Toku Toy Box: Power Rangers Lightning Collection Dino Thunder Red Ranger Gallery

"Dino Thunder, power up!"

Connor McKnight could have never guessed that his teacher, Dr. Tommy Oliver, was once a Power Ranger. But after accidentally bonding with an ancient Dino Gem, becoming a Power Ranger himself with his two best friends, and facing off against the forces of an evil dinosaur mutant bent on returning Earth to the age of dinosaurs, nothing surprises him now. With power from within and the roar of the T-Rex in his heart, Connor has become the Dino Thunder Red Ranger! Protectors of the right, defenders sworn to fight, together Connor Ethan & Kira are the Power Rangers Dino Thunder!

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
The Red Ranger is now the 2nd release from Dino Thunder (aside from the Fighting Spirit Green Ranger) following the White Ranger. That release gave us a pretty good idea of what to expect for this team, and with Red in hand now I think we're really off to a fantastic start for Dino Thunder. While the mold may not be exactly identical between the two, they are very very similar and that made me feel pretty comfortable with red right from the start.

The entire body is molded in red plastic, and it's broken up mostly by gold trim and white dino scale paint apps. Starting with the boots they've got a pretty basic gold sculpted cuff below the shin swivel, nothing fancy like the White Ranger. 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, allowing you to rotate that portion of the leg 360 degrees below the knee. Then we get a very playful double jointed knee which lets you 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. No matter what when posing the legs, you're obviously going to wind up breaking up the white paint apps along the exterior of the legs. All of these cuts are executed in the standard Lightning Collection styling, doing their best to not be obtrusive to this design. I will mention though to watch the thigh swivels on this one. Mine became extremely weak and loose after only a few minutes of posing. This is an issue I've yet to really experience on any other LC figures.

Dino Thunder Red features the signature silver buckle and gold belt around his waist, with a right side hip holster for his included Thundermax Blaster. Unfortunately though this holster isn't designed to properly accommodate the weapon, and because the blaster doesn't transform there's no way to make it go in the holster correctly. The rest of the torso is totally standard stuff for the line. The lower half has a satisfying if way too tight ratcheting 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 chest also features a pretty crisp Dino Thunder emblem paint application. While mine has a couple minor flaws, on the whole it looks fantastic. Thankfully DT Red's design lends itself well the Lightning Collection styling and the upper body looks very fluid when posed thanks to that largely very monotone color scheme.

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 as the White Ranger, DT Red's arms are oddly positioned. They can't really rest against the figure's torso naturally and instead angle outward. They also features white dino paint apps down the their full length. The left arm of course features the Dino Morpher. It is painted, however only in red, and in a more metallic shade of it than the rest of the figure is presented in.

Thankfully this figure does not suffer the biggest flaw of it's teammate. Dino Thunder Red comes with a correctly painted and molded helmet. even if the details are somewhat inconsistent on my copy. I always liked the angular nature of the Dino Thunder helmets and I still feel that way here. It's a really great design that's translated well to toy form. And thankfully unlike another recent release (Time Force Red) the neck joint works and gives the head access to the full range of articulation. It's overall a really fantastic figure!

Accessories
Like the White Ranger before him, Connor comes with basically everything he needs:

1 - Thundermax Blaster. While a decent size to be held by the Dino Thunder rangers, I can't help but feel that shade of blue is wrong. Also, it can't be slotted into the hip holster properly so it's going to impact the torso while posing unfortunately. And it can't be holstered properly because it can't transform. So there's no way to get the blade along the top around the holser as needed.

1 - Thundermax Saber. Though in show the Blaster could literally transform into the Saber, Hasbro has opted to give us both versions of the weapon instead. A smart choice, but again, that shade of blue feels just a bit off to me, but the bigger issue, is really that it's too small. The blade feels very short and disproportionate to the body that's holding it.

1 - Tyranno Staff. This is another odd one honestly. I'm really glad to see they've included the staff, but it's missing all the paint apps it should have. None of the white diamond print, the T-Rex head isn't fully painted either. We just get a couple gold bands near the bottom end and some triangles on the other end, and this makes it looks very bland. Which is a shame since it's a pretty interesting weapon. Also, the T-Rex head is permanently molded open instead of closed or even hinged as it should be. I'm not sure why it's molded this way either. The staff isn't hinged in the middle so there's no way to use it to make the Z-Rex Blaster or anything like that. We know Ethan will be coming with his shield and presumably Kira will have her weapons too. But I don't know that I fully get the choices with the Tyranno Staff. It's a half realized accessory that won't be able to interact with the other two.

1 - Saber effect part. Something new like this will always work on me. Rather than recycle an old effect part again, this is a brand new sort of sweeping flame effect that's designed to slide over the blade of Thundermax Saber. Though with some wiggling you can also get it onto the Tyranno Staff. It's a good snug fit on the Saber though.

1 - Connor McKnight unmasked head. Boy this one is a bummer. Lightning Collection head sculpts have been trending upward in my opinion, but this one? It's honestly one of the worst. Whatever expression Hasbro was trying to capture, it's unfortunately come across very wrong. Instead of the youthful over self confidence Connor is known for, the expression makes him look like an old man. The laugh lines and bags under his eyes add years to the sculpt and really detract from the likeness to Connor's actor James Napier. It's a very unfortunate example in the line.

2 - additional hands. While Conner already comes with two gripping hands for his weapons, he also gets a pair of unique expressive hands, one an open left palm, while the right hand has bent knuckles that still allow him to hold weapons on that side as well.

Final Thoughts
While I think several of the accessories are flawed a bit, this is ultimately a pretty well packed release that comes with everything you could need for the Dino Thunder Red Ranger. Despite the drawbacks it's another solid addition for this team, and to the line in general. Recently the Dino Thunder Blue Ranger was revealed to be part of Lightning Collection Wave 8. So that means it's likely only a matter of time before we see the Yellow & Black Rangers from this series as well. So far I think we're off to a really great start, and so long as the Blue Ranger and potentially the other two can build off of the White & Red releases, we may wind up with the most solid team in the this toyline yet.

Part 2

I feel like maybe the omission of the foldable t-rex staff and whites unextended blade means that maybe they plan a box set to milk the molds a second time as super dino mode? Or that a folded version is packed with a later release. I mean they did the canon for mmpr and zeo's weapons show the ability to combine, so i guess the team final attack formation is something they're aiming for each team.

I grew up with the disney era and Dino Thunder is my favorite season next to its successor, S.P.D. The suits were great, the story was thrilling, and their arsenal was fantastic. The figure looks just as great as I imagined Hasbro's take would look, knocking roided legacy red straight out of the water. Im not going to lie, this figure has its shortcomings: the unpainted staff with immovable mouth, the terrible Connor headsculpt ( really looks more like an aged Marshall from HIMYM, than it does Connor), and the silver visor outline rather than white. However, overall, this figure nails all the sweet spots for a great representation. The paint apps and details are on point, all the appropriate weapons and effects are included, and the joints are functional and unecumbered. All the hallmarks of a good figure. I look forward to ordering my copy, just really hope my copy has good qc and doesn't have joints issues like yours does.

The print on the chest looks very good. Wonder how easy it would be to paint all the pins white to blend into the suit

Can I just say how much I love that you’ve been having the Rangers VS Transformers in these galleries?

Alright you guys ready.” Dino Thunder Power Up”. Connor Mcknight this figure is great for me

I got mine yesterday and I enjoy it a lot! The only downside I have is that the Tyranno Staff doesn’t fold down so that you can turn it into the Z-Rex Blaster.

Really glad it has the staff, figure would look so bare without it.

Dino Thunder Red seems alright the Thundermax Saber Blaster whatever is like waay off though imo

Really nice figure. Looking forward to when they announce black dino and the Triassic rangers.