I'm kind of surprised at how sparse the attention towards the Lightning Collection is on my end. That and how much I decided to skip. Ignoring any roleplay items and the Megazord coming soon, I skipped 2 figures in 2019, 10 in 2020, and 20 this year. I'm still waiting for Wave 10 as well as the Cog 2-pack but most of the 2022 releases will be skipped (mainly the Ninjetti and monster stuff as well as the repeat of In Space Blue). Speaking of, we've already got one as well as the return of the Psycho Ranger tooling now colored silver. This moment of events from In Space was fascinating, since not only did Zhane disguise himself as a fake Psycho Ranger, but the whole team pretended to be Blue Rangers in order to trick Psycho Blue and the rest of his team into utter confusion until he was killed. And while it'd be neat to kill 2 birds with one stone to include regular Silver, it'd make sense to recreate this iconic moment. Now let's get into the review!
Here is the Blue Space Ranger in-hand. As you can see, he's basically the same as we have seen with the previous Red and Black Space Rangers covered in the past. Same color lay-out, same details, just that the Red is replaced with Blue. As far as quality control is concerned, I have no severe issues apart from the alignment of the white paint apps under the butterfly joints. Apart from that, nothing out of the ordinary or missing otherwise.
Helmet looks pretty accurate to how it should look, though the lack of a sculpted visor does make it feel a little more basic reminiscent of the bootlegs. What is it with In Space being bootlegged as much as Dino Thunder and SPD? Anyways, the paint apps are mostly placed well wit ha slight misalignment here and there but nothing that'll piss me off like on the occasional mess up. Articulation is the same as with every normal Lightning Collection figure: he has a ball joint at one part of the neck and a hinge at the other, butterfly joints, shoulders that move front and back as well as in and out, swivels at the biceps and double-jointed elbows, wrist swivels, hands that hinge in and out, and both a diaphragm joint as well as an ab crunch. Hips move front and back as well as in and out, thighs swivel, knees bend at two points, boots swivel, and the feet hinge up and down as pivot at the ankles.
As far as the accessories of the Blue Space Ranger are concerned, you get the typical effect piece, a civilian head in the form of TJ Johnson, the Astro Axe, the Astro Blaster, a right fist, and a left karate chop hand.
The display options on this guy are great as always, and the likeness to the Selwyn Ward is pretty solid if you ask me. I'm sure some people are still upset that he can't have the gun separate in two pieces or combine with the axe, but I don't care.
This guy is being re-released (a little too soon, I might add), so basically in trade of the Psycho Silver Ranger you get the Astro Glider. Which is pretty basic compared to the other Lightning Collection vehicles so far. Like, 2020 at least gave us the Omega Unicycle and 2022 is said to give us the Wild Force Rider, so this may be the weakest of the vehicles in the Lightning Collection so far. Also, here he is for a comparison with the Legacy Collection and Bandai 5 inch counterparts. Same points as with Red, Black, and Yellow.
For a comparison between him and his allies, you can basically tell that the main differences include the main coloring of the suits. And the visors. And the weapons. And how well the squares are painted on the chest. I think Black's is the worst when placed next to everyone else.
And here is the Silver Psycho Ranger. It's nice to see this use of the figure again after not buying a new repaint of it for so long. Once again, this tooling is found in a multipack, with Blue and Green being the only ones to have standalone releases in the form of retail exclusives. I'm sure we'll eventually get a normal release of Black, Yellow, and Pink in some capacity someday. But yeah, the shade of silver used on him looks great, and it makes him look more premium than the other versions of the Psycho design.
Head sculpt is the same as before but with silver paint, and the same can be said for the articulation of the figure apart from the chest armor hindering some movement.
His accessories include a civilian head for Zhane, an evil version of his Super Silverizer, and two of the traditional alternate hands of a Psycho Ranger.
The display options are a little more unique for this guy since Zhane is the only Psycho Ranger to come with an alternate head, which has a good likeness to the actor Justin Nimmo. As for a comparison with his Bandai Legacy counterpart, it's the same as before: they're both good in their own rights, but Hasbro's is easier to get.
And here are the other Psychos in one shot that I own so far. These are the NFT Rangers, but don't say that to the fans because they hated the black and gold Megazord (I don't care because I am not interested in a repaint of a mold I'm not sure I'd get right now).
This set is also great to own if you're a fan of the episode where there were 5 Blue Space Rangers as well as the Silver Psycho Ranger thrown into the mix. It makes me excited to get the Pink Space Ranger (even with her incorrect shoulder details that the PR fans had a meltdown over) and the real Silver Space Ranger (hopefully he'll be as easy to get as Dino Thunder White and MMPR Black). At first, it might not be as exciting to get this set since the figures generally have the same beats as the rest of the Space and Psycho teams.
But then I realized that I'd rather kill 2 birds with one stone than have copies of two MMPR girls when I'd be more interested in getting the more desirable Scorpina and Zeo Pink. Maybe someday. But otherwise, get this set if you must. Complete your teams. You won't regret it. I'm happy to wait for this set than get the Metallics, honestly.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
No comments:
Post a Comment