Reviews

Power Rangers Lightning Collection Pudgy Pig

For some reason I always think of Pudgy Pig as the first monster that the Power Rangers fought, but that is not accurate. It’s like the 5th or 6th, and heck, even King Sphinx was earlier than that that. There were two releases for Pudgy Pig, one early on for SDCC which included a Lunch Box case. And that’s essentially the only difference I think,. which is why I was kind of glad I skipped it. There was a bit of a controversy because the promo shots kind of implied that the Lunch Box version included a bunch of extra accessories, to recreate the food fight picnic area from the show, but in reality it just came with a couple of pieces of food.

I ended up with the regular version, which is just the pig with it’s weapons. Which is fine because that’s all I really care about. Something notable, despite the shape, the figure works pretty well to keep itself upright. It’s a big heavy ball with legs, it should be a balancing nightmare.

The fun part of this thing is the huge opening jaw that lets it eat all sorts of things, which is goofy and fun.

The articulation design is pretty neat as well given the shape and style of this figure, the arms and shoulders are particularly clever and overall it’s a much more poseable figure that one would expect.

Power Rangers Lightning Collection King Sphinx

Jan 27th, 2023

by Ramen Junkie.

1 comment

I have a weird relationship with Power Rangers. I never was a huge fan of the series, though it actually does check a lot of boxes in my array of interests. Most of what I remember is watching the OG Mighty Morphin. I think I watched the Ninja stuff, and then I want to say Turbo was the “third iteration” and my interest kind of fell off around that time.

These monsters though in the Lightning Collection Line. Everything about them really hits for what I am liking now. And I admit, I’ve been a bit of a sucker over it, because I’ve picked up most of them and inevitably, they go on super clearance because apparently no one is buying them. I think the only one I didn’t go for was Pumpkin Rapper, which sometimes I kind of regret.

King Sphinx was the other release along side Pumpkin Rapper in wave 1 of these monsters. I like him, he’s big and bulky and tough looking. I think part of what helps my enjoyment of these figures, versus the more hardcore Power Rangers fans, is that I am not a hardcore fan. It seems like these monsters are, mostly accurate to the source material, but they are a bit more, we’ll say, stylized, to fit the aesthetic of the line. For example, King Sphinx’s face is kind of off quite a bit.

It’s kind of an odd choice. These are almost all unique molds, by the nature of their designs. So why not make it super accurate? Also, Power Rangers is a live action show. These monsters all exist as giant human sized costumes. There isn’t the problem from adapting a 2D comic to cartoon design to a 3D figure media where you need to figure out how to make things work in the real world and not make the faces look weird at head on angles or something. These are all based on real world actual physical things.

That said, I think I prefer the stylized look. They look much more menacing and much less goofy. It’s also possible they are based on some comic designs as well or something, though I have never seen a Power rangers comic.

Jakks Pacific Chaos

Jan 26th, 2023

by Ramen Junkie.

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Along side Big the Cat, I also picked up Chaos, the villain from Sonic Adventure. I honestly don’t really remember much about Chaos aside from being the villain. But he is part of my favorite cast and the figure has this really slick transparent blue going on that kind of sucked me in to picking it up.

Also funny enough, while he is way more articulated than Big, it almost works less well, because he has the weird “Sonic Proportions” of big head, long feet, and skinny body that all work against making him actually pose in any sort of meaningful way. This is especially worse with his neat but odd pointy hands. Everything feels like it’s bumping into itself.

He also has this gigantic Chaos Emerald.

Jakks Pacific Big the Cat

Jan 25th, 2023

by Ramen Junkie.

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I’m not super into “Sonic Lore” but Sonic Adventure has always been my favorite cast and game. One of the characters in that game was Big the Cat. His entire shtick is being big and being a cat. Well, and Fishing.

Sadly, this version of Big does not include a fishing pole, but I am sure I can find something that will work later. He does come with a couple of tiny rings. I’m not exactly sure if this is the normal size for Jakks’ Sonic line and it’s rings, but they feel a little small.

Something else he doesn’t come with a ton of is articulation, but that’s almost expected given his size and that this line is fairly inexpensive. Most of his little articulation isn’t really hindered by anything at least. He is also a huge fat cat, so, not exactly a ninja.

Anyway, he’s also one of the few Sonic Adventure characters I didn’t have a figure of, so getting him is nice.

Star Wars Black Series Figrin D’an

Jan 3rd, 2023

by Ramen Junkie.

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I’ve really cut back on the Black Series of late, but occasionally something comes up that I still like. In this case it’s Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes. This is a figure that’s honestly, not real exciting, a weird looking alien who is part of a Space Smooth Jazz Band. This is also one that kind of warrants needing more than one, because who wants just one band member? I wasn’t too keen on buying 6 of him though, so I opted for 3, especially at like, 60% off. Basically, 3 for the price of one. If the 7th member with the Percussion set comes up on sale I’ll probably pick him up too.

Anyway, like I mentioned, he is part of a band, and they all look the same, so he comes with 3 different instrument options, a sort of Space Sax, a Space Flute and a Space Clarinet. These guys are mostly great for throwing in the background for any sort of scene where a band might be useful. He has pretty standard Black Series articulation, though he really could have used double elbows to help hold some of the instruments. His shins seems oddly short as well, I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be part of his alien design or what.