Even though there are cockpit windscreens featured on each of the five jets, they operate together under the singular consciousness of the Phoenix Galactabeast, and are never seen being boarded by any Ranger or the Magna Defender.

The Earth-built colony vessel Terra Venture is humanity’s first attempt to reach the stars. But in the midst of this glorious adventure, on the distant planet of Mirinoi, its people are being terrorized by the evil Scorpious and his minions. Several humans from Terra Venture are pulled through a wormhole to the besieged planet, and there they, a museum mechanic, and one of the natives of Mirinoi successfully remove the five legendary Quasar Sabers from their stone thrones. In their attempt to escape on the famous but worn-out Astro Megaship, one of their own is lost, and Scorpious orders Mirinoi turned into stone as punishment, and then turns his wrath on the peaceful colony vessel. The four human owners of the Quasar Sabers and the younger brother of the fallen soldier manage to unlock the power of the bladed relics in order to become protectors of Terra Venture- the Galaxy Power Rangers!

A new villain, Deviot, brings to Scorpious a plan to defeat the Rangers. All he needs is the sacrifice of two of them, so he captures Blue and Green, and forces them to fight each other- drawing power from their attacks to power up his remote controller. And then once it is at full capacity, he infuses that power into his dark Zenith Carrierzord and the two Megazords within- the Stratoforce and the Centaurus. But when the Rangers confront these new giants, the Galactabeasts which form the Galaxy Megazord and Defender Torozord unexpectedly refuse to fight! Forced to withdraw, the Rangers go back to the mysterious book that the GSA on-board Terra Venture is trying to translate. A breakthrough reveals the discovery that the Centaurus, Stratoforce, and Zenith Carrierzord are actually three more Galactabeasts from a war 3000 years ago, which Deviot found and then transformed into Megazords under his control. Armed with this new info, they beg with the converted Galactabeasts to remember who they really are and turn on their evil master. The three sentient Megazords remember and then align themselves with the Galaxy Rangers.

. . .

The Stratoforce Megazord is made up of five components. But even though there are cockpit windscreens featured on each jet, they operate together under the singular consciousness of the Phoenix Galactabeast, and are never seen being boarded by any Ranger or the Magna Defender. Therefore, it does not fight simply because it is ordered to, but because it chooses to fight; which is generally true of all the Galactabeasts.

S1 Zord

S2 Zord

S3 Zord

S4 Zord

S5 Zord

We never see the five separate S-Zords battle as individual components in the series even though they are stored & launched separately from inside the Zenith Carrierzord. Therefore, one can only guess as to what each component is capable of based solely on looks and how it transforms. (Ironically, this also stands for its original Japanese counterpart from the Super Sentai saga as well…) However, they all share a few features, such as non-poseable landing gear, rocket nozzles & wings of various sizes, and silver-painted windscreens.

The Stratoforce Megazord (back)- like the Deluxe Red Dragon Thunderzord long before it (from 1994’s “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” season 2)- is an unusually fit and trim-looking Megazord, which thus gives it a very agile fighting style in addition to extended flight capabilities. The head of the Megazord actually features a PVC mask which is removed to reveal its true unarmored head beneath for when it transforms. (Why this is, I have no idea. But it is never shown fighting without the mask on.) The arms have ratcheting joints at the shoulders which snap at every 45º. As an interesting note, the ABS fists can actually twist around at the wrists, allowing for more posing options later on. The legs, as I said earlier, are much thinner than anything before. The narrowing black feet actually look like string-less slippers as opposed to blocky boots! And the top of the front of both feet are covered with panels which fold over when transforming them back to vehicle mode. The knees snap-twist around at every 60º, but the legs aren’t far apart enough to do anything useful; additionally, twisting either leg easily upsets the Stratoforce Megazord’s balance and he’ll fall flat on his face. (Or rather, flat on his chest...) When changing it back into vehicle mode, the mask can be stored on the back of the S3 Zord; the Megazord’s sword, however, is simply put aside.

The Megazord has two weapon features. The first is a blue PVC sword which is gently pointed like a “V”, and has a handle on one side which can be gripped by either fist (though traditionally in the right). This is where those wrist joints come in handy because of the limited poseability of the arms otherwise. The other is a little more old-school, and is actually a key part of the transformation of the S-1 Zord! Behind the shoulder joint on both upper arms are recessed buttons which, when depressed, will spring-launch the entire lower arm/fist assemblies like missiles! Only when attached as arms will they fire; if the buttons are pressed in vehicle mode, they will not shoot out because the springs are actually inside the black ABS rocket nozzles. (All you need to watch for when converting them to Megazord Mode is the orientation of the fists, and that will clue you in to which way they point.)

For those of you wondering what the differences are between the Deluxe Stratoforce Megazord from “Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy” (1999), and its Japanese counterpart, the Chogokin GD-14 DX Kouseijuu GingaPhoenix from “Seijuu Sentai Gingaman” (1998), it’s actually a rather pleasant surprise:

• On the Stratoforce Megazord, all of the windscreens on the separate flyers were painted silver; they were painted black on the GingaWing 1 (S1 Zord), GingaWing 2 (S2 Zord), and GingaWing 3 (S3 Zord). However, no paint was used on the cockpits for GingaWing 4 (S4 Zord) & GingaWing 5 (S5 Zord) since the plastic coloring was already black.

Amazingly, the Stratoforce Megazord’s single change highlighted something that the DX GingaPhoenix did not! And here’s the interesting part: on-screen in both series, all of the cockpit windows are a rust-brown in color. Otherwise all decals, the few paint applications on the mask & inner head, plastic coloring, functions, molds, and materials are identical!

. . .

I was really disappointed with the designs of the mecha seen in “PRLG”. While a few of the earliest mecha in Super Sentai did not merge with each other (mostly because the tokusatsu sub-genre was still finding its feet in the early 80s), since then only “Gingaman” has had five-part mecha that also do not merge together with accessory or secondary mecha. Being a relatively-big PR fan at that time (though I dislike “PRLG” in general), it was a big let-down, and since then this lack of transforming has not reoccurred. The only exception was this blue and dark gray Megazord which kinda ran off in its own direction:

• it was not commanded directly by any Ranger
• all five vehicles were designed to fly
• none of the vehicles has an identifying number, shape, or color
• all five vehicles were commanded by a single intelligence as opposed to five separate ones
• in Megazord Mode it had a very thin and agile appearance which was breakthrough

The proportions of the toy in Megazord Mode are also not wacky; I’d even go as far as to say only the shoulders are slightly farther apart than on a normal-sized human, and that’s it! There’s a bunch of little things to worry about when changing it rather than a couple of big things, which also is rather a bit of a precursor to a few later lines. And everything works together very well. The Seijuu [trnsltn: “Star-beast”] transformable toys in the “Gingaman” line were all notable for having very generous amounts of die-cast metal in them after several years-worth of all-plastic, but the GingaPhoenix and its cousin Chogokin #GD-13 DX Kouseijuu GingaRhino (aka Deluxe Centaurus Megazord) had far less. In fact, only the shoulder levers and hip joints- both only for transformation- here use die-cast metal… which was also imported over by Bandai America. (Yay!) The spring-powered lower arms also shoot a fair distance rather than just falling out of the launcher like they did on the Deluxe Mega Voyager from “Power Rangers in Space” (1998); the fact that the arms shoot out like that is a just plain nice throwback in my opinion, and is a feature that would be seen less-and-less as the years progressed. And the nice thing here is, BA actually did a good job by having it so closely match its Japanese counterpart. If it hadn’t, I would have gone with the DX GingaPhoenix. But I didn’t. My only complaints are that you can’t tell which leg part is which so you just have to remember it, and the gold metallic finish on the chest chips off kinda easily. And so, the Deluxe Stratoforce Megazord is a very good alternative since it was cheaper, but looks, works, and feels exactly the same. Highly recommended!

This set is known as the Astro Galactic Megazord to differentiate it from the original Deluxe Astro Megazord released the previous year from “Power Rangers in Space” (1997), but in-series during “PR Lost Galaxy”, it is still referred to as just the Astro Megaship.

The Earth-built colony vessel Terra Venture is humanity’s first attempt to reach the stars. But in the midst of this glorious adventure, on the distant planet of Mirinoi, its people are being terrorized by the evil Scorpious and his minions. Several humans from Terra Venture are pulled through a wormhole to the besieged planet, and there they, a museum mechanic, and one of the natives of Mirinoi successfully remove the five legendary Quasar Sabers from their stone thrones. In their attempt to escape on the famous but worn-out Astro Megaship, one of their own is lost, and Scorpious orders Mirinoi turned into stone as punishment, and then turns his wrath on the peaceful colony vessel. The four human owners of the Quasar Sabers and the younger brother of the fallen soldier manage to unlock the power of the bladed relics in order to become protectors of Terra Venture- the Galaxy Power Rangers!

The Astro Megaship was once a powerful space vessel. It could travel between stars in the blink of an eye, and it fought against many foes both above and on the surface of planets, so its metal was proven many times over. But after the end of the climactic battle against the Alliance of Evil which threatened to crush the entire Universe at one time, the Astro Megaship was finally worn out after its gallant duty was finished. The ship- and her onboard computer personality known as DECA- was retired with high honors on Earth, and delegated to become a planet-side museum so that future generations could marvel at her and learn the value of dedication, courage, and teamwork. But when a desperate GSA officer from Terra Venture tried to commandeer the ship in order to save his teammates on a distant planet, the Megaship’s sole mechanic begrudgingly stepped in to fly the rescue mission. After saving all but one of the stranded Galaxy Power Rangers from Mirinoi, the Astro Megaship docked with the colony vessel, and then became their secret private transport as Terra Venture crossed the stars. Unfortunately, the Megaship’s previous owners- the Space Power Rangers- had chosen to remove key components before she became a museum, so the vessel was no longer capable of transforming into the Astro Megazord until their return.

. . .

This set is known as the Astro Galactic Megazord to differentiate it from the original Deluxe Astro Megazord released the previous year from “Power Rangers in Space” (1997), but in-series during “PR Lost Galaxy”, it is still referred to as just the Astro Megaship. (I will do the same here. I’m not gonna type that whole repetitive name out every single frickin’ time unless there is a difference to be pointed out; no way!)

• Astro Mega Shuttle (back)- While it is not seen in “PRLG”, it still forms the head of the Astro Megazord.
• Astro Megaship (back)- The larger of the two halves, Megaship is a sturdy design that features several hangar & storage bays throughout its hull, and has a highly sophisticated computer system with a limited female-sounding artificial intelligence of its own, known as DECA. While it operates mostly in habitable regions of the universe, it can easily travel into deep space, or make landfall, with only a crew of five. The Astro Megaship forms the torso, arms, and legs of the Astro Megazord.

In flight mode, the Megaship is a compacted flying saucer shape, with two red diagonal stabilizers on top of the engine housing (though in both series, they’re really vertical), a set of cargo & access bays hanging beneath which also serve as landing pods, and a pair of twin energy cannons to either side of the bridge. The turrets can spin a full 360º, but the twin barrels cannot pitch up or down. When not in use, the Mega Shuttle is stored inside a large bay inside the split section of the nose; the only sign of its presence being the small V-tail stabilizer projecting above the hull. The hull detail is quite impressive and well executed. To simulate flight, you can either hold it in your hand, or roll it along a smooth flat surface using the four wheels on the bottom of the landing pods.

Unlike the original 1997 set, the Astro Galactic Megazord had the light-and-sound feature removed, which helped to reduce the cost of the toy by about $10. In order to remove the feature:

• The large transparent-red “M” on the chest is the same, but the two trigger buttons inside of it are replaced with non-moving parts to fill the gaps.
• While the battery compartment door remains the same along its back, the part immediately below it where the On/Off switch used to be has been replaced with another which eliminates & covers that switch, but otherwise they are identical.
• The hidden switch at the back of its neck- which would activate the F/X when attaching the Mega Shuttle to the torso- has obviously been removed as well.

Aside from coloring (which I’ll address later), these constitute all of the changes between the original Astro Megazord set and the Astro Galactic Megazord.

Very well proportioned compared with many of its own kind, the Astro Galactic Megazord (back) is well detailed and solid. The joints are nice and tight, and the decals don’t take away or distract from the overall look. The arms rotate 360º at the shoulders, and snap at every 30º. The legs, while not really designed for action poses, can be moved into some interesting if limited positions for a look of flying through space. The two small engines for the Mega Shuttle hang off the top of the shoulders and act as the main propulsion for the megazord. The only paint apps on the entire toy are the face of the megazord, and the cockpit of the Mega Shuttle. My only complaint might be that there was no joint at the elbows or shoulders; I can accept what they did with the legs.

. . .

For accessories, the toy has three: the Astro Megazord Saber, Astro Megazord Shield, and Astro Megazord Blaster. The Saber is a soft, very light gray PVC weapon about 5 inches long. The black plastic Astro Megazord Shield is actually the belly of the Megaship, but split down the middle horizontally, and rotated in half. There is a small PVC handle for the Shield that the megazord can hold in either hand, though it’s preferred in the left. The Blaster is actually the booster assembly for the Mega Shuttle, with a PVC handle and cannon barrel folded out. As an added bonus, the Blaster can separate into its three different components, and attach to the Megaship as extra armament. The two small turrets the Megaship uses are not used on the megazord, but are still capable of spinning all the way around. So, if you want to take a cheap shot at your enemy one day...

The Deluxe Astro Galactic Megazord is a repaint of the Deluxe Astro Megazord; which in-turn is a re-release of the original Japanese toy, the DX Denji Gattai Galaxy Mega from “Denji Sentai MegaRanger” (1996). In general, aside from the differences addressed above physically between the Astro Megazord, the biggest difference here is the coloring used. Instead, for the Astro Galactic Megazord, all blue and silver plastic was swapped for black and gold respectively. All red, white, and light gray parts remain the same. The Megazord now features red eyes instead of yellow, and a gold-painted face instead of silver. The cockpit windows of the Mega Shuttle were also changed from brown to gold. The decals, also, have been updated. While retaining the same filling patterns and detail lines, again a simple color swap was made- silver for gold. The only exception on the decals is that the- shall I say- small rectangular belt-buckle decal was changed from bronze to black- the only modification made other than the gold swap. There are two decals on the outsides of the ankles that were originally blue that also swapped for black.

This also means that since the Deluxe Astro Galactic Megazord is the same as the Deluxe Astro Megazord, it is fully compatible with the Deluxe Delta Megazord also from "PRiS", which means you can make an alternate-colored version of the Astro-Delta Megazord.

Y’all remember that episode of the original “Star Trek” series from the late ‘60s, where some of the crew from the U.S.S. Enterprise were accidentally transported into a parallel universe in which their counterparts were the complete opposite of them in both appearance and personality? Well, this set represents what a mirror version of the Astro Megazord might look like- black for terror & death, gold for opulence, arrogance, & wealth, and red for blood. On the other hand, this set is rather unique to the PR franchise- it is a US-exclusive release! Many times in Japan, Bandai has released special black-and-gold repaints of certain DX sets from certain Super Sentai series, but almost none of them ever made over to American shores under the PR trademark. There were super-rare black-and-gold releases of the Deluxe Galaxy Megazord (minus all the metal parts of course).and the first Deluxe Megazord from 1993, in the US. However, this is the first US-exclusive repaint as well as the first US-exclusive black-and-gold Deluxe repaint (and so far the only of both). And usually with any of these black-and-gold repaints in Japan the price of the toy nearly doubles, but in this case it actually dropped about $10 due to the removal of the electronics. And so, with the exception of those missing F/X (which I really don’t think is a loss), the Deluxe Astro Galactic Megazord remains a winning toy, if you can find it anymore.

The Deluxe Galaxy Megazord from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy is a stripped down version of the DX Gingaioh robot from Gingaman. It’s still big and heavy, but it’s nowhere as impressive as the original.

The Deluxe Galaxy Megazord from Power Rangers Lost Galaxy is a stripped down version of the DX Gingaioh robot from Gingaman. It’s still big and heavy, but it’s nowhere as impressive as the original.

The Deluxe Galaxy Megazord is comprised of 5 Galactazords.

• Lion Galactazord
• Condor Galactazord
• Gorilla Galactazord
• Wolf Galactazord
• Wildcat Galactazord

The Lion Galactazord transforms into the upper body of the Deluxe Galaxy Megazord. He retains some metal from the Japanese version, namely the rear legs and the bars that connect the head assembly.

The Condor Galactazord can either be attached to the back of the Galaxy Megazord, or be used as a hand weapon. This Zord retained all of its metal content, namely half of the body. If you push down on the head of the Condor the wings will move.

The Gorilla Galactazord forms the lower half of the Galaxy Megazord. The fists of the Galaxy Megazord store underneath its feet. This one is missing all the metal that the original had.

The Wolf Galactazord becomes the right arm of the Galaxy Megazord. The wolf mode is pretty unremarkable, but does feature a moveable jaw. All the metal that was in this part is gone. The wildcat is basically the same.

On their own, the pieces are unremarkable. But combined they make an impressive Megazord

The Deluxe Galaxy Megazord is huge. Even without all the metal, it still has a significant weight. The only thing you can move on this is the arms, but that’s not what this toy is about. Its about presence. It just commands your attention.

The figure has 2 basic weapons. The first is a rubber-ish sword called the Galaxy Megazord Saber.  Half of the Condor Galactazord can also be removed and used as a cannon.

It’s not a bad toy by any means; it’s just not as cool as its Japanese cousin. With a 9800 yen price tag, Bandai had to cut a lot of corners to get it down to $39.99.