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Archives for January 2018

under Super Sentai

We are mere weeks away from the premiere of the 42nd Super Sentai and at last we have some new details about the villains for this unique new double-series!

These are the Gangler, an Inter-Dimensional Crime Syndicate who arrive on Earth & steal the legendary Lupin Collection containing several powerful artifacts.

*Leading the Syndicate is Dogranio Yabon, a yellow-chained creature who decides to conquer Earth as part of his 999th Anniversary Celebration. He will be voiced by Mitsuru Miyamoto (perhaps best known as the voice of Roger Smith in Big O.)

*Second in the Syndicate is Destra Majo a heavy green grenade-based warrior who operates as Yabon’s bodyguard & whose body contains several weapons. He is voiced by Yuji Ueda (famous for the role of Takeshi/Brock from Pokemon.)

*Rounding out the Gangler group is Goche Lu Medo the blue-colored team medic who uses the Lupin Collection artifacts to increase the Ganglers’ abilities. She will be played by singer Ayana Taketatsu.

LupinRanger VS PatRanger is officially scheduled to begin on February 11 2018! Stay tuned to TokuNation as we keep you up to date on this exciting new series!

under Power Rangers

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the Power Rangers. In celebration of this historic milestone for the Power Rangers, Saban Brands in partnership with Bandai America, nWay, BOOM! Studios, and Imaginext, plan to reveal their Top 25 for the 25th, a new segment that will celebrate the Top 25 items releasing this year for the 25th Anniversary of the Power Rangers.

The first showcase is none other than the recent release of the iconic auto-morphin figures first released with the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers toy line. Available now at retailers are the Mighty Morphin Red Ranger, Pink Ranger, and Green Ranger. Also announced today is that the Blue Ranger, Black Ranger, and Yellow Ranger will be available to purchase this fall.

On top of that – RangerNation.com has been updated to be a brand new website! There’s an interactive museum with facts about each season of Power Rangers, a section where you can ask Zordon a question, morph back to the Internet circa 1993, and of course the 25 for the 25th feature.

Check out the full press release by clicking “Read More”!

[Read more…]

under Kamen Rider, TokuNation, TokuNation Site Updates, TokuNation Spotlights

“Riderrrrrrrr, henshin!”

While this release just barely made it’s way out at the end of 2017, it’s already set the bar very high for where figures for 2018 should be. After 10 years of S.H. Figuarts, and numerous releases in one form or another of this character, Tamashii Nations has finally made the definitive figure of Takeshi Hongo’s heroic rider form. We thought it only appropriate that on today, what would have been Shotaro Ishinomori’s 80th birthday, we share our gallery of S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Kamen Rider 1!

From the ground up, Seihou Rider 1 is the ultimate representation of this character in 1/12 scale form. Faithfully recreating Kamen Rider 1’s most iconic look in his “Shin” costume from later in the original TV series, this appearance is how Hongo has appeared for nearly all of his appearances since it’s debut well over 40 years ago. Elevating the engineering of figuarts once again, this Shinkocchou Seihou release manages to capture the wonder of this costume perfectly and translate it’s essence into a dynamic action figure any collector should be proud to own.

We’ve attached the FULL 100 image gallery to this post, but you can also see our extensive review in the thread linked below. Just click “Discuss on the TokuNation Forums” below to see the entire gallery thread for S.H. Figuarts Shinkocchou Seihou Kamen Rider 1!

under Power Rangers, Toy Fair

The hype for the 25th Anniversary of Power Rangers will have to wait – at least from Bandai America. We reported on Twitter last week (follow us @TokuNation on Twitter!) that Bandai America did not have an exhibitor booth for the upcoming Toy Fair 2018 event held at the end of February. That information is readily available for everyone by browsing through the exhibitor list at the Toy Fair New York City website. They do have a meeting room registered to them so we held back on posting a news story until we reached out to Bandai America regarding their Toy Fair New York City plans.

Well, we reached out and got a response.

Bandai America will not have an exhibitor booth at this year’s Toy Fair 2018. No marketing or media representatives will be traveling to the tradeshow this year. The only representatives from Bandai America that will be in attendance are sales representatives. Here is the response we received:

Thank you for reaching out to Bandai. We will not be hosting a booth on the floor of New York Toy Fair this year. You can find images and descriptions of our key items on the official New York Toy Fair Press site. Thanks! -Bandai

This will undoubtedly come as a disappointment to many fans who were hoping to kick off the 25th Anniversary of Power Rangers with excitement and anticipation. Whether or not Bandai America has new product at the show at all is unknown and perhaps other outlets will receive the courtesy to report on those products. We do know some of the products making their way out this year thanks to Bandai UK‘s exhibitor booth at the Toy Fair 2018 London event. You can find those updates by clicking here, here and here.

While this may be discouraging to collectors and adult fans we do hope you will exercise patience before passing judgement on the year itself as a whole. Our friends at Saban Brands have assured us there is so much more to come in terms of the 25th Anniversary of Power Rangers. After all, Toy Fair is a tradeshow not meant for collectors and press coverage akin to San Diego Comic Con or New York Comic Con.

We will continue to update you as news and information trickles out from this year’s Toy Fair, especially from other licensees of the Power Rangers brand.

under Power Rangers

NOTE: The list of closures includes Babies’R’Us stores but are not specifically notated in the list provided. Please check the address of the store(s) closing in your area to determine if it is a Toys’R’Us, Babies’R’Us, or a combination location.

We all knew this was coming. And at times like this it’s best to just rip off the bandaid rather than make it slow and painful. Toys’R’Us announced today through court filings regarding it’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy that it will close 182 stores across the United States.

If you haven’t been following the story regarding Toys’R’Us and it’s ongoing bankruptcy issues, the holiday season was not a strong one for the embattled retailer. Overall sales for the classic toy store were down anywhere from 10% to 20% of projections which helped lead to the decision to cut ties with under-performing stores or stores with unfavorable leases.

As if a punch to your gut wasn’t enough – these are labeled as “initial” closings. Some of these stores may be turned in to Babies’R’Us and Toys’R’Us combo stores while other stores may end up on the chopping block as well. There is a slight chance that a few of the stores listed for closure will remain open if leases with landowners can be restructured.

How does this have any relation to a website about tokusatsu, you ask? Bandai America has partnered with Toys’R’Us to be their primary exclusive retailer option, where the Power Rangers Legacy line first premiered and has continued to offer exclusive offerings (namely every Megazord released thus far). One of the primary reasons for the Toys’R’Us Chapter 11 bankruptcy was due to the fact that Toys’R’Us was unable to pay the toy companies (especially Mattel and Hasbro) for the product that they ordered to carry in their stores. That inability to pay caused less than projected profit numbers for toy companies in Q4 of 2017. Some fans speculate that the lack of any new Power Rangers Legacy Megazords (looking at you, Legacy Shogun Megazord) is due to the fact Toys’R’Us is currently involved in these Chapter 11 bankruptcy dealings. Hopefully we will have more information on that specific item, and future Legacy Megazord items, at next month’s Toy Fair New York City.

For a full list of stores closing in the United States, please click “Read More”. For our friends in Canada, there are currently no plans to close any Toys’R’Us stores in Canada.

[Read more…]

under General Tokusatsu News

A new full-length trailer for the upcoming Universal Pictures film Pacific Rim: Uprising!

Set ten years after the 2013 fan-favorite original film, Pacific Rim: Uprising stars John Boyega as Jake Pentecost– son of Pacific Rim’s Marshall Stacker Pentecost- who must unite the next generation of Jaeger robot pilots when the monstrous Kaiju return from beyond the Breach.

Pacific Rim: Uprising comes out on March 23, 2018! Don’t miss out on this amazing action film!

under Kamen Rider

Similar to last years’ Kamen Rider Snipe Episode Zero mini-series, Kamen Rider Build will be giving the same treatment to none other than Night Rogue!

Simply titled Rogue, this new mini-series will focus on Gentoku Himuro with his aide Nariaki Utsumi, as well as Souichi/Blood Stalk making appearances. We can also see from the brief trailer Toei has released that the Kaisers from Heisei Generations Final will make a cameo as well. From the looks of the special it appears we’ll mostly be getting insight into the events of the 10 years which preceded the TV series, including Gentoku’s exposure to Nebula Gas and subsequent assumption of the Night Rogue identity.

Rogue begins with the first Kamen Rider Build Blu-Ray Set which is due for release on March 28th!

under Kamen Rider

As the revitalization of the Showa Era continues from Tamashii Nations, we have one more enemy grunt to add to our collections. Appropriately, following on from the upcoming Renewal of the Shocker Combatman in February is the successor to those very troops. S.H. Figuarts Gel Shocker Combatman!

Gel Shocker was the first organization to succeed the original Shocker in it’s quest for world dominance. Formed by Shocker’s Great Leader, and Geldamn’s General Black, this group culled the ranks of the original Shocker even down to it’s reliable Combatman men. This purge resulted in the introduction of the new Gel Shocker Combatmen who wold menace the Double Riders for some time to come. This new figure is the first instance of Gel Shocker in the figuarts toyline and it looks to be a pretty spectacular release. The Gel Shocker Combatman utilizes the new body enginered for the Renewal Shovcker Combatman and includes both the spiked staff & sword these soldiers were known to use.

The Gel Schocker Combatman will be release in June 2018 as a Tamashii Web Exlcusive for 5400 yen. Be sure to get in touch with your preferred middleman or service in order to secure an order in the near future. Credit to Tendou Toys for sharing this image with us.

under Power Rangers

Tonight a brand new Power Rangers Hyperforce streams live on Twitch.tv! Before the new episode airs, take some time to catch up on last week’s episode, now available for everyone on Hyper RPG‘s YouTube channel! Check out the episode below!

Be sure to catch the brand new episode of Power Rangers Hyperforce at 6pm PST on the Hyper RPG Twitch live stream by clicking here! Power Rangers Hyperforce is a tabletop RPG designed specifically for Power Rangers! In partnership with Saban Brands, Power Rangers Hyperforce is a direct sequel to the fan-favorite Power Rangers Time Force series. Five Time Patrol cadets are tasked with traveling through time to stop the Alliance of Evil! As they continue to travel through time new reveals are made regarding just what the Alliance of Evil is up to! What will happen next? Tune in to a brand new Power Rangers Hyperforce and find out!

Be sure to discuss the latest episode in our discussion thread!

under Kamen Rider

In case you missed it, Bandai’s entry into the Kamen Rider Gaim S.I.C series will be non-other than a hyper-stylized Ichigo(Strawberry) Arms. Since we last saw the prototype proudly on display at the Tamashii Nations Show Room, more info was just released thanks to scans from the latest issue of Figureoh magazine.

S.I.C Kamen Rider Gaim Ichigo Arms will see a July release as a Tamashii Webshop online exclusive priced at 9,180 yen. Stay tuned, and we’ll share more info on this product once the pre-orders for this bad boy drop!