Super7 is showing some metallic Power Rangers repaints with vintage-inspired packaging and they're being priced at $35. I think this is the first time I've seen the company do a "budget" Ultimates! line. Maybe they're finally starting to figure out that a lot of people think their stuff is just too much money? I'm sure they cut back on accessories and probably eliminated the unmasked heads, but that's no great loss for those figures since most of those heads were terrible.
I heard the pop up store showed off four new dnd figures including a Gelatinus Cube, Orc, Ogre and something else. Not sure if this is reaction or ultimates. Has anyone seen any pictures of these? Or can anyone confirm if they are real?
@eiczerofour, Pixel Dan showed them on his walk thru. They're ReAction, though.
@eiczerofour, Pixel Dan showed them on his walk thru. They're ReAction, though.
Those are actually hype, I have all of the original figures except the statue (not sure if I want him because of scale) but all four of these feel like great additions. Even if I would rather have Ultimates, I will take Reaction.
Super7 just showed the next wave of Sesame Street Reaction figures. The good news for me is Super Grover is there, so that one is an instant pick up for my wife.
The rest of the line up is Mr. Hooper, Sherlock Hemlock and Big Bird. I think the Big Bird choice is weird here because he's the same size as the others. Meaning wildly out of scale with them. I get that's sort of Super7's thing in Reaction but it just seems weird to have a Big Bird that is basically the same height as Super Grover.
@panthercult The pictures are new, but the list has been out there since June. They have done larger Reaction figures (i.e. the recent Unicron release) so I don't get what they are thinking here. Just more reason to move on to NECA.
Gosh darn it... there aren't many Power Rangers products Super 7 could put up that would tempt me to buy - but they just listed one. I'm a sucker for the Lord Drakkon design and the Ultimates figure looks pretty nice. The two older, 'evil' Tommy headsculpt renders look pretty strong. Not sure why it comes with a Red Ranger helmet... But anyway - here I am ordering one more Ultimates from the Power Rangers line. Sigh.
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Looks like a new body too. Well, new to Super7's Power Rangers as it's more muscled and doesn't have that hideous ab crunch the Power Rangers have. I have no interest in it, but it looks fine. I definitely wouldn't trust the renders on those unmasked heads.
The $35 Power Rangers went up for preorder too, I think on Pulse. They're the ones in the old school packaging with a new metallic deco and monochromatic weapons. Not a bad option for those who want cheaper Rangers, though right now you may be able to get the standard ones for that price or lower in some places. I feel like the monochromatic weapons might hold them back though. I get what they're going for, but I don't get the sense there's a ton of affection out there for those old all gray and all white weapons.
Gosh darn it... there aren't many Power Rangers products Super 7 could put up that would tempt me to buy - but they just listed one. I'm a sucker for the Lord Drakkon design and the Ultimates figure looks pretty nice. The two older, 'evil' Tommy headsculpt renders look pretty strong. Not sure why it comes with a Red Ranger helmet... But anyway - here I am ordering one more Ultimates from the Power Rangers line. Sigh.
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Lord Drakkon hunted down other Rangers and stole their morphers. After he killed the Ranger, he'd take their helmets as trophies. That's why the figure has a damaged MMPR Red helmet with it.
I attended Power Morphicon this past weekend and spoke with the Super7 reps. We had quite a discussion on monsters. I'm of the belief their Power Rangers' strongest draw to non-fans are the monsters. It was apparently quite a shock to Super7 that the only Wave 4 Ultimates figure to do well was the White Ranger. With the outcome of the Wave 4 preorders, there is hesitation with future product. They seem confident with Drakkon, but preorder numbers for him have to be fantastic in order to get some of the figures waiting in the wings. There's a few that are "ready to go" and one of them is something I've wanted for a very long time. Hope Drakkon sells well so we get it.
That being said, I told them that I'm not planning on picking up figures of characters I already have. I would pick up figures of those I don't. So this version of Drakkon is a pass for me, but I'd grab one of his other forms that are yet to be released as a figure if they did them.
I also got to see the prototype of the GitD Green Ranger and it looks good. The Tommy headsculpt looks like a great improvement over the previous civilian headsculpts that they did. Fingers crossed that PR turns a corner for them and that we get to see more characters that have yet to be realized as super articulated figures.
The MMPR line is definitely one that's on life support where it's continued existence is prevalent on basically one figure at a time, it would seem. My totally uninformed opinion is that Super7 hasn't done a good job of convincing the fanbase that its product is really much of an upgrade over their existing Lightning Collection and they have done a poor job of getting to the monsters fans actually want to see in plastic. Madame Woe wasn't a character I had ever seen on anyone's "Wants" list and certainly not enough to suggest there was a demand for her. She also did not look like a particularly fun action figure given the character's design which made it all the more harder to lure in those who may have been on the fence. They may also want to avoid doing the same monsters that Hasbro already did like Pumpkin Rapper and the pig guy.
Agreed - their problem was that Lightning Collection hit the best monsters already - and did them well, and at about the same size the Super 7 would do them, so there's very little reason to buy the Super 7 version if they make one too.
Super7 would be smart to hit the characters that Lightning Collection didn't get to - like Rito Revolto, Master Vile, Scorpina or the like...
The MMPR line is definitely one that's on life support where it's continued existence is prevalent on basically one figure at a time, it would seem. My totally uninformed opinion is that Super7 hasn't done a good job of convincing the fanbase that its product is really much of an upgrade over their existing Lightning Collection and they have done a poor job of getting to the monsters fans actually want to see in plastic. Madame Woe wasn't a character I had ever seen on anyone's "Wants" list and certainly not enough to suggest there was a demand for her. She also did not look like a particularly fun action figure given the character's design which made it all the more harder to lure in those who may have been on the fence. They may also want to avoid doing the same monsters that Hasbro already did like Pumpkin Rapper and the pig guy.
I would've bought Madame Woe, but I agree. I think Power Rangers (actually Super Sentai) has a lot of strong monster designs. King Sphinx I'd like to grab, but I already have it in Lightning Collection form. Same with Finster. Our fanbase does not want to buy characters they already have unless it's unique in some way. I bought the Purple Rita and GitD Zedd because I wanted Super7 versions and they were different than the Lightning Collection version. I did not pick up Super7's standard Rita and Zedd. That being said, I don't want them to release variants of characters I already have. I personally would like to see things that have not been done in figure form yet. There's a monster that I would LOVE to see that they apparently have sculpted and ready to go. The line just has to do well for them to get to it.
Agreed - their problem was that Lightning Collection hit the best monsters already - and did them well, and at about the same size the Super 7 would do them, so there's very little reason to buy the Super 7 version if they make one too.
There are still a lot of cool monsters between the three MMPR seasons that they could do: Knasty Knight, Goatan, Mutitus, Cyclopsus, Shellshock, Rhinoblaster, Robogoat, Primator, Skelerena, Doomstone, See Monster, Repellator, Hate Master, Dischorida, etc....give me Lokar too!
Super7 would be smart to hit the characters that Lightning Collection didn't get to - like Rito Revolto, Master Vile, Scorpina or the like...
Maybe one of those was teased.... 🤐
Madame Woe is one of my favorite PR baddies, actually.
If you ask me, and I've gotten dozens of phone calls specifically requesting that I give my full and lengthy thoughts on this topic, S7 is just too poorly managed to have ever made this line work with the unique challenges it presented. S7 is, beyond just being not a smartly-managed company, too unyielding in presentation and methodology with their Ultimates figures.
Let's face it - S7 was never going to come out of the gate with better-articulated figures than Hasbro. And they were never going to scale down these specific figures (even though there's literally no reason for them to be the size they are) to make compatibility a possibility for existing LC collections. That's two hard hits right off the hop and puts S7 on their heels.
So what's next? Well, if you're going to go with mediocre, at best, articulation then you need to go the opposite direction and make sure your figures have way more shelf presence than Hasbro managed. That doesn't just mean bigger. It means nicer. Hide the articulation really well. Make the colors pop. Make them visibly do something for the shelf that other figures of those characters can't/haven't. Make them REALLY good at the few things they can do. Did they? Not really. The monsters and zords (by nature of Hasbro not ever bothering to fucking make them) were nicer looking. And that's it.
They utterly failed to even drive interest out of the gate because they mostly re-hashed what Hasbro already did. Controversial opinion but I think (assuming there's no licensing issues, which there might be) they should have started with the movie Rangers. That's still the much-loved original cast, but the costumes are not only something Hasbro never bothered to do (again, fuck you Hasbro), but they're more muscled and angular in a way that probably plays to S7's strengths better than the smoother TV looks.
And that drives conversation. It's something new and different. It adds to the collection instead of replacing it. It also implies commitment because 'there's no way they'll do these and never do the original costumes.'
I also don't disagree that they should have gone for monsters that Hasbro didn't do. They probably also should have focused a bit more on zords, since Hasbro stuck their heads right in their asses on that one. Deliver product people can get excited about, rather than just 'the first season Rangers.. again, but more expensive and shittier.'
But Super7 was obsessed with just applying a basic 'Ultimates Formula' to the brand without thinking anything through. And fans didn't show up for it. Fans probably wouldn't have shown up for it even if the quality wasn't garbage. Which, from the accounts I'm seeing, it certainly was on at least enough figures to turn people off overall.
Also, just flat out, if you're making a PR line and your Green Ranger can't do the flute pose - your PR line is DOA.
I bet Hasbro was absolutely delighted to take Super7's money for Power Rangers. They've probably been laughing behind their back ever since knowing this line was doomed to fail. "You're going to make Power Rangers and charge that for them? Hah, good luck!"
It would be easy to say that first wave really stinking up the joint from a quality control standpoint likely killed any hope at a flourishing line, but I think Super7's problem is always their price. The only Ranger I have from the line is the Green Ranger and he's standing behind my LC Green Ranger. The Super7 one looks better, I prefer the colors, the dragon shield is much closer to the show, but at no point in time have I ever looked at the two figures and said "This one is clearly 30 bucks better than this one." It's just not, and that's the best looking PR figure Super7 (well, the White Ranger might be superior, haven't seen it in person) did as that shield is doing a lot of work. It covers up that ridiculous ab crunch and helps alleviate the tubular nature of the limbs. I've never held another Ranger outside of the box, though I've seen the boxed versions plenty of times in stores and often heavily discounted and I still don't want them. They just look bad. The sculpt is too smooth, they have the same issue with mis-matched colors the Lightning Collection has only they're bigger and it's more noticeable. And Super7 wants you to spend 165 bucks buying the same figure 3 times. They also went with absurdly wide gripping hands that look terrible.
I thought maybe they could carve out a niche with monsters and zords. Goldar is one of the best sculpts and paint jobs Super7 has ever done, but that figure is a nightmare. Mine fell off an acrylic riser a mere six inches because his hips are so damn loose and the fall was still enough to break the leg at the hip. Thankfully, the peg broke deep enough in the figure that there was still some post left and the old super glue trick worked and the hip is still functional, but it will pop out just toppling over though. That figure is such a pile of crap to the point where I wonder if the factory they used had ever made action figures before because the plastic is so wrong for that type of product.
Yeah... I mean, even when they have something they could sell to a sucker that pays their normal asking price for figures they screw it up. I actually wanted to buy the stupid translucent green Lord Zedd variant they did around Comic Con - but then they went and jacked the price up an extra $10 - and that was just a bridge too far. And on top of that they wouldn't offer it through BBTS - thus no pile of loot option - so in addition to the $65 ask - I'd be forced to pay enormous shipping fees from either Super7 directly or Entertainment Earth. No thanks. I'm out again. There aren't many companies this good at actively talking me out of buying their products.
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