Power Rangers Beast Morphers 6″ Basic Tronic Gallery

In his quest to dominate the Morphin Grid and take all of it's Morph-X for himself, the sinister virus Evox has demanded the servitude of Scrozzle and his army of Tronic soldiers! Cold, lifeless machines, the Tronic's battle the Power Rangers in the real world and their home town of Coral Harbor at every turn. They may not be as resourceful as Evox's Robotron's or as powerful as Grid Battleforce's Rangers, but they have the sheer numbers to make things difficult for our heroes. Luckily for collector's they can do that in figure form as well thanks to the new 6" Basic Tronic Figure!

I'd also like to mention that this figure was provided to me totally for FREE, from Hasbro directly. Their generous Beast Morphers Product Mailer, which I broke down in an unboxing gallery last week arrived for us to review and I'm more than happy to share each and every item from that box with the community. The Tronic is yet another wonderful gift from the fine folks at Hasbro.

Packaging
Power Rangers figure packaging shrank quite a lot over the years, as the figure's themselves did too. When Saban Brands revived the franchise in 2011, they brought out a totally new line of figure's inspired by those created for Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, but decidedly quite different. Initially their new line of Ranger figure's were at the 4" scale. But by the time of Megaforce & Super Megaforce, that scale had been largely phased out and replaced with a new 5" line of figures. While the packaging aesthetics didn't deviate a ton between each of the series that followed, Hasbro has taken things in a much bolder direction.

Hasbro's Beast Morphers packaging is incredibly vibrant and a great evolution from what came before it. It's exactly the kind of change needed to really spice up the line and attract customers. Brighter colors and a less mundane packaging layout (looking at those very dark Ninja Steel card backs) go a long way to making a figure more appealing to potential buyers. A more standardized but larger brand logo is emblazoned across the front, but the most eye catching thing is the gorgeous new box art. The Tronic's head shot is gorgeous. The back of the card back also features similar though smaller portraits for the rangers as well as Blaze. Each really looks incredible and I'd love to own prints of them. Both sides of the packaging also feature a cross-sell for the Beast X Morpher. Each figure in Wave 1 includes a key compatible with it to activate Morphin and Battle sounds as well.

Overall this is a really dynamic looking box for a "basic" figure line. It will definitely take up a little more retail space on shelf pegs. But given the fact that as you'll find out below, these figure's are bigger and better than any we've gotten before, these are bound to sell more readily than anything we've seen before as well.

Main Figure
Building on the solid success of the 6" Basic Red Ranger, Hasbro has also brought back villain figure's in a similar fashion this year. While Bandai America definitely churned out monster and evil alien figures in their last couple years with the license, their attempts were decidedly undersized, underpainted, and frankly overpriced for what we got. Flash forward to today, and the 6" Basic Power Rangers line from Hasbro is checking all the boxes that young fans as well as collectors have wanted for some time for this brand.

As mentioned in my Red Ranger review, these new 6" basic figures dwarf the old 5" line produced by Bandai and they've forgone the roided out muscle look of the old days as well. At a glance it's apparent which of the two is the better line. But we have less of a direct comparison when it comes to villains, whose designs and articulation placement have tended to vary wildly over time. The Tronic's legs are actually really great for a figure at this price point ($9.84). While they are missing the outward hip movement that each of the ranger's features, but they do still have the swiveling rotating knee joint that makes them so versatile and forward/back hip movement. Honestly the lack of outward movement is more what I expected from this price point, and honestly isn't terribly detrimental, especially if you're just picking these guys up to troop build and army. They do still lack ankle joints but none of the Basic line features ankles either so there's no loss here.

Shortcomings aside, this is still a great step in the right direction after villains of the past. While there's a little to be lacking in the articulation department, the Tronic makes up for this with a number of sculpted details that really pop. Such as the lines down it's legs, which aren't really broken up by any articulation, but primarily the upper body gives us a lot of detail to marvel at. While the upper body is one piece without waist or ab joints, a common design aspect of the entire 6" Basic line, it is detailed very nicely. Rivets going up the torso, a nicely detailed belt, and a large sturdy chest plate make this figure look a step above it's roughly $10 price point. The Tronic emblem on the chest (and the one on the arm) features some very small but well defined techy detailing that I greatly appreciate. Really though it's the black chest plate that features some of the most subtle design elements, like the perpendicular lines going across the chest and around the collar that intersect below the neck. Honestly I wish I could just remove the chest plate entirely and plug onto other figures ala the Dragon Shield. I sincerely hope the Tronic gets a Lightning Collection figure with removable parts such as that.

The arms of course feature the same articulation cuts as the rangers, and are likewise proportionate to the main body. They can don't rest as properly flat against the body as the rangers, but they still look quite good. Each shoulder is hinged for outward movement and full 360 rotation, though the chest plate will nix a bit of that. And the elbows features the same unique swivel joint as the knees. The one drawback is the lack of wrists. While I understand the choice at this price point, it's a little detrimental to what the figure can do. The elbow joint can fill in a lot of that articulation gap but only goes so far. Each hand is molded in it's an open pose as well, to hold the included Blaster or Morph-X Key.

Finally the Tronic's head really is a wonderful sculpt. It captures both the show costume as well as the packaging artwork quite nicely, thanks in no small part to it being fully painted silver. Something we would have likely not seen in the Bandai days. The details are sharp and the paint crisp, making the head set off what is an otherwise already really great figure.

Accessories
The Tronic comes armed with 3 weapons:

2 - Tronic Blasters. These double tipped weapons can work as either blades or blasters if you choose. It's a snug fit to get them in the open fist and around the edges of the hand but once in it's quite a snug fit. I wasn't expecting the paint apps on them either, and they help break up the gray plastic quite a lot.

1 - Tronic Morph X Key. This accessory is primarily meant to be used with the Beast X Morpher. While that toy comes with a Triple Morph X-Key that includes the three Ranger's sounds, this is a standalone villain key. The key part can be rotated back and under the Tronic style face, though it's a bit tight so be careful. The toyline also gives the keys another purpose, they can snap around a figure's wrist to be used as arm mounted swords or cannons. Which is a nice additional play value I wasn't really expecting.

And that's really all you need. This Basic figures gives you all you need to build your own Tronic army.

Final Thoughts
While the 6" Basic Tronic definitely has it's shortcomings, this is a *Basic* action figure that retails for barely $10 USD. It's still leaps and bounds beyond what we were made accustom to for years with Hasbro's predecessor. Like the Red Ranger I believe the Tronic is another solid winner for this line. And Hasbro, give us the Dog-o-Tronic please!

Very pink and posable. I like it.

The bad guys general lack of articulation is a bit of a bummer. They still look pretty good though.

Is it common for the generic mooks to get action figures?

Usually. But I feel like several have probably been nixed.

More or less. They're just rarely very good.. And with Bandai's downward spiral in quality the last few years, the last few we're pretty abysmal. The Tronic from Hasbro is a much nicer step in the right direction.

Even given its limitations, this is very tempting to display with my Go-Busters Figuarts. I always liked this design.

Nice troop builder. Glad i snagged 2.

Decent army builder figure, makes for a good display with a bunch of em.

He's a good little robot boy. When you put him with Devon and Blaze, they make for a cute little line up, and I can imagine child me having fun pitting them against each other. In the end, isn't that what Power Rangers toys should be?