Power Rangers Lightning Collection Beast Morphers Red Ranger Gallery

"This isn't what I expected when I woke up this morning."


Devon Daniels wasn't destined for greatness, but given the chance, he became a hero. When the viral villain Evox entered our world to take control of the Morphin Grid, he attempted to create his own evil rangers, Avatars. Succeeding with Blaze and Roxy, it was thanks to Devon (and Zoey) that future teammate Ravi was spared from this kind of control. Dashing Evox's hopes further, Devon, Ravi & Zoey stepped up when Grid Battleforce needed them, to become the Power Rangers Beast Morphers! Now, hiding his identity from the city he protects and even his own father, Devon leads the Beast Morphers in their battle to stop Evox & the Avatars, and save the real Blaze & Roxy.

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 Wars 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. Recently Tom has begun sharing the full versions of his ranger profile art on Twitter, most recently that of the 4 figures in wave 3.

Main Figure
The Power Rangers Lighting Collection continues to truck right along with regular releases. So many in fact that I'm honestly having trouble keeping up with my reviews! But you won't see me complain. I've enjoyed myself so much each time I've gotten a new LC figure in hand for review. Recently, Hasbro made the official announcement for Wave 3 which includes Ravi the Beast Morphers Blue Ranger. So I figured it was the perfect time to finally get my review of the Beast Morphers Red Ranger from Wave 2 out! So does this figure have beast morphin might? Read on to find out!

This is another new mold for the line, and one that I've been really excited to tackle for a while. After just how excellent the Beast Morphers Gold Ranger turned out, I so hoped the Red Ranger could live up to my own hype. For years I've wanted to have a better Red Buster figure for my Go-Busters display. I've had all the Go-Busters Figuarts for years, but they definitely have their flaws. This figure really does fill that gap in my collection. Like many LC figures, the Red Ranger carries through much of the same standard articulation cuts we've come to know. Full rotating rocker ankles and a clicking swivel joint for them to go back and forth. A shin swivel at the boot cuff, allowing you to rotate that portion of the leg 360 degrees below the knee if you wish. A really solid double jointed knee which allows you to fully bend the leg back in on itself. In addition is a 360 thigh swivel as well as full hips with back/forth and outward motion. This standard articulation is wonderful and obvious, but it's the subtle sculpt on these parts that will sneak up on you. The boots themselves are uniformly painted red, which can hide the expertly sculpted design. But it's really the black thighs and knees that hide the most detail. The entire leg has this subtle sort of folded or creased look to it. It looks exactly like the kind of creasing you'd see on real leather, like what the show suits are made of. It's a brilliant and easily over looked detail on this figure.

The upper body features the more or less standard design of the ratchet ab joint and the ball jointed upper body. The design pairing just makes so much sense and works so well, and always makes up for the lack of a proper rotating waste joint. You just can't beat it. Obviously with the way the Red Ranger's design features a zipper down the middle of the torso, the design will be broken up by using the upper body joint, but hey it's a toy, not a real person. Around the shoulders is a black chest harness with a molded in Transporter, just like what the Gold Ranger had. Both figures can quite easily slide these off their arms and swap them if you so choose. The arms are solidly designed, anchored by the butterfly joint in the torso, they provide a full range of movement. The double jointed elbow and peg in hands with wrist swivels really give the Red Ranger all the flexibility he needs, honestly even more so than an actor in the actual suit has available to them. The two-tone silver/red coloring of the arms means that the bicep swivel can break things up a bit, but it's not the kind of eyesore you'd expect it to be. The left wrist of course features a pretty decently detailed Beast-X Morpher as well.

That brings us to the head. The Lightning Collection really has featured so many good headsculpts, ranger & civilian wise. Some may miss the mark ever so slightly, but the Beast Morphers Red Ranger is one of the winners. A really finely sculpted helmet with great paint apps, it truly gets the design spot on in my opinion. Looking back to the S.H. Figuart I've clung to for years, then looking at this, it's no contest which has the better headsculpt. As an overall package this is an excellent figure. It's take nearly 8 years for the Go-Busters, now as Beast Morphers, designs to finally get their due. Hasbro is doing fans like myself a real solid with releases like this.

Accessories
As always, you should expect a Lightning Collection figure to come with all the right accessories:

1 - Cheetah Beast Blaster. The Beast Blaster is a really unique weapon, and one created entirely for Beast Morphers. I reviewed the NERF Blaster version of this toy earlier in the year and it really is a fun piece. This weapon for the LC figure is molded in final attack position and sparsely painted. Weirdly enough, the version of this weapon that came with the 6" Basic Red Ranger actually has a few more paint apps. The blaster is a really cool inclusion because it's actually only used in the Beast Racer Zord's cockpit. But I do really wish that if they were going to include it like this with the LC, that they also gave him the alternate helmet that goes along with it for accuracy.

1 - Beast-X Saber. Beast Morpher's version of the Sougan Blade from Go-Busters. This version is a bit nicer than the 6" Basic one with slightly better paint apps, though the scale is more or less the same. Obviously something like the Figuarts one is more accurate, but smaller. I wish this one transformed, but then again no version of it that comes with a figure has at this point.

1 - Saber Effect Part. This is definitely one of my favorite effects in the line. It's so so unique and detailed and just the perfect shade of green to replicate the digitized effects in the show. It slides over the Beast-X Saber just snugly enough for a perfect fit, and will work just fine with the 6" Basic Saber or even the Figuarts Sougan Blade. It's a brilliant effect and I want a bunch more Beast Morphers effects like it.

1 - Devon Daniels Civilian head. Lightning Collection figures really are killing it with these civilian heads. I know people tend to voice negative thoughts on the sculpts, but I often think they do a very good job of capturing the likeness of the actors. In this case, Devon's head is just the spitting image of actor Rorrie D. Travis. I will say that the paints a bit off on mine around the hairline, and that there is sadly a decent bit of plastic flashing on his chin.

2 - alternate hands. As with all LC's this one include two extra hands. The extras are both closed fists though, since in package the Red Ranger has his weapon holding hands attached.

That's a bunch of stuff, but I can't help notice a few things I would have preferred. Like I mentioned above, with the inclusion of the Cheetah Beast Blaster, it would have just made sense to have the red ranger's corresponding alternate helmet. I don't really like having one, without the other. The Beast-X Blaster is something I would have preferred over the Cheetah Blaster as well, since it's a more iconic sidearm for the rangers outside their zord cockpits. And I would have really liked to have a Morph-X Key. I know it would have been tiny and easily lost though so that's not as a big deal. I think making a few changes for accessories would have really made this release perfect. As is, I'm still quite happy. And if you'd like toss in a few extra things, this figure is totally compatible with 6" Basic weapons and accessories like the role-play Morph-X Key and works very well with Figuarts weapons like the Ichigan Buster.

Final Thoughts
Devon will be a must have figure for many collectors. Of course, with Beast Morphers still currently airing (the first 8 episodes even being available on Netflix) there are plenty of fans of the show. There of course are also a number of fans lurking about from the Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters days who will absolutely need this figure for their Red Buster. I've reviewed the S.H. Figuarts Red Buster a couple of times, and I've always been happy to defend the figure despite it's flaws. But I think this Lightning Collection release will become the better alternative for many a collector, myself included. A solid, reasonably priced release, with a wealth of great accessories, the Lightning Collection Beast Morphers Red Ranger really is another must own in an entire line of must owns.

Part 2

Hmmm. I want to give praise as usual, but something about him seems... too bulky? I think it might be the straps giving that illusion, but especially next to the Figuarts and Basic he looks just too big and puffy. It's actually making me consider getting the Basic instead.

I didn't have this problem with Gold, weirdly. He looked perfect to me, and Blaze looks great as well...

If you like the proportions I guess. But the 6" Basic is an extremely limited figure compared to this one. This is a really well articulated toy for the most part. Admittedly it does look a bit bulky, in particular next to the SHF. But you have to remember that the SHF is a very undersized and disproportionate figure in the first place. While a generally slender looks is more fitting for this suit in either series, this figure hits the mark quite a bit more.

Really love how they got this one done. Pretty fitting for a good revivsl

The SHF is too much in the other direction, which is why I'm thinking of the Basic instead. But something about the LC's proportions and bulk generally looks way worse than the SHF

He really needs a longer neck. Other than that though, fantastic figure

Love the bit effect for the saber. Wish more came with unique effects like this.

One of my favorite lightning collection figures, getting the basic figure line for the accessories lets you do so much with it.

It's a good interpretation of the red ranger, I haven't seen one in the wild yet so I can't really comment on anything but the photos here. bull agree that it's one of the better looking LC figures produced so far