Toku Toy Box: Power Rangers Lightning Collection Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger Gallery

"Pterodactyl!"

Like any teenager, Kimberly Hart used to be concerned with trivial things. High school, hair, and having a good time. That is, until an inter-dimensional being summoned her and her friends to defend the Earth from a recently freed ancient sorceress. Really puts high school in perspective right? Empowered by the ancient Pterodactyl power coin, Kimblery morphs into the Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger! A defender of the earth and champion of justice, Kimberly fought the forces of evil for years until she found a worthy successor to her power. Even now, her legacy continues to live on in the generations of rangers who have come since. This morphinominal heroine at last joins most of her teammates in the Power Rangers Lightning Collection!

Packaging
As we are all pretty familiar with the line by now, I'm sure I probably don't need to go through my usual list of reasons why it's awesome. Hasbro was keen to make sure these appealed to collectors and fans of the franchise from throughout it's various eras. And 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
Of the Mighty Morphin releases we've gotten in the line so far, the Pink Ranger is the only totally new figure. The SDCC Red Ranger, Dragon Shield Black Ranger, and Fighting Spirit Green Ranger are all the same exact mold with different heads. Even the White Ranger & Lord Drakkon share a base mold. And the recently released standard Red Ranger is the same mold minus the armor bits as the SDCC one. Kimberly here is the first instance of an entirely mold for that series. While she came out in wave 2, I've been holding off reviewing her somewhat, mostly to get the monotony of the male mold out of the way, and to experience this one with fresh eyes. I will say up front that some different shades of pink appear to be present on this figure in hand, though it doesn't always come across in photos. This is largely due to casting a couple different types of plastic in pink as well as painting some pink parts over with white. So just be aware of that going in.

As a new mold the Pink Ranger implements a few new articulation cuts to try and preserve the generally smaller stature of the character. Though the lower body of the figure is basically structured just like the boys. Rocker ankles with forward/back ratchets, swiveling boot cuffs below the knee as well as a double jointed knee, a great but tight thigh swivel, and hinged hips. The layout is the same as the boys and functionally works just as well, though clearly the shape of the legs is a bit more tapered. Mine had some frozen joint issues with the left leg but a dunk in some hot water freed the joints right up.

The waist is where the new molding really takes shape. Pink Ranger has a new flexible skirt added. It's just soft enough plastic to move out of the way when needed and still maintain it's shape when static. Around her waist is a Power Morpher with Pterodactyl coin and belt, the left hip side featuring a Blade Blaster holster. The holster looks kind of over sized on this figure to me, but I could be wrong. Above the skirt and belt is where new engineering is implemented. Rather than the typical ab crunch hidden behind the belt we see on the male body mold, the female mold has a sort of floating lower torso behind the belt and a ball jointed upper body. While not quite as dynamic as the male mold, it certainly gets the job done.

Speaking of the upper body, the shoulders are the same butterfly style joint we've seen pretty much across the line. In Pink Ranger's case the cut into the main body is a bit more narrow and angular as well, and plays quite well into the diamond pattern on her suit. Which you just tend to notice more given that this is the first non-Dragon Shield MMPR figure we've seen. Though yes, the MMPR Red Ranger was just recently released as well. You can see him in a few shots below.

The actual shoulders are also a bit different than typical. They sit just a bit out further from the body but ratchet up and out in the same manner. The elbows however are entirely new. Rather than the normal double joint hinge we've seen with the boys, Pink has a fully rotating elbow on a peg. It's pegged into bicep with a single hinge joint to move it up. This means the elbow isn't double jointed or nearly as dynamic in a forward/back sense, but that it can rotate fully giving it some weird extra range. This is largely to make up for the lack of a bicep swivel. The wrists operate as normal though but I've found the hinges on each hand's peg is very tight.

Lastly that brings us to Kim's helmet. There isn't really much to say other than that while it does look pretty great, some of the details seem a little soft in my eyes, particularly around the visor. The neck hinge doesn't seem as good forward/back, but the head does pretty freely move on the ball joint so you can get some decent range out of her. Overall, despite some odd choices, this is a pretty great and dynamic figure.

Accessories
Kim comes with (mostly) all you need:

2 - Alternate hands. One closed fist, one karate chop. The really useful hands come already attached to the figure though. One is intended to hold the included Blade Blaster or arrow accessory while the other is intended to hold the Power Bow. However the positions are reversed. The proper bow holding hand should be the left, rather than the right. It appears that in the sculpting process the artist stumbled across a mirror flipped image of the Pink Ranger with bow that turns up pretty prominently in google searches. So the hands were unfortunately molded on the wrong sides. It's not detrimental however as either hand can really accommodate whatever, any stretching from holding a different accessory is only temporary.

1 - Blade Blaster (Blaster Mode). Continuing an odd pattern, Hasbro has opted to include the Blade Blaster, but only in Blaster form. Meaning that when holstered in the Pink Ranger's belt, it's entirely inaccurate. In all Zyuranger footage, and even in American produced MMPR suit footage, the Blade Blaster is always closed and collapsed when holstered. You can hide the butt of the gun at certain angles but it just isn't the right accessory. If we were going to get the blaster, then they should have also included the holstered form too, which is something that (so far) only SDCC Red Ranger came with.

1 - Power Bow. A pretty simple accessory the bow is decently detailed on the underside. This is largely due to the molded tabs which can hold the other Power Weapons. This bow is after all a straight repack of the one that came with the SDCC Red Ranger as part of the Power Blaster.

1 - Arrow. An actual realistic sort of arrow, the kind which Pink Ranger sometimes held before firing. On occasion rather than hitting an enemy with an energy blast the physical arrow would even be seen in footage as well. Neither of the figure's hands really holds it super well, but it's something they totally didn't have to include but they did, so I can appreciate it.

1 - Arrow Energy Effect. Of all the things Lightning Collection has done, I really do appreciate these additional parts. This one is by far the most unique and character specific we've seen thus far as well. A flowing rippling energy arrow, again it's not a solid hold in the figure's hands, but it looks great and I truly appreciate it even being included.

1 - Kimberly Hart civilian head. The other hallmark of the line of course being the unmasked head. This head, featuring a pretty great Amy Jo Johnson likeness, is similar to Lord Drakkon's. Because of the long hair, you don't really get to take full advantage of the neck's articulation. I really wish they'd gone with one of Kim's pony tail looks (like her Boom! design) for this figure or a more neutral expression. As is the facial expression can be a little, odd, depending on the kind of look you're going for.

And that's really a fantastic grouping of parts for this figure. Easily setting itself apart from Bandai's defunct Legacy 6.5" attempt. If they had just gotten the Blade Blaster right then it would honestly have the perfect compliment of accessories.

Final Thoughts
I've seen a lot of trash talk related to this figure online, but personally I find it to be a pretty serviceable release. Is it perfect? Not by a longshot. But is it really as bad as people make it out. Certainly not. This line has really put forward a lot in it's first year, having already eclipsed what Bandai did with their last line over the course of 3 years. There are always growing pains to be expected any new line like this as well. Go back to when Hasbro revived Marvel Legends in 2012 to see what I'm talking about. Or back to some of the earliest figure's of the Star Wars Black Series. Yes there are certainly imperfections and just boldly bad choices made in Lightning Collection figure from time to time, but given enough time I'm confident that Hasbro will work these kinks out. As is, I'm quite happy with the Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger.

Part 2

I recently picked this one up myself and I'm quite pleased with it. My only issue with the Lightning Collection in general is the QC is all over the place. I've seen figures with inconsistent or completely missing paint apps, damaged parts, and incorrectly applied features. My MMPR Pink, for instance, has an upside down morpher. Since it is the only one I've found in the wild, I picked it up and I'm not truly bothered by it, as it's not noticeable unless you know to look for it, but the more serious issues I've seen have me seriously concerned about buying these online. Doubt I'll ever buy a Lightning Collection figure without seeing it in person first.

I've seen two of her broken in videos. It's a shame, because this figure really is a gem to anyone collecting ZyuRanger or MMPR. Great gallery and team up shots.

The differences in the shades of pink are unfortunately pretty noticable in person. It definitely effects my enjoyment of the figure

Huh, somewhat controversial figure then. Surprised to see major criticisms from the LC

seeing what the legacy line female buck looked like it was designed by some pre adolescent teenagers, it's good to see this particular figure have more realistic proportions. Outside of that it's decent looking, granted the head sculp is a bit off but it looks enough like the actress that you know who it is.

I'm really hoping she's better than many people imply; especially as I'm looking forward to Ranger Slayer

I'm surprised at how well the body looks, but the Dragon Shield is a hard pass, unless someone could make a smaller.one to fit her frame.

Obviously if Hasbro ever goes down the road of making her with the shield, they'll make one that's appropriate to the size of this mold. I just popped one off one of my other LC figures to throw on for some photos to replicate the Boom comics a bit