It is exciting to ponder how Hasbro will conceive the megazord toys. Hasbro gives us the chance of having a completely different take on the sentai designs which I assume in Japan will continue to be big, blocky and high quality toys and we may well get something with articulation and closer show accuracy as a goal, I imagine something that feels more like leader class transformers, hopefully they wont be too cheap feeling (I do feel we are spoiled by BOJ DX toys, they still seem marvelously over engineered). I'm excited for gobusters adaptation, those are some wacky designs (not my favourite, they really are hotch potch) and could be very interesting, admittedly BOJ did drop the ball on that series (the now seemingly fixed plague of breaking clips) and the mecha are a bit too fiddly. I also wonder if now being a Hasbro property it might kick in more interest from transformers fans who have never really been into PR toys??
While articulation would be nice, the Megazords have never really been about that for me. Like someone said in another thread, those are the embodiment of yesterday's Godaikins. Godaikins are what brought me to the super robot table years ago...making me fond of mechs with maybe two points of articulation, max. What I miss is the heft and quality of older Super Sentai Megazords (even the BoJ DX figures are missing some of this). BoA went to the trouble to at least make a few of those with the Legacy line...I'm not counting on Hasbro to continue that. So, actually, my hopes for what I am looking for out of the line is tempered by the Hasbro announcement. But I also understand that I'm in a small minority of the fandom on this.
I bought a few of the BOA mainline mecha the last decade but have always sold them on, I grew to despise them, compared to DX sentai toys they are just junk. Bizarrely though I recall selling the rpm megazords for way more than I paid for them, that tiny paleomax megazord was pretty sought after. When I bought the DX kyouretsuoh I was like 'now we are talking' that thing is just insanely impressive! I love the kid friendly DX mecha. what is marvelous is that we an now buy last years online for like $40 a pop, free shipping, i've given up early adoption. And damn they are still mighty fine toys, there is some cost cutting apparent (paint seems more sparse, chrome seems to have vanished and generally simpler parts forming toys) but overall the engineering is very satisfying.
Well...kinda. I haven't been all that impressed with the engineering since ToQger, the last line that felt honestly Godaikin worthy. Mecha since then have had the heft and quality...but the focus has been so gimmick driven that it kills the idea that they are simply amazing super robots that transform into amazing piloted machines.
I get that, and I appreciate the older take too. Matter of fact, I still have my Mystic Force Megazord and Steedergon Megazord/Phoenix Unizord. and those are still awesome and easily trump today's Zords all these years later. But you know, you look at stuff like the NS Blaze Megazord and see a big orange and blue turd that's just plain insulting, even to kids. BoA and J din't even try with that one. And then there's BoA's take on the big Lion carrier Zord(the name eludes me ATM). They actually upscaled it from the Sentai version, made it almost entirely out of that soft rubbery plastic(from what I could tell from Bruno's review of it), and hardly any paint, if at all(again from Bruno's review). And they have the balls to charge $100 for that. That thing's bullshit.
The appeal of the Blaze Megazord was less the figure itself and more the fact it shoots rangers out of its belly (while screaming in Japanese if you own the BoJ version). That right there is worth the price of admission. But yeah, Lion Fire Fortress was a massive disappointment. It honestly feels like BoA saw that the jig was up (regarding Saban) and decided to invest the least amount of effort and money into it. Probably also why they dropped Black Titanus on us instead of the Shogun Megazord as well (although that was kinda welcomed to complete the black Ultrazord AND give me a Titanus at a reasonable price).
It's due to how rare those Megazords are. The High Octane Megazord was mass release by itself for quite a while, leaving many overstocks. Then, the Valvemax Megazord was a Disney Store exclusive for a while, before becoming a TRU exclusive in a 2-pack with HOM. Then, they released a case assortment of HOM with Valvemax, leading to more overstock. Mach and Paleomax were fall releases, and tail-end, making them extremely hard to come by. I saw Mach ONCE at retail, and only once, and never saw the Paleomax except online. There were a handful of sightings on message boards, that was it. It was originally the end of the series and the last toy line for PR in the US. It sold like hot cakes towards the end, but made in very small numbers. It was $100-120.00 (depending on retailer) to complete the Ultrazord at retail and they now go for upwards of $450.00 or more for the complete set.
That was one of the sightings I mentioned. Like 2-3 at regular retail, 1-2 at discount like TJ Maxx. I'm not sure why BOA didn't up their production of toys once they knew the line PR line was being saved.
ah, I think that's where I also got mine! Rare or not I find the DX version considerably more impressive. tokkyuoh took some flack when he was first revealed but what an surprisingly cool toy, simple, fun transformation but plenty train detail including the articulating sections.
Reading that FCBD issue of Shattered Grid, I now want to get that Morphicon Exclusive Legacy Lord Drakkon.
I think that will depend on how many liberties, if any, are taken between what Hasbro delivers compared to the Bandai originals. If the Megazords remain faithful to the Sentai mecha, I don't know how much more influential that would be. The fact that the Hasbro era is beginning with Go-Busters will definitely be a plus.
Go-Busters had some pretty shit mecha, though. Hopefully Hasbro improves them significantly. I did love the Go-Busters outfits, though, so hopefully we get good articulated figures of them ala Marvel Legends.
I may not know US retail, but how has stock been so far? Now that Hasbro has taken over, I am just wondering if Bandai put a halt to all of their Power Ranger stock.
I don't know how I feel about the gobusters DX toys, they are definitely unique but really quite unsteady and a bit fiddly but overall I don't mind the outlandish look, the big combos are impressive at least even if they are something you should never try to pick up. I do like ace and beet as stand alone toys eventhough that beet suffers from several broken clips.
I love the Gobusters toys. And so far, no broken clips! Can't wait to see what Hasbro tries to do. Still shipping from retail warehouses, at least. Saw a crap ton of Legacy stuff at a local Walmart. Bandai can ship product right up to June 30th, so I don't think we'll see an abatement in product until the holiday season.
Bandai can ship, but the Big Box primary retailers will not want as technically they must pull it when the crossover occurs. So they don't want to get stuck with it. Bandai America will probably soon start shipping to the clearance retailers, that the license holders generally don't complain about. 5 Below etc.
I don't think retailers have to pull the product...Hasbro really can't police that nor do I expect they believe retailers would do that. But I do imagine retailers will leave PR out of planograms and clearance the product later this summer. Power Rangers has gone through licensing changes before and what we generally see is a Fall drawdown to nothingness.
Don't know if this is really the place for this,but I saw a Voltron "minipla" model on Instagram which I assume is similar to a gunpla. I looked on Amazon and saw Power Rangers ones,but fairly expensive. Is there a reputable place to get them cheaper? How many are there?
