Power Rangers Movie T-Rex Battle Zord Gallery – Toku Toy Box Entry

"T-Rex Zord, it's time for battle!"

Even though the 2017 Power Rangers Movie is still about 3 months away, toys & merchandise for it have begun flooding retail stores nation wide! Morphers, Interactive Megazords, and of course the mighty T-Rex Battle Zord! Which is the subject of today's gallery. For the first "DX" style release for the movie line, let's see where the T-Rex Battle Zord sets the bar.

Packaging
Forgoing the traditional full box set release pattern of Megazords past, the Movie Megazord is split into it's 5 massive components, each sold separately. The T-Rex Zord comes packaged in a large open style box similar to what we normally see with roleplay weapons more often than anything else. The toy is mostly transformed into it's standard configuration (a few parts are detached for space), and a try me tab can be removed from the T-Rex's cannon to test the batteries as well. The included Red Ranger mini figure is attached to the box via a small bubble on the front as well.

My only issue with open boxes like this is the potential for paint wear to a figure. We all know retail can be rough sometimes, and an irresponsible shopper can very easily mishandle a toy or collectible. With open boxes like this it's all to easy to get paint scuffs or scratches, or for something to go missing even. But that's more a personal pet peeve than anything detrimental to this boxes' layout. It's a pretty nice packaged piece actually. If a bit a too larger for my photo setup.

Main figure
The primary mode of this figure is of course the T-Rex. The transformation to it's part of the Megazord mode is something we'll touch on below. I've affectionately taken to calling the generously named "T-Rex" mode itself a xenomorph dinosaur. I'm still not sure I entirely get the reasoning behind basing this version of the Megazord on the MMPR one then taking the theme in such a totally, well, alien direction. The T-Rex appears to be the most recognizable of the bunch, but it still manages to look like every alien robotic dinosaur produced by a major toy company recently. Hello, Chomp & Stomp Grimlock?



To get it fully into T-Rex mode out of the box you'll need to plug the right leg and missile launcher on as well as the electronic cannon on his back. The completed look is admittedly pretty menacing. Again, it's just a bit jarring. I get that this movie is going for an alien technological/organic mixture, but it's just weird you know? There's not a lot to do in this mode aside from the advertised "Dual Missile Firing Action" which on the back of the package would imply that the missile launchers are spring loaded. In actuality Bandai literally didn't spring for that. These are straight up pressure fire missiles. You have to push the rear end of one to get it to fire. Upside is no spring to weaken over time, downside being they're a bit weak. Luckily you probably won't lose them very easily either. The arms these missiles fire from benefit from the pegs used to attach them to the main body though as they can rotate a bit for some more action.

While the included Cannon does have an electronic gimmick, which is a nice bonus, the package calls it out with "Battle Sounds" & "Jasons Voice". Battle Sounds, sure, that works. Jason's Voice however? No, not quite. The high pitched sound of a pre-teen speaks these lines rather than the more mature voice of Jason himself, Dacre Montgomery. I guess they couldn't get the voice clips needed but man what a let down. This figure misses the mark in a lot of ways anyway yet also doesn't get the voice right. The T-Rex mouth opens to accommodate the included Red Ranger pilot figure. But there's not really a seat in there. Just a ledge to put the back of his knees against. And because of the way the T-Rex head connects to the body it's hard to get the mouth open wide enough to set him in there normally.

The biggest let down of this mode though is that it can't really do a lot more than stand in a static position. The super tight ratchet joints in the legs mainly exist to benefit the Megazord mode as they become the arms. But between them and the limited position the hip can rotate because for the pegs, you can't get much out of this guy. I should mention that thezord builder style pegs featured in these larger movie zords are much bigger than any others ever used in Bandai America's Power Rangers toys previously. Nothing is cross compatible here. The Movie Zords only work with Movie Zords and that's it sadly. So even if you like the ZB system, you can't utilize it with these toys. I did try and make a bi-pedal monster in the last image with just the T-Rex, it mostly worked, though it isn't stable.

Getting to Megazord mode means taking this entire figure apart, which reveals the rest of it's flaws. Un-peg the legs and missile launchers from the sides first. This will reveal one giant hole through what will be the chest of the Megazord, you can literally see straight through. Removing these parts also reveals the very well sculpted Megazord chest and back. The peg holes just really break up the design. Inside of the chest you'll find the Megazord Head is stored. It just plugs down onto the body using another rather ugly black peg. The t-Rex head & Tail actually come off on sliding locks rather than proper ports or connectors, but for now set them aside. The T-Rex head, in what I find a generally lazy design flaw, simply plugs onto the back of the Megazord.

Onto to the legs, these massive drumsticks are actually going to become the Megazord's arms. In the one piece of engineering I actually find pretty creative with this toy, most of the sculpted detail that makes up the arms winds up on the bottom of the feet, so without much complexity it remains hidden. To transform them you just need to rotate them back at the elbow/knee joint until they face the opposite direction. Now you'll see the sculpted in fists and texture details of the arms. Rather than using the sliding locks on the shoulders that the T-Rex head & tail did, we're going to attach the arms using the ports inside the shoulder. The directions would also have you attach the electronic cannon to the outer right wrist, and put the T-Rex tail in the left hand.

And that's it. Until the other four Zords are released, this is as far as we can go. We can't even attach the missile launchers because those require the Pterodactyl in order to combine. So what we have is a fairly large and broad upper body with some pretty lanky arms, a fairly generic combined head, and some rather comically over-sized weapons. But I will say this for it, the Megazord is going to be huge when it's all combined and that's pretty cool. It'll be larger than Combiner Wars/Unite Warriors Devastator which I've been using as bench mark for big robots for a while now. And I'll give it this, the Dinosaur Mode is hefty and pretty interesting looking. Even if it does blend in with this recent trend of skeletal robotic dinosaurs, it looks cool. But the Megazord mode transformation leaves this piece feeling literally hollow, and creatively a bit weak. It's hard to judge an incomplete mode such as this one, but given what we have to work with now, and the stock photos on the packaging, I don't see much to sway my opinion either.

Accessories
Depending on how you think of this release it only has one accessory, and that's the Movie Red Ranger pilot. Considering the rest of the parts included are really integral to all of it's modes it's not completely appropriate to say that it does come with any other accessories. But let's talk about the one I mentioned. This miniature Red Ranger figure is itself sculpted pretty well for something it's size. I've included a size chart picture for reference and as you can see it's definitely smaller than a Bandai America Ranger key, and slightly larger than a Hasbro Transformers Titan Master. So it's a pretty tiny figure. Which it needs to be to fit in the T-Rex's mouth. While he can fit in there, there isn't really anything to connect him to or keep him level so he actually just floats around in the mouth.

The figure is articulated at the shoulders and hips, but they won't see much use. This thing can only stand up, and just barely, when in a totally static upright position. You just won't get much out of it. And presuming that you just leave him in the T-Rex's mouth even for the combined Megazord mode, you won't need to get much out of him either. The Red ranger is a cool inclusion, but ultimately one that doesn't do much.

Final Thoughts
The T-Rex Battle Zord itself is not inherently a bad toy. I know, shocking opinion coming from me of all people. But rather it's just an odd design that made the leap to toy form. Based on the given toys we've seen with varying degrees of difference for the Megazord itself, it would seem to me that the movie is aiming for a seamless almost "liquid" flow for transformation. Think of the Michael Bay Transformer movies and you'll understand what I mean. Inevitably something like that is difficult if not impossible to completely recreate in toy form. The T-Rex Zord does it's best using Bandai America's in house Zordbuilder style system to get from point A to B. But the transition is clearly nothing like what we can expect from the movie itself. The massive difference between the more streamlined design used for the Interactive Megazord, and the more modular one used for the Deluxe combining Megazord really illustrate how difficult it was to put this transformation into toy form. Undoubtedly the combing Megazord will get close to the final product, but it won't quite hit the mark. Sort of like how this figure was designed. At the $39.99 price point, I can't say I'd recommend buying this figure yet. But if you enjoyed this review, and the general design of the toy, then I think there's something for you here.

Part 2
- Megazord Mode components

I kind of like the look of this think even though I would never buy it.

I still do not like the look of the megazord nor the T-Rex.
However, the figure itself isn't necessarily bad. I think if they changed the aesthetic of the dino, the figure would have me a lot more interested in possibly buying it.
However, I'm not a big fan of the partsforming. Nothing on this zord actually transforms. That's a bit on the disappointing side for me.

I do like how many Megazord details it features, though. So I'm glad that they didn't skip out on paint for the real money maker.

I really hate to be such a downer, but this zord disappoints me in too many categories to give it a personal chance. I'm still not down for it's generic alien design, it's combination is re-arranging pieces rather than a transformation (I would've accepted a very simple transformation at that, given it's size), and while it does form a decent looking upper torso, the megazord itself just doesn't appeal to me (It's grown on me enough that I don't hate it, but I'm still not a fan).

Basically: I don't hate the toy for what it is. I just hate the designs they chose to use.

I don't like anything about this, it looks horrible as a t-rex mecha and the robot torso looks bad as well.

I guess a child can get some level of simple fun out of this but that's about the only thing this achieves as a toy.

So the combined megazord is supposed to be two feet tall, right? That's the same size as a titan class Transformer like Generations Metroplex or Fortress Maximus. This is gonna take some space and it's gonna be glorious.

Still not too enthused about these Zords. Even if the movie makes me say "I want all of this" I'll probably wind up waiting until there's a better version of all five, or alternatively, a really sweet Dragonzord. This Megazord just looks so janky.

Ever since the day the movie was first announced I knew going in the designs would be different from the show. That being said, I still like it for what it is.

Although I'm not a fan of what I see here, I do kind of love the bizarre alien T-rex. It makes something otherwise bland stand out more.

I'm not a fan of this mentality.
Everyone knew it was going to be different from the show. No one was anticipating a mildly tweaked Dino Megazord/Daizyujin.
It's the differences that took all individuality and made it into the AOE Dinobots in aesthetic for dino mode, and a giant, sludge footed ranger in robot mode that had most people cross.
We weren't asking for more of the same, we were wanting them to be more unique. They instead chose to embrace the summer blockbuster cookie cutter alien, and molded themselves after everyone else.