The Lightning Collection continues! We've just finished Mighty Morphin last wave, and I'm glad Hasbro is willing to continue doing the other waves they've tapped into; in terms of teams that have been represented so far, Zeo, In Space, Lost Galaxy, Time Force, Dino Thunder, SPD, Dino Charge, and Beast Morphers have figures aside from MMPR, but it looks like we'll be focusing on Zeo, Dino Thunder, and SPD this time! Zeo already had a complete team with the Legacy Collection, but I'll happily open my arms for more Dino Thunder and SPD since those two were my childhood seasons (along with Ninja Storm and Mystic Force). This time, I'll only be covering three Rangers instead of four, so let's tap into the first Lightning Collection of 2021!
Let's start off with Syd, the S.P.D. Pink Ranger. This is the first female Ranger in the SPD team, which is making me even more excited to get Z and complete the team for once. This figure's just about how I'd want her to look, from the proper Ranger suit design to the appropriate paint apps, and the shade of pink being accurate to the show. I appreciate that her belt works the same as with Sky's given how her weapons work, and the details are accurate overall, so there's nothing much to complain about with this figure.
Helmet sculpt is where I take some of that back; while the sculpting is accurate as are the proportions, she's missing her visor outline! It's not as bad as Dino Thunder White missing his outline since it looked awful without it, but this figure could have had a simple trim to complete the look! Doesn't have to be thick, either! At least the other paint apps are complete, though. As for her articulation, she has a ball joint at one part of the neck and a hinge at the other, butterfly joints, shoulders that move front and back as well as in and out, swivels at the biceps and single-elbow bends (exclusive for the girls), wrist swivels, hands that hinge in and out, and both a diaphragm joint as well as an ab crunch. Hips move front and back as well as in and out, thighs swivel, knees bend at two points, boots swivel, and the feet hinge up and down as pivot at the ankles.
Here are her accessories, which consist of the pink effect piece (whose design was used in almost every wave since MMPR White's wave), a Delta Morpher-holding hand, a fist, a civilian head of Syd, a Delta Morpher (weirdly in silver rather than in white), a Deltamax Striker, a Deltamax Knuckle, and a shorter Striker for the gun mode.
The display options are always nice, but I got really annoyed getting the Morpher in her hand. That bothers me more than the fact that it's silver! Also annoying is the effect piece really looks too big on her weapon, and it'd be better if she had a smaller effect piece since there's a chance the weight of the piece will make the blade warp.
For a comparison with the other versions of the character, here she is next to the Figuart and the regular 5-inch figure. Figuarts Deka Pink is a solid representation of the figure, and I'm sure there are things she does better than the Hasbro version, yet I feel that what we get with the Lightning Collection is more than enough to keep me happy. The old figure is decent for its time, and it's the only one with a light-up helmet on top of her already looking more accurate than most old female figures since the suit doesn't have the skirt, but the proportions and sculpting look primitive compared to Hasbro's figures. Not awful, but is pretty dated.
And here she is with the rest of the B-Squad members. I would add Shadow and Omega, but Syd's Ranger form has even more inconsistencies with the two boys currently available. First of all, their visors are either given different outline colors (or in the case of Pink, she lacks it), the chest badges and I think even the shoulder badges are colored differently, and the shade of gray on the belt is more metallic than with her teammates. Oh, and Sky's helmet has white detailing while Syd and Jack have silver helmet detailing. These differences are subtle, but it's cases like this where IDK what they really want to land with. While I do love owning the SPD Pink Ranger and am happy to complete the wave, the only things I don't like about her is the missing outline for the helmet, the open hand being unable to hold the Morpher properly, and the effect piece looking too big and almost questionable for display given how heavy it is compared to how thin the rod is. I recommend getting her, but know of these issues when you buy her.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Head sculpt is accurate to the show, though once again the figure has a silver visor trim rather than a white one. Weirdly, it works better on him than the Dino Thunder Red helmet did when it had the silver visor. Since his articulation mostly the same as with the female figures (or vice versa since the guys came first), the only differences include double-jointed elbows and bicep swivels.
Here are the accessories of the Blue Ranger, which include the lightning effect piece, a civilian head for Ethan James, the Tricera Shield, the sword and gun versions of the Thundermax Saber and Blaster, and two alternate hands.
The display options are nice as always, and while the civilian likeness to the actor who played Ethan James looks great, the Thundermax weapons he has are still the wrong shade of blue (an issue that was present with Connor's weapon); weirdly, it doesn't stand out as much as it does with Connor. The effect piece meant for the saber doesn't look as cool as the one that came with Connor, but Ethan's Tricera Shield looks awesome! It's nice, big, and even has an extendable horn! Almost like the perfect way to flip off any villains! Some would probably bitch about what little paint apps are missing, but this looks way better than the entirely missing paint on Connor's Tyranno Staff.
For a comparison with the prior versions of the character, here he is with the other versions of Dino Thunder Blue. And no, I still don't own the Legacy version. These figures each have their own merits, though the Dino Thunder one has shown its age. The Legacy figure was a good toy for its time despite the flaws that were present in-hand (such as the white wrist joints, the lack of gold on the wrist and ankle cuffs, etc) while the basic version of the guy is a really surprising addition since you'd think they wouldn't immediately go for Dino Thunder, it is kinda funny how it immediately got replaced by the Lightning Collection version in terms of having it next to the rest of the team. Still, I kind of prefer the shade of blue on the basic figure (as well as the blue for the weapons) more than on the LC figure.
And here he is with the other Dino Thunder Rangers! We've pretty much got a patriotic display for the US, UK, Dutch, French, and so on and so forth in terms of flags that are red, white, and blue! Now, Hasbro, do what you did with Beast Morphers Red and Gold in Wave 2 and kill two birds with one stone! Give us Dino Thunder Yellow and Black! Preferably Yellow since it'll help complete the core three and will please the people that want more girls but do them both in the same wave please! But yeah, the Blue Ranger looks very good, and while he has some inconsistencies next to Red in terms of the symbol outline, the Morpher, and the glove pads, that doesn't bother me nearly as much as the inconsistencies of the SPD B-Squad. Definitely recommend this guy overall! And hey, he's got a better likeness to Ethan's actor than Connor does!
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
And here we have the two hanging out on Kingdom Paleotrex! This pic was taken because not only do I not have a Raptor Rider, but I was going to wait and see how long it'd take for Zeo Green to show up. See, some fans had to wait for him to pop up, and while I initially struggled to get him elsewhere as I grew impatient with Amazon, they made up for it by putting him up for release before April. Now let's get to him!
And here we have Zeo Ranger IV: Green! This guy is not too far off from what we've gotten with the prior Zeo Rangers, with the same tropes we have gotten in the past with Red and Blue. In terms of how he looks specifically, the gold looks great as always, and the shade of green is a fitting shade, especially when it looks somewhat differently next to the Mighty Morphin Green Ranger. He still lacks the white on the butterfly joints, though.
Head sculpt is very accurate to the show, though he has silver visor trim rather than the white one of Zeo Ranger V: Red. At least it's very accurate overall in terms of the shape, but that's pretty much it. And his articulation is the same as with every other male Ranger.
Accessories include the same Zeo Power Pod Sword, Zeo Laser Pistol, and weapon-holding hands, but new for this guy is the blast effect piece for the pistol, the Adam Park head sculpt, and a pair of Zeo IV Power Axes.
Once again, the display options are the same as with the prior Zeo Rangers apart from Gold, but the Axes make for some great display options that make me wish Blue came with his tonfas. That being said, the axes don't really fit as well on his hands as I'd like them too. They're mostly meant to hold the gun and sword, and the fact that one of them has a trigger finger does make them feel a little less than versatile with the axes.
And here we have the Adam head on Mighty Morphin Black, which is not only a great display option, but it also works better than with Zack since he showed up more often with the Black Ranger suit in Season 2 and 3, In Space, and Operation Overdrive. Johnny Young Bosch definitely showed his devotion to the role more than Walter Jones did (sorry, Zack Taylor fans who kept wanting him to return, and btw Walter lied to me about him returning in Grid Connection). Now we have Zeo Green with Mighty Morphin Green, and it's very amusing that these two share plenty of things in common beyond the association of Adam Park: the visor shape's somewhat similar, black and green are interchangeable colors within the main Ranger teams (unless you have them in the core team as with RPM, Dino Charge, and Dino Fury), and their weapons are also similar. The only other Ranger I can think of with similarities like that are MMPR Red and Zeo Red beyond the ranger suit and color.
And here he is with the rest of the team! These guys are all starting to look good together, from the proper gold to the better proportions, and aside from the tonfas, all we need are the girls! I'd trade the Tenga for Zeo Yellow at the very least.
And for a comparison with his prior counterparts, here he is with the Legacy version and the old 1996 figure! The Legacy figure wasn't a bad toy for its time, but apart from the lack of proper weapons and the lack of proper gold, he feels more like a downgrade than the stock images. And as for the old Zeo Green, it's a sign of it being dated even for its time.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Now let's go over this guy for a bit. This updated Lost Galaxy Red Ranger may seem like it's not that different from the one that came in a two-pack with Psycho Red, but he trades the extended Quasar Saber and flame piece in favor of a Quasar Launcher. Still no Transdagger, but that's fine with me. I'll be happy enough with the original version (though fans that didn't get the 2-pack and regular Psycho Blue would get this and the Psycho 5-pack).
And here we have the entire wave together (minus Leo)! It's weird to not only have a set of Rangers that are just a trio instead of a foursome (don't go that route), but to also not have any red whatsoever! We'll definitely get that with Wave 9 since there is no Red Ranger, either. Funny that, my original plan for these guys if they came out in April was to review them with Evo III Drakkon so there can be a continued pattern of an exclusive character replacing the repeat. Still, it's nice to have two Disney-Era Rangers be accompanied with a Zordon-Era guy and Post Zordon-Era guy, especially when Wave 7 had one Disney-Era guy and THREE Zordon-Era guys (that is unless you include Dino Charge Black and not MMPR White).
In terms of who has the best head sculpt, I think Syd and Ethan are tied, though Ethan does have that sort of doll look to the eyes but it isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be from the stock images. Adam's face could be better but maybe I'm more used to seeing him in Once a Ranger (which is the best anniversary team up ever, BTW).
The display options are ones we've seen before, but I guess one thing that is worth mentioning is that they at least match with their colors as expected. Oh and I think Adam's effect piece is the best, as Ethan's is a little weird on him than I expected while Syd's still looks like it could bend the weapon if kept on there for too long.
But best of all, it's proof that we're getting closer and closer to completing these team's waves. For SPD, we're getting a Green Ranger soon, so all we'll need is yellow to complete the main 7 (that'll keep me happy even if we don't get Nova, Boom, and Kat); Dino Thunder needs Yelllow and Black as mentioned previously, and Zeo only needs the two girls! Obviously, only one team represented in this wave will be a step closer to completing the wave, but I honestly feel like we'll get these teams closer and closer than expected.
Overall ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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