“Patrize!”
As Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger is about to enter it’s second week, much of the Q1 merchandise for this unique series has hit retail. Beginning our coverage of the merch, we’re kicking things off with 3 of the first releases for the series in the Sentai Hero Collection line of vinyls. Patren 1, Patren 2, & Patren 3!
Following in the footsteps of a long tradition, these new Patranger entries in the Hero Collection series provide cost effective options for you to own your favorite characters. In many cases these vinyls offer 1 of few, if not the only option for you to collect a particular hero. That was what drove me to pick them up myself. The Patranger designs are very solid, and represented well in this line. Vinyls may not do much, but as static display pieces they do just the trick. Which is exactly why I’ll also be picking up Patren Ugo in a few weeks.
We’ve attached the full 40 image gallery to this post, but you can also check out the full review after the jump. Just click “Discuss on the TokuNation Forums” at the bottom of this post. Our next gallery for this special VS series will be focused on the Hero Collection vinyls of the 3 Lupinrangers!
"Keisatsu Change!"
Kaitou Sentai Lupinrager VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger has only just begun! Straight off, this show is already shaping up to be great action, good fun, and pure stylish. Last weekend's premiere episode left us all desperately wanting more. Of course another new episode will be airing this saturday and we can't wait. But we're also very excited because the first round of merchandise has finally been released for the series as well! Today our gallery spotlight on the show begins with a look at 3 of the first Sentai Hero Collection Vinyl releases for the series. Patren 1, Patren 2, & Patren 3!
Packaging
The packaging for releases like these boils down to a mere tag hanging out of their back. Each features a nice portrait of the characters, the plastic holding them to the figures goes through a very tiny hole just below the neck line. You can either yank it right out of the back, no harm, or cut it and get the piece left on the inside back out by taking the figure apart. As soft vinyl this is very easy to do.
Main Figures
Using their own VS Changers, three members of Global Special Police Organization take the form of Keisatsu Sentai Patranger in their quest to defeat the Gangler. Along the way they'll be doing their best to bring in the notorious Lupinrangers as well.
Kicking off the toyline for this series we've opted to take a look at the Sentai Hero Collection Vinyls for Patranger first. We'll be taking a look Lupinranger next week as well. For starters though, I haven't typically reviewed vinyls much in my time on this site, but I have to say I was very very won over by the designs from this show. Both teams in fact. And seeing as poseable figures of these teams (other than Yu-Do Candy Toys) won't likely be made, I wanted to have some representation of them.
So, where to start? Well in short there's not a lot to this review. Hero Collection Vinyls, Sofubis, Soft Vinyls in general are either non-articulated or sparsely articulated. These 3 are the same as well. Each of the Patrangers has a waist joint that can rotate side to side, in part just thanks to the design process that creates them. Soft Vinyls like this are hollow and molded in two separate pieces. The lower half and upper half of the body are separate. Each vinyl also has shoulder joints to allow you to rotate the arms up into roughly 90 degree angles on each figure. That's the extent of the moving parts but that's totally the norm for vinyls in this price range.
Patren 1 & Patren 2 (Ichigo & Nigo if you prefer) are the exact same mold. It's always ideal to be able to reuse a mold as many times as possible with few to no alterations in this line. Bandai Japan makes easy money like this. So Patren 1 & 2 being nigh identical works to their advantage. The only real difference between the two is a 'slight' alteration to 2's visor. Patren 3 however is a totally different mold, and doesn't even share molding with the Lupinrangers. So unless another female member of the team is added at a later date I don't think we'll be seeing it used again. Basically this vinyl is about a head shorter than the other two and obviously a bit smaller body overall. The skirt piece is molded into the thighs themselves so the leg separation ends at that point.
Each of these vinyls is molded in their primary ranger color so everything else is additional paint work. So there are a number of small paint errors on each of them. Over spray, missed applications, what have you, but at this price point (900 yen list price) it's hard to split hairs on it. I am a bit disappointed that the bands on the legs and arms are only painted on the front side of each though. The designs are executed about as well as they can be for vinyls under $10 and feature a fair bit of molded detail I wouldn't have expected. Ankle & knee cuffs, belts, arm armor, GSPO badges, helmets. The molded details are great, the paint just misses the mark somewhat. Given what I paid plus shipping I'm fairly happy though. I'd recommend you go with SAL shipping for these though.
Fnal Thoughts
I get it, vinyls are not terribly exciting to everyone. But in some cases I'm willing to jump on them when there won't be another alternative. These things are static display pieces plain and simple. Liking the Patranger designs is what propelled me to get them, and even though it's only marginally different, I also have Patren Ugo on order. Sentai Hero Collection vinyls hit that sweet spot of affordability for me to have a representation of a character in my collection. Obviously they don't scale with figuarts or anything like that, but they get the job done on a budget.
Next time, Kaitou Change!
Expecting Tamashi web exclusive of Patran U.
Those aren't the best but like you said there's no real alternative
Not looking too bad but guess I'll be going for the Yu-Do figures instead. Do you intend to do a gallery for these as well?
For budget figures, they're not so bad. They look way better than the budget Ex-Aid figures I saw when I was in Japan, so at least there's that. I love how you posed them with the Dekarangers, but unfortunately, that just makes the Patorangers look so much worse in comparison
Are you gonna do a gallery on the Yudo Figures?
Really hope Hasbro adapts this.
They look really nice all together
Keep reading: Patranger - Sentai Hero Collection Patren 1, Patren 2, & Patren 3 Vinyls Gallery - Page 2
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