Retrofire Jungle Pride Megazord

(aka GekiTohja)

Height: 14cm

Articulation: 22 total points - Ball joint neck; 5 points each arm: Universal joint shoulder, upper arm swivel, hinge elbow, swivel wrist; Swivel waist; 5 points each leg: Universal joint hip, thigh swivel, hinge knee, hinge ankle.

Colors: Molded red, grey; Painted yellow, blue, black, orange, silver, red.

Accessories: Setsukon, Tegaki-shuko x2

Release Data: Released in the United States in March of 2011 at a retail price of US$9.99

Author: ExVee

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The original Retrofire Megazord figures, released alongside Power Rangers RPM back in 2009 were... unfortunate. Articulation was always geared to certain poses and was typically so asymmetrical in application that any pose outside of the small few the designers specifically intended was either just not possible, or simply ridiculous looking in the attempt. Which is a shame because the highly stylized designs of the Megazords in this line had a definite appeal, but many including myself were largely turned off on the whole concept. It was indeed another of those Argh, Bandai moments. The line was quietly dropped after just a couple waves, leaving several figures unreleased. Now with the Power Rangers Samurai series, Retrofires are being hauled back out for another go. So far one of the unreleased designs has made it to shelves, plus another completely new design, the Jungle Pride Megazord.

The somewhat extreme styling as demonstrated in the earlier installments of the series is certainly present here, exaggerating the super robot aspect of a Megazord considerably, but not to bad effect. In relative terms, a tiny head and waist with huge shoulderpads and boots certainly reinforce the super part of the concept. The figure takes some cues from the design of the suit used in the show, such as the rear paws of the tiger being attached at the waist to form skirt armor rather than being folded up into the thighs, and is for the most part an ultimate, idealized version combining from the most favorable aspects of all available depictions of the design, while adding bits and pieces of its own to maintain style.

The Jungle Pride Megazord doesn't suffer terribly from the typical Bandai paint problem. While the majority of sculpted details on the back of the figure are not painted, painted surfaces that start from the front and wrap around are fully painted even along the back. The wavemate Delta Squad Megazord does not even have this benefit! The paint is also amazingly accurate and clean. I examined three copies of the figure in the store and could find no significant differences in paint quality among them. There's quite a bit of small, precise detailing to paint on this, and I'm amazed just how well the work has been done. Only a few small details on the front side of the figure are left unpainted, including the tiny eyes on the tiger helmet, and the spots on jaguar and cheetah's heads, as well as the claws on their folded up front paws. All in all it's nothing really severe or glaring, and I believe that even the Deluxe and "Transforming" scale versions of this Megazord skipped a couple of those spots.

What sets Jungle Pride apart from the previously completed Retrofire Designs is that it's articulated much more like a normal action figure. The jointing is all symmetrical, and reasonably comprehensive for a figure of this size. The shoulders are impeded a bit by the huge shoulderpads hanging down over the sides of the arms, but not nearly as much as you might think to look at them. The legs have a fantastic range of motion, with the single joint knees being able to bend over 135 degrees into a tight V, very much like the natural range of human knees. I'd have really liked to see the ankles being ball jointed or with a secondary swivel so they could rock side to side. As it is, the figure is stuck at a pretty wide stance if you want the feet to be flat on your table or desk. In a way, Jungle Pride takes me back to the days of Gundam action figures, as the tiger paw skirt armor works identically to MSiA skirting. The plastic is good and soft so you can freely pose the legs, but if you leave them in pose too long you do risk warping the skirt plates. The head is in either a loose swivel or a really limited ball joint, and while swiveling is fine, tilt in any direction is gonna be a very short trip. Likewise, the waist has an unlimited degree of swivel - appropriate to the design, as this Megazord's finisher involved the upper body spinning at high speed. This figure's waist is a little too tight to freely spin to replicate that effect, however.

Accessories

-Setsukon

The three section staff made from the tails of the tiger, cheetah and jaguar. Made up the Megazord's early arsenal before the add-on Zords came into the picture. or possibly before the stunt crew decided it was too hard to work with. The world may never know. Anyway, it's very primary, with each section being painted the representative color of its origin Zord. The sections are permanently fixed at an angle from the central segment since the whole thing is a single piece of softish plastic. I knew better than to hope for any sort of actual chain connecting separate sections of staff, though the way it's posed makes it appear awkward for most uses with the figure. Just having it be basically straight probably would have been a bit better under the circumstances.

-Tegaki-shuko

I don't actually recall anything like this being used with the suit in the show. Most likely it's just an exaggeration of the small claws already present on the fists. These come attached in package and just plug into the backs of either fist. They fit in there pretty snugly, and at least if they do pop off they're big and light colored enough that they shouldn't too easily vanish into a dark floor.


Closing Remarks

Retrofires have even had a drop in price with their return. I know the $12-ish price tag was a bit off-putting, even to me. Potentially a casualty to the reduced price is the stand all the previous figures came with. It's certainly not strictly necessary, but it gave nice options for the pose-restricted figures the first time around. If you have an older Retrofire Megazord, the stands are still compatible with Jungle Pride. If not, this Megazord is well rounded enough in terms of poseability so that you have plenty of good fighting stance options even without needing external support. Jungle Pride is a perfect demonstration of what I thought Retrofire figures should have been all along. While there are some unreleased designs I still want to see make it to stores, I really hope that Jungle Pride is an example of what will come from subsequent new molds rather than an odd exception in a continuing pattern. Jungle Pride Megazord is Very Good, but I just wish there was some prospect for add-on parts based on the upgrade Zords. Retrofire GekiRinTohja would make my day.

-ExVee