Before we actually begin, here is a look at the two-packs that were released around the same time as the Beast-X Mode figures. I'm sure these won't be in the show but will merely be used as a way to sell the basic figures in their original forms while including Beast Bots that would help entice kids to get both items in a single go. So far, only the Red and Yellow Rangers come with their own Beast Bots, Cruise and Jax, respectively. The Beast Bots become armor (in the case of Red) and jetpacks for them to use; while they aren't the most exciting releases in the line, I'll give Hasbro credit for giving fans a basic figure that's complete (minus the weapons). Annoyingly, their keys have new sounds despite being physically unchanged (Cruise's key says "Okay, let's do this thing!" and "Time to cruise in style!" while Jax's key says "Hey, you mess with the Yellow Ranger, you mess with me!" and "I may be little, but I'm tough!"; both keys make the same sounds in the two electronic Morphers). On a positive note, the Beast Bots, save for some oddities, look better proportioned than the regular figures.
Here we have the new Morph-X keys of the figures in-hand. Once again, the designs of the animal faces manage to not look exactly like the previous keys thanks to their more "aggressive" appearances, especially with the Yellow Ranger's key. The villain keys maintain the trend of resembling the faces of their users. The paint apps for the keys could use an extra layer of paint apps due to how thin they look on the plastic. It's noticeable with the Red Ranger's key, which has parts of the mouth still visible under the fang paint apps.
The keys can be displayed with the blades deployed, though Yellow's key has a hard time not point upwards. Unlike the First Wave, there is no purple blade, but here's something that's more worth mentioning: their sounds!
Here are the sounds of the Red Ranger's key: "Cheetah Beast Power, Red!" and "Let's go for a spin, Cruise!"
Disappointingly, the sound effects for the key are the same for this key as they are with the regular Morpher. Also, there is no "Red Ranger Power!" and "You can't catch me! Super speed!" yet. Like always, all Ranger and ally keys play the same Morph jingle.
Blue Ranger's Key: "Gorilla Beast Power, Blue!" and "Reporting for duty!"
Yellow Ranger's Key: "Let's put these creeps out of business!" and "Looks like we'll have to jump on them!"
Once again, curiously, this key doesn't have the voice clips "Yellow Ranger Power!" and "Never give up!" voice clips; you think they would add that for this key because of the regular Blue Ranger key having "Blue Ranger Power!"
Robo-Blaze's Key says "You'll never defeat me!" and "Virus upload complete!"
Vargoyle's key says "I'm ready to fight!" in a voice that better fits Smash than it does Vargoyle.
Things get a little different with the Beast-X King Morpher, which already includes the in-morph jingle and Devon saying "It's Morphin Time!"; while the sounds have the same words, the voice is different this time, as it's a lot closer to Devon Daniels! Most of his voice clips were already in the Morpher, but it's nice to hear his voice in the Morpher rather than a guy that doesn't even sound like him. I should mention that the sound effects are the same if you add the regular Red Ranger key due to the bumps on the blade being the same.
Blue: "Gorilla Beast Power, Blue!" and "Beast-X Gorilla, Slam!"
These voice clips sound closer (but not exactly) like Ravi than on the Beast-X Morpher, which sound more like Steel on that device.
Yellow's key does the same sounds as on the regular Morpher, but the voice clips sound more like Zoey than the regular Morpher. Also love how inserting the key play's Zoey's "It's Morphin Time!" voice clip. We also get new voice clips like "Rangers, power up!" and "Activate Beast-X mode!" in her voice as well as "Beast-X Jackrabbit Slipstrike!"
Blaze's key says "Sorry to crash the party, Rangers!", "Your beast powers will be mine!", and "You can run, but you can't hide!". Also, the Evox voice clips remain intact from this Morpher, as does the jingles associated with moving it around.
Vargoyle's key says "Hands off my fury cells!", "The Morph-X will be mine!", and "Grid Battleforce is doomed!"; the voice sounds much closer to Vargoyle's voice in the show, even if it's not exactly like him.
I'm sure we've already talked about the keys ad nauseam, so I'll finish off the segment by saying that the Beast-X Mode keys aren't like that in the show; instead, the keys that came with the Beast Bots last year are the actual keys used. And of course, the Beast-X Visor is used rather than the King Morpher.
The keys can clip onto their right arms like always, and now let's go to their accessories.
Here are their weapons, and they certainly look a bit more colorful than last year's. Both the Red Ranger comes with a Spin Saber while Red comes with the Beast-X King Bow, both Blue and Yellow come with what I'm guessing are the Beast-X King Ultra Blasters, and the Yellow Ranger comes with a redecoed Beast-X Saber. Robo-Blaze comes with a basic sword with no deco as well as a sweet-looking black and gold Cheetah Beast Blaster, while Vargoyle comes with his razor edge sword and sci-fi blaster. Most of these weapons suck. The Spin Sabers are neat in concept, but I'd rather they not be used for the spinning gimmick since they don't really work too well for a display as they flop constantly. The bow at least has some nice paint applied. but I find the head of the bow too rat-like (as least it can swivel so it would look fine if held vertically or horizontally. The cannons look less like they're made for the two weapons despite having the muzzle of the camera blaster. The Beast-X Saber trades its nice paint apps for a green blade, and that's it! Putting the weapons on the hands is tricky, too; the swords have both handles that are tricky to insert while the bow and blasters have these triggers that are appreciative of the attention to detail yet look like they'll be torn off after inserting and removing these weapons constantly. Also, the Beast-X Saber can't be held nicely on the Yellow Ranger's hand. Robo-Blaze's sword is generic and nothing like the regular Blaze's sword, but I love the black and gold Cheetah Beast Blaster for how much it reminds me of the repaints Bandai did with its Megazords and weapons. Vargoyle's weapons are fine, but now let's get into the figures proper!
Here is the Red Ranger in his Beast-X Mode! Since we've already taken a look at the Red Ranger twice before this review, I'll say that the new parts of this figure include the forearms, lower legs, and the Morpher, and the chest armor, signature aspect of the Beast-X mode. While the new details are appreciative, there's something a little off about this mode. It's not the design that bothers me, but the way the colors are handled. The Ranger suits have silver around the side portions of the torsos as well as the inner portions of the sleeves, while they're solid red in this figure. I also don't like how the chest armor, while it does have the gold and black for the center portion of the armor, is otherwise lacking in-depth for the details without the metallic paint for the armor. That and the solid-red Transporter on the chest makes the figure look cheap. Also viewed from the side and back is a Beast-X Visor attached to the Morpher, which is left unpainted.
The helmet is the same, though it should have the silver outline for the visor. At least the paint apps look good for the most part, but that little outline would have helped make this mode look a little different since it's not as expensive as making a new headsculpt.
Articulation is the same as always. Head is on a ball joint, shoulders move front and back but are fairly limited, they move in and out with no problem. The elbows swivel and bend while the hips move front and back as well as in and out. The knees swivel and bend. I should mention that the way both knees bend is kind of inconsistent. The right foot sticks out a lot more to the side than the left foot, which mostly faces forwards. I'm guessing this was a molding error and hopefully a one-off.
He can hold his weapons, but getting them on there is a little tricky due to how flexible the bow is and how rigid the handle of the sword is (assuming you'd want to have him hold the sword properly). For a figure comparison, here he is next to the Red Fury Mode on the left and the regular figure on the right. I have to say, but does this guy look a little shorter than the other figures? Anyways, the vanilla Red Ranger (not as in the ice cream flavor) may not have that much added on him, but for 10 bucks, he felt pretty complete! He's got the right amount of paint, accessories that are done right, and is the perfect version of the Beast Morphers Red Ranger at the $10 price tag (if you ignore the Lightning Collection Red Ranger being on discount). The Red Fury Mode is pretty cool for an American-exclusive power-up that's not a fucking cockpit mode or a full-on Battlizer (I'm sure this is a Battlizer, but it's more like an enhancer than a massive asset to the suit design). Beast-X Mode could have been as great as the others, and while I do appreciate the new parts and chest armor (which is not molded on the suit), I have to admit that it sucks to have a version of the figure that's not as detailed as the others. Still, I'm glad we have Beast-X Mode in figure form because there was otherwise a little vinyl figure that only moved its arms.
Up next is the Blue Ranger, and his details also apply to that of the Red Ranger, only his chest armor is different from Red's (it's boxier, for starters), and while the shins are the same, I do like that his forearm pieces are different from Red's. I should mention that the chest armor and the forearm pieces that are blue should be painted in metallic blue, which is not the case here.
The helmet still lacks the silver outline for the visor, but hey, check out those misaligned eyes...anyways, his sword is the same as Red's, but his traffic light cannon can be held with not much of a problem aside from the trigger flexing and making me worry it'll be torn off.
Here he is with the regular version of the Blue Ranger. Same things I mentioned about the Red Ranger being a nice figure for the price and the Beast-X Mode Blue Ranger being lacking apply here.
And finishing off this trio is the Yellow Ranger, who also has her own chest armor and her own shin guards. Her forearms look similar to the Red Ranger's but are new tooling. The worst part about the lack of silver paint is that it makes the Yellow Ranger look pretty cheap. Her skirt looks almost see-through in this material compared to the grayish-black used for the previous Yellow Ranger. On top of that, she needs the metallic yellow the most, much like the Jax figure does.
The helmet has some of the misaligned eyes, but the black outline is thicker than the last version. She also has a bit of excess paint applied on the visor, which could be an allusion to the silver visor, but that's not really how it works. The Yellow Ranger being made of the thinner yellow plastic doesn't even benefit her ability to hold her weapons well, especially the saber (something the previous Yellow Ranger didn't have a problem with)
For yet another Ranger comparison, here she is with the Yellow Ranger, who may be in a normally lighter shade of yellow than the suit actually is in the show, but is generally more complete with the paint applied for the inner portions of the sleeves, the sides of the torso, and the skirt. Oh and the soles of the boots being black. Ironically, there is a lot more black on the helmet with the outline compared to the regular version.
Here are the Beast-X Mode Rangers with their Beast Bots. While it's nice to have versions of the Rangers in their Beast-X Modes with articulation added, the lack of paint, the accessories, and the possible size decrease for the males makes this trio look worse than the regular figures, who were actually good! The Beast Bots did lack their metallic finish and it's especially glaring with Jax, but at least they made up for that issue by having Smash with denser plastic, Cruise and his transformation, and Jax with the accessory count. These Rangers are just...75 percent complete.
Now to the villains, starting with Robo-Blaze. He's actually based on the original look of Enter from Go-Busters, which better suits his personality in the show as a villain who's basically a fancy, evil bishonen rather than the hot-headed avatar of Blaze. Still, seeing this guy feels more like a downgrade from the Dark Buster suit used first in Beast Morphers (even if it was used once and after this suit in GB). Either way, it looks accurate to the suit design, from the tech detailing found on the chest to the flamboyant suit details like the scarf, the goggles on the forehead, the butt flap cape, and the boots. I also love the use of gold and silver that contrast from the black. From the back, the butt flap cape looks out of place due to how cheap it looks, but the scarf can be seen molded on his back.
Head sculpt is finally different from his previous self (owing to the fact that he is a new design), and it's sort of got more similarities with Roxy's design what with the head two eyes, the goggles on the top, and the crescent on his head. I also love how the eyes are painted gold as they aren't blending in with the bronze paint. His articulation is the same as with all villain figures, including the non-outward leg movement. He can hold his weapons with no problem, and while his sword looks cheap, his gun looks pretty pimpin'!
For a comparison with his old self, you can definitely tell how different Robo-Blaze is from his Avatar self, which is more Ranger-like in comparison. I think I like the Dark Buster version more just for how awesome his suit is, and it makes me wish regular Blaze would help the team out with this suit against the evil Rangers. Trent's suit from Dino Thunder looked "evil" like Blaze's suit, but he still looks great with the Dino Thunder Rangers.
And finally, Vargoyle. This guy looks great overall! This figure's decked with spikes, dreads on the back, and is a great mix of black with silver and red highlights...though the red highlights could go for an extra layer because of how dark they are on the base black plastic. While this figure may be the first version of the character to be realized in plastic (since GB made this guy, named Danganloid in Japan, as a regular monster), part of me wants to see a Lightning Collection version of this character. Perhaps he could be in a regular release or in a two-pack with one of the Rangers and their power-ups. At least he scales nicely with them and is detailed enough to fit in. Either way, the look of this figure is perfect, from the Deathstroke-esque head to the Predator like appearance for the suit. You even have dreads on the back, but sadly, he died before Devon could get the chance of calling him an ugly motherfucker.
I already mentioned how I like the head design, but it's not just the Deathstroke influence that does it for me, but he also has some nice silver paint apps for the...audio components?...as well as the eyes (though they are blue in the show). The red paint apps are present here, though they still have the same problems of looking as though they need another layer of paint. The articulation is pretty much the same as Blaze's, but there's one problem: his left arm can't bend at the elbow. I'm not sure if it's too stiff or if it's molded poorly, but it won't budge a bit! At least it appears to be a problem for my copy, I don't know if anyone else had a similar problem or not. His weapons are held with no problem, which is a plus for this guy because the Rangers can't even hold their weapons well.
Here he is with the other villains in Beast Morphers (minus the Tronic and Drilltron). He looks pretty amazing and is tied with Blaze as the best-looking villain figure of the four (with Roxy needing a bit more consistency with her paint and Evox needing more paint. I think all we need is a few more villains that have their sound effects in the Morphers and a purple Roxy to go with Robo Blaze.
The villains certainly have some communication problems to resolve, but maybe the displays would be better with the outward leg movement the Rangers have, right?
And that covers my look at Wave 4. Sadly, this selection of figures doesn't feel quite as refined as the 2019 wave, as the trio of Rangers we have here is not quite as complete as their regular forms, despite them having the new Beast-X Mode assets. Their weapons are also pretty weak in execution, even if I appreciate Hasbro coming up with new arsenal for their line. The villains would be the more recommended set of figures in this wave, but they sadly retain the same limited leg movement. This is a wave I suggest you either get on clearance and use the extra money saved to at least paint your Ranger figures so they can look a lot nicer than they currently are. At least the keys work well with the Beast-X King Morpher a lot better than the regular Beast-X Morpher due to the voices for the Rangers at least sounding closer than before.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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