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A Couple Years of The Lightning Collection

Posted on February 3, 2021 by Walt

Despite it being pretty much my absolute favorite tv show for a time back in the ’90s–particularly 7th/8th grade–I never really had any of the TOYS from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

I had a fair bit of licensed stuff–folders, paper pads, stuff with imagery from the show–but other than a McDonald’s White Ranger/Falconzord from the movie, it wasn’t really until maybe 2009/20010 or so that I got a Megazord or my own, and it was awhile before I discovered and acquired any of the Legacy Collection line.

Then a couple years ago the MMPR property apparently was sold, and Hasbro got the license and rather than continue with that, they started their own line…the Lightning Collection. lightning_collection_mmpr_sides

Due to already having a (for me) huge collection of MMPR stuff that doesn’t even fit onto TWO shelves’ space combined…I’ve been acquiring Hasbro’s Lightning Collection figures when they’ve had the Mighty Morphin’ characters. I don’t care for the later iterations…MY sweet spot, my nostalgia-spot, is Mighty-Morphin’! I’m also loathe to pick up on anything based on the Boom Studios comics, as I still–FIVE YEARS LATER–refuse to buy stuff from them in my one-man-protest against their handling of the initial release of their MMPR comics.

lightning_collection_mmpr_full_nonlightning_collection

Anyway…for lack of shelf space, I’ve yet to OPEN my Lightning Collection figures. And since they’re pretty much display-ready as-is, they’ve remained in their packages, as I’m showing them off here.

lightning_collection_mmpr_basics

2 years in, having just received an apparently-out-of-print/out-of-production Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger (bought as "not mint" and I expected a beat-up box but even the BOX is in as good or better condition than the others!) I now have all the Rangers I’m interested in.

Red, Blue, Black, Pink, White, Yellow, and Green.

Also have Goldar from (I believe) a Gamestop release (though I’ve seen the character elsewhere since, so I’m not sure now if it was exclusive or exclusive-for-a-time). And Lord Zedd was–along with the White Ranger–part of the initial wave a couple years ago, if I recall correctly.

While they might LOOK cool, I don’t need any variants like a Dragon-Shield Red Ranger or such. Just HAVING the single-figure packs of these characters mean pretty much the only other figures I might care for would be a single-pack Rita Repulsa, Finster, Squatt, and Baboo.

Yet those might be just as well in multi-packs or such.

Ditto for putties–army-building generic figures seem to me to be better to be part of a multi-pack than taking up limited slots in single-figure assortments. And simply AS generic things, better to get in bulk anyway!

lightning_collection_mmpr_twopacks

With the White Ranger being a single-pack figure from the start, when I saw a Green Ranger (albeit "Fighting Spirit Green Ranger") I leapt for it. Bonus…it came with a Putty! I wasn’t about to buy multiples just to get more Putty figures, but hey…I only ever had a single Foot Soldier with my classic TMNT figures, so hey…it is what it is.

Later there was a 2-pack release of Putty Patrollers that I got; though of all the figures, this is the only one not to have a window box display! Perhaps it was cheaper that way; and for bulk generics, it’d make sense. I only ordered the single pack, though as I type this I consider perhaps I should have ordered another.

Then there’s the Lord Zedd & Rita Repulsa pack. I’d actually more or less FORGOTTEN that I had a single-pack Lord Zedd when I ordered this; but not being aware of a single-pack for Rita, and being annoyed at lack of other similar-price-range figures being available to purchase from NECA, I ordered this from Gamestop partly out of spite toward NECA.

lightning_collection_mmpr_deluxe

I’d come across this deluxe pack/2-pack of Alpha and Zordon at some point and snagged it. I don’t recall if it was from Walmart or Target, but I suspect Walmart.

More recently I snagged the Pumpkin Rapper and King Sphinx deluxe packs. Given the general lack of villains ANYway in Power Rangers toys, I hadn’t really even NOTICED the lack of villains in the Lightning Collection.

Most of the "monster of the week" ("monster of the DAY?") monsters were largely forgettable and hardly as enduring as the Rangers themselves, or the "main" villains. Forgettable–so why do them at all? On the other hand–as an "of the day" or "of the week" there’s a HUUUUUUGE quantity of these things to have made!

On one hand, I could almost say that with some of the single-pack figures "out of print," they could be re-released with some villains a la NECA’s TMNT 2-packs. Buuut…already having all the Rangers, I would hate having to re-buy them just to get a villain.

If they re-released the Rangers as 2-packs (i.e. Red & Yellow, Black & Pink, Green & Blue) that wouldn’t really affect me. I could see them doing Ranger vs. Putty packs…which would not be ideal for ME but at least passing on Putty figures I wouldn’t be passing on unique monsters.

I’ve also snagged several of the Lightning Collection "prop" releases: White Ranger Helmet, Red Ranger Helmet, Power Morpher, and Dragon Dagger. I’d gladly buy a Lighting Collection counterpart to the long-outta-print Legacy Collection Power Sword. I don’t think I’d care for any of the other weapons outside of POSSIBLY the White Ranger Tiger Dagger (Saba?). And other than a Green Ranger helmet, I don’t know that I’d necessarily care for the other Rangers’ helmets. Particularly with my vastly-decreased display space for anything. (decreased due to sheer volume of acquisitions the last 2 1/2 to 3 years).

I’d also be VERY interested in Zord releases, especially toward an Ultrazord. But I suspect some of what made the originals and Legacy Collection Zords work was Bandai and Hasbro may simply not have the ability to duplicate that? Who knows.

Because I’d taken the photos anyway…here are closer-up images of the current-configuration of my Mighty Morphin Power Rangers shelves.

lightning_collection_mmpr_full_nonlightning_collection_left

The left part of the main shelving…

lightning_collection_mmpr_full_nonlightning_collection_right

…and the right part.

lightning_collection_mmpr_blogtrailer

Filed under: 2021 Non-Review Posts, 2021 posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, showing off the shelves, The Toy Chronicles | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The Imaginext Collection Begins…

Posted on February 27, 2017 by Walt

Well, technically my Imaginext collection had already begun, but at this point, safe to say it’s begun in earnest now. At least compared to then.

imaginext_doomsday_superman

Here we have what REALLY had my eye: a Doomsday, with a battle-damaged Superman. Overall, I like this set…though Doomsday is significantly larger in scale than I’d prefer. Still…he should be a hulking behemoth that even Superman would have trouble with, so…it works. I definitely like how it has parts of the "classic" green suit as well as the bony protrusions and such…also lets ’em get away with not having a giant naked monster…

And though his suit is a bit messed up…there’s no "blood" on Superman. And there are no trunks, so it’s not quite "my" Superman, but I don’t miss the trunks all that much…especially with a solid red belt, the cape, and red boots!

imaginext_zedd_goldar

Then we have Goldar and Lord Zedd. These were a Power Rangers 2-pack.

imaginext_mmpr_tigerzord

And here we have the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers themselves. For the sake of completeness and my OCD, I tracked down the White Tigerzord set in order to get the White Ranger.

The rest of the Rangers were 2-packs, and surprisingly easy to find (and/or I got lucky!).

There are a few more Imaginext things I’m particularly interested in…chief among them, the Megazord that is somewhat in scale with these Rangers. There’s also a giant Goldar with its own version of Rita Repulsa that I’m waffling on seeking out.

On the DC side, there are a couple Robin/Red Robin figures…but unfortunately, none as parts of any of the cheaper 2-packs…they’re part of larger sets or vehicle/figure packs…which when I really just want the figure, make ’em more expensive than they’re worth. (At least with the White Ranger, I really dig the Tigerzord, too; and Doomsday was the primary draw for that pack!)

I guess time’ll tell…and I may have another post on these Imaginext toys soon…I really love the variety to the multiple licenses available! Much like Funko‘s Pop line, these allow multiple franchises to co-exist and seem to fit well together. And they’re much more "available" and reasonably-priced than the "adult collector" toys for either Marvel or DC!

Filed under: 2017 Non-Review Posts, 2017 Posts, NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Toy Chronicles | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

MMPR and Why I’m Done With Boom! Studios’ Single Issues

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Walt

I was excited last week for the debut of the new Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers series from Boom! Studios. I was annoyed at the SEVEN different covers for the #0 issue…but they’re all such great-looking pieces, and the property has just the right bit of nostalgia, that I was actually looking at bucking my usual hatred of variants.

I enjoyed the story of the issue, in part along with the notion of acquiring not one, but SIX to SEVEN copies of the issue, to frame and display the covers in my “comic cave.”

Unfortunately, I was only able to acquire one single cover (Black Ranger), and when I took to online retailers, no one had any of the issues in stock…and then I was BLOWN AWAY when I tried eBay…and learned that TWO of the covers were RATIOED VARIANTS.

1_50_green_ranger

The Green Ranger cover was 1:50, and the White Ranger was a whopping 1:100.

That is…for every FIFTY COPIES of the regular covers a retailer orders, they can order ONE single, solitary copy of the Green Ranger cover. A retailer would have to order ONE HUNDRED COPIES of the regular covers to be able to order ONE single, solitary copy of the White Ranger cover.

That is complete and utter BS, and I call shenanigans!

1_100_white_ranger

This is a “team book,” that is–the book stars the TEAM, a cast of more than one primary character–in this case, a team of SIX characters. ONE of those characters spent time with the powers of two different Rangers–Green and White. So while all SEVEN covers would be a great set, since the story FOCUSES on the early part of the Green Ranger even being part of the group, the White Ranger cover COULD be seen as a “bonus” cover, separate from the “set.” Bad enough each character has to have their own individual cover (rather than any sort of team cover)…but then Boom! goes and pulls this, taking arguably the most popular (Green and White) and making them not 1:7 (equal ratio), not 1:10 but 1:50 and 1:100 respectively.

Even if a retailer gets the issues at $1 each, that makes the Green cover a $50 book, and the White a $100 book. Move that price upward the more the retailer has to pay.

What would have otherwise been a fun little “exception” to my no-variants personal policy has turned into downright frustration, and frankly, at this point, I’m done with Boom!

I was “all-in” for three years with Valiant, and dropped the publisher as a whole last summer over their crap with the Legends of the Geomancer. It’s been awhile since Boom! has really had anything of any interest to me–Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was gonna be my gateway back into their product, to having something of theirs on my pull list (and through whatever house ads/etc, I’d see as a result) probably get some of their other series back in my attention.

Instead, on principle, I’ll be voting with my wallet. Instead of my buying 6-7 copies of THE SAME ISSUE now, and continuing to purchase the ongoing monthly series’ issues each month, AND whatever else would grab my attention from there…I’ll likely part ways with the copy of the issue I did buy. And going forward, I will not only not be buying the series at all, I’ll not only passively not currently be buying anything from the publisher…I’ll be actively AVOIDING the publisher’s entire output…at least as single issues. Perhaps later in the year I’ll make an exception for a collected edition (provided the collected edition itself does not have variants), but as single issues go, as “supporting the series” goes…nope.

Thanks, Boom! for operating on the short-sightedness and money grab. You’ve earned ill-will on my end.

Filed under: 2016 Non-Review posts, 2016 posts | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments »

Recent Impulse-Buys: Power Rangers, Loki, and Thanos

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Walt

I recently found myself out ‘n about with some extra time on my hands, so decided to stop in at a Marc’s* to see if they had any cool/cheap toy stuff, as I’ve found some amazing "closeout" deals there in the past. And given the nature of closeouts from what I’ve observed, I figured they MIGHT have some Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers figures.

(* Marc’s is a value grocery store in Ohio that has a lot of discount/closeout items as well as a meat and produce section, with a section specifically of closeouts stuff; they have an ATM and take cash-only, outside of Discover cards)

And sure enough, I found something VERY cool for a mere $2.99 (compared to $9.99ish+ in Target/Walmart for newer Power Rangers figures).

mmpr_20th_white_ranger

I was disappointed in there not being a White Ranger in the 2010 "basic figures" Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers line, and having recently acquired the Legacy White Tigerzord, getting this figure is all the cooler to go with it!

power_rangers_super_megaforce_mmpr_red_ranger

I went to a second Marc’s location to see what else I might find (the closeouts nature of the chain means variety store-to-store and maybe even day-to-day). I found this Red Ranger, and can’t remember if the 2010 one had the sword, but figured for the price I’d get it. Worst-case, this’ll be something I can give to someone else.

avengers_loki

Hasbro/Marvel seem to have realized that the $9.99+ price point is a bit MUCH for figures (and I’m constantly amazed at Target ratcheting the price up to $12.99 and now $13.59 or something like that definitely more atrocious than $12.99/$13 on the dot). Having a line of lower-priced figures (in the $5.99 range) is something I want to support, and Cinematic Loki is cool, so, I picked this up for the character and to "support" the line.

infinity_minimates

Recently at Toys R Us, I came across this, and for the price and my being all about anything Thanos-related, I declined to talk myself out of buying this 4-pack. Slightly cheaper than two 2-packs, and $5 cheaper than a Deadpool 4-pack, so I figured this was likely to go up in price later, so get it now while it’s more reasonably-priced.

Filed under: 2015 Non-Review posts, 2015 posts | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

White Ranger Tiger Power…

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Walt

white_tigerzord_box_top

Though it’s been several years since the “return” of the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, when I finally got myself a Megazord…a number of factors brought the toys back to my attention, and I learned of this Legacy line. And while I’d’ve preferred the Dragonzord, this is the only one I could find at a quasi-sorta-reasonable price, and pulled the trigger on buying it.

white_tigerzord_box_front

I really like the front of the box, spotlighting the mighty White Tigerzord in Tiger Mode, though we get a little inset of the thing in Fighter Mode. The photo doesn’t do the box justice–the shiny gold of the logo lettering is nicely offset from the sparking green background.

white_tigerzord_box_side1   white_tigerzord_box_side2

The sides are also nicely designed with the White Ranger himself on one side, and a small diagram of the White Tigerzord’s ability to “play nicely” with the Megazord. This is a bit out of continuity, though–as the Tigerzord didn’t come onto the scene until after the original Zords were done, though it worked with the Thunderzords. Still…if I get the Legacy Megazord, you won’t find me complaining about its compatibility here!

white_tigerzord_box_back

The back of the box shows the two primary modes of the zord, with a snippet of information about Tommy and the zord.

white_tigerzord_packaging

The packaging is nice and simple–a tray to hold the zord, the sword/tail, and the folder paper instructions. No fancy ties, no rubber bands, no tape to cut, no real HASSLE (unlike many toys nowadays!)

white_tigerzord_instructions

A single sheet of paper shows a diagram of how to switch the model between its primary modes…as well as how to connect it to other Zords (sold separately). I had some slight trouble with the legs and a heart-stopping moment thinking I’d broken the thing before realizing how great the combination of plastic and metal parts could be.

white_tigerzord_profile_front

The Warrior Mode of White Tigerzord (and truly, my favorite…as a fan of Mechs and giant robots…). View from the front…

white_tigerzord_profile_side1

View from the side…

white_tigerzord_profile_back

Continuing the rotation, view from the back…

white_tigerzord_profile_side2

…and view from the other side.

white_tigerzord_tigermode_front

Tiger Mode from the front…

white_tigerzord_tigermode_side1

…and Tiger Mode from the side.

white_tigerzord_with_megazord

And finally, White Tigerzord next to the 2010 edition of the Megazord.

While I’d’ve preferred the Dragonzord at present, I’m going to have to wait as that one is well outside any sort of reasonable price range to me at the moment. I believe there’s a new version of the Megazord due out soon as part of the Legacy line, and I may try to get that at some point. That may be at least partially dependent upon finding the Legacy Dragonzord for a decent price. I know there’s also Titanus, but that is significantly further outside my price range, and though I do recall the occasional appearance and formation of the Ultrazord…I don’t care enough about that one.

This Legacy zord is a good bit heavier than the all-plastic Megazord, and definitely a higher quality by weight and feel, as well as the moving parts. This is easily one of the single most expensive toys I’ve bought, but it’s also one of the larger ones, which somewhat offsets things a bit.

While there’s a little bit of buyer’s remorse in how I’d so prefer the Dragonzord…ultimately I’m glad I did buy this, and it’s going to be a great addition to my collection.

Filed under: 2015 Non-Review posts, 2015 posts, The Toy Chronicles | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

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