Rangers Review: Legacy White Tigerzord (Mighty Morphin Power Ranger)

Intro:

            The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers have long been arguably Bandai’s most successful exports to the United States, and equally arguably, to the entire world.

            On the back of the successes of the Legacy Megazord and Dragonzord, I guess Bandai thought that it would definitely be a great idea to milk more money from the fans by continuing to release other iconic Zords from older MMPR series.

            Thus, here is the White Tigerzord.  

            The White Ranger is arguably the most popular of all the original rangers, alongside the equally hugely popular Green Ranger, whom the White Ranger is widely considered as his successor (at least in the westernized MMPR series), as both are portrayed by Jason David Frank.

            According to the story, the long-depowered Green Ranger was endowed with the White Ranger powers in order to assist the Thunder Power Rangers in their quest to stop Lord Zedd’s world domination.

            The White Ranger uses his mighty talking saber, Saba, to control his immensely powerful zord – the White Tigerzord.

           

Box & Packaging:

            The White Tigerzord is packaged in similar theme and style as all of the MMPR products under the Legacy series.

White Tiger Mode:

            Well, just in case if you didn’t know, he is a white-colored tiger. Having said that, he looks more like a white lion rather than a white tiger to me – or maybe that’s just me.

            I don’t have the original White Tigerzord, but based on the photos I’ve seen, the original version is slightly bigger, and blockier.

            This newer version looks much slimmer and definitely more articulated.

            The lower jaw of the zord opens and closes.

            The shoulders move forward and back; bend and rotate at the elbows; and the paws moves up and down. The hind legs move forward and slightly backward, and finally the paws moves up and down.

            His tail is unarticulated though, which is formed by the White Tigerzord’s sword, which looks like Saba on steroids.

            He may not be as articulated as most modern mecha action figures, but as far as MMPR/ Super Sentai go, this is good.

            And he is also deliciously hefty.

White Tigerzord Mode:

            Transformation is very simple, and the resulting robot looks very, very cool.

            The color apps on this figure is good, and most details are there and I don’t  see any sloppy paintworks or anything.

            Articulation-wise: his head doesn’t move at all. The shoulders rotate; the elbows bend and rotate and guess what? The wrists rotate too!

           The legs don’t do anything else except for 1 particular thing – the knees bend!

Yay!

            And of course, White Tigerzord wields a sword – a golden soft-rubbery sword.

            Comparing to the iconic Dragonzord, White Tigerzord is way taller and bulkier – almost as tall as the Legacy Megazord, with almost the same mass.

            But that’s not all folks, there’s more in store…

Bonus Mode:

            Now honestly, I don’t know what to call this mode actually, as canonically, this have never happened before.

            If you have the Legacy Megazord, you can take both the Sabertooth Tiger and the Triceratops, and combine them with White Tigerzord, to form super-robot.

           The resulting robot has almost the same articulations as the White Tigerzord robot mode, but minus the knees.            

            Judging by the disproportionate look of the figure – the legs are clearly way too small for the larger upper torso – the designers were somewhat forced to include this “gimmick” as a way to attract fans; previous buyers of the Legacy series to buy this set.

            It’s clear that the White Tiger Zord is meant to be a precursor of the Thunder Megazord, which had recently been announced.

            So fans, be prepared, there are definitely more to come.

Summary:

White Tigerzord is a surprisingly good figure on his own. Yes, I have to admit, I had no intention of getting this set in the first place, but somehow, shit happens, and I ended up with him.

Yet, now that I have him, I do feel glad. He’s actually quite good. Now all I need is the Thunder Megazord to complete this set.

Highly recommended.

Rating – 9.0/10

Super Sentai Review: ToQ-Oh (Bandai Candy Toy)

Intro:

            I have to admit that I’m not really a Super Sentai/ Power Rangers collector. So far, the only SS/ PR figures that I have are the Legacy Megazord and Legacy Dragonzord figures, and subsequently after purchasing those, I have had no intention to expand on that. However, once in a blue moon, we would actually come across a figure (or figures), that is sold at a bargained price, and it just screams at you.

             Well, this is indeed such a case.

            Some of you Transformers fans out there might be familiar with Kabaya Candy Toy figures – some of which I have already reviewed here in NPC. Not to be outdone, Bandai too jumped onto the bandwagon, and established their own similarly-concept candy toys, which focuses on their hugely popular Super Sentai/ Power Rangers franchise.

            One such figure is the super robot/ mecha ToQ-Oh, from the series Ressha Sentai ToQger. They are sold in five separate boxes, each representing a sentai’s mecha, i.e. red, yellow, blue, green and pink sentai.

            When I first saw this set, I was kind of intrigued – having been quite familiar with the Kabaya Candy Toys and never have I seen a Bandai version of them before. Since the price was right, and I am a sucker for simple assembly kits such as this, I thought I might just as well give this series a try. So was it worth it? Let us see…

The Ressha:

            Ressha, or 烈车 (literally meaning strong car, which I guess is a substitute for locomotive), as they are called in the series, means train in this context. Thus, there are 5 Ressha, i.e. Red Ressha, Yellow Ressha, Blue Ressha, Pink Ressha and Green Ressha.

            Each of these trains there is based on actual trains. The Red Ressha is based on the traditional steam locomotive. The Blue and Green Ressha are based on bullet trains, or to be more precise – the Shinkansen-type trains commonly used in Japan. The Yellow and Pink Ressha, on the other hand are based on the E65-type trains.  

            Assembling these trains is quite simple, and just in case if you are wondering, no scissors, knives and glues are required – everything is tight fit. Building each of these figures are quite easy, largely because the end product do not transform individually like most Kabaya figures are – only being able to transform/ merge to form the super robot.

            Naturally, the Red Ressha is the largest set – being the longest train of the five. The Blue and Green Ressha are the second longest; while the Yellow and Pink Ressha are the shortest. ToQ-Oh’s super weapon – a crossing-gate themed sword called the Fumikiriken – is packed together with the Yellow Ressha.

            Individually, surprisingly there is still some play value to these trains. Each of them actually has working wheels underneath, and as such, they can roll quite well on flat surfaces. There are also pegs, on the back of each train, which can be used to hook up all trains together to form a super-train of sorts.

            However, when the threat of Shadow Line and Emperor Z become too overwhelming, the ToQgers have no choice but to combine their might, to summon the mightiest machine to have ever graced the railroads – ToQ-Oh.

ToQ-Oh:

The transformation is actually quite fun. I seldom fiddle with train-themed transformable figures before, and I am actually pleasantly surprised. Having never actually seen the actual show before, or even the actual combined super robot before (only having heard about them prior to this), I was kind of worried that the resulting robot might look crappy.

Whatever fear I had with this figure was eventually proven wrong – the super robot mode actually rocks! ToQ-Oh actually looks darn good, and very, very screen accurate. At some point, even more show-accurate compared to the actual official ToQ-Oh figure!

For those familiar with Kabaya figures, you probably realized that some of those Kabaya figures are actually better than the original figures in terms of articulations, and that is definitely the case here.

One of the main reasons that I never came to collecting Super Sentai figures are because of their articulation, or rather their lacking of it.

Sorry SS/ PR fans…

Surprisingly after more than 3 decades, Super Sentai figures never really evolved articulation-wise. They are still bricks at best, with very, very limited articulation joints. This is a far cry from Transformers, in which their articulations have evolved by leaps and bounds over the past 3 decades.

The major drawing factor for the Super Sentai figures, however, is their elaborate looks. I do admit, some of them do look really, really good, but brick nonetheless.

Anyways, back to matters at hand, as far as this version of ToQ-Oh, I rather say, it is way, way, way, way better than the official Super Sentai figure, as far as articulation is concerned. You can actually put him in various poses that you wished that they were possible with the bigger version!

ToQ-Oh articulations are as follow: the head rotates 360°; the shoulders rotate vertically and swing outward; the elbows bend almost 135° and rotate; the wrists rotate; the hips rotate on a vertical axis and swings ourward; the knees rotate and bends as if they are double-jointed; and finally the ankles move down and up.

Despite the supposed bulk of this figure, the articulation points are working wonders!

Simply wonderful!

Overall:

This figure is that damn good, simply put. How I wish that their bigger counterparts were just as good. I had a lot of fun with this figure, and thanks to these guys, I am actually itching for more.

I highly recommend this figure if you are a fan of mini assembly kits like me, and even more so if you’re an actual Super Sentai fan.

Now, onto the next station…

Highly recommended.

            Final verdict: 10/10.

Rangers Review: Legacy Dragonzord (Power Rangers)

Intro:

            During the first season of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers series, the Green Ranger was widely considered as the most popular Ranger. Not only he was arguably the strongest of the lineup of Rangers then, the actor – Jason David Frank would go on to have long affiliation with the franchise and appeared in numerous subsequent Power Ranger series.

            One of the other reasons that made this particular Ranger so darn popular was his Zord – the Dragonzord.

            When I first watched the series, Dragonzord was my favorite Zord. He looked bad@$$ and was way more powerful than the other Zords. And to have him being operated with the Dragon Dagger, which was used as a flute – that was even more unique.

            Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to buy the figure back then, and so I just let desire store away deep down in my childhood memories – or so I thought.

            Then, Bandai announced the release of Legacy Megazord. Fans went nuts, and so did I. However, maybe it’s just me, I don’t know, but one of the reasons why I was so excited is the fact that whenever the original Megazord is released, the Dragonzord will always follows.

            As far as I was concerned, I bought Megazord with the hindsight that I am going to get the Dragonzord.

            Since the day I’ve gotten my Megazord, I have been patiently waiting for the Dragonzord, and now, finally, it’s here!

            Anyway, I like to thank the good people at TeenCom Melaka for reserving me this wonderful figure.

            So, without further ado, let’s get on with the review.

Box and Packaging:

            The box hugely resembles Legacy Megazord’s, but with several slight differences. The Legacy Megazord’s box clearly states that it was a Power Rangers 20 release. Legacy Dragonzord instead has the original series logo – Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – instead.

            I don’t really know why the difference exists, but I still think it’s quite neat – giving it a sense of nostalgia to it.

            On the side, there is also an interesting Stats Card at the side of the box. It mentions that Dragonzord is actually 124 ft tall and weighs about 340,000 lbs, compared to Megazord’s 333 ft and 172,000 lbs respectively. When I watched the original series, I used to remember that they were both on equal footing, i.e. the same height. I never remembered ol’ Green Jaw being half the height of the Megazord. However, I was quite shock to leard than Dragonzord was almost twice the weight of Megazord, which makes sense considering the power this guy.

            The packaging also boasts the figure 11” articulated tail! More on that later. It also comes with several accessories such as the Power Staff’s stand and an extra set of relaxed hands, along with the weapons firing hands.

Extra Hands

Dragonzord:

            Well, I don’t really have the original Dragonzord to begin with, so I can’t really do a comprehensive comparison, but I can still do some of the comparisons that I do know.

            This version has all the detailing on the gold shoulders, underneath its feet and hips all engraved in. No more messy stickers – everything is built-in.

Another improvement is the articulations. The jaw opens and closes. There is a slight elbow, and the hands can rotate at the wrists. There are articulation points at the hips, knees and legs.

The most awesome improvement made is of course are the tails! The tail is so huge, and it has 6 different articulations – five of those are ball joints-esque. The main connector between the tail and the body are ratcheting joints in them.

            The Dragonzord itself is hefty, having loads of die cast part in them, namely the feet, shoulder etc.

            However, there is one aspect of this figure that is actually a backward move. In the old action figure, the chest piece used to have some electronics in them – being able to light up and having sound effects, albeit being very lame. At least, I think that they could’ve improved on that here.

Zords

Size Comparisons: Masterpiece Grimlock, Dragonzord, Tyrannosaurus Rex Zord, Megazord

Mega Dragonzord:

            When you have Megazord standing side-by-side the Dragonzord, you know that something marvelous could and should happen.

            The transformation seems rather simple, but can be quite deceptive in the sense that it doesn’t transform the way the original Megazord and Dragonzord do.

            The Dragonzord opens up, and the chest piece and tail are pulled out to form the weapon later.

            In this version, you have to somehow detach the Pterodactyl and pulled down the T-Rex’s arms and chest piece, before attaching the Dragonzord on his shoulders and head.

            The Dragonzord looks like an overcoat, or rather a Warrior’s shield for Megazord to wear. It’s kind of lame, and I don’t quite like this mode, as it is kind of an insult to Dragonzord, to be treated just as an ornament. But somehow, this mode was shown prominently in series, so I can’t really complain much, can I?  

            In this mode, the Megazord’s articulations are reduced – the fact that arms movements is further restricted is another bummer.

            The tail, oh wonderful tail, is then detached and then can be collapsed into the tip of a lance instead. Combining that with the chest piece and the stand provided, it looks huge and majestic – called the Power Staff. However, one weak point of the Power Staff is that it cannot stand on its own due to the design of the stand – 2 legs are longer than the other two, which is a bummer really. They should be able to stand on its own!

            However, there is something that they did right here. In the original Dragonzord, the Megazord cannot really wield its huge humongous weapon, but this time, he can! Not in a dynamic way, but at least he can hold them now! That is another huge improvement.

            With all the die cast parts in both mode, this combination is very hefty – weighing at about 1.2 kgs.

            But that’s not all folks, there’s one more gimmick left!

Dragonzord Battle Mode:

            Now, this is one of the other main reasons why I have to buy this figure. This is how an equal partner supposed to transform, and by doing so, he just eliminate both the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Pterodactyl out of the equation, leaving only the Saber Tooth Tiger, the Mastodon and the Triceratops to form one of the most kick@$$ Zord of all time.

            The transformations are quite satisfying and the resulting Dragonzord Battle Mode looks amazing. He is huge and tall – weighing at almost 1.2 kgs and standing at almost 12-inches tall!

Posing with the leftovers

            In all honesty, I prefer this Dragonzord in Battle Mode to the Megazord anytime. He looks way cooler and way better than the latter.

Wielding the Power Staff

            Articulation-wise however, there is no improvement at all, but still, I like this mode nonetheless.

Summary:

Yes, Dragonzord is exactly a brick that it used to be. He is fun and has a lot of play value in it, although most of that will require that you have the Legacy Megazord prior.

Ol’ Green Jaw looks and feels awesome, and I really love it!  

Highly recommended.

Rating – 9.5/10