Agreed! I usually prefer speed types but I have to make an exception here due to how much I love the symmetrical design.

Which gives me an unpopular opinion: Lightning Hornet is the only final form that Valkyrie actually needed.

Lightning Collection's base sculpt is okay at best. It's a vast improvement over Legacy and anything else BoA done of course (if anyone's still talking about that), but I still find it way too bulky for the body type Sentai rangers usually have. It works well for larger characters like Black Knight but otherwise it always feels off in some way, not helped by the lack of articulation and expression

Agreed. I'd like to see figures proportioned more like the standard line of Dino Fury/Beast Morphers action figures, but with the LC's greater attention to detail.

I think it works perfectly for a ranger with some kind of chest piece. I'm looking at my DT White, and I'm just glad he's not a He-Man figure with a tiny white vest :lol

As for default rangers, I feel it's fine enough. It's not perfect, but I think it's a good enough representation of what's on screen

Seeing as how Elemental Dragon outright replaces Primitive Dragon, I hate this recent trends of Riders having "two-part forms". Shining Assault Hopper replaced Shining Hopper and Shining was more beautiful than Shining Assault due to its simplicity, and the same goes to Primitive and Elemental.

While I appreciate for the idea behind Elemental in that Touma helped the kid obtaining a friend, Elemental just makes the form look busy and unappealing.

I considered wuxia C-dramas, and some other shows as tokusatsu
 

Here's an unpopular toku opinions. When we think of tokusatsu, we think of Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Ultraman, Godzilla, Gamera, etc....

But if you look at the definition of tokusatsu. Let me quote Tokupedia's definition:

If you looked at the part I bold and underlined. Tokusatsu can mean that non-superheroes and non-daikaiju films and TV shows can be considered in that genre. For example, Here's Japan's Invisible Man (yes, beside King Kong and Spider-man. Japan also did their own take on the Invisible Man):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib5m4P1SKwk

That film is 1949, and 1957 and you can buy it on blu-ray from Arrow Films. But I want to get more in-depth in the definition of tokusatsu since majority of toku fans don't think hard enough on the definition.

The 1975 Hong Kong film, Super Inframan from Shaw Bros would be considered as a tokusatsu because the hero in that film was heavily influenced by Kamen Rider:

https://images.amcnetworks.com/ifcce...raman_1280.png

http://blueprintreview.co.uk/wp-cont...x-1200x520.jpg

Same can be said about Mighty Peking Man, also from Shaw Bros:

https://horrorcultfilms.b-cdn.net/wp...pekingman3.jpg

And this is where the definition of tokusatsu get very interesting for non-Japanese stuff. If you were to say these shows from Toei are considered as tokusatsu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVbRmcviwRQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM4tSRUMShg

Then should the same rule applied to these wuxia drama, one from Hong Kong, and another from Taiwan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK5A0D6o54A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYjYrl-ARW0

I say this because the 2 Toei samurai shows are labeled as tokusatsu, but the 2 wuxia show used similar special effect and specialized martial arts found in lots of tokusatsu shows and just like in Toei's samurai shows. BTW, the Hong Kong one is called Zu Mountain Saga (sadly no English sub available). I don't know the name of the Taiwanese wuxia since I can't find the English name/title. So would you considered the Taiwanese show, and Zu Mountain Saga as tokusatsu? It seem to match the definition of tokusatsu.

What about this, another Taiwanese shows from 1990 (again, I don't know the English name of this show), would you considered this as tokusatsu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqk3c6Xszcs

It has costumed monster, stylized martial art fighting, and probably campy stuff found in tokusatsu shows in Japan. So is it tokusatsu? the Taiwanese shows fit the definition.

The reason I'm making this opinion because I remember reading a drama fan blogger's blog about certain K-dramas and wuxia C-dramas should be given tokusatsu labels, you can read it here:

Should Fans Also Consider Wuxia Series and Sci-Fi Series as Tokusatsu?

Mind Hurts: Why Do I Even Call Certain Fantasy-Based K-Drama And C-Drama As Toku?!

Having watched tokusatsu, wuxia C-dramas, and K-dramas (including one that is sci-fi and fantasy) for a long time. I would agree with the blogger that wuxia C-dramas and some certain K-dramas would be put under tokusatsu label because they not only fit the definition of tokusatsu. Wuxia show whether they're from Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Mainland China if they're using stylized martial arts and costumed monsters (or CG monster design), then it's no different from Super Sentai or Kamen Rider or GARO.

So that is my unpopular tokusatsu opinion, what is tokusatsu, and what fits the definition of tokusatsu.

I'm surprised that tokusatsu fandom communities has not brought up this debate and using non-Japanese shows as evidence to debate what and how to define tokusatsu.

I watch Wuxia. I think Wuxia is what got me into Toku in the first place. So yeah I'd agree with the statement that they are one in the same.

That's what happened to me too. Before tokusatsu, I started out in watching wuxia shows from Hong Kong's TVB as a kid (well, they were dubbed in Vietnamese, and there were no English subtitles for these dramas back then), and I was able to transition to tokusatsu, and K-dramas because of that.

How odd that you and I started out as wuxia watcher and we became toku fans many years later (well, I became a K-drama fan too). But it's strange that toku fans don't branch out/crossover to wuxia dramas given the facts that wuxia shows are gaining more US audiences thanks to streaming like Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video.

Hoo boy does this remind me of the whole 'animes are cartoons' debate (which they totally are).

I found Ultraman Orb episode 1 to be the worst Ultraman starter out of the 6 I've seen, and has left me with no desire to watch the rest of the series.

I mean I'm going to evantually, but it's not because it (or Orb/Juggler in the Geed movie) left a particularly good impression on me.