Power Rangers Lightning Collection SPD Red Ranger Gallery

"SPD, Emergency!"

In the year 2025, aliens have been welcomed to Earth by society at large. But with this fragile peaceful gesture, also came a dangerous enemy. Emperor Grumm and his Troobian Empire, seek to conquer this sector of space as they have many others before it. Earth's first line of defense, the SPD A-Squad Power Rangers, have fallen, vanished without a trace. Desperate, commander Anubis Cruger turns to his new recruits in the B-Squad, preparing them to step up and defend their world. Filling out the ranks of this team are Z Delgado, and her best friend, Jack Landors. Formerly a thief on the streets, Jack volunteered to join SPD to save his friend and the rest of B-Squad. A reluctant hero, Jack takes command of the B-Squad in the face of Grumm and his legions. Determined to save the present and ensure the future, Jack joins Space Patrol Delta!

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
Wave 4! It's crazy that we've already hit the 4th wave of Lightning Collection at retail stores and online. Wave 5 was just recently officially announced at New York Toy Fair as well, meaning that the LC line has really kicked off 2020 in true style. I just got in half the wave from Hasbro Pulse wile the other two are currently en route from Gamestop. So kicking off my reviews for Wave 4 is none other than the SPD Red Ranger!

The second release from Power Rangers SPD after Shadow Ranger, SPD Red is still something totally new. While Shadow Ranger is a bit larger and more imposing overall than a number of Lightning figures, SPD Red has a more basic body style and no cumbersome chest armor component. Like most of the line, SPD Red has the same kind of basic leg design we continue to see, the essential changes here being cosmetic ones. Like the solid red legs broken up only by the sculpted raised line on the boot cuff/shin swivel. The figure features full rotating rocker ankles as well as a clicking swivel joint for them to go back and forth. Above this is the shin swivel/boot cuff, allowing you to rotate that portion of the leg 360 degrees below the knee if you wish. Then we get a very playful double jointed knee which allows you to fully bend the leg back in on itself. This is already great but there's also a 360 thigh swivel as well as full hips with back/forth and outward motion. Going backward you will impact that standard sculpted butt plate again. But it far from kills the articulation. All of these cuts are executed in the now standard Lightning Collection styling, doing their best to not be obtrusive to the character's design.

The Red Ranger features the signature SPD buckle and belt around his waist, though you may miss the subtle sculpt of the SPD logo. It could definitely use a bit of paint washing to bring those details out a bit more. On either hip is a holster for the included SPD Blasters. On the topic of Jack's belt, although the figure includes a separate SPD Morpher accessory, it can't be stored on the back of the belt. A holster is sculpted there, but a dummy morpher is also sculpted into it. I know that's probably expecting a little bit more than I should, but that bugs me. The rest of the torso is totally standard stuff. The lower half has a satisfying ratchet ab joint, while the upper body sits on a ball joint. The combination of the two gives you quite a bit to work with when posing. The arms hit the sweet spot with that classic butterfly style shoulder joint. As you angle the shoulder back, the body slides out to fill the gap and vice versa. There's a full 360 rotating bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, and the same peg style hands as the rest of the line. But, in the same way that a handful of other LC releases have thus far, SPD Red's arms are oddly positioned. They don't have the ability to rest against the figure's torso and instead angle outward. You'll need to bend them at the elbow inward a bit to give him a more natural look.

The head is another really solid spot on representation of the real helmet. While the paint apps are just a tiny bit iffy on mine, like the scrape in the silver paint on the SPD logo on the forehead. Otherwise though I think it's one of the better and sharper helmet sculpts in the line. The neck joint is the standard balljoint on a hinge and it still gets the job the done. Overall the execution of this figure is really brilliant even if there are some rough around the edge areas on it. Below you'll see several photos of the SPD Red Ranger with Shadow Ranger, as well as S.H. Figuarts Akiba Red for fans of Akibaranger's resident Dekaranger superfan. And some Dekaranger cameos by Doggie Kruger and Deka Blue's Machine Husky! As always, the highly versatile S.H. Figuarts Body-Kun stands in for Jack's morphin sequence as well.

Accessories
The accessories really round out this release quite nicely:

2 - extra hands. That's one "karate chop" style left hand, and one Morpher holding right hand. The standard hands attached to the figure are intended to hold the included blasters, though it feels like they're angled a bit wrong in some poses.

2 - Delta Blasters. This somewhat mismatched pair of side arms fits snuggly into the hip holsters on either side of the Red Ranger. The smaller of the two of course has a folding grip allowing you to peg it together with the slightly larger blaster, creating the Delta Blaster Combo Mode.

1 - Blast Effect Part. This nifty little effect pegs over the tip of either blaster. I really wish the figure came with two of them so you could really have him dual wield. But as is the one is still quite nice.

1 - Delta Morpher. Though non-functioning, the Delta Morpher is scaled very well to the figure and fits perfectly into the hand sculpted to hold it. I would have appreciated at least an opening flap on it, even if it didn't have details inside. But the thing that bugs me most is that there's a molded in Morpher on the backside of Jack's belt, with a Morpher sculpted into it. Making this another accessory to leave to the side most of the time unfortunately.

1 - Jack Landors unmasked head. Continuing the pattern of releasing actor likenesses, the Wave 4 figures look to have stepped the game back up. After some iffy likenesses on a handful of figures in the last couple, I'm happy to report that jack bears a fantastic resemblance to his actor Brandon Jay McLaren. The head features a pretty solid neutral expression and really was a relief to see in hand. After the mixup of a cosplayers photo being associated with this figure when it was initially revealed, I'm glad that the head turned out to have a pretty great likeness in the end.

Aside from the lack of a second blaster effect, that's honestly great. Nothing really feels like it missing. Good on you Hasbro!

Final Thoughts
The SPD Red Ranger doesn't do anything that's revolutionary, it's a basic repaint and remold of some parts we've seen in the line several times. But it's stylishly executed. It helps that SPD is a Power Rangers series I really like and I absolutely adore Dekaranger, so this suit design hits me right in the sweet spot. It's a perfect match for the Shadow Rangers in collections everywhere, and I eagerly await the rest of the team. Wave 4 is off to a great start. Next up, Trini!

Part 2

Wish the division between the two visors was a tiny bit wider. It being so thin, plus the inaccurate box art, makes it seem like it doesn't even exist at first glance.

Really like the morph pictures!! SPD is one of the few times I've preferred a PR henshin over a Sentai one... and this one's to a big degree. Nice to see it repped like this!

So, SPD is pretty much my least favorite Power Rangers series, but these photos are ace.

And the figure isn't bad either.

Lmao I completely forgot about the cosplay mixup

They really had a problem with the neck paint here. This was better then others but I've seen enough where the neck isn't totally covered in white paint. It's doesn't help that they molded the silver collar but didn't paint that either.

I wonder if Hasbro should just make a covering for the neck if they aren't going to mold it white plastic.

Great figure, I need to watch this season.

I feel a lot of the Ranger unmasked sculpts have been lacking. Compared to almost all MCU sculpts...

Red Ranger Jason looks bad, SPD Red...I just don't see it. Kimberly was just awful. I am not sure if they are rushing them or what, but they look not too great.

The figures are beautiful, but the faces.....

The MCU sculpts when they got good were 3D scans of the actors faces during the production of the film.

In this situation they are working off low quality pictures from the 90's and early 2000's in addition to fitting them on the ball peg.

I think they did 3d scans of the Beast Morphers team. With Drakkon they had a really good HQ reference from the teaser JDF did.

Not that I can agree with you on your picks. I think all the red rangers have been on point. It's Zack that really stands out as the face looks good.......it just doesn't look like the actor.