Power Rangers Lightning Collection Lord Drakkon Gallery

"My name isn't Tommy."

When the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers freed Tommy Oliver from Rita Repulsa's control, the prophecy was fulfilled. The 6th ranger, the Green Ranger, would join the side of good and defend the Earth. At least, in one world. In another, once free Tommy came to see the would be empress as someone who could help him bring peaceful rule to the world. Inspired by the tale of one of Rita's long gone protege's, Tommy conquered his Earth along side her, eventually culminating in one final climactic battle against the forces of good. While his forces decimated the Phantom & Alien Rangers, Tommy killed Jason before he could fully assume the powers of the White Ranger. Forcing the Green & White power coins together, Tommy emerged from this battle as something else; Lord Drakkon. Ruling over a conquered world where the Coinless pose the only threat, Lord Drakkon has been unstoppable for years. That is, until a pair of Power Rangers from the past arrive in this dystopian world. Can the original Tommy face what he might become?

Pacakging
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.

Main Figure
It was just a bit over a year ago today that Power Morphicon 2018 happened, and Bandai America released their Legacy 6.5" Lord Drakkon. One of the lasts gasps of their Legacy 6.5" line before the brand was officially in the hands of Hasbro, Drakkon definitely fell short of expectations in the eyes of many collectors, myself included. Now a year and some change later, Lightning Collection Wave 3 has begun to arrive in some markets and we have our first impressions of Hasbro's attempt at the character with Lightning Collection Lord Drakkon!

Let me just say this right off the bat, Hasbro's figure is the clear winner here. Largely in part because it didn't fall apart immediately after opening it as my Bandai Drakkon did. While I know people have found issues both large & small with this line, Lightning Collection on the whole is still so much better than what we had before. And I think Drakkon really illustrates that point quite well. In the side by side comparisons below you can see just how tall and lanky the Bandai Drakkon was, how oddly proportioned the body is, the over sized chest armor etc. Hasbro's attempt comes in with much more balanced proportions and armor, making it fit right in with the rest of the line. It also doesn't suffer from Bandai America's typical loose joints and odd functionality designs.

The base mold Lord Drakkon is based on, is largely the MMPR White Ranger. The entire core body is the White Ranger save for a few parts. This is a really good thing, as I still feel that the White Ranger is one of the best body types this line has had to offer up to this point. Lord Drakkon has the same basic swivel/rocker ankles we've come to know but in Drakkon's case you do lose about one click forward on the joint because of the added golden shin armor. There is thankfully still a shin swivel at the top cuff of this armor, allowing you to rotate that portion of the leg below the knee if you wish. The White Ranger mold's knees give us really good natural looking bends that allow you to bend the leg back up and against the thighs. We still have the same nice tight thigh swivels as well as the hinged hip joints. As always this is a great combination of articulation, giving this figure plenty of personality.

On Drakkon's waist is a new Power Morpher featuring the fused Dragonzord/Tigerzord power coin. I suppose we could call it the Black Dragon coin given how Drakkon calls this out to Morph, and indeed controls the mighty Black Dragon. On the left hip is a black holster for storing the included Dragon Dagger as well. A weapon which is repacked from the last two uses of it in the line. Once again, Drakkon's upper body is identical to the White Ranger's, but he has a new and wonderful set of chest armor. The Drakkon Shield is just gorgeous and the raised surfaces are much more finely sculpted than those on any of the Dragon Shield Mighty Morphin rangers. I particularly love the way Drakkon's emblem is sculpted. Where the Bandai version of this character couldn't fully bend over because the tip of this shield would hit the morpher, we thankfully can get much more play out of the joints here. Lord Drakkon can still make almost full use out of the upper body ball joint as well as the ratcheting ab crunch. While the shiled is quite thick and can sometime impact the head, overall it's a wonderful addition.

Now the arms actually do not come from the White Ranger mold. The clue is the thicker armbands, which come from the Dragon Shield Red/Black & F.S. Green mold. The shoulder and butterfly joint designs are all the same, something the line doesn't typically stray from because of it's effectiveness. It provides plenty of room to arch the shoulders back or lean the arms in forward. While Drakkon's shield extends quite far over the shoulders we thankfully don't lose much range because of it. The arms still have the really useful bicep swivel and double jointed elbow as well. The elbow suffers only slightly, thanks to Drakkon's new ornate wrist gauntlets. The quite thick rim of these gauntlets will impact the range of the wrists unfortunately, but not as badly as you'd think. The arms are overall still as effective and useful as they have frequently been in the line.

Finally this brings us to Lord Drakkon's helmet. The unique take of fusing the green & white ranger powers was something of a popular fan creation for years. But the particular look of the official design is really something special. The Lord Drakkon helmet takes much of it's inspiration from the White Ranger helmet, but it has a far more sinister motif. The neck ball joint on this figure is quite a bit tighter compared to what we normally find in this line, making exchanging heads a little tough sometimes. The neck does lose just a bit of articulation because of the thickness of the chest shield, but it isn't really detrimental either. The issue of the shield really only comes into play with alternate head.

Accessories
Drakkon has a lot, but it can feel like he's a little on the lite side:

2 - additional hands. Between the two standard hands and two extras, Drakkon is the first figure in the line that I've noticed that comes with two matching sets. One of closed fists, one of weapon holding fists. It would be nice to have some more open menacing hands for action poses but I can at least appreciate the consistency of what we have here.

1 - Dragon Dagger. This is another repack of the dagger as seen in with Dragon Shield Red Ranger & Fighting Spirit Green Ranger. No differences to speak of here at all.

1 - Effect part. This is another straight repack, as this is the same part that came with both the MMPR White Ranger & the Psycho Blue Ranger. Though the Psycho's version was yellow. It has a small peg hole in it to put the tip or edge of a bladed weapon in to simulate an attack. It's not my favorite effect in the line, but it works well.

1 - Lord Drakkon unmasked head. The hallmark of the line returns with this new unique sculpt. We've had 3 Tommy's in the line so far but this is the first new civilian head we've gotten for him since the first. This sculpt sees the future Tommy with noticeable lines of age and scarring to his face, as well as some long locks coming down the back of the head and few strands on the front. I wish this head was the version with the graying hair that is most often associated with the Boom! comics, but what we have here is quite good. This head seems to me to be more based on the live action debut of Drakkon, as portrayed by Jason David Frank, in the Shattered Grid short film. It would be perfect if it just had a more menacing expression.

The one big notable omission is the lack of Saba. Drakkon didn't start out with the talking tiger saber in his future, having not discovered it until his encounter with the past Tommy. Once he had Saba however, he bcame another unwilling weapon in Drakkon's arsenal. At a later time, he also tore the poor guy's head clean off the handle, effectively "killing" the sword. While I've used a spare Lightning Collection Saba I had (as well as Sword of Darkness) in this gallery, I didn't chop his head off. I'd hope that any future release of Lord Drakkon in any of his other forms, would include both a killable Saba as well as his older graying head. Otherwise though I do think they got things pretty much right with the accessories in this release.

Final Thoughts
As far as time travelling future conquerors go, Lord Drakkon is pretty aces. The Lightning Collection line from Hasbro really has moved at a brisk pace, and while the sometimes can me small details are overlooked, it can lead to huge mistakes being rectified. Between Lord Drakkon & the Psycho Rangers, in less than a year Hasbro has already undone two of Bandai's biggest letdowns. Lord Drakkon is another really solid entry in the line, and I truly hope that Hasbro has some kind of plans to eventually release his evolution forms, as well as at least some of his ranger sentries.

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Awesome work!! Love the Fusion "dance" from DBZ pics. XD

I like how the packaging looks SHF'ish now.

will probably pick up the Red Ranger when it comes out. The proportions on these look better than the Legacy line.

Is that actually a VR Troopers Ryan Steele helmet next to the SPD Shadow Ranger helmet?

*looks through helmets* Well I'll be damned. It is!

Truth be told it's from my Action Works Metalder, but yeah that's what it's supposed to stand in as Blue Beet AKA Blue Stinger Beetleborg and Kamen Rider Black RX/Masked Rider are also in there.

There needs to be a Lord Drakkon story in the show.

Man, this makes me wanna go buy a second white ranger just so I can decapitate a Saba.