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Friday, June 28, 2019

Review: Power Rangers Zeo - Bandai of America Legacy Collection Gold Ranger

Even though Jason left the team in season 2 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers he came back for Power Rangers Zeo as the Gold Ranger. In Choriki Sentai Ohranger, Kingranger was a kid and the symbol on his face is the kanji for king (王) which they use to represent the number 6. Ever since the Green Ranger or Dragonranger the design for the 6th ranger has been pretty standard. It's a different color with little to no aesthetic changes. Dragonranger was just a green version of the Zyuranger suit with a helmet that resembled Tyrannoranger's and additional armor. Kibaranger was a white version of the Dairanger suit with a chest piece and no gold trim that went down the center of the chest. Kakuranger had no official 6th ranger but they had Ninjaman or Ninjor which counted as extra hero. This version of the Ranger in the Legacy Collection line had a lot of controversy due to the way the prototype was painted, but we'll get to that later.

Looking at it you can see that there was little reuse in this mold, biceps, thighs, knee, shin, and upper torso are new as well as the belt buckle.
Now, if you haven't noticed, most of the "Gold" Ranger isn't really gold, it's more of a butterscotch or "cheese" ranger as it's been nicknamed. The gold that was used on the visor, the little bit of the wrist, and the collar around the neck are much shinier. It's really unfortunate because it could have been so simple to just have it gold like the Green Ranger's shield. The other Zeo Rangers weren't free from this issue, their belts and cuffs are pretty butterscotch like this one. Even the White Ranger's shield wasn't all that gold.
 I do like the black coloring and design of the helmet. The symbol always looked weird to me until I learned how to write Kanji, it means actually stands for "King" which would make sense since his zord is a giant pyramid.
I do love the additional details that they gave him on his shield and cuffs, even around the collar there's a cool textures and symbols that look like hieroglyphs. There's a cut on the sides of the chest armor like the White Ranger that allow it to get most of the use of the ab crunch.

The arms are extremely limited in poseability due to the way the armor is designed. This figure is probably one of the worst cases of loose joints that I've had from the Legacy Collection. As a whole, the line doesn't really stand very well. A lot of the figures that I bought in the line have loose joints. This Gold Ranger can barely stand in a neutral position, the head is supper wobbly and the hips and knees can barely hold the pose, he'll collapse under his own weight if you move him the wrong way.

Golden Power Staff

 With the prototypes, the Golden Power Staff was supposed to come in two modes with this figure but once this hit stores everyone was very disappointed to see that he only came with one mode.
 Admittedly it is well detailed and I don't think it would have been hard to add some "transformation" features although I understand why they wouldn't. Like the weapons of the Metallic MMPR Rangers, this one is made out of a very soft plastic that is prone to warping and it suffers a lot.
He can hold onto it pretty well but due to how loose the joints are he doesn't hold a pose for very long since he's fighting gravity at all times.
 It is annoying how badly the staff portion droops. It's pretty sad.
 Still, he looks good with the other rangers and it's nice to see him with the other 6th Rangers.
 He's not that different than the other Legacy Collection Rangers in the line. He was part of the 4th and 6th wave. I believe hearing that there was a slightly golder version of him going around but I never bothered looking.
 Compared to the MMPR mold, the Lightning Collection White Ranger from Hasbro and S.H. Figuarts White Ranger from Tamashii Nations.
 Compared to other Hasbro figures, honestly it's a nice figure but it's so full of flaws due to the poor quality control that Bandai of America had.
 With Hasbro's San Diego Comic Con 2-Pack coming out with the Gold Ranger and Armored Red Ranger, everyone saw or assumed that it was a little jab at Bandai since the Gold Ranger was the most controversial release and Armored Red being the last figure released in the line. Not only that but they come with a load of accessories and unmasked heads all for the cheap price of $50. I'll to get that set but we'll see what happens. If you happen to come across this figure, you might find him in Walgreens for $19.99, or GameStop for $22.99 in stores. I'm not sure Amazon or Wal-Mart online still carry them but you can try. Best of luck!

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