Let's first shift into turbo with the Red Turbo Ranger. Not counting either the Phantom Ranger or the Blue Senturion, this is our first true stab at a main Turbo Ranger in this line, and I think Hasbro did a fairly successful take on him, all things considered. The linework on the suit details is fairly solid, and better than how Hasbro handles it with the Marvel Legends paint apps. This includes the yellow on the torso and the logos. The gloves are the right shade of white, and the belt is detailed correctly. All of these details should be the standard for the Lightning Collection: nothing missing, and everything colored right. Not much else to talk about with the Turbo suits with how simple they are.
His helmet is accurate to how it appears in the series regarding the sculpted details and paint apps, though some may find the visor to be a bit stretched vertically. Just a smidge. Otherwise, everything about it looks the part save for the slight paint blemishes. His accessories include a lightning effect piece compatible with either the Turbo Lightning Sword or a Turbo Blade, one fisted hand, one weapon-holding hand, an Auto Blaster, and a head for TJ.
His head sculpt is accurate to the then-likeness of his actor Selwyn Ward, though it appears the paint apps for the eyes, eyebrows, and lips are just slightly off-center. At the very least, he holds his weapons perfectly well, though the TLS varies depending on how good the grip is on top of the angle of the weapon being held. I should point out that the symbol being upside down came like that, and it was not something I thought was correct until I saw the images of the actual prop. It's supposed to be like that, but the black line is omitted so ruined forever I guess.
For a comparison with prior Red Turbo Ranger figures, the general proportions are much better than the old 2006 Collectible figure and especially compared to the 1997 guy, while the articulation is better than all 3 of them combined. I won't be comparing the other Rangers in the review to their older counterparts as they each have like 1 other toy and it's their original iterations from 2000 with Lightspeed Blue and 2009 for RPM Yellow. That being said, Red Turbo is a cool addition if you love TJ and want to represent the history of Tommy Oliver.
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Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Up next, here we have the Blue Lightspeed Ranger, who has a seemingly skinnier build compared to the Red Ranger. As we'll get to, it may not be the wisest thing to do. The deco is at least crisp and clean with little to no misalignment issues, though I wish the gold on the belt matched that of the gloves and boots.
His helmet looks fairly good, but there isn't much else to describe the Lightspeed helmets since they have their visors shaped after badges. In Blue's case, likely that of a police officer. His accessories include a smaller than usual effect part, weapon-holding hands, a civilian head for Chad Lee, and a Rescue Blaster in gun and baton mode.
The likeness to Michael Chaturantabut is alright but it makes him look like a sitcom character. Both weapon are painted decently, but I wish he had a blast effect piece instead of the lightning. I also have to tae points off because the diaphragm joint is either too stiff or not molded right. As a result, it causes the edges to cut into the lower torso, so gg Hasbro QC.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
And finally, here we have the RPM Yellow Ranger. O have to commend Hasbro for not only getting the details right with this release, but also adding new sculptwork for the glove cuffs and the seatbelts. Granted, people will aay the sculpt gets disrupted, but it's a toy ffs. She, too, has pinless joints and double elbows as the more recent females have.
Her helmet has all of the appropriate paint apps to further bring the half-animal/half-car motif that is prominent in Go-Onger but still referenced as a byproduct of Dr. K's weird habits of making the cheesiest aesthetics in PR make sense in a science fiction context. Her accessories include my least favorite effect piece, a civilian head for Summer Landsdown, open hands, and her Nitro Blaster/Sword modes.
The likeness to the real world actress, Rose McIver, is very good. And her weapons are the best painted out of the trio we have here. However, not only do I wish she never came with that stupid effect part but instead come with her signature weapon, the Zip Charger. That being said, she turned out better than Blue, but Red is still the winner of this wave.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall, this is a decent wave filled with Rangers that serve the most commonly used colors in the numerous teams we've had (apart from Dino seasons Charge and Fury), especially as they tease us new Ranger teams that should hopefully be completed soon. Still, I wish we had at least one more character to fill out the wave. I'd pick the Green Samurai Ranger from Ninja Storm, the Pink Mystic Ranger, Black Overdrive Ranger, Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger, or Samurai Gold. Hope we still get them in 2025 or later.
Overall ranking: ⭐⭐⭐.5 out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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