I was a little old when Power Rangers debuted in the states, so I didn’t follow it closely, but it was a such a phenomenon, you couldn’t avoid it. My knowledge of the franchise is based on half watched bits and pieces caught before or after Batman: The Animated series or at a friend’s house who had younger siblings. I do feel compelled to try out new six inch scale, super articulated figure lines, so I did grab the first wave. Let’s take a look at the White Ranger!
I have to say, I love the box art on these figures. It’s a bit abstract and graphic and a little bit classy looking on the shelf. The box has a similar size and heft to it as the Star Wars Black Series, but the window is cut uniquely for each character portrait.
The figure comes with a sword, a blast effect, two fists, a grip right hand, a chopping left hand, and an alternate unmasked head.
The hands take a little force to swap and the pegs are unusually long, so I was extra cautious about not bending that peg as I swapped hands. The chop hand is a nice extra and feels perfect for some of the exaggerated choppy posing that Power Rangers seem to do a lot.
I would have liked maybe a tiger claw hand or perhaps a left gripping hand since I think I’ve seen Tommy strike two handed or ambidextrously with his sword.
The sword fits securely in his grip hand and has some sharp details sculpted along the hilt and blade. I would have liked a little black wash to bring out the gold hilt details, but it’s otherwise very good and a solid piece of plastic.
The blast effect is designed to attach to the tip of the sword via friction and holds pretty well. It’s got a nice, random explosive quality and it looks to me like it’s meant to be a deflection effect or maybe some sparking from sabers clashing.
The body has some good regular person proportions and the helmet and armor seem appropriately bulky on that slimmer build. I think the costume has some good, subtle clothing wrinkles that conveys the simple body suit costumes well.
The articulation is very good with:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, neck, wrists, hips and ankles
- Swivel thighs, boots, and biceps
- Double hinged knees and elbows
- Single hinged lower torso and butterfly hinged pecs
- Ball and socket upper torso and head
The articulation works really well with one exception. I was really pleased with how the double knees and elbows bent easily. They are ratcheted, but not in a way that makes you feel like you are going to break the figure if you move the joints. The figure overall has a nice solid feel.
Unfortunately, the shoulder hinge has a really tight ratchet joint that takes a lot of force to move. The butterfly hinges move quite easily too, so I had to position the shoulder just right to get the right force behind it. Thankfully, between the butterfly hinges and the shoulder swivels, I didn’t really notice the tight shoulder hinges as much and was able to get most poses I wanted without messing with the shoulders.
The hands all hinge in/out and I would have preferred the sword holding hand to hinge up/down, so he could point the sword forward more. Overall, the articulation is really fun and the combination ab joint works really well for dynamic poses. The shoulder armor piece is also cast in really soft plastic, so it doesn’t impede articulation very much.
The paint is good. He’s mostly cast in the white plastic of the outfit, but I like that the helmet is an even glossier white so it feels like a different material. The gloss black and gold combo on the armor parts is really sharp and I do like that there is some wash on the gold armor to bring out the segmented detail on the shoulder armor, though it’s not on the gauntlets.
The unmasked head has a nice face print and I think it resembles the actor well from what I’ve seen.
My figure was missing a bit of paint on the hairline, so it looks like he’s got a bit of a reverse widow’s peak, but I can fix that easily if I want.
Overall this figure is really nice and I’m glad I picked him up. It’s a ton of fun to pose and works for me on just a cool toy basis, though the MMPR theme song does tend to start blaring in my mind every time I look at it.
