Ivan Ooze Vintage & Legacy Figures, Special 400th Double Gallery!

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"Where's mah autograph book?!"

It's time for another installment in TokuNation's long series of toy galleries! And today is very special indeed as this thread marks our 400TH GALLERY ENTRY! To celebrate this momentous milestone today's gallery will be a 2 for 1 special. We're doing back to back photo sets of the big bad boss from the Original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie! The galactically feared, globally reviled, and universally despised Ivan Ooze!

Today's gallery breaks down into 2 posts. The first post will focus on the vintage Evil Space Aliens series Ivan Ooze figure while the second post will spotlight the MMPR Movie Legacy 5" Ivan Ooze! But there's also a third element to this gallery, a poll! We've posed the question to you, the community, which of these 2 Ivan Ooze figures is the best? Which one would you prefer in your collection? After you've checked out both reviews and all the pictures within head to the top of the thread to vote!

Now let's get started!

Evil Space Aliens Ivan Ooze Review

Packaging
A real blast from the past, like the character himself, is the Evil Space Aliens Ivan Ooze figure. Definitely a product of the 90's this figures packaging is a bit at odds with what the card backs looked like for many Power Rangers toys of the era. Gone were the primarily green season 1 & 2 cards, now solidly purple.

The back of the card features several cross sells , one of which is kind of perplexing too. Featured is a small section labelled as "Movie Edition" Evil Space Aliens. It's odd because yes Ivan is in that section as is Zedd, but so is a Tenga Warrior & Mordant. None of these figures were ever released in packaging labeling them as "Movie Edition" despite this cross sell, Actually aside from this cross sell image nothing on the packaging would even indicate that Ivan comes from the MMPR Movie toyline. The logos used are all MMPR TV even. Whereas the 6" & 8" Movie Ranger figures had come in specifically movie themed packaging.

This cross sell image is also one of the only known images of the prototype Ivan Ooze figure. It's entirely different from the final product released. Based on that lone prototype it appears as though Ivan's lower body is a solid chunk of pink plastic with what appears to be arms that are sculpted as though they are crossed. The only purple detailing appears on his head and around his neck frill. I'd very much like to see what this figure would have been like in hand. Aside from cross sells, a very brief demonstrative image is also printed on the back showcasing Ivan's action feature. A small dial on his back that when rotated moves his arm up and turns his head to the proper forward direction.

Main Figure
Now when you pop Ivan out of the package the first thing you should notice is that his head is turned at a 90 degree angle towards his right shoulder. This is intentional sadly. Because of the above mentioned dial gimmick, Ivan's head at it's resting position stares out across that shoulder. When you spin the dial to raise his right arm up, the heads looks more directly forward in increments. So the only way to have him face properly forward is to raise the arm up completely.

Aside from this I have to admit something, for a toy made in 1995 based on a one-ff movie villain this figure is detailed pretty well. Mind you it's nowhere near accurate, but it looks great. A very vibrant pink clashes with lilac robes and a putrid purple head & hands to really make a nice evil villain figure. The sculpt on his arms in particular is incredibly detailed for a figure of this nature. But then again so are the robes and the intricate ornamentation on the front of them. his back side however is pretty flat and bland.

The head sculpt, while horrifyingly derpy, is actually fairly close to the actual movie look. The horns and growths on his face are generally all where they should be though the proper separation of colors has been lost. With toys for movies though they're generally developed a bit in advance of the films release so some times an early draft of a character is all a company has to work with. For a figure made by BOA in 1995 with these conditions, he looks great. That being said he really can't do much. One arm that can rotate, and another whose rotations is permanently linked to his head mean he's pretty bland for most any pose at all. He's essentially a brick with 1 & 1/2 arms worth of movement.

Accessories
Ivan Ooze includes just one accessory. An unnamed and otherwise non-existent Staff. This odd accessory has no basis in the film but again dues to the production time of this figure may indicate that an earlier version of him did not use the Flute/Wand seen in the actual movie. As is it's a pretty cool looking piece though it's made of pretty gummy soft plastic.

Final Thoughts
For a toy of it's kind and of it's age the vintage Evil Space Aliens Ivan Ooze is pretty interesting. Given the time BOA had to produce it and what they had to work with in 1995 it really isn't too terrible. It fits in more with a collection of 5" scaled toys than anything though as he doesn't mix too well with any other villain figures I own. But for what he is, this representation of Ivan is pretty passable. Now let's movie on to the 5" Legacy Ivan Ooze!

Legacy 5" Ivan Ooze Review

Packaging
If you haven't picked up a Power Rangers Legacy figure by now, even Ivan Ooze follows the same basic formula. Packaged in a triangular box Bandai has done the best job they could at evoking the look of the vintage toys from the original movie toyline. Just as with the Legacy Mighty Morphin TV themed figures this box perfectly replicates the look of the movie toys, right down to the more bare bones black & white colors. It may look a little more drab but it's still a great package. Included on the front of the box is a call out to the 1995 film itself and to further that connection on the back is a brief description of the films plot. A brief bio about Ivan Ooze is also given on the back of the box. Though it doesn't feature the fantastic outlandish hyperbole of his on screen counterpart.

Figure
As far as 5" figures go, Legacy Ivan Ooze is a bit of a different beast than the Movie Rangers are. As far as the sculpt goes it's quite nice. The details are all there, but much like the coins and chest emblems on the rangers, a lot of Ivan's detailing is kind of soft. Despite being the one wholly new mold in the entire line, Ivan is the blandest figure. Many of the body lines and details take direct inspiration from the original Evil Space Aliens Ivan figure. The arms, cloak, and waist detail in particular are nigh identical. The strange face sculpted into Ivan's Belt is properly colored though, as is quite a bit more of his body this time around. Where the vintage figure was made on the fly during the films production, this one was made nearly 20 years after. Which makes it all the more disappointing when comparing the two.

On the articulation front Legacy Ivan Ooze hasn't got much. Ivan has what I can only describe as vestigial feet. As in they can rotate side to side, have no forward/back movement, aren't attached to any form of leg, and are ultimately totally pointless. Despite the non-existence of a lower body, Bandai couldn't be bothered to at least implement some form of simple waist joint either. The arms however are just as average as the Legacy Movie Rangers released so far. Simple shoulders that move forward & back and can't properly stretch out to allow the arm a full range of up/down movement. This is mostly due to the sculpted in shoulder tendrils, but it keeps the arms from getting into dynamic poses. Elbow articulation is limited to a 90 degree angle only. The wrist are ball jointed, but they're ridiculously detached from the actual arm. You get free range motion, but an almost disembodied look to the hands themselves. They also pop off, constantly. The arms are kind of frustrating to me though as a whole. A simple bicep swivel could have made them so much more dynamic. And stronger ball joints would have greatly improved the wrists.

The head is on a fairly decent ball joint that allows for a good bit of tilting in all the primary directions too. I honestly didn't expect it to be as decent as it is. If only it had a little more clearance in the back. But Ivan's hair prevents that. The sculpt for the head is actually pretty decent and gets a majority of the finer points right, but sadly opts for an absolutely comical and silly "mean grin" on Ivan's face. It's completely non-threatening and sadly doesn't capture the feel of the character. Everything else is on the whole a little more accurate than the vintage Ivan Ooze figure, but not by much honestly.

Accessories

1 - set of..... things? Tassles maybe? Honestly I don't know what to call them but they're meant to represent the weird hair-like appendages that hang from Ivan Oozes arms in the original film. All these succeed in doing is being frustrating inflexible pieces of junk plastic. They barely fit over the forearms and can't seem to tab into them properly either. So they don't really do anything. I'd rather not display him with them then try to use them. Even though the vintage figure opted out of even having them, I think I prefer it that way.

1 - Wand/Flute molded into a hand. Despite how much I hate the arm tassle things, I somehow despise this accessory just a bit more. As a molded in and therefor non-removable accessory you'd hope for it to at least be made decently. While Ivan's Flute in the film is kind of plain this thing is even more so though. Just a gold piece of plastic molded into a hand. A right hand only. It's an incredibly limited accessory that just looks like he picked up a stick to poke you with, and the figures lackluster arms mean he can't even hold it properly as a flute.

This is the part where I'd like to wish Legacy Ivan Ooze came with another accessory of some kind. But there really isn't any thing else for him to have come with. So I just wish those included had been better accessories in the first place. Maybe an actual set of extra hands? A flute that was properly removable? An extra head without the dopey look on his face? Just as with the rangers I feel more could have been done on the accessory front.

Final Thoughts
I was looking for Legacy Ivan Ooze to be a bit of a change of pace after bland repetitiveness with the Legacy Movie Rangers. And while it indeed changed the pace it isn't that good. Sadly this figure just doesn't do much for me. And indeed doesn't do much right at all in my opinion. It's scary that this figure with nearly 20 years of additional engineering and toy quality improvements really isn't better than the vintage figure. Neither may be perfect but at the end of the day the intage Evil Space Aliens Ivan Ooze is kind of what I prefer. The only thing the Legacy Ivan really gets right are the colors and head sculpt. I wish I could give it the wand/flute but it just is such a non-accessory.

In the end let the pictures included help you decide which Ivan Ooze you'd rather own. No matter what you decide, I'll leave you with just a single quote from the almighty Ivan...

"10 minutes out of the egg and I'm already listening to one of your lectures!"

What is wrong with the wrists? Are they stuck like that? Can you cut the peg down?

They're just designed poorly. Nothing you could do about it. Cutting the peg does nothing when it's a ball joint on the end. That's the only thing keeping it in the wrist itself.

He came with his little flute!! XD YESH!!!!

You can make the hole a tad deeper by using a small drill. That's what some people on Rangerboard have done.

I just cut the ball joints off and super-glued his hands in. I can still rotate the hands thanks to the forearm swivels where you place the tassels. I don't care for the flute hand at all...

I think Legacy Ivan does look better, but not by much. The tassels (???) are a bit odd. I do like he has an interchangable hand wielding his flute (even with the peg sticking out), and I kind of like the comical face.

I guess Bandai felt that just giving us the Movie suits and Ooze was enough of a thing for them that they didn't feel they had to put a ton of effort in.

It's cool we got them all, but so much more could have been done...especially at the price these all go for.

I have to wonder if my local TRU stores will even get the White, Blue, and Yellow movie Rangers as they never got the Legacy Black, Pink, Yellow, and Blue Rangers.

Evil Space Aliens Ivan Ooze... his gimmick is to shake his head "no." What kind of action feature is that?

I also agree, that is a shame the Legacy figure looks like a figure from the 90s. Come on BOA.