Retrofire Jungle Pride Megazord

“In the 2008 Power Rangers Jungle Fury TV series a spirit of pure evil, Dai Shi, has been locked away for countless centuries. But now the malicious spirit has escaped and threatens the peaceful balance of planet Earth and all its creatures. To crush this evil threat, the Pai Zhuq masters must select three valiant members, teach them all there is to know about the ancient myths, and reveal to them the heroic mission of the secret order. Once accepted, the trio of Kung Fu warriors will be granted the special honor of becoming Power Rangers Jungle Fury, Earth’s only hope to stop the army of evil animal spirits from forcefully overtaking the human world!”

–From the outside of the packaging

Within all humans is a link to nature known as an Animal Spirit. Practitioners of Pai Zhuq train for many years in the ability to harness their individually-unique inner Animal Spirit in order to defend the world from Dai Shi and his monster minions. When one of these monsters grows to giant size, the three chosen warriors, the Power Rangers, expand their Animal Spirit power into a physical form known as a Spirit Zord. These Spirit Zords can combine into the Jungle Pride Megazord, a fast, agile, and skilled fighter which has the use of the Jungle Setsukon for hand-to-hand combat. When additional power is needed, the Jungle Pride Megazord can use its Savage Spin and Super Kick finishing attacks to put down monsters for good!

The 4” Megazord figure and its weapons are composed of even amounts of PVC and ABS plastics. Other than the weapon, nothing on the figure is meant to come apart; both shoulder armor segments can pop off if too much pressure is applied. While paint is minimal to keep things simple (rather than by BA being careless, inconsiderate, or cheap), it is rather lacking along the back of the figure… something I would gladly have paid $1-2 more for to balance it out.

The point of having the Retrofire line is for both the alternate styling of the classic Megazord designs, and the action figure-like posability which their larger Deluxe-sized equivalents cannot do.
Unlike their predecessors from 2009 and 2010 respectively, the 2011 releases do not come with a display stand.

(Savage Spin attack- torso and arms spin while head and legs remain stationary)

Two weapons are provided. First is the Jungle Sansetsukon (Japanese, “three section staff”), which is actually made of a single red piece of PVC which then has yellow and blue paint added. This weapon can be fitted into either hand individually or carefully into both hands at the same time!
The other weapon is one which wasn’t seen in the show. While the Jungle Pride Megazord does have four claws along its knuckles, these are not very large or used as clawing weapons. Bandai America created two pairs of longer PVC claws that can be attached to the back of each fist!

(It is possible for the Retrofire Jungle Pride Megazord to hold on to the Jungle Sansetsukon at the same time that the extended claws are attached.)

It seems that the Retrofire sub-line proved to be very popular among collectors in 2009, so much so that Bandai America has brought it back for Round Two. I have one thing to say to this: WOO-HOO! Despite some initial flaws and curiosities, Waves One and Two were a welcome answer to the posable-Megazord problem that has plagued the Deluxe-sized Megazord toys. Small as they were, they were stylistic interpretations that had action figure-like articulation, while not suffering from the curse of being merely armored Rangers or gimmick-filled statuettes with very restrictive, if any, articulation.

(By the way, Bandai America: Where In The Hell are my Retrofire Titan and Thundersaurus Megazords!? I was really looking forward to those! You promoted them, I saw figures advertised, but I never saw them in any stores near me. I strongly advise you to bring those into full production so I can get off your back about that at least, and you’ll have one less fanboy raging at you for one less hour each day…)

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! I can’t believe I’m saying, but this set may very well be the first truly perfect Retrofire toy. It does what none of the previous six designs (nor its brother set also released at the same time in 2011, the Retrofire Delta Squad Megazord) could do, and that is:

• Have a completely symmetrical range of motion, and high degree of articulation
• Have an excellent stylized adaptation from its Deluxe-sized and on-screen counterparts
• Compensate for a lack of function in the original design (specifically, the add-on claws)
• Slim the Megazord’s blocky/chunky armor into slimmer and more character-based proportions
• Have an excellent selection of materials and parts design
• Maintain adequate and screen-accurate paint coverage across both the front and back without losing too much in the name of reducing costs for production

All of this adds up to a fantastic adaptation and- in my opinion- highly successful figure. You want to know what I find most amazing? I don’t care for this Megazord’s design much at all, and yet I love this toy! That, ladies and gentlemen, does not happen very often with me.

Bandai America, listen very carefully to me now, because I am about to give you a big hint as to how you can please both older collectors and kids at the same time: Make all future Retrofire releases just like you did with the Jungle Pride Megazord. About the only problem I have with this set is the PVC skirt panels don’t flex well and hinder the motion of the thighs a bit, and the head can’t look up or down despite being a ball-and-socket joint. I can overlook those easily. I am not joking here- this is a true diamond in the rough. It is a fully-posable action figure of a Megazord. Highly recommended!