The Shinkenger revealed!

Yes, I had a nice time at the wedding, and yes I did survive the two plane trips needed to get there and back again. (The return trip was probably the best flight I've ever had!) It was nice to see the extended family back there after nine years too.

'Nuff of that now.

Good news- images are beginning to leak onto the net from the latest Super Sentai Series, "Samurai Sentai Shinkenger". I found the most damming evidence on Thai-Toku.com this evening.

The first is the five Shinkenger assembled together in a pictures which finally reveals their armor.

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To me, these resemble the suits worn by both the specifically-ninjutsu-themed Hurricanger and KakuRanger (2002 and 1994 respectively), but notice the "Y"-shaped lines across their chests are reminiscent of the folds in a kimono.

The other picture is of the yet-to-be-named first lead robo:

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Like the Muteki Shougun from "KakuRanger" (aka the Shogun Megazord from "MMPR-3"), it also has been influenced by the armor of samurai warriors, with highlights in gold, and ribbed black paneling. (I must say that those hard lines across its chassis are quite striking IMO, even if the color seems to be somewhat bland.) However, while the Muteki Shougun leaned more towards the samurai-style of armor, the theme of the series was based on ninjutsu instead which was better reflected in the more-agile and smaller Juushou Fighters (aka the Aquitarians' Battle Borgs).

From this second picture, we can determine two things which are not immediately clear in the first: 1)each Shinkenger will be assigned an animal; and 2)geometrical shapes will be used for identification.
At a glance, at least three of the animals seem to be a green bear, either a blue dragon or wolf, and either a red lion or tiger. If I had to guess, I'd say that yellow is based off of a bird of some kind, but I have no clue what the pink one will be.

I dare say that we may have to deal with limb-swapping again since the arms and legs separate in very convenient and well-known places. I will also venture that we will not get poseable legs or elbows... again.

I'm gonna be all over this thing when the DX toy comes out!

. . .

In other related news the henshin devices have been revealed to be cell phones yet again. But they seem to have a third form which acts as a poor dagger or some-such. (From the first fuzzy pics I've seen, unless they really pull a good rabbit outta their hat, I'm not gonna get one.)

And one of the weapons seems to be an elaborate blue crossbow crossed with an old fashioned hand-held 1920s machine gun. I doubt that this is an un-colored pic of the combo weapon, if they use a combo weapon.

. . .

Whereas ninja were secretive in their missions, samurai were commonly-seen higher-level warriors who bonded themselves to lords, and were influential in both culture & politics during Japan's earlier feudal existence. It was not until the mid-1800s where the power and influence of samurai began to wane as outside cultures began to press in on the Home Islands in more than just military might.