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:
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.
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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.
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.
