There are the middleman fees, and Paypal hides their fees in the exchange rate. The Den-O Gun and Rod 2-pack cost me $102 (and $18 for shipping, because I was impatient and wanted them right away. :lol)

It's not really that much more expensive, no. I preorder the male version of Tiger Ranger for $53.22 shipped, and that's u-airmail. Anyone paying over $60 isn't shopping at the right stores. I've seen people on other sites say they can only find web exclusives figures (with open preorders still) for $80. Jeeze.. Tokunation isn't a hard site to find and all of the info you could want is right here in the awesome threads about toy-sites. Yeah, paypal gets us with their fees. Oh well, it's not that bad really. You just have to be decisive and PO early on. You only pay through the nose when you wait until it's close to release to decide that you want a figure.

BBTS just posted their preorder for MMPR Yellow for July, so expect her around then give or take a month.

I think they're about the same price for us international buyers, but its probably cheaper to get web exclusives from Bluefin for US buyers, unless they want something specific to the JP version. For example:

I've ordered 2x Tiger Ranger with Express Shipping for $127 AUD (112 USD)
Ordering 2x Yellow Ranger with Express Shipping would be $132 AUD (116 USD)

The difference is pretty negligible.

True, but I can understand that some people don't want to go through the entire middleman process. I would elaborate further, but I would just be repeating what Den-O said.

I think Tiger Ranger is a little bit cheaper than the mmrp version cause I got mine for about $41 USD after middleman service.

Zyu2 was actually still a male Yellow Ranger in suit, they just made him pose "more feminine" such as legs closed when teleporting like Pink Ranger and having more scenes of Yellow and Pink together then were in Zyuranger.

Female Yellow Ranger started appearing late Season 2, once all the Zyuranger and Zyu2 footage was gone. Ironically, at this point they had stopped using their original weapons like the Sabre Daggers, I believe.

Wasn't Pink's suit actor male too however?

Nah, she was portrayed by Kiyohito Nakagawa.

We aren't talking about suit actors. The actual physical character is male in Zyuranger. And all of the footage depicting that character is of a male physique. So in any footage used in the US for the first season and a half, which is almost all japanese footage, it's a man. The character Trini is female and they got away with it because of yellow "traditionally" being more associated with girls/women.

Suit actors traditionally are male but many strong badass women have broken into the career in recent years. AKiba Blue & Yellow's suit actors were women, Kamen Rider Marika is a woman. It's pretty cool actually. But we're talking about the physical appearance of Tiger Ranger and Yellow Ranger being the same.

Damn I thought Mr. Pink was PteraRanger.

Ignoring that every female suit worn by a man actually has a male physique too there's the scenes where Thuy Trang is in the suit,all American season 1 footage, the later half of season 2 and all of season 3. Meaning that all in all there's more footage of a female Yellow then a male one

and in this image Yellow clearly is female:
http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__...fe/Prteams.jpg

And to be frank I'd say worldwide the suit is more well known as being a woman due to PR and that most PR fans would rather have a Yellow Ranger figure that looks like a girl because they know her as one.

That always bothered me. Still does. Especially how little they actually used Saba.

Who gives a sword a tactical AI and then NEVER uses it? Even as a nugget I found that to be a critical flaw.

I thought it was because Thuy/Trini was....uuhhh...."right for the part". Always thought it was strange they decided the Asian should be Yellow, and the black guy should be Black. Just sayin'......

Anyhoo, they should've just went the same way as Tyranno/Dragon Ranger. I feel the purists, especially from a collector POV. But most if not all companies see money, so guess this is their way of testing the waters on this figure. This is the first time they've encountered this kind of issue. And willing to bet this'll set the standard for other gender-bent characters.

For me it isn't even about purism. I'll buy the web exclusive because that's the one I want, I want the male one and I want the Zyuranger packaging.

The issue is availability. People who want the mostly more accurate male body type will have to go through middlemen, they don't get an alternative in the US. They're only given the option of the female body type.

How is that not purism?

Because he doesn't say he doesn't want the MMPR version, just that he wants to get the Zyu version.

It was an accident. That's it.

More accurately, a purist would deny the MMPR version even has a right to exist.

Because I'm not trying to force feed it down on everyone that this is the only version they should ever buy? It's the one I want for the stated reasons, I have no problem whatsoever with the version others chooses to get. I fully recognize there is a demand for the female body type and the MMPR packaging.

I just think that the lack of availability for the original version sucks. If you want the male one you can't just go buy it at a specialty store/comic shop or off Amazon like you'll be able to do with the female type. You'll have to go through a middleman service or pay more on the secondary market plus international shipping in most cases. I have no problem jumping through these extra hoops for the one I want, not every wants to or even can.

Exactly, it was an accident. Tony Oliver told me that they were eight episodes in of filming when someone on their crew brought it up and they just had that look of, "Ohhhhhhh boy." They never even thought about it. Hell, I never even thought about it until someone brought it up to me back in 2002 when he said, "Man, I cannot believe they casted the black dude as the black ranger and the asian girl as the yellow ranger."

Anyway, I hope every single person that wanted a Trini Figuart buys her. If they don't, it is going to just look poorly on us and may send a message to Bandai telling then that Bluefin does not know what they are talking about.

"Want" and "ability" tend to conflict more than they intersect...

Well that's just it. Look at all the people on BF's facebook page demand a Bagan MonsterArt. How many of those people are actually going to buy it if it comes out? I bet 1 out of every 10.

Then people would complain about Trini being built like Jason.

I've never even watched a full episode of MMPR...the female body is just wrong to me since I don't identify with it at all.

I've bought all the MMPR figuarts since they are cheaper to get and really I don't need the few optional accessories the Jp ones do come with. It's not a matter of being a "Sentai snob" it's really just a matter of I don't identify with MMPR and how much hassle do I have to go trough to obtain the full team.

To each their own, but I can't be mad at bluefin. They are doing an awesome job

Well this figure is intended for MMPR fans which has a female Yellow and frankly so was the American release of this whole line not to mention the female Yellow was revealed last Summer so we knew it was coming.

And no offence but I really can't sympathize with people complaining over having to import 1 figure when I've had to pay marked up prices for most of the figures I own and DekaRanger and Shinkenger fans had to import 4-5 exclusives to complete their teams.

Import one figure? I've imported several including the DekaRangers, RyuuRanger, King Form Blade, Gai, Verde, SRC DekaRangerRobo, Juuzo, etc. I'm just sick of having to import stuff all of the time. I don't like buying things online as it is as it takes too damn long for stuff to ship. Yes, two days is too long as far as I am concerned. I am a person that likes instant gratification. I prefer to physically buy my products as I want to be able to touch them when I pay for them. Look at them when I pay for them. Nothing will ever replace the satisfaction I get when I am able to just pay for something I am holding in my hand and walking out of a store with in my hand.

Importing and having to go through hoops because "exclusivity" are two totally different things to me. It just so happens the figuarts sentai releases want to do both all the time. It's why I never get to excited when I see them release a group shot to advertise they will be making a full team, you know that one or more of those will be just that little tiny bit more annoying and expensive to get.

I don't have any issue importing personally, it is what it is. The fact we got a domestic release of an entire team is incredible and makes my wallet very happy. Before bluefin came along we could only have dreamed that a few years ago.

The exclusivity nonsense to obtain a full team is what annoys th crap out of me. I honestly don't get the exclusive thing at this point. The figuarts line is popular enough now that limiting release makes no sense.

I really don't really see how its nonsense. The reason they're exclusive is because they don't think they'd sell well enough to be mass released, I believe. If they weren't exclusive we might just not get them at all. I'm happy to pay just a little bit extra in order to make sure I get what I want, rather then forever have no full teams because they wouldn't sell well enough.

Also, plenty of websites like Nippon Yasan have the exact same process ordering exclusives as retail releases and don't charge a significant amount of middleman cost at all. If you find the right place, there's no jumping through hoops at all.

Shinken Red was pretty much all the proof they needed.

shinken red was a shelf warmer LOL.but simple logic since alot of people were complaining non-stop really. dont like yellow as female pay some xtra $$$ and get the male version then alot of places still have it for preorder so I dont get y people make a big giant fuss over little things like this if they arent happy with it oh well quit being a baby and move on then.i dont mind paying a few xtra dollars for the male version i plan to get both anyways

Yeah now Amazon's selling him for 15$ to get rid of him.

I just can't sympathize with anybody making a fuss over this after having to pay 10,000+ yen to get Kamen Rider Gai.....

It's exactly as Yellow Ranger said. These are marketed as MMPR figures, for MMPR fans. The Yellow Ranger that a vast majority of MMPR fans know is a female. Therefore, a female yellow ranger. Maybe they could have released Male Yellow Ranger stateside, but then it would just confuse people. You'd have to signify somewhere which version of the figure is which (unless they purchase them online, in which case, I'm sure they'll say so in the item description) and undoubtedly, a lot of people are going to end up buying the one that they don't want. People stateside aren't going to be paying attention to the gender because, as far as they're concerned, there's ONLY a female yellow ranger (keep in mind that most Power Rangers aren't even aware of Zyuranger OR a Male Yellow's existence). And could you imagine the box saying MALE Yellow Ranger or FEMALE Yellow Ranger? Most MMPR fans wouldn't even understand it.

So a lot of people are going to have the team standing side by side only to realize....Trini is the exact same height and build as Jason. And that's a problem. Because, while the gender difference wasn't really noticeable in the show due to so much action going on and the rangers constantly posing, if you have them in a static position in a simplistic pose, yes, it's quite easy to tell that that Yellow Ranger is most definitely not Trini.

And on top of all of this, yes, the female Yellow is just as legitimate as male Yellow. There have been more than a few instances where the Yellow Ranger was obviously feminine.

Personally I think the people saying that those who wanted the male yellow ranger are making a fuss are making a bigger fuss themselves.

It's not like all of us are saying "NO SCREW THAT WHY DID THEY MAKE A FEMALE MOLD AND NOT BRING THE MALE MOLD OVER THAT'S BULLSHIT." Hell, most of us who don't want the female mold still think it's pretty damn awesome that they made one for the US.

If we have to go middleman to get the male yellow ranger, then we have to go middleman. It's disappointing that we won't get an option with bluefin, but it's not as anger-fueling as some of you guys seem to be taking it as...

No but those who are are being vocal enough for the rest of you and I at least am getting a little irritated at having to constantly justify this figure's existence to them and hearing some people loudly complain that they'll have to import/pay more for 1 figure also is annoying to some people who have had to do it for entire toy-lines.*Figma,Revoltech,Tamashii pre-Bluefin etc...*

Speak for yourself, but there is an extremely vocal minority that seems furious about this, and as Yellow Ranger said, it's annoying to have to explain why this figure exists.

Shinken red was already released for quite some time when we got a domestic release, It's not the same situation at all. Shinken gold was released at the same time as red in half the numbers and disappeared quickly.

You can't compare those releases one to one. If you want a fair comparison look at how the American release of the MMPR are doing to their zyu counterparts.

I don't have any issue with female or male body lol. MMPR doesn't appeal to me so I import. It's that simple. I do take issues with how much exclusives seem to be happening...not because they happen at all but the amount it is happening at as it goes on. It's an artificial way to drive up the market.

I say it doesn't make sense becuase they are still producing the figures regardless. What does it matter who sells them? Unless retail works differently over there nobody is losing money to have things sold by a different company. A business orders and sells orders.

It makes no sense to make the figures and then sit on them as exclusives....the figures where all still produced. There is no money to be lost or gained

ShinkenRed was a shelf-warmer in Japan too though.