For a line that has been around for less than a year and only had two regular retail waves we are building up quite a Lightning Collection and that is due in large part to retailer and con exclusives. Today we are going to take a look at the Gamestop exclusive Power Rangers in Space Psycho Blue Ranger.
The figure comes in the now familiar white box with a stylized graphic of the character on the front and sides.
The figure comes with four hands, an axe, and a blast effect.The hands include two grip hands (right and left) a lightning effect right hand and a left fist.
The lightning effect hand is the most interesting piece and it’s similar to what we saw with the recent Black Series Emperor, though the lightning blast itself is a little shorter. The separation between the hands and the lightning piece is accomplished a lot more cleanly on this figure than the Emperor and is conveys an electric blast well.
I’m glad they didn’t skip painting the rivets on all the different glove pieces as I’ve noticed recently that the extra hands can miss out on paint in this and the Overwatch line.
The axe matches the source material pretty well and has decent paint work, though the blue blade makes it look extra toy-like for my taste. I can’t blame Hasbro for that since that’s the design. They also did this weird thing where they just blasted silver to a stopping point on the handle rather than painting around the swirling design where the axe head meets the handle.
The blast effect is meant to attach to the tip of the axe blade and sticks on tightly. The translucent piece is cast in slightly soft plastic, so some of the sharp flair pieces will bend on you and it looks less effective than if they were straight.
The overall sculpting is nice and sharp and it matches the sort of bat-wing like decorations to the armor and biker suit leather texture details well. This guy feels a little bigger and higher powered than the regular rangers.
Articulation is what we’ve come to expect from the lightning collection with:
- Double hinged elbows and knees
- Swivel/hinge neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Swivel thighs, biceps and boots
- Single hinged lower torso and butterfly pecs
- Ball and socket head and upper torso
The figure moves great and the only slight articulation issue is that the soft plastic upper armor overlay looks a little weird and puffs out when you bring the hands across the chest. I also don’t love how the bicep swivel is just a straight cut, rather than integrated into the sculpting
Paint is okay on this figure, staying in the lines for the most part, but there is a little misalignment on some of the rivets here and there and I do have some slop on the chest armor. I don’t think the gloss blue on the helmet, while nice, quite matches the metallic blue from the show.
I do like that they are working villains into the release schedule and I think this figure hits the right notes for a Psycho Blue Power Ranger, but it’s not quite as exciting to me as some of the other releases from this line so far. I think the figure is fine, the problem is on my end with this one and I think I’ll be a lot more into it when I have a regular Blue Ranger for him to fight.
