Mighty Morphin Armored Red Ranger by Bandai S.H. Figuarts

This is my favorite version of the Red Ranger's look in any of the series.

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.

If any of you are familiar with or have read my main art blog, you'll know that I spent a few years growing up in Aviano, Italy because my father was stationed at the air base there. Italy was a bit of a bizarre thing for me, as it marked a new infusion of two vastly different cultures into me at the same time.

Italy must have specialized in importing all it's children's programming from Japan, as I remember watching a LOT of Anime that was dubbed in Italian. But I do remember one program, "Denshi Sentai Denziman" or as I seem to recall it being called in Italy, "Electric Squadron", that was so cool because it was real people, giant robots, and monsters. 

Years later, my younger brother became a huge fan of some localized show that was getting a lot of promotional buzz. When I saw it, I didn't make the connection at first that I had seen much of the footage almost thirteen years prior. I think it was the fact that new American actors were spliced into the action that seemed so familiar to me. It was a fairly polarizing moment for me as once I realized what Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was (Although it really should not have been as I was a die hard fan of Robotech, and for many of you Macross fans out there, I know how messed up Robotech can be for you).

Anyway, fast forward quite a few years, and right about the time I start looking at the U.S. released stuff on Ebay for Megazords and Rangers, Bandai's S.H. Figurarts comes out swinging with a series of releases of the original series Power Rangers that are so articulated and detailed at a height of 5 and a half inches, it was astounding.

I know what you all are thinking (my GOD man, shut up and show us the pictures!!), so here we go!

The packaging is great, loaded with a premium look and feel, great design, and action poses aplenty all over it.

The box is absolutely set up and designed for your average collector, and considering that the MSRP on these super articulated wonders are right about $40 each, it's nice to see that if you want to keep one of these mint in the box, at least the box is worthy of the price of admission to get this collector's figure into your collection.

But again, it's a box. A box holding a Red Ranger that is doing all kinds of show inspired poses in all the photos, with his accessories all looking super accurate...

So does he hold up once the box is opened?

They were serious about ensuring that he was safely packaged.

Upon opening the box, the figure is suspended in a plastic tray with a vac formed top cover over him, his weapons, and four, FOUR additional sets of hands.

I know these are hand poses from the show, but it also looks like either the Sign Language Edition Red Ranger or "throwing up gang signs" Red Ranger.

Considering the slight and smaller build of this figure coming in at just five and a half inches, I was worried about the fragility of joints and switching out hands. Turns out, that's not even an issue. The plastic in the figure varies from soft with the hands to a much harder high quality plastic for the rest of the body, and the figure is very solid, yet light weight.

Switching out the hands is very easy.

Ever since I was a kid, the more accessories that came with a figure, the more insane the meltdown in a ToysRUs I would have. Some thirty years later and nothing has changed with me, BUT I do want the weapons or items that come with my figures to be as accurate as possible. Bandai did not leave me wanting on this aspect either.

All three weapons look amazing, but the Dragon Dagger... holy cow this thing rocks.

The filigree patterns on the sword, the little color flourishes on the Blade Blaster, this is what I am talking about when it comes to that extra mile for a collectible.

The Red Ranger's belt had two holsters that fit the Dragon Dagger and Blade Blaster almost a little TOO well, and that snug of a fit makes me worry about the wear down of paint applications with repeated removal.

Like a glove...

Now, getting onto the overall look and poseability of the Red Ranger figure, I'm wanting to see if all the cool poses shown on the box are able to be done.

The Dragon Shield Armor looks great, and the Red Ranger is able to have his feet, ankles, midstep, hips, chest... all of it to allow for him to stand in a variety of ways, even with something like his sword out in front of him.

I had planned on posting one or two pics of some of the other poses that the figure could be placed into, but as bendable and insanely over articulated as he is, I could not for the life of me get the poses to look as cool as they had them on the box. BUT, the thing to take from this, is considering the quality build and joints on this figure, I have no doubt he is capable of being posed as such.

Red Ranger is just a bit smaller than Raven Warrior (Gothitropolis)

So I mentioned earlier that this line of Bandai Ranger figures (all of the original show's Rangers have been made, including Tommy the Green Ranger), is going for $40 on average. And for a smaller figure, that can be a bit out of most people's budgets or reasoning to buy, and truthfully, I had bypassed this series for a while (mainly because I was trying to find the Green Ranger, to no avail...) and stumbled across ALL of the Rangers on "Red Dot Table Clearance" of 50% off at a local Barnes and Noble (well, all of them except for the Green Ranger).

I keep thinking my insane discount finding luck is going to run out at some point.

I'm thinking later I may have to come up with some better backgrounds/dioramas for these shots.

Final thoughts? If this figure is an indication of the rest of the line, it's a great addition to anyone's 6 inch figure collection. I'm not even a major Power Ranger fan, but the great attention to detail and fantastic design made this one hard to ignore.

Until next time, cherish the good things in life, keep your hobbies and interests alive, and be kind to your fellow beings. - Mario, the Rogue Hobbyist.
 

Stats	Rating/Information
Item	Mighty Morphin Armored Red Ranger
Made by	Bandai S.H. Figuarts
Rarity	Uncommon
Classification	Modern - Released in 2014
Condition	Excellent
Procured	Barnes & Noble, KC
Worth	$45
Investment	$19 (Red Dot Clearance table)
Further Research	www.facebook.com/S.H.Figuarts
Trivia & Fun Facts	The first Power Rangers show, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, debuted on August 28, 1993 and was a production that was produced initially by Saban Entertainment, cobbled together by using footage from the Japanese tokusatsu Super Sentai, produced by Toei Company mixed with American actors and new footage.