#Lightning Collection

[simeonscott]

Battle of the Brutes!

[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

[na-nossa]

Family drama incoming!

- Ep 40

[taliquest]

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

[toku-action-figure-news]

Lightning Collection Deluxe Rita Repulsa and Mighty Minotaur revealed

As the final announcement of today's Lightning Collection reveals, Hasbro has revealed that the next Deluxe wave of the line is to feature for MMPR's 30th anniversary the Mighty Minotaur monster and a new release of Rita Repulsa.

While featuring many similarities to the version included with the Lord Zedd wedding 2-pack early in the line, this new version of Rita Repulsa is heavily modified to be far more accurate to the show; with an extreme level of paint detail especially noticeable on her staff (which also comes with a lightning effect piece) and a new swappable face gimmick not seen yet on any other Lightning Collection figure to replicate her very characteristic expressions on the show; with all three faceplates striking a great resemblance to the source material. Two alternate hands are included instead of the usual one, allowing her to get the most out of her expressive posing.

Mighty Minotaur follows the usual Deluxe Monster pattern by being a 7-inch figure that towers over the Rangers. Aside from his club and staff, the figure comes with a unique effect piece that portrays lightning being struck between the horns, and a small accessory portraying the clay figurine used to make him in the show.

Lightning Collection Deluxe Rita Repulsa and Mighty Minotaur release later this year, with pre-orders and more information to come on Wednesday.

[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

[fnrrfygmschnish]

The most recent Power Rangers figure I've ordered came in the mail today!

The White Ranger!

I'm still surprised I found him for 50-some dollars on eBay... complete, in box, never opened, undamaged! Most of the ones I've seen were in the 40-50 range for loose figures and 70-100 for boxed!

His sword is also a kitty, soooo... it's pettable. 😅

Taking a look around outside (...on the outer edges of one of my garden boxes.)

Be prepared for a fight, you never know what might suddenly appear from the tall grass...

...like that, for example! A giant kitty! 😱

(Surprise guest appearance by one of our outside kitties, Domino. He wouldn't even let us get within 10 feet of him around this time last year, but he's gotten much more used to us now and has become very pettable and cuddly, and gets along well with both Binx and Tabby. Thinking of getting him neutered sometime in the not-too-distant future, since he's the only one of the bunch who hasn't been spayed/neutered yet.)

[firehair12000]

[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.

[simeonscott]

Super Hero Time, circa 2012.

[g33kyfr3sh]

I’ve been cooking digging up old figures for SPOOKY SZN and shot some good stuff that I can’t wait to share here in HQ!

[leopold-wolf]

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

[naughtygirl286]

"Ahh! After 10,000 years, I'm free! It's time to conquer Earth!"

yup for Christmas I did get the Lighting Collection Rita Repulsa! it was one of the few things I actually asked for this Christmas so I was extremely happy to get her and I wanted her to go with my Lord Zedd. I know there was a 2-Pack released but I didn't like how she looked in that so when they did this newer version this was the one I wanted.

[toku-action-figure-news]

Lightning Collection Wave 15 revealed -- RPM Yellow, Lightspeed Rescue Blue, Turbo Red

As part of today's Lightning Collection reveals, Hasbro has announced the next and 15th main retail wave of the line -- all three figures of which are the first of their teams to be released. RPM Yellow, Lightspeed Rescue Blue and Turbo Red all make their debut later this year.

Each featuring a high level of painted detail to bring out their looks, each of these three comes with multiple character-specific accessories. Aside from alternate hands and alternate unhelmeted facesculpts, Lightspeed Rescue Blue comes with the Rescue Blaster in both its gun and sword modes, with a lightning effect piece for the sword; RPM Yellow comes with her Nitro Blaster in both its sword and gun modes with an effect piece for the end of the sword; and Turbo Red comes with arguably the biggest loadout, featuring his personal Turbo Lightning Sword, the Auto Blaster and the Turbo Blade; with a lightning effect piece to wrap around the swords. Turbo Red's headsculpt depicts TJ rather than Tommy, and each figure's alternate hands include two weapon-holding hands and posing hands.

Lightning Collection Wave 15 releases at general retail for $24.99 a figure, with a listed release date of October 2023.