I've taken longer than usual at this review, mostly because I've been trying to make more shelves for the Lightning Collection while also trying to find the right way to describe my thoughts on the review. We had some QC hiccups for the first few reviews involving this wave back in 2022, but things got worse when they were properly released earlier this year. Koda's legs broke off, accessories are wrong, and Izzy's heads keep coming off. Luckily, my copies turned out alright, but the same cannot be said for a lot of other fans. Let's see if these figures are still worth recommending, even without the QC issues that plagued other fans.
Let's start off as always in odd-numbered waves with the chronological order, as Dino Charge Blue takes the spotlight. While he may seem the same as the other figures we previously looked at, there are a few differences in tooling that affect not just the articulation but also the aesthetics. This figure uses pinless joints, a double ball-neck, altered shoulder joints, and drop-down hips. The shoulders appear to be a response to most figures' arms not going down all the way, while the pinless joints, double ball neck, and drop down hips have been features plenty of Marvel Legends as far as I know. While these features are neat, the way they were implemented on these figures is not done too well. In fact, Dino Charge Blue is the same as Time Force Blue in terms of quality control. What's with the Blue Rangers coming with bad QC for the drop-down hips when the Spider-Man figures turned out great?
His helmet is accurate as always for the Dink Charge crew, and the paint apps are thankfully consistent with the rest of the team. The articulation is par for the course with all LC males, but the changes added to the sculpt mean he has a more fluid neck (in theory) rather than a ball and hinge combo while the legs can be pulled down from the hips to allow for him to either better ride on vehicles or for better kicks if we account females with skirts, they make the figure feel looser than a Bucky Cap reuse. It's a miracle my figure's feet never broke on me.
His accessories are par for the course, with the same lightning effect used for Red and Green but in purple, weapon-holding hands with the same missing silver paint, a Dino Charge Morpher with the same varying deco choices, a Dino Charge Saber, and a civilian head representing Koda.
The likeness to Yoshi Sudarso is fine, but the paint apps are a bit misaligned. Apparently, the morpher has a hole between where the blasts come from, which seems redundant given that we have blast effects made for the Morpher in mind. Otherwise, same affair we mostly expect.
Here he is alongside the other Dino Charge Rangers we previously looked at. While they are great as a complete team, especially since Tyler began the Lightning Collection along with Tommy, Cruger, and Zedd, I have to admit that the paint app/accessory inconsistencies are annoying as hell. I could care less for them going all out with the accessories, but I wish the rest of the team had the silver paint on the gloves like Tyler, Ivan having a painted neck, Chase having his belt buckle properly painted, Shelby coming with her saber rather than a useless weapon with her zord logo painted on it, and now Koda having the proper yellow on the border of his buckle. That and better QC for him, even if my copy turned out fine.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
And here we have the Beast Morphers Yellow Ranger. What took them so long?! The fact that we got 3 of the members for the team in the first few waves of the line and nothing after Blaze made me feel Hasbro probably didn't expect fans to not want to buy them right away when their basic figures were still around. Luckily, Hasbro gave us a Zoey to at least present the main trio. She looks great as with the other Beast Morphers Rangers, and I especially love the aesthetics of the suits Go-Busters made with the leather outfits contrasting the normal spandex sith other additions like a silver pattern for the ohter parts of the suit/inner parts of the arms, the straps on her torso, and the zipper. Her shade of yellow seems pretty accurate to the show apart from the boots maybe being a more faint shade.
Her helmet is accurate to the prop, but is it me or is the visor outline inaccurate? There is no border on the show prop, and it'd work better for a future Beast-X mode, a detail which the basic figures embarrassingly lacked. She also doesn't have metallic paint to represent the chrome unique to the colored visors of Beast Morphers, leaving it a pearlescent piece separate from the head. It does the job fine but not to an extent I'd see as definitive. Her accessories include her civilian head representing Zoey Reeves, an effect piece that's NOT reused from the boys in blue and red, a Beast-X Saber, and both a karate right hand and a left fist.
Her display options are mostly fine (the likeness to Jacqueline Scislowski is 50/50), and while it is interesting that Hasbro chose to go for a different accessory from the guys with her saber, it's stupid that she doesn't get anything else to make her unique, since Devon came with his Cheetah Beast Blaster and Ravi with a punch effect. Next to her original self, she is a general step-up from an already good toy. The proportions, articulation, and details are much better than what we previously got...apart from the visor. Also, my copy seems to have an issue with the diaphragm joint, where it kind of tilts at an angle when it should be stood straight.
And here she is with the Grid Battleforce gang minus Blaze because he's evil. It's great that we get her to complete the team, and she appears to have the least reports on quality control compared to the Dino Duo of this wave, but the lack of an additional accessory and the minor visor nitpick I have do pull it down somewhat
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Not too long after the Dino Fury Red Ranger, we get the Green Ranger! Now this one has received the most controversy in the wave. While the paint apps look nice and the figure is accurate, this figure has received numerous deserved complaints regarding its quality control. Misassembled arms, very warped swords, missing morphers, broken feet, swapped arms, one figure's visor wasn't glued in, and the worst part being the necks breaking off. It's just as bad as the damn neck fragility of MMPR Yellow, and the worst part is that the assembly for the double neck is poorly executed. It also doesn't help that the figure came with the civilian head attached, so the fact that you'd automatically want to replace it with the helmet, only for it to break, makes this toy feel like defusing a bomb. What the fuck happened, did the Hasbro factory workers hate Izzy or is this a shitty batch people got?
Her helmet is painted and accurate to the show. While my figure has slight misalignment at the visor, at least it is assembled onto the thing. Her accessories include a surprisingly normal saber, an orange effect piece, two weapon-holding hands, and the Izzy head.
One thing new to this figure is the forearms being able to rotate, which might come in handy for the morpher if you want to pose her with it (even if it is unpainted). The head looks decent to the actress playing her, Tessa Rao. Now for another comparison to a mainline figure, here she is next to her basic figure, which has a power up sleeve. Once again, same details as with Beast Morphers Yellow, but at least the basic toy didn't break.
And here she is with her teammate, Zayto. To give this figure credit, she looks good with her team's Red Ranger, and gee left arm looks more opaque than her leader's, but I would be hesitant in getting her if you are willing to buy her from Amazon. Also, the lightning effect doesn't fit that well, what a controversial release.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
And finally, here we have the Putrid. He is very basic and shows the new tooling the best with the torso, and the legs. It only has red lines and circles with gold cuffs on the wrists and ankles as well as a belt. A simple figure that does the job like a Putty 9 years before it.
The head sculpt is a purple smile with a gold horn and matching eyeliner. Replacing the open right hand is an accessory-holding hand and the left fost a karate chop hand. His bat accessory, which was once found with a Dino Charge Blue Ranger, and the effect piece is oversized on it.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall, this wave may be better in quality control for me, but that still doesn't excuse the issues fans had with the line. Between missing pieces, incorrect accessories, duplicates of certain accessories, and breakage issues, this line hit a low point for many fans that were buying the line, and it was also a rocky start for 2023. I didn't buy the Ninjetti figures and I know they had various reports on quality control issues that plagued the wave in 2022. And that was also around the time some figures began transitioning to the windowless packaging, leading to a downgrade in how the toys are treated by Hasbro's factory workers while also cheapening the quality of a line that, while not perfect, was still good. Going from $19.99 to $24.99 may not seem like a lot to worry about, but the same can ot be said with going from the first 3-4 years to the latter half of 2022-now. Overall, Power Rangers fans may fail the "try not to bitch about every minor detail" challenge (IMPOSSIBLE), but this was one of the instances where they had the right to be upset about a Lightning Collection wave.
Overall ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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