Last year we took a look at the Dino Fury Morpher, which was pretty underwhelming, and you can't tell me that the Hasbro version was the only weak version when the Bandai version is no better. IDK about the Ryusouls being different on the Bandai ones because those were pretty weak compared to the Gokaiger keys. But as was the case with the last decade of Power Rangers, we would get a new Morpher to go along with the second half of the season we're on. So with Dino Fury coming back for one last time, let's take a look and see what the Dino Knight Morpher has in store!
Here it is in-hand, which has been cast in red, black, and gray plastic with teal green paint on the back. It resembles a claw pretty well, given that's the point of the toy itself. I appreciate how the Morpher doesn't look nor feel cheap overall since it normally doesn't have the same form of compromises that would be found with modern toku toys. Honestly, I am quite content that it doesn''t feel incomplete all around, and even the main button's chromed! Speaking of buttons, this toy lacks an on-off switch, so you can't survive any unexpected button presses or motion sounds if it keeps making sounds without such a feature. Speaking of, the center button is made with 4 LED colors in mind depending on how they're activated. Lavender pops up from normal sounds, yellow from the lightning attack on the left of the toy when either it's activated from facing the bottom and/or using the left button, red being used as part of a compatibility feature to go with the Chromafury Saber's color scanning gimmick and/or being activated from when it's facing up, and blue when it's facing forward. Purple=normal, yellow = lightning, red = Dino, blue=ice.
The handle normally comes detached but it must be attached to complete the look, and I don't think it'll be easy to remove. Also, the bottom for the Chromafury Saber is added on that side. It is surprisingly decent-looking in other angles, even the handle looks alright.
The toy comes with a unique key that is neither meant for the normal morpher nor the Megazords. This key may seem like the average Ryusoulthing that is folded up....
...but when it unfolds after being inserted on top of the Morpher, it not only makes for a really cool dino head display, but it also plays the music from the show when they morph! It's something I love whenever they do that to make their toys feel closer to the show, even if the music from the original Morpher is still good. It's just amusing that the toys we get from the first year of a season have music that isn't from the show (or voices in the case of the Beast-X Morpher) while the second-year morphers have the sounds that are closer to what the show has. It's quite an amusing thing since the people behind the show are likely working separately from the people who are working on the toys in terms of the sound effects compared to Toei and Bandai working together so as to rush their stuff and put them on the shelves. And yes, you can have another key added on the side so you can have alternate music in addition to the other tunes that are already played when pressing the chrome button. And it's even possible to have two normal keys at once, though they don't stay on as well as the main key due to the lack of an additional tab that holds it in better.
And here it is with the Dino Fury Morpher. I have to say that the design is not only striking overall, and it managed to be striking before and after the key is inserted, which is especially true when it's put next to first Morpher and its lack of any Ranger-specific traits since the normal keys are hidden by the knight visor and the dino head being the same on all of them (in addition to the toy being pretty lackluster as far as designs are concerned). The Japanese version has some additional paint for the parts that were originally teal green compared to the light-up features of the Hasbro version. Much like with the comparison of the Beast-X Morphin Brace, both versions look good overall, and it's definitely a step up compared to the offering we got last year. Overall, I'm happy to say that the Dino Knight Morpher is no lackluster toy, as the play features, sound effects, and compatibility with the other keys make for a surprising toy all around. It's pretty good if you ask me, though I have one question to ask Hasbro: where is the Mosa Blaster????
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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