has no articulation, but look at all those spikes on him! Those are as nicely done as I'd hope, meaning they're not visually compromised even if they're PVC. There decently done if you ask me.
And here is the Tiger Claw Zord, which looks fairly solid as far as appearances are concerned, and it's funny seeing this in green since it's usually associated with yellow. Actually, there was this cringe color power meme with MMPR that had Yellow as Green and Pink as white for some reason (because boomer humor!), but it kinda foreshadowed the fact that Furyusoulger would have a Green Ranger associated with the Sabertooth Tiger. Of note is that the Zord has faux ports that mean you can't put the skid plates on the back as you would, but at least the functionality is present elsewhere. You have the tail on the side for jousting, but it is stupidly bent out of the box. Stop this, Hasbro.
Its articulation consists of a ball-jointed head, shoulders that move front and back, swivels at the forelegs, some torso movement, and a tail that can way.
For a size comparison, here they are with the DeLoreon Transformer named Gigawatt. So they're on-par with a somewhat chunky Deluxe size, though those are rare at this line.
You can do a fortress mode if you really want, but it looks pretty weak overall. The first version you can pull off no problem, but the second one won't be that accurate to the show. Thankfully, you can customize it to your liking, but it won't be as good as the intended combination, and to be honest, the fortress modes suck in general. Nowhere near as cool as the tank mode of the MMPR Megazord or the trailer mode of Drivemax.
And that's our overview on the Zords themselves. I can see Hasbro putting the Auxiliaries in sets with added functionality as we'll get to, because they placed the one small Zord and one medium Zord into a set that balances out the prices...while I can see why some would prefer if Blue and Pink got together given how they were first introduced, the difference in pricing wouldn't justify it, so the way the sets were made are more balanced to me.
And here are the newly made modes for the two Zord sets! Tricera and Stego make a somewhat decent tank mode that has no wheels (and my Stego head's weirdly missing the ports to secure it), while the Tiger and Ankylo make a weird standing robot of sorts...yeah, one mode is better than the other, but at least it makes them more appealing in terms of playability.
These bonus modes aren't why you got this set, however, as we're already going to go through the alternate combinations in the show! Now I won't show all of them to you, but you can pretty much make whatever you want overall.
First up, it's the default Dino Fury Megazord, with the similar Zord layout from Dino Charge's Megazord...yeah the comparisons between the two seasons aren't that subtle, but to the credit of this design, it's at least allowing you to have more than just the Zords slapped on the arms as they're on the shoulders, too...not enough to convince you? How about the alternate head modes a la Zeo Megazord? Like the Blade formation and is' replacement chest piece and head? The arm is still given the blade mode, but hey, it's like that in the show.
Okay how about the Hammer formation? Sure, the hammer's not that special and the tail being on the arm looks stupid, but at least the new head looks better than before! Admittedly, Tricera and Ankylo don't offer the best of alternate formations, but that changes with the other two as we'll see; The Claw formation may have the tiger split in half and slapped on the arms, but at least it adds a bit of color variety AND gives us a new chest piece to spice up the look! And that head looks great, too!
I'd say that the Spike formation's kinda neat, even if it adds even more black than the T-Rex Champion Zord already has. But yeah, it definitely makes things even spikier on top of having things to punch with. But the most interesting combination goes to the Warrior formation, as you make a sword and shield out of the pieces of the Stego, Tiger,and the T-Rex head, you add a cannon chest piece, wings on the back, and it results in a pretty awesome super mode that, yes, is clunky with the added parts, but it still has accessible articulation in mind. Kind of like how the WFC Transformers aren't compromised when wearing Weaponizers and the like, though without as much fluid motion as the Transformers did. Anyways, one complaint I do have is that some pieces are left unused in this mode, but you can always use them for a bonus mode if you want; it's part of the Zord Link line after all!
Now for anyone wondering, yes, you can switch the heads out with the basic Ranger keys. Hasbro's team mentioned this, and it allows kids to imagine how the Zords would be if captured by the villains. I'm using Void Knight as an example and if you painted it up to look more heroic, I'd say this head would look so awesome on this body!...if only it had the articulation necessary.
For a size comparison, here he is next to the Beast-X Megazord, so while he may not have the height of that figure (and not as refined as the predecessor), I will give this new Megazord credit for being much more stable with everything attached, as the Beast-X Megazord had parts that wobbled around and not everything stayed solidly. Not an issue with the Dino Fury Zords, even if the pegs aren't as slick as the Japanese versions (which is no biggie either way). Both of them are poseable in some fashion, but you can tell that by not having much added on the legs, the Dino Fury Megazord manages to have less junk to worry about in terms of clashing. Overall, this set is straight up awesome! I'm happy to own all 5 of these Zords, and I can't wait to get the others in the future. I hope that the Mossa Razor and Ptera Freeze Zords are as good as T-Rex Champion, because Dino Fury's definitely setting the bar high for the quality of Zord releases from here. Beast Morphers were nice improvements on the Japanese versions but their stability and plastic quality are not as good as the Dino Fury stuff, and I'm happy Hasbro's learning their lessons from those offerings. Now let's hope all 5 of them show up on shelves because the only Zords I ever saw from Beast Morphers are the dual changers. Oh, and if you have this set, you don't need the Japanese version (talk to a wall, Sentai purists!), but do be on the lookout if it's on stock on Amazon since they had a cheaper price than Entertainment Earth did!
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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