White Ninja Falconzord, Power Up!
Soaring into the Power Rangers Legacy collector’s line is a new release from the original Movie/Season 3 era of the franchise! The Power Rangers Legacy Falconzord is here for our latest gallery. But that’s not all. We’ve included a special comparison between this figure and the original Vintage Falconzord!
Now the Legacy Falconzord jumps the shark so to speak just a little bit. As a stand alone release for now, it’s isn’t compatible with any other Megazord, Legacy or otherwise, currently on the market. Instead the packaging cross sells lead us towards the impending Legacy Ninja Megazord. But without that we have to take this figure on it’s individual merits. While it does feature diecast metal feet (the only diecast parts) as well as a lavish paint job and articulated wings, that may or may not be enough to totally sell you on this as an individual release ranging from $59.99 t0 $79.99 depending on your Toys R Us’s current pricing. But we’ve done out best to break it all down after the jump for you.
We’ve attached a selection of images to this post but there over 60 images in the full gallery/review thread. Feel free to browse them all by clicking “Discuss on the TokuNation Forums” at the bottom of this post.
Den-O says
White Ninja Falconzord, Power Up!
It's been a long time coming but the Power Rangers Legacy toy line has finally made it's way to the era of the original theatrical Movie & Season 3 of the original series. So it's time for us to take a look at the Legacy Falconzord! And we've included a full comparison between it and the original vintage Falconzord!
Honestly this'll be a pretty straightforward review. There's not much to this figure, but I'll try to elaborate on the significant points.
Packaging
Much like the 5" Legacy Movie Ranger figures, the packaging of the Legacy Falconzord does it's best to approximate the vintage movie style packaging the line had in 1995. Now that isn't quite a 100% match-up in this case. As you can see I've included some comparison shots with the Vintage Falconzord in it's box (figure comparisons further below too). You can see that the box is much more narrow, the film reel is gold rather than red, and of course there are a few other differences minor differences, particularly on the back of the box. Overall I don't feel it quite hits the mark as well as the Legacy Megazord, Dragonzord, etc did. But it gets the job done. The interior tray is the standard cardboard we've gotten used to with the Legacy line, obviously nothing like the styrofoam of the old days.
Now of course the original Falconzord was also eventually released in standard MMPR Season 3 packaging as was the Megazord after their short run in the "Movie Edition" style boxes. It's stands to reason that such a release could materialize for the Legacy Falconzord and the forthcoming Legacy Ninja Megazord.
Figure
The Legacy Falconzord comes packaged in 3 parts. The primary body and the two wing tips. This explains the smaller box when compared to the original. To get the wings on you just need to plug them into the sockets on the end of each wing stub. It's a little tricky as there's a sliding extending joint inside the wing to fiddle with. This facilitates the wing articulation you get when posing the Falcon. But this is the only assembly you need to do to get the full figure. At first glance it really is a pretty nice and impressive looking figure.
Now I've included as many feasible comparison shots between the original & Legacy as I can to illustrate the similarities & differences properly. The primary feature of the Legacy that I see people site as it's superiority over the original, is that you get lots of fully painted details that on the original were decals. Now this IS nice. There's no denying that these paint apps are crisp, they really look great. This is especially true on the underside of the falcons' neck, where the gold trim and black center of the neck on the original were cumbersome decals. Now while the paint apps are clearly less difficult to deal with, in at least this location, they really aren't accurate. They just don't match up to the show model. Of course there are some paint apps that weren't even applied as decals on the original. Like the black lining the rib cage of the Falcon, those weren't present on the original in any form. The backside of the Falconzord of course features the best use of the paint apps, the lining around the tail as well as the broad wing design. These look great, again the original decals were troublesome multi-part pieces. I actually applied the decals to my vintage Falconzord jsut for use with this gallery to demonstrate how the Legacy stacks up.
Paint apps that do work aside, there's almost no qualitative functional difference that makes the Legacy Falconzord better than the original. Sure, the legacy Falconzord features diecast feet, really nice diecast feet. It has a hinge in the end of the wing that lets you pose them at some cool odd angles the original just can't achieve. The neck has a much more full ranger of motion up & down. The tail does as well, allowing you to rotate the Falconzords' wings fully forward, stand it flat-footed, and fold the tail up sufficiently enough that it can hold that pose while standing. The original can't do that because the tail couldn't rotate up far enough. These are totally true positive things to say. But that barely differentiates the figure enough from the original to truly call it a "Legacy" release in my opinion. The claim of die-cast parts on the packaging literally applies just to feet, that don't really need it to even be functional. While the wings are articulated, the wingspan still winds up being just a tad bit shorter than the original. While the paint apps look great, the gold is off from original toy. Now to me the show accurate paint apps matter a bit more, but for some I can see how the lack of gold chrome would disappoint them. To each their own.
But here's the real buzz kill of this figure, there's no Zord Builder present, period. For people who've collected the Legacy line up til now and who've lodged legitimate complaints about how the Zord Builder system breaks up the design structure of a toy, you're in the clear now. At least in this case. But if you've got a collection consisting of Bandai America Megazords from the last several years, you'll find this one's literally incompatible with anything else on the market right now. The implementation of Zord Builder into Legacy products has been declining with each release. To the point that it's marginally present in the Tigerzord & Thunder Megazord, just to facilitate a single combination. And on the Falconzord it's absent entirely. There are some fold out clips on the wings that look to facilitate what I can only guess would be a combination with an eventual Shogun Megazord. But the only other figure currently teased on the packaging and known to be in production is Legacy Ninja Megazord. But the clips that were present on the underside of the original Falconzord, that allowed it to combined with the original Ninja Megazord, are not present in any fashion on the Legacy. So exactly what are they planning in terms of combining it with the Ninja Megazord?
Final Thoughts
Honestly I just don't see any reason personally why you should buy the Legacy Falconzord when compared to a vintage Falconzord, especially if you already own the vintage one. Diecast feet, paint apps, and some rather pointless wing hinges do not sell me on the idea that I need to own a new version of a toy that I already own a perfectly fine representation of. If those 3 points work for you, then this is the toy for you. For me the vintage does everything it was always intended to do, won't cost me $79.99 (or $59.99 if TRU could make their mind up), and will just generally be the same toy in my eyes. Hopefully my photos and review will convince you to make a decision. Regardless of what you choose, enjoy!
Den-O says
Post 2 includes:
- Further demonstartions of poseability
- Comparisons with the Vintage Falconzord
TokuChris says
I think it's a neat little toy with the added articulation making it just that much more superior to the original. Not by much, and not at $60, but still superior.
Den-O says
As a great movie villain once said "This is not my bird". $59.99 is still too much for a bird with diecast feet that's slightly smaller than the vintage bird. This is more like a $40 bird at best.
Matrixbeast says
I think more articulation in the wings would be necessary for me to really see it as a large step up from the original, because as it stands, the original functions well enough for me to not really have any desire to grab this.
I don't hate it, I've always had a strange fondness over the Falconzord (And unlike a lot of people, it wasn't because I was a Tommy Superfan). I just really loved it. But I really think this figure shouldn't have been a separate zord, and just been held off to be released with the Ninja Megazord.
I know it'd kind of screw over the Shogun fans, but the individual release and a $60-80 price tag for something that does so little alone is just too large of a pill to swallow, for me.
SPLIT LIP says
Looks overpriced and unspectacular. I wouldn't pay $30 for this. Actually I wouldn't pay anything because it's so useless by itself I'd never want it.
Den-O says
On it's own it just doesn't do anything. I mean I DESPISE Zord Builder as a system. It's just awful how designs are compromised to include it for the sake of a gimmick. But this toy doesn't even feature it. Rendering it the most useless Power Rangers toy on the market right now. It can't interact with anything other than a toy that at best won't be out for another 6-8 months. This was very very poor planning on Bandai's part.
Shoji says
I had money burning a hole in my pocket and a 20% off coupon to TRU. I was considering picking this up, but I picked the box up from the shelf and its so small and light. It felt incredibly unsubstantial for the amount of money they're asking, even at $48.
I can't imagine paying $80 for it, like many did.
GoseiWonder says
On it's own it just doesn't do anything. I mean I DESPISE Zord Builder as a system. It's just awful how designs are compromised to include it for the sake of a gimmick. But this toy doesn't even feature it. Rendering it the most useless Power Rangers toy on the market right now. It can't interact with anything other than a toy that at best won't be out for another 6-8 months. This was very very poor planning on Bandai's part.
Otherwise I'll agree it kinda sucked for Samurai-SMF.
Matrixbeast says
Aside, I forgot how nice the gold chrome or whatever was on the original Falconzord. I pulled mine off the shelf just to get a good look at it after seeing it in the gallery. So pretty~
Keep reading: Power Rangers The Movie Legacy Falconzord Gallery - Page 2
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