ZordBuilder System - Samurai Megazord
Review by EVA_Unit_4A
This toy appears here courtesy of BigBadToyStore.com!
Embedded within every Nighlok is the ability to change into Mega Mode once they are destroyed the first time. Mega Mode allows them to grow to giant size and smash tall buildings in a single blow! To counter this, the Samurai Rangers use semi-sentient mecha called FoldingZords, which are based on the ancient Japanese art of origami (“folding paper”) and were created hundreds of years ago through the use of Symbol Power. Ordinarily able to fit in the palm of a human’s hand, FoldingZords can be given simple commands, or initiate basic attacks and defensive tactics on their own. When a Nighlok grows to giant size, however, a Ranger can use Symbol Power to initiate their own conversion to Mega Mode (spawning new armor on their Ranger suits and increasing durability and strength), and causes their FoldingZord to grow to giant size as well! Once aboard, the Ranger can then take direct control for more advanced combat tactics.
In addition to unique attacks on their own, the core team’s five FoldingZords, red Lion, blue Dragon, pink Turtle, green Bear, and yellow Ape, can combine with each other to form the humanoid-shaped Samurai Megazord. The Megazord can draw out an ornamental katana sword (which has simplified pictures of the five FoldingZords along the blade) and a Power Disc-shaped shield for melee combat. Special and finishing attacks are achieved through the use of Power Discs and/or Symbol Power using the Samuraizers.
Somewhere on each of their bodies, each FoldingZord features the symbol of the Shiba House.
Lion FoldingZord
Composed entirely of hard ABS plastic, only the jaw can be moved.
Dragon FoldingZord
Composed primarily of ABS plastic, but the tail, which forms the Megazord’s sword is flexible PVC. Due to how it transforms it can be posed at the jaw, neck, and mid-body. It also stores the Samurai Megazord’s helmet within its body, and can be released via a button on top of the toy.
Turtle FoldingZord
Composed of hard ABS and soft PVC plastic, only the two fins can be moved.
Bear FoldingZord
Composed entirely of hard ABS plastic, only the jaw can be moved.
Ape FoldingZord
Composed entirely of hard ABS plastic, only the shoulders can be moved, ratcheting every 45 degrees forward (and sideways as well, but only due to transformation).
Samurai Megazord
The horns on the helmet of the Megazord and its sword are both made of soft PVC plastic. While the sword can fit into a slot on the top of either hip, it will not stay in place on its own. The shield seen in the series is not included in this set.
The shoulders ratchet every 45-degrees all the way around. Because of how it transforms, the right wrist can also ratchet around, allowing for minor posing with the sword. Due to being part of the ZordBuilder System, the knees can also spin around, though the Megazord will not be able to stand reliably on its own of you turn them.
As a gimmick started with the 2010 remake of the Dino Zords from “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” (Season 1), the Samurai Megazord is part of the ZordBuilder System. This allows it to swap arms and legs with other separately-sold “Power Rangers Samurai” toys beyond what is seen in the TV series, specifically the Disc Cycles, Sword Cycles, Samurai Transporter, and Tiger Tank.
(None of these other ZordBuilder-compatible toys are featured in this review.)
For those of you wondering what the differences are between the ZordBuilder System Samurai Megazord from “Power Rangers Samurai” (2011), and its original Japanese counterpart, the DX Samurai Gattai Shinken-Oh from “Samurai Sentai Shinkenger” (2009), the changes are broad and stark.
Simply put, the Samurai Megazord is a completely new toy. The Megazord is a few inches shorter than the DX Shinken-Oh, has reduced paint applications, and removes entirely the vacuum-plated gold plastic. Finally, and perhaps most dramatically, the triple-changer aspect of the original toy was eliminated completely, which allows them to compact down into their respective Badge Mode which prominently displays each Shinkenger’s kanji symbol (as seen in the black visor of each Ranger’s helmet). The Origami (a play-on-words, in this case “folding spirit” as opposed to the normal “folding paper”) mecha started out in Badge Mode, unfolded to form Animal Mode, and then when combining would change once more to form the body of the Shinken-Oh. While this also happens to the FoldingZords in the TV series, the ZordBuilder System Samurai Megazord removed the Badge Mode. As a result of this, several alterations were also made to the transformation process for the Samurai Megazord which do not match its on-screen appearance.
(Ironically, because of how it transforms, only the Turtle FoldingZord can genuinely change into Badge Mode, the other four coming nowhere near their own Badge Modes.)
It should be noted that later in 2011, Bandai America released a Deluxe ‘special edition’ version of the Samurai Megazord, which was just a direct import of the DX Shinekn-Oh with a new paper band wrapped around the Japanese box. Other than the paper band that was legally required for shipping, it is perfectly identical to the original DX Shinken-Oh, even down to the Japanese instructions! It is obviously not compatible with the ZordBuilder System, however, as reviewed here. This “Deluxe Samurai Megazord” was a limited Toys-R-Us online store-exclusive.
There are two reasons for the ZordBuild System to exist: A) expand interactivity between toys seen in the show and new toys created by Bandai America which are not seen on-screen; and B) reduce the retail price of transforming toys to better suit the English-speaking toy market during the World Financial Crisis (2008- ). The days of directly importing original Japanese toys unmodified have long since gone by. At retail (not including shipping and handling), the yen-to-dollar exchange rate meant that the DX Shinken-Oh was still USD $80.00 at the time of its release in 2009! Clearly, no American parent(s) in their right mind would shell out that much for a beginning-level transformable toy for their kid every single year! (Hell, even long-time toy collectors, such as myself, who could regularly afford those higher costs felt the economic pinch.) Much as collectors and parents balk at the reduction in quality compared to past Power Rangers lines, it is the reality we must face and Bandai America is doing the best that they can to rectify the problem, continuing to provide us with the classic franchise while making it affordable to continue importing the original TV footage and concepts from the Japanese series.
With that said…
After owning the DX Samurai Gattai Shinken-Oh for almost five years now, it is quite difficult for me to look at this toy and judge it on its own merits. The removal of the third Badge Mode is such a huge thing since it was featured in the Americanized TV show as well, and triple-changing Zords is a fairly rare gimmick in Power Rangers dating all the way back to 1997 (in “Power Rangers Turbo”). I will do the best that I can…
Having a two year lead time, it’s clear that Bandai America tried to solve some of the flaws and oddities of the original Japanese toy as they were scaling things down. Did they succeed? Mmmm… kind of. It’s one of those tit-for-tat things- trading one flaw for another. Ugh.
Plastic quality is fine, but at times the increase in hollow bits just gets on my nerves and reminds me this toy may be some creeping level of crap.
It’s ironic that the horns on the DX Shinken-Oh’s helmet were bound together by plastic between the tips (despite what was seen on-screen), yet on this toy it has a flexible plastic that could have done with some sturdier construction but allowed for the screen-accurate gap.
One of the problems in the past was that the helmet was often left lying around due to later combinations with other toys in the line having nowhere to store it. You could shove it back into the Ryuu [Dragon] Origami, but it rattled around and was never a tight fit when it was in leg mode. Because of the simplified transformation, particularly on the Dragon and Lion, the helmet now has a comfortable secure niche to hang out in when not being worn. Nice!
One of the common complaints was that the thighs on the Shinken-Oh were really short, and that this version makes them a bit more reasonable proportionately. I agree with the original complaint and that this one fixes that. (The problem is, to compensate, the head now looks too small!)
I know the shield doesn’t do much toy-wise and wasn’t stored anywhere except the back of the Shinken-Oh, but it would have been nice to have it included, even if it couldn’t separate to form its own Power Disc like the original’s did. Oh well, I guess that’s fair enough even if it is missed.
I know simplified transformations are part of the deal to make this more affordable (and I said as much above), but c’mon, that Dragon FoldingZord looks barely anything like it does in the show! Oh it folds alright, but it looks so half-assed in Animal Mode. Sticking the sword up its ass as a convenient storage space could have been done differently as well. (The original DaiShinken sword couldn’t attach to anything either when the Origami were separated.) Again, this is BA trying to fix an original flaw, and then coming up with something even worse than the original. What the hell.
WTF??
One of the big complaints which I also share is the highly awkward alignment of the ratcheting joints on the arms. The arms do not snap perpendicular or parallel properly to the toy’s body. In other words, the arms are always slightly raised or too low depending on how you want them position. Was it a quality control issue, a joint assembled incorrectly at the factory perhaps? No, this was a deliberate design choice. I sincerely cannot understand WHY this was done! Aside from removing the third mode from each FoldingZord, this shoulder misalignment is among my biggest gripes with this toy.
I have so much prejudice from owning the original Japanese toy that it is very difficult for me to not look at this thing and immediately think “bootleg”. Now, does this thing serve as a good toy for its target audience- children? Begrudgingly, I must say “yes it does”, because kids won’t really notice the difference. (I’m not certain- I haven’t seen any kids comment on it.) Although if you were to put the Japanese version in their hands so they could compare it, I’m certain the original would be better received as more screen accurate. Putting this thing side-by-side with its Japanese predecessor leaves a bad taste in your mouth, hands down.
Will it break? The helmet’s horns will probably go first, but not much else beyond that. That sword will get chewed to bits though.
I can see the differences because of my 20+ years experience with this franchise and many other transforming toys, and I would not have gotten this for myself had it not been included in a trade along with something else. This thing just makes me cringe. It’s like a foreign company got their hands on the original, cut some corners as they shrank it down, slapped it on a cardboard backing, gave it some crap Engrish names on the package, and called it good. To my adult eye, that’s how I see the ZordBuilder System Samurai Megazord, a near bootleg. I’m sad to see Bandai America sink to this level, an increasing joke in its own nation of business.
Something tells me the rest of the ZordBuilder System FoldingZords aren’t gonna be much better, considering that the Shinken-Oh design was the best of them all in Japan that year, in my opinion.
Posted 24 April, 2013 - 15:31 by EVA_Unit_4A |
Comments
14 comments postedGreat review. I'm actually contemplating on getting this anyway, along with the SharkZord (the US counterpart of the Kyoryu OriGami).
Don't do it, you're gonna be disappointed. Seriously.
Get the DX Shinekn-Oh (or Deluxe Samurai Megazord); you will be getting your money's worth, even if the price still stings a little.
i knew this thing wasn't gonna be much good, considering BA's fairly recent history with tuning sentai mechs to the PR market, but seriously? they removed the triple-changing feature? what a load of crap.
From the first time I saw this toy, I knew the quality had gone done from what BoA used to do in the past. I do like the proportion of the figure, giving it a more human-like outline. But, like you EVA, I did not like seeing that the folding gimmick got removed sans the TurtleZord. The Dragon FoldingZord got the shaft on this; BoA shouldn't have had to remove the Zord's folding gimmick and make it look squat as hell.
The matter of the ApeZord not folding into a Badge/Emblem mode hurt the toy down the road as when forming the BoA version of the Samurai-haoh, or the Gigazord, where it hung down and dragged. BoA should have done a re-release of the ApeZord and given it the folding gimmick that it's Japanese counterpart, Saru Origami, had in order to balance the Gigazord out.
I have all the origami like you do and my view is most likely colored by owning those toys for nearly two years, but I like seeing quality put into a toy. I had the original MegaZord and Thunder MegaZord as a child and remembered the fun I had playing with them and that in hindsight, they were fully of quality (despite inaccurate decals). I agree that if you gave a child a Shinkenoh, they would find it more accurate.
I never bought any of the Samurai toyline and will not do so anyway.
Apparently a lot of the issues with the Power Rangers Samurai zords and the toyline in general stem from the fact that at the time the initial PRS toyline was developed... it was looking like MMPR 2010 was the end of the line for Power Rangers on TV. Disney had no interest in doing any more seasons. Bandai of America still wanted to press on with a toyline, but when they started development all signs pointed to it being a toyline without a show to promote it. So they made changes based on that: The samurai armor-based Mega Mode was created and given more dense distribution than the gi-based regular uniform Rangers, the morpher got simplified, the Zords developed at the time (Samurai Megazord plus the four main Armament Zords) got HEAVILY simplified, the Beetle Zord and Swordfish Zord got changed to things BoA and possibly retailers felt would sell better (show accuracy be damned because there was no show then), the armament Zords came with riding Mega Mode Rangers to make them more attractive in stores, and with the assumed lack of show support they didn't plan ahead even as far as the Clawzord - they probably didn't see an ahead to plan for.
They definitely cut corners on this and the whole Samurai line, but...
I really don't care. What you're left with is a toy that, while a little mediocre on its own, is incredibly fun to mess around with and combine with all the accessory mecha, especially due to the much, much more varied joint system and IMO enjoyably stylised proportions compared to the original. Is the original Shinkenger line better? Definitely. Is this line a hell of a lot cheaper (now that the days of 1500 yen Mogyuudaiohs on Mandarake seem to have passed), easier to get, and considering the Ha-oh/Gigazord, kind of the same thing in the end? Yep.
...still wish I had the minipla etca
I actually really liked mine. It's literally half the price of the Japanese one. Expecting it to live up to that is insane. In all honesty, I think the BoA version has way better proportions than the original.
Power Rangers was in really sad shape monetarily and at the time this and the first three auxiliaries were molded there was no guarantee of a network picking up the show. So they wound up having to go really, really cheap when they made the new molds, hence things like the dragon's deformity. Having the sword for a tail wasn't so much a deliberate flaw exchange as it was a consolation prize.
Also: Only the Core 5 are called Foldingzords in the show. Because, well, only the core 5 fold.
I noticed the naming-thing as well. All the others are just "Zords", but those five specifically are "FoldingZords". They can't call them "Samurai Zords" because that was already done in a previous series.
Just saying since you called the Beetlezord the Beetle Foldingzord in your review of it. ;)
You're going to be pleased if/when you get to the Clawzord, at least about one thing: The connection to the lion is a lot stronger.
"You're going to be pleased if/when you get to the Clawzord, at least about one thing: The connection to the lion is a lot stronger."
Funny you should mention that...
Ooh, now I'm intrigued
It's official. Bandai America has become a cheap toy company that is being run by Mr. Krabs clones. What happened to the Bandai America when I was a kid? What is the appeal of these toys? Bandai America was for the future, but they also believed in making products that were meant for kids AND adults. When I was a kid, Bandai America was awesome. Bandai America today? It fails very miserably. I got this thing for Christmas in 2012 from the Toysrus exclusive Samurai Gigazord set. At first I liked it, but now I just don't care for it. I am very disappointed at BOA right now. Bandai America, you are not the same toy company anymore. I am glad they imported the DX Samurai Gattai ShinkenOh from the 2009 Super Sentai Series Samurai Sentai Shinkenger. Too bad I already OWN a DX Samurai Gattai ShinkenOh. I can't believe I'm saying this but, NOBODY and I mean NOBODY over the age of 13 should like the ZordBuilder System toys. Only little kids are allowed to like these toys. I really don't get how anybody can enjoy these cheap pieces of unrecognizable plastic. I really don't. I DO own the other PRS ZordBuilder System sets. I don not have SharkZord, LanternZord, Small ClawZord, and Scorpion creature, and I will NEVER buy them at all. I do own the 2010 MMPR Dino Megazord and the PRMF Gosei Great Megazord, And I happen to find them to be okay. The only good PRS ZordBuilder System set in my opinion is the ZordBuilder System Samurai ClawZord (Even though it's called Claw BattleZord in the show). I will also NEVER buy anymore ZordBuilder System sets. I've had it. If BOA ruins the Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger mecha toys, so help me god I'm going to get so mad that I'll burst into flames and then explode. PS: I am Mugenlazlo from YouTube. How are you doing, EVA_Unit_4A? I'm doing good.
What happened was apparently that at the time the initial PRS toyline was developed, it looked there wasn't gonna be a show to shill it. So the Zords developed at the time (Samurai Megazord, Beetlezord, Swordfish Zord, Tiger Zord, and Octozord - which may have been released later, I honestly forget, but it has all the hallmarks of the initial line's developent) got simplified and cheapened EXTRA-hard to account for that.