Power Rangers Lightning Collection S.P.D. Shadow Ranger Gallery

With his home planet Sirius decimated by Emperor Gruumm's forces, Anubis Doggie Cruger headed to Earth. As the commander of the law enforcement organization Space Patrol Delta, Cruger would go on to help protect the galaxy as well as mentor teams of Power Rangers for a number of years. The greatest of which being Earth's eventual saviors, the S.P.D. B-Squad. As heroic as these rangers would be, they couldn't have won the fight on their own either. In times of great need, and particularly when justice needed to be administered to an old enemy, Cruger used his Patrol Morpher to become the sworn defender of the galaxy, S.P.D. Shadow Ranger!

Joining Hasbro's Lightning Collection line of collector's figures in it's inaugural wave, Shadow Ranger is another long demanded release. For years fans have hoped for this hero to finally receive his due in figure form. Joining wave 1 wave mates MMPR White Ranger, Dino Charge Red Ranger, and Lord Zedd, how does the Shadow Ranger stack up? Read on to find out!

Packaging
In creating this line, Hasbro was keen to make sure they appealed to collectors and fans of the franchise from throughout it's various eras. Given the aim to make this appeal to an older crowd, the packaging seems to have taken a page out of the Star Wards Black Series book. In similar collector style boxes, the Lightning collection figure's look a bit brighter thanks to a primarily white color scheme. But they also really pop thanks in no small part to some wonderful box art, lovingly crafted by artist Tom Whalen aka @strongstufftom on twitter. His artwork is breathtaking, and makes these figure's feel like just a bit more of a passion project from the folks at Hasbro. The artwork takes up a majority of the packaging, while the back of the box is relegated to a single stock photo of the figure. But that's not what we're here for anyway. Also the cardboard insert for the Shadow Ranger has a pretty sweet deep red Power Rangers thunderbolt on it that you can use almost like a diorama if you so choose.

Main Figure
A couple weeks ago we had the chance to review our first Lightning Collection figure with the MMPR White Ranger. It's goes without saying that the White Ranger really sold me on this line. It was one of the figure's in Wave 1 I just had no intention of buying but on a whim I did, and it sold me on practically any release Hasbro throws at us. A solidly built and well executed figure. Shadow Ranger and Lord Zedd were the real prospects of Wave 1 for me. The two figure's I absolutely had to have. Thankfully Shadow Ranger lives up to the hype in much the same way as White Ranger.

As with the White Ranger, the Lightning Collection Shadow Ranger has all the personality, presence, and functionality that no Bandai America ranger figure ever had. Continuing to keep the promises of this line, we have properly proportioned body parts and muscles, realistic sculpted details, something that once again achieves the actual person wearing a spandex suit look. And like White Ranger the articulation is undoubtedly what will sell many people on this figure above all other things.

To start Shadow Ranger features the basically standard full rotating rocker ankles of the line, as well as a clicking swivel joint for them to go back and forth. It's a tight joint and the shin armor can impede it's movement slightly, but it's well done. Unlike White Ranger, there's no shin swivel but that makes sense given the armor on the leg. The armor itself can float a bit and with some limb disassembly I'm sure you could even remove them to use on other figures. Then knee is double jointed knee giving you full bends back. And the full thigh swivel makes a return as well as full hips with back/forth and outward motion. Using the swivel will break up the paint app on the right leg but that's hardly a concern. Going backward you will indeed hit the butt plate this go around too. All of this articulation is executed in the same fashion as Hasbro's other main lines for collector's. They've had years to perfect the way they articulate figures and their now (mostly) standardized joint designs translate perfectly here too. As I mentioned above the figure features a ton of sculpted in fabric folds to give it some extra realism. The subtle way this is executed around the thighs, knees, is just really well done. Think of it like the same way some later Showa renewal figuarts utilized similar tooling.

The upper body is designed in basically the same way as White Ranger. The waist does of course have a nice S.P.D. buckle as well as a hip holster for the included Shadow Saber. The "100" chest armor is made of a softer rubbery plastic that's very flexible and allows you to articulate the upper body (wether rotating or ab-crunching) without much issue. Despite the soft material the chest plate has some greatly defined details and paint apps. A lot of collector's seem to have complained of spotty paint apps on this part and various other areas of the figure. I won't. Just be thankful Hasbro is even painting these figure's. Minor imperfections aside, at least they've bothered to paint these things up unlike the old days of nothing ever being painted from Bandai. There are some minor apps missing, like black detail lines on the blue armor, or the blue knuckles and fingertips on the hands, but ultimately this is minor when compared to, again, almost nothing ever being properly painted in the Bandai dark ages. The arms are still in that Marvel/Star Wars family of design. Nice tight ratcheting and rotating shoulders with full bicep swivels and double jointed elbows The shoulders do seem to sit a little low to me, but they aren't off putting in the slightest. Shadow Ranger comes with a hand intended to hold his sword attached to the right wrist, and more of splayed open trigger finger for his left hand. Which is odd since he has no blasters, but it can sort of hold his sword as well.

Finally that brings us to the Shadow Ranger's helmet. As with nearly all other Hasbro 6" scale figures, the head is on a ball joint with forward and back swivel. This gives it a full 360 spin and enough room to arch back and forth for almost anything. A standardized design that continues to work. While many figures they produce in this scale have different size ball joints they all work the same and many can be swapped back and forth in many cases. The helmet itself is executed so well, with nice sharp mold lines and pretty spot on paint apps. Once again, with all of the articulation incorporated here and the general design of the figure, Hasbro has really knocked it out of the park and finally given the Shadow Ranger/Deka Master design it's first truly great action figure. I of course have tucked him right in my Dekaranger figuarts as you can see below. He's just a hair too tall, but in group shots he really works nearly perfectly. IN fact, he is absolutely at perfect scale with the Sentai Hero Doggie Kruger vinyl as you can also see below. So the Boss can look twice as nice in my personal collection. He of course also scales wonderfully with the Lightning Collection White Ranger and even the Beast Morphers 6" Basic line Tronic!

Accessories
One of the biggest issues collectors had over the years with Bandai America, was lack of accessories. Or in the case where accessories were included, size and paint issue. The derided Legacy Collection 6.5" line was notorious for failing to execute properly, or even include the right accessories. Continuing the new positive trend, Lightning Collection Shadow Ranger goes above and beyond what you may expect him to have:

1 - Anubis Doggie Cruger head. Like White Ranger you get another really great alternate display option for this figure! While the sort of lizard dog alien look never did it for me in S.P.D., the sculpt on this head is truly exquisite. The scale detailing alone is wonderful. But they've honestly just about perfectly captured Cruger's natural expression and eyes here. It looks wonderful.

1 - neck cover part. Alternate heads are always good in my book, but Hasbro went an extra step even further and included a small blue neck cover to blend with the Cruger head. Thus making the "helmetless" look, that much more seamless. Such a minor but valuable inclusion!

2 - alternate hands. In box, Shadow Ranger has a right sword holding hand, and left sort of trigger style hand plugged on. For extras we get a closed left fist, as well as a pretty dynamic pointing right hand to recreate Shadow Ranger's morph poses. Which I have done my best to replicate in this gallery.

1 - S.P.D. Patrol Morpher. Again, totally not necessary to include this, but it's so welcome! It's a bit bigger than a figuarts SP License to give you a sense of scale. It's really just a hunk of black plastic with the S.P.D. logo on it but it's great to have it. There's no holster to store it or anything so be careful not to lose it. I will say, I'm bothered there's no dedicated hand to hold it in the proper position. But you can make it work with that trigger style hand too.

1- Shadow Saber. The iconic aged blade of a warrior who's seen countless battles. The LC figure opts to include the opened/activated version of the Saber. In show a button is pressed opening the jaw of the wolf on the hilt and powering it up from it's rusted/weathered form. Would it have been cool to get both version or maybe a swappable blade? Sure, but it's not totally necessary either. Techincally this version isn't accurate in the hip holster, but it's still a really greatly sculpted and scaled weapon.

1 - Shadow Saber Effect Part. Again, Hasbro didn't have to include something like this. But they've committed themselves to two big things with this line that collector's love. Realistic proportions, and effect parts. The Shadow Saber Effect part twirls around the blade of the sword replicating it's powering up each time the Shadow Ranger unsheathes it.

This figure is really fantastic in it's own right, but the accessories it comes with really hammer home how this line is aimed at collectors. It's got everything you need, and still all at this really very reasonable $20 price point.

Final Thoughts
Seeing as it's pretty much forgone that sentai figuarts are dead, this $20 figure is absolutely the best figure the Shadow Ranger/Deka Master design will ever get, or at least for a very very long time. If you're a fan of either show and either version of the character, then this is *the* figure for you. It's a solid toy in it's own right with tons of personality, but the added accessories make it a must own for any serious collector of either S.P.D. or Dekaranger. The Lightning Collection continues to be a solid line for collectors. Next time I'm cracking open Lord Zedd!

Part 2

Despite the missing paint apps this may be my favourite so far. Then again, Shadow Ranger is one of my favourite suits.

The included unmasked head is excellent, too, and it just goes to show how much thought was put into this line as they included the neck band to make it properly proportioned. Boy oh boy though, I forgot how awful the Sentai counterpart's unmorphed design was. Thank God they came up with their own original look.

Of course we all love Tommy, but this is easily my favorite ranger figure in this wave. If I had to complain about anything here, I wish they included a Sky head since it was revealed in "Once a Ranger" that he did take up the mantel after Doggie retired.

I am sure we'll get that accessory when they make an SPD Blue Ranger in the LC.

Again, minor nitpick and yes hands down, truly a great figure. So good that you almost forget it's a Power Ranger, and can easily put him in the middle of an Avengers display and he wouldn't look out of place.

Of course Lord Zedd is the gem of this set, but they're all worth owning. I hope this line succeeds and I hope to own every single one that comes out.

Easily the most anticipated LC figure that was announced. Good to know it's worth it's price quite a bit

Wonderful articulation. Just makes me more excited for future releases, especially Beast Morpher's Gold Ranger.

The enablement is strong with this one. £20 Uk is just a little too hard a sell for me. If it ever goes down to say, £15, it's an instabuy.

EDIT - I ended up buying it as a housewarming present. Yes, I'm happy with him.