Lord Zedd

Height: 14 cm

Articulation: 13 total points: Swivel neck; 3 points each arm - universal joint shoulder, elbow hinge; 3 points each leg - universal joint hip, hinge knee

Colors: Molded red, grey; Painted red, blue, silver.

Accessories: Z Staff

Release Data: Released with the Spring Assortment of basic Jungle Fury figures at a suggested retail price of US$6.99. This figure is short-packed and is moderately difficult to obtain at retail.

Gallery: 10 images.

Author: ExVee



As a villain character, Lord Zedd tends to hold a special place in the memories of many longtime fans of Power Rangers. Having been the very first 100% American developed main villain character for Power Rangers, he was simply the tip of the iceberg for significant changes in Power Rangers as it rode its incredible wave of success from its first year. It should seem as no surprise then that Lord Zedd made the cut for a sub-line of collector-oriented, nostalgia-driven figures. The logic seems even stronger when one stops to consider the previous toys representing the character, both sadly based on early character concept artwork and not particularly accurate to the final suit that would appear on screen.

The truth of the matter is that these classic figures were originally intended to run alongside Operation Overdrive, which marked the 15th anniversary of Power Rangers. This fact is fairly evident when one compares Zedd to any figures from the Jungle Fury line, since Zedd is nearly a head shorter, just as the other Overdrive figures tend to be. I'll deal with that, since otherwise we'd most assuredly have had no Zedd at all.



The Figure


As being that this figure was originally intended to release along with Operation Overdrive, it shouldn't be surprising that the figure has a somewhat exaggerated muscular build. However, the difference between this and a Power Ranger looking like a body builder is that Zedd is basically meant to look like this. Not only does the "enhanced" muscle definition work for the appearance of the figure, but there's been a great deal of care and effort made to make all of the visible muscles accurate to human muscle structure. Besides distinctly visible groups of muscles, the muscles themselves are heavily detailed, with large muscle fibers visible throughout the body. The only place the detailing falls short is on the hands, which strictly speaking are missing molded and painted detail, versus the TV suit appearance.

The one thing that has seemed odd to me from the beginning is Zedd's exposed brain. The gimmick of course is a guy without any skin. But with no skin on the head, the brain still isn't visible. I guess it's not enough to have no skin; One must have no skull as well. Still, the brain sculpt is done nicely, looking just like the average illustration of basic brain structure. The entire sculpt of the mask has been paid special attention to. While it's not one hundred percent true to the suit, it still clearly represents the design, and much better than the original figures. At least this Zedd has the correct colored visor. The head is only articulated by swivel, which is kind of unfortunate since for whatever reason the head is aimed in a rather downward angle. This can only be corrected by putting the rest of the figure in a somewhat awkward - not to mention uncomfortable looking pose.

The torso is by far the most important improvement over the old figures. The old figures both had the torso basically enclosed in a metal-appearance cage. While the 8 inch figure had a reasonably normal shaped torso, the 5 inch figure released at the same time had a bizarre "V" shaped torso, and a light up gimmick. Actually, the light up part was okay, since for the first half of the second season, Zedd tended to glow red when angered. Later, he just took on Rita's headaches. Anyway, this figure is much more accurate. The torso cage is correctly reduced to something more like a metal rib cage supported over the shoulders, still leaving most of the musculature exposed. The front portion of the cage is a separate piece from the rest of the figure for no reason I can really identify. The remainder on the back is a molded piece of the torso itself, so I'm really unclear why the front needed to be its own piece. The front piece appears to be sunk into the torso, as well, which to me only further complicates the confusion. There's no waist articulation, which is just as well. As good as the body sculpt turned out, I'm sort of relieved to have a bit less marred by obvious jointing.

The arms have the most notable lack of articulation, and in my mind really hurt for a couple swivel joints to free up what I feel should be basic articulation. But it's not quite as horrible as Dai Shi's total inability to use its own sword. Zedd never was much of a fighter anyway. The figure has simple universal jointed shoulder, with an effective range of only about 90 degrees of movement outward. The elbows bend a bit less than that. Zedd can't hold his staff two-handed, which kills practically any interesting poses you might like to get.

The design of Zedd's legs, aided by the codpiece kills any chance of a seated pose. But he can do a sideways split, if that's any consolation. The legs have the same jointing as the arms, and basically to the same effect outside of the hips having a somewhat more open range of motion. The knees bend as well as you'd expect from single hinges, but it doesn't really matter since the hip restrictions more or less throw out any posing that'd put the knees to use.



Paint and Deco

The only real note I have on the paint work is notable absence in one area. The entire back of the torso is left unpainted. Meanwhile the head, arms, and legs are all painted all the way around. I understand the cost issues at work, but it's just sad because the torso ends up standing out terribly when you look at the back since it's surrounded by paint everywhere else. Though if I was to change one thing about the figure's paint, I don't think it would be to fill in the silver details on the back. I've seen pictures where somebody went over the figure with a blackwash to darken the red plastic and help bring out all the wonderful molded detail. It makes the figure look far better than it already does.


Accessories


-Z Staff

It's a stick. With a Z on top. It's supposed to have something like a big spear point on the other end, but that was left off this version. I'm guessing because the hands are closed pretty tightly, it was left off in order to be able to slide the staff into the opening of the hand rather than having to pry the hand open over and over.



Closing Remarks


The rarity of this figure is being blown pretty far out of proportion depending who provides your information. The truth of the matter is that Zedd and Green Ranger both ship one each per case of twelve figures, and are present in two assortments. By the common and accepted meaning of the word, these aren't chasers. By the numbers Zedd would only be slightly more difficult to come across than Cheetah Ranger or Dai Shi. People are starting to realize this and secondary market prices for Zedd have come down markedly. If you end up having to go that way to get one, there's no reason you'll need to pay even twice retail for it. Zedd is something of an iconic character in the history of Power Rangers, and after fifteen years, a figure has finally been made that properly represents him. To just stand and look menacing on a shelf, this figure does great! For a more playable toy, well at least it still beats out the predecessors.

Zedd gets a rating of Good.

-ExVee