The Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers, or the Aquitar Rangers as I usually call them, were a part of what made the early Zordon-era so unique amongst other eras in the history of Power Rangers; not only were they an entirely new team of Rangers rather than new characters wearing the same MMPR suits, but they also hailed from another planet, showcasing the world-building that felt more genuine than the upteen-million Sentai/Rider/Metal Hero crossovers that only happen in bloated movies. They were brief replacements to the MMPR crew before they turned into the Zeo Rangers, but they had quite a bit of significance in their history, with Aurico getting to be in Forever Red and their suits being used in Super Megaforce at times. Sadly, apart from the old 4-inch figures, we barely got any merch representing the team outside of a 5-inch Action Hero back in Super Megaforce, a Bandai scale incompatible with Hasbro's current lines. Thankfully, the Lightning Collection gives fans a 5-pack that gives fans a chance to get them in one swoop. Let's review these guys, shall we?
Since they're all mostly the same in terms of aesthetics, I'll cover Delphine in detail first due to her using the female mold, then go over the guys briefly. Delphine, the White Alien Ranger, has a pretty simple suit design along with the rest of the team, from the the chest details to the silver and black shin guards on the boots, and gold on his belt and helmet. This figure uses the new female tooling, which means she has double-jointed elbows, double ball-jointed necks, and drop-down hips, which are thankfully not wobbly. With how simple these suit designs are, there is no room for error, and Hasbro nailed them, thankfully.
Her helmet is simplistic like all of the other Alien Rangers in this set. With this one having a V-shape to the visor and the gold headband above it containing a right-facing Star Trek logo, denoting these details helps distinguish the otherwise nearly similar Alien Rangers suit designs. Her articulation is basically the same as the guys as we have seen before, though the older bucks do not come with any drop-down hips for both genders, and her weapon-holding hands can hinge up and down. The Aquitian Laser comes in both pistol and blaster modes for every Alien Ranger, and the same goes for the Aquitian Saber originally sheathed on her back. Her saber comes with a red swirl effect piece and has one of her two karate hands.
We'll quickly cover the other Alien Rangers in the set as well since they're all the same in terms of suit details apart from Yellow's triangle. All male Alien Rangers have the older buck with pinned elbows and knees as well as a neck hinge and no drop-down hips In terms of specific details:
-Black has a pentagon on his forehead, a 5-sided visor, alternate fisted hands, and a green swirl effect for his saber
-Blue has a square on his forehead, a 4-sided visor, alternate splayed open hands, and a purple blast effect
-Yellow has a triangle on his forehead, a 3-sided visor, alternate fisted hands, and a blue blast effect
-Red has a circle on his forehead, a more rounded version of Blue's visor, alternate open hands also sculpted differently from Blue, and a yellow blast effect.
And that covers a fairly quick review on the Alien Rangers set. Overall, it is a fairly straightforward idea Hasbro has in mind: getting a simpler team out of the way, especially since much like the Psycho Rangers and A-Squad, they probably won't sell as well in a normal retail wave as someone more marketable like Dino Thunder Black or Beast Morphers Red. Hasbro thankfully didn't mess up anything in terms of suit design, and I am happy to report my figures don't suffer any QC issues aside from slightly bent joints or weapons because of the shitty packaging. I know fans will complain about the lack of Ranger-specific weapons or alternate heads, but one can argue that the weapons were Kakuranger-only and they never took their helmets off. This is a good set but maybe wait for a sale.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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