#Lightning Collection

[toylifeanimations]

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[firehair12000]

I don't think he's one of ours!

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[fnrrfygmschnish]

Sometime last year, I ordered the "remastered" Black and Yellow Ranger figures and ended up with a bit of an odd situation...

While the Yellow Ranger was exactly as expected, the Black Ranger was the older figure (rather than the "remastered" version which added some missing details, touched up a few things, etc.) and, strangely, came with a swappable head that was from an entirely different character.

Ethan the Blue Ranger from Dino Thunder, to be exact... which kinda made it feel like whoever was trying to rip people off selling repackaged boxes with the wrong figures inside wasn't familiar with the series and just went "the Black Ranger was a black guy right?" and threw in the first darker-skinned head they could find. Whoops! 🤣

Anyway...

...second time around, things worked out with no hiccups! That is indeed a Zack head.

Came with everything else intact, too -- except the box, but those boxes are a bit bulky and I was running out of room for more empty boxes as is, so that works.

Now the only one from the original team I'm missing is Billy, the Blue Ranger. Getting really close to being able to check off another full team!

(I also got a bunch more figures as birthday presents -- so, more basement Power Ranger photography incoming, once I get all these boxes open 😅)

[simeonscott]

Battle of the Brutes!

[naughtygirl286]

Now on Boxing day (Dec26) I and the person I live with we go over and spend the day with their family. we spend pretty much Christmas Day with my family and spend Boxing Day with theirs. its kinda like a second Christmas in away we go over and exchange gifts with them and have a supper with the Christmas left overs and all that. and they usually give me very practical gifts like something for the house, or gift cards or some clothing like one year I received a black mini sweater dress that I absolutely love its nice and tight and has the long sleeves and its just awesome, but this year I was caught a bit surprised by one of their gifts I received the above thing and their mom was like "every power rangers fan needs their own Morpher" I was like "LOL how true!" I didn't expect this at all but apparently the brother of the person I live with suggested it. Its great I just didn't expect something like that from them.

[g33kyfr3sh]

How do you store your figures normally? Are they on display or more in shelves for photos? And do you worry about putting them back in the pose you had for them if they're on display?

90% of my stuff are in storage containers in my closet lol

I wish I had the space (I mean I do but I don’t want my house to be just toys all over the place even though toys are literally all over the place )

And I have storage in like three places including my aunts garage lol it’s a problem! In my little “hallway” is my temporary display. I try to switch them out here and there but I think my rangers shelf is going to stay a little while longer. Posing them up isn’t hard at all, it’s the best part lol

[taliquest]

Decided to do some blocking practice today to work on my photography skills.

[johnny-bots]

Lost Galaxy pink ranger 🌌🩷

[viofitz]

Bandai S.H.Figuarts Jin Kazama (TEKKEN 8)

Introduction:

Bandai S.H.Figuarts (SHF) is a popular line of high quality collectable figures made by Bandai. The toyline debuted in 2008 and is targeted towards the adult fans of the series with its higher price and show-accurate detailing of the figurines. The line started in Kamen Rider THE NEXT series and has expanded to many franchises including TEKKEN 8. The review is going to discuss on Jin Kazama, he was given with a red and white colored boxart. With visible window plastic, we can see the figure contents. The front part was printed with large promotional photo of SHF Jin Kazama and small "TEKKEN 8" logo below the photo. While the window was printed with "S.H.Figuarts Jin Kazama". The box also has printed Bandai, Bandai Namco and Tamashii Nations as well as hologram sticker logos. While the back part is mostly shown the figure's promotional photos showing how the figure works and warning with several informations in Japanese.

Contents:

Jin comes with his main figure, he's included with 3 interchangeable head sculpts in total and 4 pair of hands in total. His background paper inside the box is a diorama stage of Yakushima.

Jin is a muscular young man of Japanese ethnicity. He has black hair that spikes at the back of his head like his father Kazuya Mishima. He also sports a fringe like his mother, Jun Kazama. Jin's face also strongly resembles his mother's. One of Jin's most prominent aspects is the black tattoo-like mark on his left shoulder, a mark that Devil branded onto him. Unlike, the Storm Collectibles I used to review, this Jin is wearing black and white jackets which has wing motive with black, white and red trims. Inside his jacket there's a red color part while his main shirt is grey. He is donning wearing white colored belt with long straps, black pants and black boots. His gauntlets are also there but, in red and white color still has Mishima style's triangular pattern of metallic studs on the back of the hands, resembling his father's gloves. I gotta say, in terms of design and physical appearance he felt a bit chunky on his torso but barely visible but, unlike Storm his face is actually spot on to how he looks in the game.

His articulation points consisted movable head, torso, arms, double jointed elbow, wrists, legs with thigh, double jointed knee, ankles and tiptoe part. His white straps belt has removable part which I think it's kinda unnecessary but, I somehow understand it's for safety posing instead of accidentally breaking it. His gauntlets has movable cut which you can rotate them. His getup are mostly sculpted on his overall body and some parts were done with soft rubber. But, despite that several articulations can be hindered by those getup which kinda bother.

Jin was included with 3 head sculpts (HS) in total, first would be his standard serious expression. Second HS is his angry expression with open mouth and the last one is the same standard serious expression but, his eyes are looking to the left. Yeah, the purpose of these expressions are for recreating how he expressed himself in the game. His head and hairs are single mold and made from hard materials excluding his bangs which made from soft rubber... So, you don't need to worry on breaking his fringe if you're being careless. I gotta admit, Bandai nailed this one. Jin looks exactly like how he was portrayed in the TEKKEN 8 game. You can tell Jin definitely has his mother looks except his spiky backward hairstyle and that bold eyebrows that resembles his father. (Kazuya Mishima)

Jin comes with 4 pair of hands in total, that would be: fisted hands which was already attached to his main figure, 2 finger gesture hands. Open splayed and open palm hands for his necessary battle poses. His hands were made from hard plastic material like his overall body. These hands are more than enough to recreate Jin's iconic poses and even his move lists. I gotta admit, it's very similar to what Storm included for him.

His diorama stage was a printed of the Yakushima background which split into 2 part, you're going to need a paper clip to merge that paper. Yakushima is home of the Kazama Clan, and birthplace of Jun Kazama and Jin Kazama. A fitting background for both mother and son, also Xiaoyu if you want to recreate Xiaoyu VS Jin. That if Bandai made SHF Ling Xiaoyu someday....

Thoughts:

While Jin is not my first SHF figure collection but, I personally think his mobility is pretty good as SHF standard but, he lacks some SHF old passion which used to put detailed shading paintapp. If you compared the figure with the actual game artwork render you'll see he lacked some paintapp details but, most people won't even bother with this kind of details which I'm sort of understand that bandai seen this so decided to lower the cost work but, they also doubling the price. While recreating several poses can be easy but, he felt very fragile especially his armpit and crotches joints. As for accessories, It'd be better if they also give him a devil jin face but, I'm guessing they'd probably make a stand alone Devil Jin figure which he has entirely different design from normal Jin. But, my wishlists are Jun Kazama and Ling Xiaoyu for Jin and that... If Bandai still making more TEKKEN line-up. However, I've been collecting SHF long enough and Bandai is known for their inconsistencies which they usually tends to discontinue their line-up so soon so, I nolonger expecting much from them.

[modularmedia]

Some images that didn't make the cut for the Thumbnail for This week's (7/17/2023) TWIT!

List to the full Tokusatsu Podcast here: https://youtu.be/VY7dXLAN61g

[kanohimineka]

The Death of the Power Rangers: A Eulogy

I know it seems it may be early, or late, but I feel I need to eulogize Power Rangers for a second. Yes, I know it's not done yet. Cosmic Fury comes out in about a week, and Hasbro is planning a reboot... eventually. However, this feels like the end of an era.

I don't just mean this pre-reboot Hasbro era. As far as I'm aware, we are leading up to a 2024 where there will be essentially no Power Rangers efforts, toy or filmic, for the first time since the series started. Of course, we've come close. After RPM, Disney planned to kill the brand outright, but they still output a bizarre reissue of the original series with comic panels in 2010 before Saban rebought the brand and quickly produced Samurai for a 2011 release. Power Rangers has always seemed to find a way out of cancellation. From In Space to Wild Force to RPM, Power Rangers has, somehow, always found a way. But now, in the year's 30th anniversary, the main series's luck has finally run out. Even still, it is trying to push it's luck. Cosmic Fury seemingly only exists because of delays within the reboot.

That's probably why the Cosmic Fury suits look a bit bad. They were on a production crunch only rivaled (and probably beat) by Samurai season 1. But still, this essentially marks the death of what we've known as the Power Rangers. When it does continue, it will probably end up with a completely different feel. Yes, there will be no Sentai footage, but it will also seemingly be missing the overly earnest yet endlessly charming Tokusatsu charm in exchange for Marvel inspired cynical quipiness. This sucks even more in a year where One Piece proved that Tokusatsu stylings can work in a high budget prestige series and both work for audiences and critics alike. I would hope for better, but comments about the corporate reactions for the franchise gives me my doubts. As always, the people at the top of these companies are often the dumbest and least qualified people to make art. Support the Strikes. (Not to be overly antagonistic to Simon Bennet, we attack him to much. It's mostly the corpos up top.)

Anyways, this corporate idiocy has led to the death of a franchise that ultimately helped me through some of the darkest moments in my life. I won't get too much into it, but finding Power Rangers in my childhood was one of the few lights in my youth, alongside Bionicle and Pokemon, and it was still there through most of it. I watched SPD first, and it hooked me. I learned about the universe through reruns of Dino Thunder. After missing RPM through bad marketing, I refound it in Samurai and, while that show isn't greatest, it led me to be introduced to some of my favorite Sentai suits, the Samurai suits, and later, the Gokaiger suits. I found Sentai, and the grander world of Tokusatsu productions, around Dino Charge, finding Youtube videos on the subject. It helped that the universe was still connected. Each show is individualized, which allows me to appreciate each one on their own, but the few connections did help me to feel connected to my childhood. But now, it'll be gone soon. I haven't been the closest to it in a bit, mostly looking at Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and the original Sentai for my fix, but I did still appreciate it.

A bunch of this in my adult life came through the Lightning Collection. It gave me figures of some of my favorite series, especially since it started when I first started seriously collecting action figures. However, alongside the main series hiatus, this series seems like it will go on hiatus alongside it. This is mostly through rumors, though credible ones at that. As of right now, we have only heard about a few unannounced products, and Hasbro isn't particularly good at hiding listing leaks. The Lightning Collection feels like the perfect line to have going during a hiatus like this. It is a collector focused line not trying to tie into any current content, looking back on the past of the series in a fun, relatively inexpensive way. And Hasbro keeps lines like this up without fitting content, they make GI Joe stuff after Snake Eyes flopped, and those figures have been strongly received. However, I guess a part of this has come from fan displeasure with the line. Yes, there were some general Hasbro issues before, but the move to Vietnamese factories have hit PR hard. Yes, other lines have had complaints, but none have been on the level of Power Rangers in terms of QC issues. It is absurd, I've had to mostly drop out of the line because of it. But it is still sad to see.

This leads to yesterday. Hasbro has this super paltry segment in their Pulsecon show, on the level of series that don't have current Action Figure lines, only 20 minutes, as opposed to Transformer's 45. In which, they only talk on the show coming out in a week and 2 toys that went up for order that day. I decided to pick up the Omegas, with which I'll be mostly checking out, symbolically. I do still need to finish SPD and Dino Thunder, but for me, this feels like a nice symbolic ending. It fits for what Hasbro wants to do further in the show. A set of weird, Western exclusive suits that play on weird MMPR nostalgia. I prefer these over any of Hasbro's live action efforts so far, in terms of original suit designs, but still. It symbolically shows, to me at least, the end of the Power Rangers. The end of something important to me. It's bitter, it's a bit stupid, but it's happening anyways. Maybe the new stuff will be good, who knows. But given Hasbro's attitude towards the brand, it won't be the same. Therefore, I need to bow out in this 30th anniversary. Symbolically at least.

[firehair12000]

[fnrrfygmschnish]

Got another new Power Ranger figure for the first time since February -- SPD A-Squad Green!

Stumbled across this guy for pretty cheap (especially considering "brand new in box" condition and shipping from Canada!) on eBay, so I went ahead and grabbed him.

That makes 4 out of 5 Bad Cop Rangers -- another team almost complete!

Plus, the one I'm missing (blue) only comes in a double-pack with SPD B-Squad Blue, which means I'll be over halfway to having the full B-Squad team too.

[simeonscott]

Super Hero Time, circa 2012.

[leopold-wolf]

I'm trying out my new phone's camera. What do you guys think?

[g33kyfr3sh]