Consistently Inconsistent: The Power Rangers Lightning Collection

Guest Editorial by Mike (@BigMike8109 on Twitter)

The time was August 2018 at Power Morphicon. There I was, along with a room full of fans, waiting for the announcement of what Hasbro was going to do first with their newly acquired toy line for Power Rangers. We all sat there as they introduced us to the Lightning Collection; new 6-inch highly articulated and painted action figures. They even showed off a video of their first figure – Mighty Morphin White Ranger Tommy Oliver himself! The crowd went wild, mainly because it wasn’t the Green Ranger version of Tommy, but the second leader of the team version. What really got people hyped up was the announcement of head sculpts and tons of accessories that were all included with an amazing price of $19.99 USD!

It was truly great to see Hasbro show off what they could do with the brand with just the first of many figures to come. Here we are in December 2020 and we’re well over 60 figures deep into the line. We’ve got a mix of teams, helmets, villains, a possible Megazord, and role play items like the Dragon Dagger. There is one thing that stands out in the vast Morphin Grid of things to collect; it’s apparent not every team is represented yet and some odd things stand out. I’m here to talk about one thing that’s consistent with each figure that has more than two team members represented and that is: it’s really inconsistent.

I won’t be talking about missing paint, odd choices for accessories, or why some figures didn’t get a head sculpt. Yes, I’m looking at you Ranger Slayer and Magna Defender! What I will be talking about is why some people might have a hard time displaying full teams when they’re completed because of one main reason: the figures aren’t painted the same way on each Ranger from that team. Below, I’m going to go by the seasons that have multiple rangers in the line and where the paint is, or isn’t, or is just different. Some of it is nitpicking on my part, but it’s still something I want to point out. Lets get wild!

Dino Charge

First up: Dino Charge Red and Dino Charge Black. Let’s take a look at the Dino Com Buckle on Red: it’s painted yellow on the trim, black on the inside and the Dino logo is silver. Which, as far as I know, is show accurate. Looking at Dino Charge Black, it’s the same, but not by much. The Dino Com Buckle on Black has yellow trim – and that’s where the similarities stop. The colors are swapped with silver being the inside and black being the Dino logo.

Another inconsistency is that while the silver on Dino Charge Red’s gloves are painted the screen accurate silver, Black and Gold are missing this detail.

The accessories are also not the same paint-wise. Red’s Dino Saber is painted show accurate for the most part, but Black’s isn’t. The yellow part of the same piece stops at what they assumed was the hilt. Finally, there’s the Dino Charge Morphers: they are both different shades of yellow all together.

In Space

Let’s Rocket to In Space Red and In Space Yellow. Looking at the neck of the Red Ranger, you can see it’s a basic yellow paint application. But when compared to the Yellow Ranger, she clearly has a more shiny gold – which wasn’t the way it was presented on the show. Again, if you’re paying attention to the detail it’s noticeable but for some displaying on a shelf far away they might not notice. Looking at the accessories they both seem to be well painted.

S.P.D.

Now for an S.P.D. Emergency! At first glance you might not notice any inconsistencies unless you are really looking. The “SPD” on S.P.D. Red is a basic grey with the “SPD” letters in white, but on S.P.D. Blue it’s a thicker rectangle and a lighter shade of grey with the “SPD” letters placed higher. Going off the promo pics of S.P.D. Pink, the badge is black and thinner than Red or Blue and the “SPD” letters are not centered.

Jumping to the Delta Morphers, Red and Blue are nearly identical, but the inconsistency is with Pink’s Morpher. It has a silver outline and “SPD” down the middle, but is missing the other words on the Morpher and not painted white like Red and Blue.

Dino Thunder

Dino Thunder, Power Up! So far, we got the Red Ranger and White Ranger with the Blue Ranger coming in March 2021. I wont be comparing the White Ranger’s suits to the rest, but I will point out that only the Red Ranger got the paint on the back of gloves while Blue and White did not.

Looking at Red and Blue side by side you’d be hard press to notice any inconsistences, but there are a few. Red doesn’t have the gold trim around the neck that Blue has. Their Dino Morphers are not painted the same either. Red has a solid red paint job to match his ranger color, while Blue is white to match the diamond pattern of his. Just to nitpick, both have silver outlines on their helmets when it’s suppose to be white. Heck, it’s even white on the box art!

Finally, much like the Dino Charge figures, the backs of the gloves are missing paint – white on the Blue Ranger and black on the White Ranger. The Red Ranger is consistent with screen accuracy.

Zeo

Stronger then before, Go Zeo! Looking at Zeo Ranger V Red, Zeo Ranger III Blue and the upcoming Zeo Ranger IV Green, there are some small differences between them. Each seem to be painted with matching gold trim and the correct shade of their color.

The inconsistency however, lies with the helmets. Zeo Green and Zeo Blue have a silver trim around their visors, while Zeo Red is painted white. The white trim is the correct show accurate color, but why they don’t at least have matching silver or white is beyond me.

Another inconsistency is that on Zeo Blue, the butterfly joint is painted with a strip of white to match the area on the shoulders. Green and Red are missing this detail.

We won’t get into why Zeo Blue doesn’t have his weapon, yet Zeo Red and Zeo Green do.

Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers

Now let’s GO GO take a look at the team that started it all, Mighty Morphin’! There’s actually only a few things here that don’t match and it’s really only on two of the figures. With the Power Morphers on the belts, only the Black Ranger is missing the red outline around the Power Coin. Everyone else has it and even the Green Ranger‘s morpher is correctly painted gold. The weird thing here is that this is the second Black Ranger released. The first one was the Walgreens’ exclusive Armored (Dragon Shield) version. Taken from the only episode to air with this power up, “Oyster Stew”, this version of the figure has the Power Morpher painted correctly! Why didn’t Hasbro take that mold and just remove the Dragon Shield? I don’t know.

My second nitpick of this team has been wildly documented on my personal twitter and within the fandom/collecting space. The second release of the Green Ranger is missing the diamonds under his shield. The first release was part of the “Fighting Spirit” two-pack, which had everything from that episode of Dino Thunder accurately painted. This includes the silver stripe on his helmet and the silver Power Morpher! Why Hasbro didn’t look at both figures and merge them to make a completely show accurate Green Ranger is beyond me. When asked during Hasbro PulseCon, they passed it off as Green not having the diamonds sometimes, which isn’t true at all, but I digress.

So not a lot to talk about with America’s first Power Rangers team, but it’s not the first completed team in the Lighting Collection line…

The Psycho Rangers are the first completed team in the Lightning Collection line. They’re also the only team to get a complete set packed together, all five Psycho Rangers are included. Originally, when I first looked at the Psycho Rangers plus Psycho Green, I didn’t notice anything wrong with their paint consistency. BUT there is something inconsistent! The back of the box shows their belt buckles are outlined with their respected colors, but only Psycho Pink has that paint in the pack. You could say Psycho Black has it too, but who really knows? So 4 out of the 6 Psycho Rangers are painted inconsistently.

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A lot of these details are not deal breakers for most people, in fact, quite a lot of people. This includes myself, since I’ll buy each figure as they come out. However, the worry of consistent inconsistencies remains each time a new member of a team is introduced. We don’t know yet if anything from Time Force or the Metallic Armor figures will be different since those only have one ranger represented. We may never know the reasons why the paint is different across a team. And I don’t think that if we ask that will get a straight answer, or an answer at all. Some say, “It only costs $19.99, calm down!”, but I say if you’re gonna mess up, then at least mess up consistently.

Bonus!

Activate Beast Powers! Beast Morphers Red and Blue are consistent with their paint applications. So fingers crossed Yellow gets released and matches them perfectly!

Credit:

Written/Pictures by Mike (@BigMike8109 on Twitter)
Edited by Eric Berry (@trekkieb47)
Press Photos from Hasbro

Last Edit – 12/26/2020 – Zeo butterfly joints, Dino Charge gloves, Psycho Rangers