Super Sentai [Past to Current]

So...what do we think?



Juuden Sentai Kyoryuger

Bandai inching ever closer to their Sentai offerings looking like toys that come out of candy machines rather than belonging on a toy shelf. Battle Fever is rolling over in his styro.

Haha...aww...I didn't think it looked THAT bad! Like JoshB and the others said on the latest CDX show, I think they're just skewing the new sentai offering for a younger crowd. The shit looks WAY more Playmobile than Battle Fever ever did, y'knowmsayin?

As much as I'd normally like to applaud them for the unusual color scheme (yellow stripes over blue and pink? fantastic), it really does look like it was made for a five-year-old. I think a lot of the recent lines struck a balance between kid-appeal and mecha cool, but this one is pure kindergarten.

-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH

I kinda want to like it because I like dino-themed (if not *other*/modern animal-themed) sentai robots. But looking at the standalone red T-rex...yeesh.

Well... it's got kiddy appeal. If they're priced sanely to the parents, then hurrah for the kids.

BUT...

I think it doesn't pay to underestimate the sophistication of kids.

I LOVE how they cleverly concealed the dino head and tail for robot mode by having them JUTTING OUT OF HIS FREAKIN' SHOULDERS!!!

I know everyone harps on the "playability" of the old school sentai toys, but that completely misses the point. Die cast toys such as Battle Fever Robo were STATUS symbols, not meant to be played with, but lauded over your friends. Five or six kids would meet at the playground with their Battle Fevers, produly proclaiming "I have a Battle Fever" and holding it up to be admired...with the other following suit "I also have a Battle Fever". Ultimately the one kid who brough the plastic Ultraman toy would leave in tears and shame.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/2012 01:20PM by Supersentai.

Why are you upset at a sentai toy being for five year olds? OF COURSE IT'S FOR FIVE YEAR OLDS!

-Ginrai
Golden Gate Riot on dead trees at: [www.destroyallcomics.com]

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Ginrai
Why are you upset at a sentai toy being for five year olds? OF COURSE IT'S FOR FIVE YEAR OLDS!

Because, unlike most preceding sentai toys for five year olds, it seems to have absolutely nothing to appeal to anyone above age 5. Looking at, say, the Boukenger toys, or Shinkenger, there's so much going on there mechanically and visually. This is nothing more than three dinosaurs smashed together.

-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH

Itasha Robo is exactly the size of a standard cat.




-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/2012 07:10PM by asterphage.

I'm looking forward to the new stuff myself. I like the childish turn of the designs. While I do appreciate the more "serious" (as much as a bunch of animals that turn into vehicles, including frogs with boxing gloves for tongues, can be serious) nature of the Go-Busters show, the goofier and weirder the sentai designs can be, the more I like them.

More serious than thou

So what's the gimmick? It sings when it combines? That picture with the pink dinosaur being inserted into the rear of the red dinosaur with music coming out seems... odd.

It also seems really similar to Abaranger, down to the tyrannosaur making the bulk of the mecha, and the tyranno legs basically forming the mech legs and feet (also similar to the secondary Gokaiger mech).

I like the complexity of the Gobuster mechs, but it obviously wasn't as easy to make mix and match extra pieces like they can with this kind of form. They also didn't really have a collectible gimmick, relying on Gokaiger's ranger keys for another year, so I'm sure they're going back to something collectible, maybe the "dino batteries?" Hopefully it's not as dumb as the headers.

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Ginrai
Why are you upset at a sentai toy being for five year olds? OF COURSE IT'S FOR FIVE YEAR OLDS!

Because I could live with my inner five year old when I admired my Bioman, Dynaman, Maskman, Liveman, and other robots, but with toys of this caliber now being leveled at my five year oldness, it's just insulting. Phew! The end of the era really hit me with the plastication of Sentai robots, but this is where I'm completely lost. Starting to hedge into cheap Brave robot territory.

So I saw the suits... with the teeth motif on the chest and the dino head helmets, it really does look like Zyuranger, so I wonder if this is another way to connect Saban to the franchise (like naming the bad guys Megazords and using "it's morphing time" in Gobusters). Of course, last time I thought they were doing something for the US market, they put these cutesy animals in Go-onger and then Disney set it in a post-apocalyptic setting anyway.

No yellow guy, only one girl, and only three machines make up the robot at a time, despite them having five people to start. But lots of talking batteries and easy limb swaps for lots of merch sales.

That said, it's growing on me...

Also, I mentioned it in the Figufarts thread, but DX Shinken-Oh is up for preorder on TRU.com. It's the really expensive "megazord" listed there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2012 12:58PM by fujishig.

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fujishig
It also seems really similar to Abaranger, down to the tyrannosaur making the bulk of the mecha, and the tyranno legs basically forming the mech legs and feet (also similar to the secondary Gokaiger mech).

I agree, but I think Aberenoh had a well-considered design, with the chromey curves that sweep across the shoulders and shins complementing the use of the pterosaur's wings to form the chest plate. The parts of the main combination (and most of the the optional limbs) were unified not only by the gold accents, but that repeating sawtooth design. In contrast, this robot is just the parts of the t.rex turned sideways, with the same elements visible in both modes, and a couple of robot arms that don't really match stuck on.

Just watch, in five or six years they'll probably do a dino-robo that's so atrocious we'll be singing the praises of this toy's clever use of geometric shapes and yellow accents...

-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH

I really don't think Bioman is somehow more mature than recent sentai shows. They are all shows for little kids. I don't think you can say because the materials they made toys with back then were different the new ones are somehow less mature because they are plastic and not metal. Or is this a mech aesthetics thing? Because in the '80s robots were square and they aren't anymore for the most part. I still don't see what that has to do with maturity.

-Ginrai
Golden Gate Riot on dead trees at: [www.destroyallcomics.com]

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asterphage

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fujishig
It also seems really similar to Abaranger, down to the tyrannosaur making the bulk of the mecha, and the tyranno legs basically forming the mech legs and feet (also similar to the secondary Gokaiger mech).

I agree, but I think Aberenoh had a well-considered design, with the chromey curves that sweep across the shoulders and shins complementing the use of the pterosaur's wings to form the chest plate. The parts of the main combination (and most of the the optional limbs) were unified not only by the gold accents, but that repeating sawtooth design. In contrast, this robot is just the parts of the t.rex turned sideways, with the same elements visible in both modes, and a couple of robot arms that don't really match stuck on.

Just watch, in five or six years they'll probably do a dino-robo that's so atrocious we'll be singing the praises of this toy's clever use of geometric shapes and yellow accents...

Eh, Abarenoh only had to incorporate a spinning tail/arm. This one's gotta incorporate playing samba music when it combines, plus inserting dino batteries into it's orifices.

Am I the only one who gets twitchy when we start using the word "orifi" in the context of combining toys?

As far as Bioman and the earlier robots, yes, I'm hitting purely on mech-aesthetics. I haven't gotten a chance to watch a recent Sentai show from Japan (non-Power Ranger version), but although they weren't high drama, the violence and semi-mature themes with mostly adult "rangers" lent them to being more accessible to the neo-pubescent teen adolescent (or young twenties for that matter) viewer.

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Supersentai
Am I the only one who gets twitchy when we start using the word "orifi" in the context of combining toys?

As far as Bioman and the earlier robots, yes, I'm hitting purely on mech-aesthetics. I haven't gotten a chance to watch a recent Sentai show from Japan (non-Power Ranger version), but although they weren't high drama, the violence and semi-mature themes with mostly adult "rangers" lent them to being more accessible to the neo-pubescent teen adolescent (or young twenties for that matter) viewer.

Yeah, maybe the orifi comment went a little far... though it's true... :)

Apparently the current Sentai series, Gobusters, was somewhat of a failure from a ratings and merchandise perspective. They had dropped the "gotta-buy-them-all" gimmicks that they've been using with the past few iterations (Goseiger headers, Gokaiger ranger keys though they continued that for another year), they went to leather suits, and they made it a bit more serious, and apparently the direction they were given was to lighten it up a lot and get the kids back in it.

On a side note, I remember someone saying that the Timerangers toys sold really poorly at the time. It was also a sci-fi show, and the robot had a cool gimmick of being able to transform into different robot forms, but for whatever reason it didn't sell well and the follow up was the Gaoranger lineup of beast limbs. I thought the Gobusters gimmicks were pretty cool and non-Sentai-like (triple changers, a robot within a robot, until the eventual piling on of parts to make the bigger robots), but apparently they weren't all that popular with the kids either, so dinosaurs, limb swaps, and collectibles, here we come.

If you look at the older Sentai toys, they were much simpler and made for sturdier and probably more aesthetically pleasing robot modes. I mean, Sun Vulcan was basically a jet shell over the top half and a bunch of legs with stuff on it. These days it's all about selling the add ons and gimmicks, though the occasional Gorai Senpuujin will get the traditionalists all excited.

edited to add: wait, your name is SuperSentai but you don't watch... Super Sentai?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/28/2012 12:24PM by fujishig.

I stopped when it ceased being "Super"...

Dude while the Gaoranger show (and it's Power Rangers equivalent) is pretty atrocious, even by the standards of the show it followed, the Gaoranger toys are fucking sweet.

-Ginrai
Golden Gate Riot on dead trees at: [www.destroyallcomics.com]

It looks waaaaayyy to much like AbarenOh..

Frankly I'm not fussed about the kiddy nature of it because well really that's the demographic for the shows..

What I don't want to see is another clusterf**k.

FYI: here are a couple of image galleries of Bandai of America's Legacy range from toyfair...Looks like more DX releases....good stuff...

[www.tokunation.com]

This is pretty glorious:



So...full gattai...diecast...chrome sword...what's not to love? I guess they *could* offer a Dinozord to go with him, but I'd assume this would have to sell really well before they commit to producing one...

I'm pretty hype for the metal Megazord. Hell, I liked the all-plastic version from a few years ago, but this is a distinct improvement. Dragonzord would be nice, but I like this well enough on its own.

-Ginrai
Golden Gate Riot on dead trees at: [www.destroyallcomics.com]

Was the all-plastic one reviewed anywhere? I'm pretty surprised not to see it on CDX...

[www.collectiondx.com]

-Paul Segal

"Oh, the anger is never far, never far." -SteveH

Oh.

Thanks, Paul. :P

Not only am I the one who reviewed the all-plastic one on CDX, I sent you the link a couple of weeks ago, Sanjeev! Haha.

-Ginrai
Golden Gate Riot on dead trees at: [www.destroyallcomics.com]

Been snorting too much polyamide powder...

:P

By the way, there seems to be some disappointment with this new one. I saw a report somewhere that the diecast is extremely minimal, and that that sword cannot even be placed into the hand without needing to have some sanding done on the handle.

More serious than thou

Is it already out???

Kind of a bummer if those complaints are true.

Peaugh reviews the DX Kyoryujin from Voltasaur Team Kyoryuger:
[www.youtube.com]

-I love the faux rollbars but hate the sound gimmicks.

DX Shinken Oh is out at TRU now. I saw it when I went there today. They had actually shipped my preorder a few days ago, but I haven't received it yet and I wasn't confident that they didn't just slap the other diecast megazord in there by accident.

In the recent years of Sentai robos, the design concept of Shinken-oh is the strongest imho. From the geometric shapes of the 5 elemental emblems, to the folding and unfolding (Origami reference) mechanism that performs the transformation in the 3 modes (combine, animal, emblem), the concept is just brilliant. No arbitrary form making, no tacked on meaningless detail, the design is coherent and clear. If the connectors on the fire emblem can be concealed it'd be perfect. (no complaint tho) Hope the sentai robo design can continue down this path more. Kids are not dumb, they also appreciate good design.

Saw the video review of Gosei Great by CollectionDX a while ago, I can certainly understand the reviewer's frustration. :P



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2013 12:13AM by Jessy.

Ok, so I bit on Kyoryujin. I'm rationalizing it by saying that my infant son will someday want this in his collection when it eventually comes out as Power Rangers: Dino Orifices or whatever they want to call it.

Not only does the T-rex basically just stand up and turn sidewards, but the entire tail section is just a hollow piece that detaches to form a cape (and some sort of shield or something for some bigger bot... all I know is that it has a gigantic handle that the current robot can't hold). This is, of course, because it needs to incorporate the electronics, which is basically a whole crapload of (largely annoying) sounds and music when you insert the battery into the t-rex mouth (or when you combine the arms, which involves a battery sticking out of the arm dinosaurs and into the t-rex). My daughter loves it (her one complaint is that the show has only one girl, and no yellow). My son, who is too small to do much of anything, stops crying long enough to look at it when it's "singing," so that's something. It's also pretty large, which is surprising because supposedly there will be a carrier robot that it can ride.

Did I mention they do a little dance before they "henshin" in the show? Definitely for the kids, which I guess isn't a bad thing.