Megazord
Review by JoshB
Hasbro's first foray into Megazords was for Beast Morphers, and to be honest it looked terrible. I stayed away like the plague. Not only did it look bad, but each component was so expensive, I would have easily spent over a hundred dollars to get the whole set, that is if you could ever find them at stores.
I decided to take the plunge and try out their classic Megazord because for one, it was cheaper, and two - I like the design.
To build the Megazord you need three sets. Each set is priced at 14.99 and is meant for ages 4 and up. That should have been my first clue.
Triceratops and Sabertooth Tiger
Each set on their own does not offer much play value. The Zords are very kid-friendly, and any part that could be sharp or brittle is made out of a softer, pliable PVC. The Saberooth Tiger features a sturdy body with pre-applied stickers, moveable legs and tail, and movable fangs.
In keeping with Hasbro's cost-cutting measures, everything that could be hollow is. This makes the toy feel light overall.
The Triceratops is even more useless. It only moves at the head and tail, and the molded treads are a letdown. Usually, when you have molded tank treads, they put small wheels underneath so it will still roll. This toy not only doesn't add the wheels, but they add bumps where wheels should be! If you are not going to give it wheels, then just leave the treads flat!
To be fair though, it has about the same level of detail and articulation as the original Megazord parts.
Mastadon and Pteradactyl
This set has a bit more value to it, but it is still essentially two Zords that are useless on their own.
The Mastadon is a chunky Zord, and reasonably solid. The head can move slightly side to side, but the legs do not move. The silver tusks and trunk are a flexible, softer material.
The Pterodactyl is small and light, but the head moves as it should. The small guns clip on the feet for stability. Again, essentially the same as the original, but maybe half the size.
Tyrannosaurus Rex
The largest Zord gets packed all by himself, but does include the sword. I keep expecting Hasbro to use some of that Transformers technology to do something different here, but again it's pretty faithful to the original.
Again, it feels light, but it looks ok - aside from the glaring red pegs sticking out of the knees. The legs move at the hips, knees and ankles, and the arms swivel down.
Look at that hollow tail.
It's nice that they included some detail in the mouth, but I could do without the hole at the top of the chest. It's used in a later combination, but they could have found a better way.
MEGAZORDS ASSEMBLE
Putting them together is basically the same as the original. There are a few VERY TIGHT connections. You need to use a substantial amount of force to connect the legs all the way, and the snap together connections that you have to open to transform the Mastadon is super difficult to open. They do look good together though.
Once assembled, you get a Megazord that while looks good, could have been a lot better, considering the pedigree and the cost. Clearly Hasbro did not use ANY of the lessons learned from their Transformers team here. Compared to their current SIEGE line, this feels like a Playskool toy that costs $45, aimed at 4 year olds who could not possibly do some of the connections.
Overall, it looks pretty good. It's got better proportions than the original, and some improvements to articuation have been made. However their choices of what to improve and what to leave alone is maddening.
The head looks great with the sliding side panels made out of a type of rubber. Can't have any sharp angles here people. Also I can't get over how distracting that hole is.
You can see that they added bicep swivels, elbow hinges, swivel thighs and hips that can spread out. However, inexplicably you cannot turn the head or waist, neither can you BEND THE KNEES. Elbow joints but no knee joints? Come on Hasbro.
The cannons fit on the back in the peg holes, but be careful as those legs just pop off easily.
For weaponry he can hold the Mastadon head as a shield, and the sword fits tightly in either hand.
The knees can bend FORWARD but not backward.
Megazord Tank Mode
One bonus is that it can still pull off transformation into Tank mode. Tank mode is the reason why the legs bend forward, and why there is a hole in the chest. I could do without it if we could make the Megazord mode better.
The Petraodactyl connection is flimsy, and it leans too far back.
So what went wrong here?
Hasbro couldn't figure out who to market this to. Little kids don't know (or care) who this is. However Hasbro made a toy that is targeted at kids aged 4 and up but 4-year-olds aren't strong enough to put it together. Despite having the Transformers Design Team at their disposal, they made a toy that's nearly as expensive as Seige Astrotrain, and about the same size, with about 80% less gimmicks, quality, or play value. On top of that, you have to track down ALL THREE SETS, when combined with shipping and/or sales tax, is going to put you well over the fifty dollar mark. The set just reeks of missed opportunity.
One small silver lining is that the fist holes are compatible with the current 5mm weapon system that Transformers is using, however none of the other holes are, so i'm guessing this is coincidence and not on purpose.
Imagine how great this toy would have been if it got all the detailing and gimmicks that your average Transformer gets, COMBINED with the compatible 3 and 5mm ports.
Comments
16 comments postedI remember thinking "WTF" when I watched the Toys that Made Us episode about Power Rangers. How Haim Saban has made all these mega money making decisions throughout the brands history.......only to take the brand license from Bandai America, who was devoted to it, and hand it off to Hasbro, who's never going to put their best foot forward with it.
Yes, they make money if Power Rangers does well, but it'll never line their pockets like Transformers, Nerf, or any of their other creations will. The Megazord's head looks nice, but this otherwise looked like crud from day one.
Does not inspire hope for the Thunder Megazord.
You're an idiot. Hasbro actually has put good effort into Power Rangers - more than Bandai America was doing from post-Operation Overdrive. I'm pretty sure the reason Saban skipped adapting Go-Busters was because Bandai America were incapable of adapting the much-more-articulated-than-normal Go-Busters mecha to their budget and pricing needs. By the time you posted this Hasbro had already done what Bandai America could not in that regard, and by this point have continued to excel with both the Dino Fury line and a Lightning Collection masterpiece version of the Dino Megazord.
This is basically the 2010 Zordbuilder recreation of the Dino Megazord except with arm articulation beyond shoulder rotation, and for $5 less than a WFC Leader. Not too shabby by today's costs and prices.
Do not call that other user an idiot. You're responding to a two-year-old comment, and you may know something now that they didn't have access to previously.
Also, Hasbro needed a spin-up time from when they got PR in 2018; this was their first attempt at an in-house design after they literally scrambled to make "Beast Morphers". More-than-likely Hasbro used stuff that BA had given them as inspiration for the PRBM line, and then Hasbro had to learn to do it on their own from customer feedback.
So I think you need to lay off a bit.
Without knees, all that hip and thigh articulation is pretty much useless. Damn Hasbro, I am disappoint.
Either this is it, or they have a more expensive, better one planned for fans, and this one is just simplified for kids.
Here's hopin'.
The hip articulation is for transformation first and foremost, as per the original. And the thigh articulation helps the Tyrannosaurus, and can still pull off some poses (feet turned outwards instead of pointing straight ahead, for instance) even without knee articulation.
Knee articulation is certainly doable and even straightforward with the Dino Megazord, but it's a bit more work than you might think. The way the Tyrannosaurus' legs collapse (rendering its knees useless for the job) means that giving the Megazord knee articulation requires engineering the Triceratops and Saber-tooth Tiger's combining sockets to be separate pieces from the rest of their bodies and mounted on ratcheting swivels.
As for "simplified", the only simplifications are that the Sabertooth and Triceratops lack working wheels and the Triceratops' gunbarrels are molded as one with the tail. A downgrade from the original, but it was also seen with the Zordbuilder recreation (which, unlike this, was just as much of a brick in the arms department as the original so...)
And hey, you got your wish of an expensive collector-aimed one.
The almost simplistic transformation, lack of detailing and the toy feels it's a few steps away from being a Happy Meal toy reeks of a kid's toy. Plus, kids won't even recognize this Megazord at all. Factor in the price and availability - good luck on that.
I don't know anymore what's worse - the Beast Morphers Zords or this one.
Yeah, for the full price when it's all said and done after sales tax, they really should've just put all 5 of these in a single box for like $45-50.
Your whiny ass, that's what's worse
Maybe you need to call yourself a whiny ass instead, seeing as your posts are mostly whining in this site. And calling people names over a toy review? This is why tokusatsu fans will always be stigmatized as man-children as long as people like you continue to act like babies on the internet. GROW UP, kid.
Hey, cool off. His attitude is not "man-children".
I can tell you with absolute certainty that, after what Hasbro has been doing since 2007 with their Transformers line, their early attempts at PR are definitely below-the-line in terms of quality. Not only are they inheriting a toy line with significantly-simpler transformations and combining, but they probably didn't have the exact same people working on PR early on that they had committed to Transformers.
That DOES NOT make the other user a "man-children" for calling out Hasbro over a legitimate issue. I just-so happen to agree that there were a lot of BA-quality decisions that Hasbro made early on, which are reflected in the above figure, so much so that I didn't get it either.
There are many things to complain about PR's toy lines over the decades, and the above is simply one of those, not the only one.
Now, both of you need to take a step back, breathe, and think. There's no reason to be toxic over a ____ing children's toy that is very clearly aimed at adults who grew up with such nostalgia.
"The almost simplistic transformation, lack of detailing and the toy feels it's a few steps away from being a Happy Meal toy reeks of a kid's toy."
I think I already pointed out the issues with the toy itself in the first place and the mere fact that it's still a kid's toy (the label says ages 4+) despite aiming for adults as well due to nostalgia. Also, Josh already pointed out the issues on his last paragraph that I agree with.
I don't know what else to call a person other than a "man-child" for his consistent condescending attitude towards people and whining for the sake of whining but the only toxic person here is the one calling people names for having a different opinion and whose comments are nothing but whining in the first place especially on reviews that have been made years ago. People may have valid opinions that are different than mine once in a while but at least I don't call them idiots firsthand.
Regarding Josh's comment on the Beast Morpher Zords...
"Not only did it look bad, but each component was so expensive, I would have easily spent over a hundred dollars to get the whole set, that is if you could ever find them at stores."
I didn't believe these Zords were expensive at first but upon seeing just one Wrecker Zord set in a local toy store, it was priced at $42 and the rest of the Zords were unavailable everywhere I looked. Forking more than $100 to build an Ultrazord that's not really well-made is utterly ridiculous.
Zords and Megazords have largely been bricks for years and years and years. That is their default design standard.
But the mecha of Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters (the source Sentai for Beast Morphers) were a radical departure. They were substantially more articulated, both in the individual mecha and the combined robos. On par with modern Transformers. Go look up a review of Go-Buster Oh. I have no doubt in my mind that this complexity is why Saban wound up skipping Go-Busters - with how much Bandai America had to water toys down, there was no way they could successfully adapt those designs, and to try would have been a garbagefire.
But Hasbro did what they could not. Hasbro adapted the Go-Busters mecha designs for the American market, articulation intact. It made them cost more than the usual bricks would have, but it was very successful.
As for the Beast-X Ultrazord not being well-made... If you think it's ugly, that's most likely PLEX's fault rather than Hasbro's - after all, it's PLEX's design rather than theirs. If you think it's not well-made quality-wise, then by all accounts I've heard from people who own the thing, you're wrong.
Good luck to people taking you seriously after your meltdown, seeing as you're COMPLETELY incapable of handling other people's opinions whatsoever.
Sooo much of what you said in this is wrong, or just you being a whiny smeghead with no perspective.
See my comment above for why you're talking completely out your ass when it comes to the Beast Morphers Zords.
For my money, you have exactly one valid complaint: The molded fake wheel nubs on the Triceratops Dinozord. I agree that the treads should have been left flat if they weren't going to do actual wheels. Unless the fake ones help it perform better on carpet.
That hole on the top edge of the Tyrannosaurus' chest that you keep whinging about is small and easy to overlook - I don't know why you find it so hard to do so. And it was the best solution for connecting the Mastodon head to the chest - it was a hole there on a spot that's easy to tune out due to the angle (especially when you have the head to focus on instead), or a much more obtrusive hole or clip on the *front* of the chest.
The Pterodactyl is only leaning too far back in tank mode because you HORRIBLY screwed up the transformation. The Tyrannosaurus is supposed to be leaned forward on its hips all the way (as if it were in standalone dinosaur mode), and the Mastodon arms should be straight at the elbow and rotated at the *shoulder*. Congratulations: You made all the people who forget to push the Tyrannosaurus' hip buttons on the 1993 version to tilt the knees forward look competent by comparison.
Why does the head not rotate? Because of the way its transformation works. Accommodating both that and head rotation, while keeping it structurally sound? That's a bit beyond the reach of this price level.
Why no knees? Because they'd be more complex than you'd think thanks to how the Tyrannosaurus' legs collapse, and sadly it seems that was a bit more than the budget for this could deliver.
As for the price... You do realize that, collectively, you're getting a 5-component combo comparable in overall size (although not mass, most likely) to a CW combiner... for $5 under the price of a WFC Leader, yes?
'Nuff said. Get over it, baby.
I'm surprised that Josh allows people like this baby to openly call him names in his own site.