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Transforming Beast Master Megazord
The Transforming Beast Master Megazord hails from the current Power Rangers show, "Jungle Fury" and consists of 5 Zords combined into one Megazord. The 5 Zords are: Elephant Zord.
This forms the torso and right leg.
Bat Zord.
This forms the head.
Puma Zord.
This forms the right arm.
Leopard Zord.
This forms the left arm.
Shark Zord.
This forms the left leg and sword.
The completed Megazord has a nice, simple look to it. In fact, I was attracted to it for this very reason. It almost had a mini (11 inches tall) Jumbo Megazord sort of look to it. I really like that both the arms are made from the same mold. It gives it a nice symmetry. 
Combining the 5 Zords into the full robot is simple. The legs on each of the feline Zords simply fold up and the bat is just turned around. Rotate the hind legs of the elephant 45 degrees to form the robots thighs, then take it's head off and re-attach it to the right leg. The head of the shark is then removed and there's a connector in it's mouth to attach to the left leg. It looks like it's biting it. Then, just connect the Puma, Leopard and Bat Zords to form the arms and head. The remaining part of the shark can be held in either hand to form a sword. You are supposed to snap the front legs of the elephant off in Megazord mode, but I just leave them on. Otherwise, I'd probably just lose them. 
The face plate of the robot can slide up and down so when you transform it from Bat Zord to Megazord you'll want to slide it up to reveal the face.
You get a pretty decent amount of play value for your $20 on this one. Separately sold Power Ranger figures can ride on some of the Zords and use the others as weapons, and you can open the chest of the Megazord to store a figure inside. Be careful when opening this compartment though, as mine has a tendency to pop right off if too much force is used. It doesn't break, but just comes off the hinge. Apparently you can also mix and match parts with other transforming Megazords, as well as add a Jungle Fury Cycle (also sold separately) to the arm as a sort of power up feature. 
The only problem I have with any of that is that in order to store a figure inside, the legs of this Megazord have to be hollow and there is no covering to hide that in the interior of the legs. 
And while it's not a huge deal, I'm not sure why they decided to add these little pegs to the back of the left foot. You would think it is to help the robot stand up correctly, but in fact it seems to just make it lean forward. Then you have to bend it back again at the hips to straighten it out. A minor detail, but the sort of thing that annoys me. In comparing it to pics of the prototype, you'll also notice that the finished product lacks some of the paint detail on the arms and the colors seem to be a bit duller. Promotional Image
So, should you pick this up? Well, I think it's a decent toy for cheap money. If you should find yourself jonesing for a toy fix and you happen to be at your local WalMart or Target or whatever you've got, you could certainly do worse. If nothing else, I think it's a great alternative for someone like myself who wouldn't mind adding a dash of sentai to add some variety to my collection, but isn't interested in it enough to drop $50 on a full on DX Megazord. Submitted by NekroDave on 28 May, 2008 - 20:45. Click on a thumbnail to enlarge
 Now, you see, this is the sort of thin BA should be doing if they want to create original toys for the American markets! Yeah- it's a little annoying to have to make all that empty space for a figure that is separately-sold and serves no other function, but I would call this a very successful start. That doesn't mean I want one, just that I am interested in it. This actually has a feeling of one of those abandoned mecha combos from "Hyakujuu Sentai GaoRanger". (See the end of this review here to see what I mean by that.) Oh, BTW- a bat, a shark, and an elephant are the three main accessory mecha from "GekiRanger"/"PR Jungle Fury"... Question: what's up with the wheels on the bottom of the two jungle cats?  Y'know, I didn't even notice them! lol. It looks like you place one foot of a Ranger figure over the peg on the back of each cat and it rolls. Though probably not well, since other plastic parts will also touch the surface and the wheels still have some bits of flash on them. So, is this things story that it doesn't actually appear in the show, but is just an original Bandai America creation? Seen in toy form only? "This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!" Well, there's something odd about "PRJF" that hasn't been explained away yet in the show, which makes me wonder about this toy specifically... In "PR Lightspeed Rescue" (2000), the Titanium Ranger (aka Ryan) was a PR-only creation since there were originally only five rangers in "Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGo-V" (1999), and they [traditionally at that time] needed a sixth. So, how does this relate to the Beast Master Megazord? That needs a hair-more explanation... Only a handful of times in episodes in PR's entire history, brand-new footage of the giant mecha have been shot with the original stunt suits which did not appear in the original Super Sentai series it came from. (That I can recall- "MMPR"-2, "Turbo- A Power Rangers Movie", "PRLG", "PRLsR", and "PRSPD".) Now, because three of the critters in the BMM up there are repeats from the original "GekiRanger" series, I'm wondering if the production company that makes PR actually got the funds to make some new mecha footage using original designs for them, and then is adding new Rangers to back that up? Is that reaching too far...? Here are the original Bat, Shark, and Elephant Rangers just for "PRJF" that I told you about. The scan comes from a Japanese magazine on the issue, via Thai-Toku.com: 
Now, whether-or-not this confirms my theory about the Beast Master Megazord remains to be seen... Say- double-check something here: The back of the box says this thing can limb-swap with the Red Jungle Fury Ranger's motorcycle. Can the Deluxe BMM swap with any other regular-line Deluxe toy from this or past series? I really couldn't say. I only have a handful of other Power Ranger toys (excluding Jumbos, of course), and it's certainly not compatible with any of those. "This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!" |
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its a cool idea to make a new zord out of all the support zords and I wish they had done it in GekiRanger but I dunno its cool but not £20 cool. maybe if I see it in a bargen bin
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Transformer and other robot art by me on my DA site blitz-wing.deviantart.com