YEAH, Lord Zedd! You ever watch Power Rangers, back in the day? No? Well Power Rangers was a collection of five teenagers with "attitude" that PPPFFFT yeah right man, I'm not explaining Power Rangers! Where were you? Come on, keep up.
Seriously though, maybe you didn't stick around long enough to see Lord Zedd. If you were there for the start, then you know Rita Repulsa, the badly dubbed witch lady with the Madonna bra that sent monsters down to earth (from the moon) and made them grow. She also sent Puddies, one of which is this:
I don't know the whole story, but the writers decided to kick Rita out the door and bring in a new badguy that wasn't in the original Japanese Sentai series from which Power Rangers was adapted. So Lord Zedd is entirely 'MURICAN! Meaning: He's literally all muscle and chrome. I love it.
The reason I mention Puddies is because, with Zedd's arrival, he brought his own personal Z Puddies with big 'ol "Z" medallions on their chests. Whereas the original Puddies had the general weakness of getting their asses kicked, these new Puddies only required that you hit the big "Z" on their chest....then they explode. So, this big, badass (literal) muscle man comes along and manages to make the weakest enemies....weaker.
Managers! Whaddayagonado, eh? They always come in and have to change everything, even if it's for the worst!
So why do I love this guy? I guess it's the look and the promise of badassery. Sure, it's Power Rangers. The main villain is rarely gona fight. But LOOK at him! If Power Rangers wasn't....ya know, Power Rangers, you KNOW he would be an awesome fight! It's a great, creepy, and powerful design. It's just wasted on Power Rangers.
Today we're looking at his fourth overall figure since his creation. It's a Toys R Us exclusive to go along with the 30th Anniversary of Power Rangers and their current 5 inch toyline. I'm not all that big on the current design of the 5 inchers, since their chests are strangely big, making the arms and legs seem small. Zedd isn't too different, but manages to come out a little better looking, since he's always had a barrel chest.
Now, I've only got the past two versions of him (never got the vintage one). So the comparison is pretty easy, but you'll see pretty much only one major change, beyond the style.
Do you see it? You think it's the staves? Well yeah, I guess that counts, but we'll get to that. No, you can't see it here. I tricked you.
That's it! They painted his back! They just...never bothered, on the past two. Which kinda sucks, 'cause in terms of design, I like the largest one (Super Legends) the best. I just want that one painted like this new one! Sort of. The new one got the feet wrong, actually. Why can't anyone in Bandai agree on how Zedd is supposed to look?
But back to the staves: Lord Zedd has always had a silver staff with a Z on top and a blade on the bottom. They got it right on the vintage one, then kinda...half-assed it on the next two. They can never seem to complete the blade on the bottom!
The Super Legends one (biggest) has the length right, but sans the blade. Then the 3.5 one has a black staff, also sans blade. This anniversary one finally gets that right...but the staff is just a tiny bit too short. Not terrible, but it goes PERFECTLY with the 3.5 one! Like so:
Everything pretty much lines up there. The staff matches the smaller figure, it's the right color, has the blade, and I like his sculpt. However...I do like the sculpt of the bigger one better, but his articulation is lesser compared to the new one and 3.5 one! Bah!
It's hard to get a perfect Zedd...but I'm a fan. If you're just mildly interested, then this isn't a bad Zedd to get. Ya know....if he wasn't twenty freakin' dollars. So now you know the added cost of painting his back! I can't really call this worth twenty bucks, even though I bought it. On the other hand, he's in a fancy package, his paint IS really nice, and his staff is finally correct. So...up to you!
I was too old to get in on this property, except I had a strange affection for the movie:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.popmatters.com/column/133639-mighty-morphin-masterpiece/
I would have been eleven at the time, so I have fond memories of my friends and I picking Rangers to portray and playing out battles. I wasn't obsessed with it, but I loved the idea. You know, a team of "armored" heroes beating up monsters. I still like the idea, honestly! I'd love to see the same idea taken in a different direction.
DeleteYeah though, I liked the movie. I actually haven't seen it in years, but it hit me pretty hard at the time. The toys were out in force - my friend and I had found the movie White Ranger (shiny silver) and freaked out, so his mom bought us both one. Still got him, too! We were convinced he was rare, for some reason. The best ones were the McDonald's toys, though, because they were Joe sized AND styled after the movie! The official movie toys were just shiny repaints of the normal toys, but the McDonald's toys had the leather movie suits sculpted correctly and all that.
There was this cool behind-the-scenes editorial about all the crap that happened around making that movie, but I can't seem to find it. One thing I remember is that those fancy new suits were actually terribly made, and by the end of the film, they were being held together with tape in multiple places. Of course, that was jus the tip of the iceberg...but like I said, I can't seem to find the article. Ah well!
If someone produced high-quality movie-accurate figures, I'd be mildly tempted to nab at least one.
DeleteThat article sounds interesting. Sounds like the kind of thing Mental Floss would put together.
Yeah, I always liked the way the movie improved on the suits. And speaking of which: I found it!
Deletehttp://www.schoolpa.com.au/~paul/Zordmaker/zordreal2.html
It's a little cheaper looking than I remember, but hopefully it's still and interesting read.
What, no Rita figure? Come on Alexx.
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