Hasbro Power Rangers Beast Morphers Beast-X Morpher review

I never got interested in buying morphers back then. Yeah, they're nice to play with, and I've been wanting to go back and collect them at some point, but the issue was they've been using the collectathon gimmick for far too long. Do I really want to buy cards just so I can unlock new sounds in the Gosei Morpher? Am I really going to dig deep online for Ranger Key packs just so I can get the same team name shout-out? Is it really worth getting Dino Chargers that are one-off power-ups in the show? Don't ask about Ninja Steel, its Morpher line sucks thanks to the crappy Power Stars. Then came the announcement of Hasbro's purchase of the Power Rangers franchise and their decision to adapt the Go-Busters series as Beast Morphers, which was a great decision because it was a season that had no collectathon gimmick like Kyuuranger did while also coming with the awesome Morphin' Brace! Now it's time to Buster see what Hasbro's Beast-X Morpher can do!

Here is the Beast-X Morpher, a design that feels refreshing after all those years of phones, tiki heads, guns, and a ninja star. Being a wrist-mounted changer, it's got everything that you'd expect from a device that resembles a communicator. There's a button that has a sticker of the three beasts, a dial that can be tuned to your liking, and a red button on the top of the morpher. The most prominent part is the orange lens, which will come into play later.

This side of the toy has a slot where the keys can fit in, which we'll go over how the keys work. The back features the strap, and behind it is the battery cover.

The bottom of the morpher has the switch, which is currently off. Switch it to the right and it's in Try Me mode, where you can get the sound byte "Hey, Ranger! Move me around!" and after moving it around a few times, you get the sound "Unleash the beast!" as well as the Hero tune that plays upon doing so. Move it one more time, and it's on. Press the button to get a confirmation sound. The following sounds you get by pressing the button include the following:

"Rangers, it's go time!"

"Let's go!"

"Unleash the beast!"

"It's morphin' time!"

And when you move the Morpher, you get a variety of moving sounds, and the lights within the dial determine how strong the movement was. Green means light movement, green and yellow means a somewhat quicker movement, and those two colors along with red means a heavy attack. If the morpher doesn't get any movement or if the button isn't pressed, it will deactivate to preserve battery life.

Even without a key, you can still activate a version of the morph sequence, which can somewhat be a pro for fans that don't want to use the Morph-X Keys. When you press the button, you will get a sound clip that says "Are you ready? Say 'it's morphin' time!'" This leads to you repeating the morphing phrase. You'll get an upbeat morph jingle, and once you're done, you can swing the morpher around and get more powered up sound effects.

Here's what the morpher looks like without the visor in the way.

And here's a closer look at the lights as the morph jingle plays. You get one for the interior of the morpher and six within the dial. Coincidentally, those lights match the key colors of our demo Morph-X Key!

Here's the demo Morph-X Key. It's black and does look like a utilitarian design for general Morph-X purposes, as in it's not as specific to a Ranger or power-up. It could have looked like a simple black thing that somewhat not look right, but there's the dial carried over from the morpher to make it look like it belongs to the toy.

Three options for keys are included. They include the orange key, a red key, and a green key. Two of them will be used in the proper Morph-X Keys of the basic Ranger figures.

Here's the red key inserted; whenever you put a key in general, you will hear a sound that confirms that the key's inside the slot. Make sure it's done properly so you won't have it at a funny angle or get the wrong sounds. The following sounds you get with the red key are:

"Cheetah Beast Power, Red!"

"Let's go for a spin, Cruise!"

The sounds repeat between the key's phrases and the morpher's own phrases. Press the red button to morph, say "It's morphin' time!", and you'll get a new hero morph jingle, which sounds more intense with the guitar riff. Unleashing the beast is about the same, though you have to move the morpher more; after you do so, you can actually move the toy around even more to get a new voice clip that goes "Virus eliminated!" That resets your morpher so you can morph again if you want just by pressing the red button. Even if it's the Red Ranger's voice, it sounds nothing like Devon Daniels' voice.

Inserting the green key gives you the same confirmation sound effect, but you get two new voice clips:

"I'm not a real human. I'm much better!"

"I'm the better Red Ranger!"

Those sounds belong not to a Green Ranger but instead to Cybervillain Blaze! Why his key is green likely has to do with him being different from the Red Ranger, even though his suit has no green on him. He doesn't sound much like Blaze from the show. After a while, you get a different voice that's either supposed to sound like Evox or Scrozzle:

"Not today, Rangers!"

"The Morph-X is mine!"

The morph jingle is different. You get a more twisted rock tune that plays, showing that the Beast-X Morpher has been hacked by the villains. When you move the morpher around, the sound effects sound more static and buzzed, and that leads into the villain version of the Unleash the Beast sounds. The first voice clip plays, and you get another jingle that sounds kind of uncomfortable as the guitar riff sounds more intense. The villain version of "Virus eliminated!" is "Victory is mine, Rangers!"

The final orange key is not for a gold Ranger, but it instead says "Defenders of the Grid!" in the same voice as the Red Ranger.

For a comparison, here is the Hasbro Beast-X Morpher next to the Bandai Japan Morphin' Brace. Differences include the use of more black paint on the visor, Hasbro's red button is missing on Bandai's, the button within the dial is smaller for Hasbro whereas Bandai's is bigger. The button on the Morphin Brace is not a button but a slot for the keys to go in. The way the visors flip open is different, too. Hasbro's morpher opens faster than Bandai's. Also, the sticker for Hasbro's morpher, while nice looking and reflective, is not screen accurate. The morphers seen in the show are the Japanese toy props, which is why when the Morph-X key is inserted, the visor pops open. Hasbro's toy doesn't exactly work like that. Normally, the size between American and Japanese morphers makes them smaller, but Hasbro's is slightly bigger than Bandai's. Finally, the straps are different for both toys; Hasbro has a nice cloth strap that feels like something Bandai Japan used to put out for some of their wrist-mounted changers. I'm thinking of the Hurricane Gyro and Dino Brace having nicer straps than Bandai America's Wind Morpher and Thundersaurus Morpher.

Overall, the Beast-X Morpher's a successful first changer toy by Hasbro! Between the new features that the Japanese version didn't have, and the quality being as good as Bandai Japan's Morphin Brace, I'm happy to say that you almost don't need to get the Japanese version if you don't have it. The keys are also a feature that makes the morpher more unique, yet it's optional and doesn't require fans that don't like the keys to use them. Sadly, this is the only morpher to get the spotlight. Much like with Bandai, Hasbro won't make the Gold and Silver Rangers a proper, electronic Striker Morpher. Sure, there's the Nerf toy, but that's the only option for fans to get (and there's also no key slot). Thankfully, the sounds of the Gold and Silver Ranger are present here, as are a large number of sounds that are found within already released figures and ones that have yet to be identified. Happy hunting!

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐