And now for something different from me. Very different, that is, and this will start to be a trend. You see, my oldest son discovered Super Sentai and religiously watches Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger. He loves the show so much that he asked for a Kyouryuger DX Henshinjyuu Gaburevolver and Kyouryuger Jyudenken Gaburicaliber for his birthday. He’s got the bug, and I would be a horrible father and member of the Fwoosh if I didn’t take the time to review the toys he buys.
He recently found a Mighty Morphing Power Rangers Super Samurai Megazord and had to have it. Of course, I looked at it and asked, “Where is the articulation? How to you pose it? Are the animals that make up the Megazord poseable?” And, of course, I was met with “idiot daddy” looks, as though I did not understand anything and was out of touch with toys and action figures. And I was. I needed to take my “40-year-old collector hat” off for a minute and put on my “12-year-old kid” hat in order to understand the joy of the figure.
Half of the value of the figure isn’t in the fact that it has five robot animals that can be transformed into different body parts to make one giant Megazord. No, half the fun is in recreating the scenes from the TV show, saying Japanese words and playing with your toy. Yeah, playing with the toy. Picking it up and flying it around making noises and saying Japanese phrases. And doing it for hours, and then putting it on a shelf or night stand in your room where you can look it as you fall asleep and see it again when you wake up in the morning.
All this was lost on me.
Until my son(s) started doing this. I was lost for a brief moment of fatherly “oh my god” until I saw the rhythm and fun they were having, and then it all came back to me. The hours of playing in sandpiles with Joes and Star Wars and He-Man and Power Lords and Advanced Dungeon and Dragons and… and… and… and… the list goes on. Here, before my eyes, was a time machine that took me back an incredible number of years, one that reminded what the joy of toy collecting was all about.
The figure in itself is by no means groundbreaking. We’ve seen combiners for years and years; several robots that combine to make one big robot is not a new theme in toys. This Megazord is clearly designed with children in mind as the transformation is super simple and there are very few small parts that could break off and cause major choking hazards. I’d recommend watching the helmet as that might be small enough to be a choking danger, and the soft plastic sword might cause some damage in the wrong hands, but that’s a stretch. The toy is designed for heavy play; it wants kids to take it apart and put it back together.
The Zord has very limited articulation. The arms swivel. That’s it. There are no knee or elbow joints, no ball hips, hinged knees or elbows, no shoulder or ankle rockers. Nothing. And yet the Zord is flying around all over the house doing battles and destroying enemies.
There isn’t much to the paint, either. The figure is molded in the ABS plastic colors with some pretty simple paint apps. No weathering, dry brushing, layer caking — just a simple single layer of painting. But it’s well done. Bandai stayed within the lines — you know how difficult it is to stay in the lines.
All in all, this is well-designed toy that has a ton of play value, good for children, and good for those collectors that like non-poseable vanilla toys in their displays.
You can still find this on Amazon.com and BigBadToyStore.
Discuss this further on the Fwoosh forums here.
