Power Rangers Lightning Collection Psycho Blue Ranger Gallery

"I'm not a toy, I'm a Psycho Ranger!

As the Space Rangers quest through the stars to save Zordon and bring peace to the galaxy, the newly brainwashed Astronema has finally found the key to their defeat. Drawing their power from the great Dark Specter, these malevolent machines are faster smarter stronger, and evil. First posing as the Power Rangers then attacking them relentlessly, the Psycho Rangers hide even more monstrous strength just below the surface. Each Psycho Ranger is programmed to ruthlessly hunt down the opposing Power Ranger of their color, and Psycho Blue will stop at nothing to find and defeat TJ, the Blue Space Ranger.

Easily the most memorable and powerful team of evil rangers in franchise history, the Psycho Rangers have earned their place in the hearts of fans and collectors. So it's no surprise that seeing this team shaping up in Hasbro's Lighting Collection line has been received so well. Let's dive in and see just how much of an improvement the Hasbro Psychos are compared to the slightly older Bandai America releases!

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.

Psycho Blue's profile artwork takes up a majority of the packaging, while the back of the box is relegated to a single stock photo of the figure. Like Goldar and the recently released Dragon Shield Black Ranger, Psycho Blue features a non-standard color palette for the box.

Main Figure
Who would have thought, even just a year ago, that we'd be on our second round of Psycho Ranger figures? In the dying days of Bandai America's grip on the Power Rangers license, they did finally cater to at least one big fan demand by beginning to release Psycho Rangers in their Legacy Collection 6.5" line. Since their appearance in Power Rangers In Space in 1998, the Psycho Ranger designs had never been translated to toy form. In fact, no proper figures had ever been produced of these characters even for Denji Sentai Megaranger the year prior. So the prospect of having them at the time, was really appealing. That hopeful prospect was pretty quickly derailed by terrible QC on Bandai's Psycho's as well as the fact that they never even completed the team. Yellow & Pink were never released, while Psycho Silver & Boom! Comic character Psycho Green were exclusives. In comes Hasbro to save the day.

Within their first year of having the Power Rangers license, the Lightning Collection line has now touched on a number of seasons and rangers that run the spectrum of the franchise. And now this includes a foray back to the days of In Space with their own takes on the Psycho Rangers. A true case of one upping Bandai's less than perfect attempt at the characters. Kicking off Hasbro's line is an odd choice, Psycho Blue. Released as a Gamestop Exclusive in the US (and through various other retailers internationally) Psycho Blue is our first look at the new Hasbro 6" mold that will be used to produced the rest of the team. While Understandably there may be some collector's who don't necessarily see many differences from the old Bandai Psycho's to Hasbro's, I'm here to tell you it's a world of difference.

Hasbro's Psycho's come in at a much more agreeable scale than the old Bandai 6.5" line. As you can see bleow, when compared to other villains in the line like Zedd or Goldar, he's a bit shorter than them, and basically the same height as most of the Power Rangers in the line. While he also scales decently well with S.H. Figuarts. Oddly Psycho Blue is the first and so far only Blue Ranger of any kind in the Lightning Collection line as well, so I tossed in my S.H. Figuarts Tricera Ranger (MMPR Blue) as well as Vul Shark for some fun shots. Scale aside, the figure also functions much better than the last attempt at these characters, and sets a great bench mark for the rest of the team. Just looking physically at these figures its oh so apparent how much more accurate the sculpt on the Hasbro figures are by comparison.

Much of the articulation present in the Lightning Collection line is pretty standard, generally with a few adjustments to suit a new mold here and there. Psycho Blue starts with tried and true side to side rocker ankle joints and ratchets for forward and back. These provide plenty of range for wide stances and stability for the figure to lean front or back. As with other Rangers, Psycho Blue also has a hidden cut below the shin armor allowing you to rotate the leg beneath the knee joint, while the knee itself is double jointed to fold back upon itself. The upper kneew joints on mine function as normal, but the lower hinge is quite tight, so just be careful if yours is the same.

The sculpt on the hips is much sharper and more accurate and disguises pretty well the thigh swivel, where the old Psycho figures had limited in set hip joints. The hips themselves aren't really obstructed in any appreciable way, so thankfully them combined with the ankles and knees gives you plenty of play for posing. The waist itself is another area of huge improvement. Where Bandai opted for soft flat surfaces, Bandai has fully sculpted raised 3 dimensional detailing, particularly on the hip armor and Psycho Ranger emblem.

The upper body takes a page out of the book for basically all the shield wearing rangers in this line as well. Bandai handled the Psychos' torsos by making them two vertical parts, interlocked by an ab crunch joint. Hasbro opts to have a lower torso with ab crunch coming out the waist, while the upper body is on a floating rotating joint that can move independently and provide you a far greater range of movement. But this is also accented by the fact that the upper body armor is yet another separate piece sitting on the upper body. The chest armor is a soft rubbery plastic ala White Ranger & Green Ranger's chest shields. This soft aspect comes into play when posing the arms as well, making them free and flexible. The Bandai figures, as one solid upper body chunk, wasn't flexible at all and had no side to side rotation so this is a huge step up from that.

The arms function like any other Lightning release with full rotating shoulders on a collapsing butterfly joint set into the torso. Some fantastic double joint elbows and the standard type of hinged wrist joint provide plenty to work with for posing. Oddly my Psycho Blue has a defective left shoulder, so the arm just pops right out occasionally. I don't know anyone else who's had the same issue, mine was just an odd lemon. The head is the final piece that brings the whole design together. The mouth plate is fully sculpted and set into the helmet, the eyes on the visor are properly separated, and the entire head feels more properly proportioned. While it does sit pretty low on the neck joint, meaning you lose a bit of backward movement, it's otherwise a pretty great design overall.

Suffice to say, Hasbro's first attempt at the Psycho Rangers is above and beyond better than the Bandai releases we had last year. It's an overall more functional and accurate toy that will fit in far better with your entire figure collection.

Accessories
Psycho Blue includes the following:

2 - extra hands. One, is a standard closed left fist to replace the open fist attached in package. The alternate right hand however is something special. A brand new open palm handed with molded electric green energy, meant to replicate the Psychos ability to absorb energy. It's a hand with limited uses but one that's very cool to have. I would have appreciated an extra normal hand to be included as well, but this is perfectly fine.

1 - Psycho Axe. Each Psycho Ranger has their own signature weapon, and Blue's is of a unique pinwheel style double blade variety. The sculpt really is exquisite even if the paint could use some touch ups. Unfortunately the open hands are a bit too tight to get the axe grip in his hand without a bit of stretching. Be cautious not to force it in there and scratch up the handle itself.

1 - Axe effect part. This piece slides snugly onto either of the Psycho Axe's blades to simulate an attack. Like every other figure in the Lightning Collection line, this effect part is such a welcome addition.

Maybe the only thing I'd have liked to see with included with this figure is a Psycho Data Card. The iconic green cards which house the Psycho Ranger's very being, feel like must have to me. I'd love to see at least one somewhere down the road. Like, maybe if we ever get Astronema in the line it'd be the perfect time for that kind of inclusion. I mean Zedd got his monster growth bombs, so I think it's a definite possibility down the road.

Final Thoughts
As Hasbro's first foray into the Psycho Rangers, Lightning Collection Psycho Blue really is wonderful. When Bandai abandoned finishing the team last year, I'd just assumed that was our one and only chance and it had been squandered. It still blows my mind that just a year later Hasbro has really done collector's such a solid by redoing the Psychos. Recently the Lost Galaxy Red/Psycho Red two-pack was also released, and you can expect my gallery of it in the near future. But for now. Psycho Blue has set the bar for what to expect out of this mold, and I am very very pleased. Pick up Psycho Blue if you haven't already!

Part 2

Can't believe BoA was better in 1 regard here, the horns are a tad small

I know it's an accessory that no one but me would care about, but I think it would've been awesome if each Psycho had been included with a Data Card plus a hand to hold it with.

If/when we get all 5 Lightning Collection Psychos, I really want someone to take a picture of them doing the Ginyu Force group pose, with Red as Ginyu, Blue as Burter, Black as Recoome, Yellow as Guldo, and Pink as Jeice.

That's actually something I specifically complain about in the review. I'd like to think in the ideal world where Hasbro eventually does Lightning Collection Astronema, that she would come with at least one of them. But yeah I really wish the Psychos had them.

You should totally have given him one of Decade's cards or something.

Kamen Ride: Neziblue!

I will of course do silly poses like this with the full team. Was also thinking about the big silly ToQger roll call

You are awesome. Thank you.

Damn, it looks so good!
Lightning collection is killing it!