I get the your point. I feel like Dino Charge was a good example of how it was implemented well without affecting the way the zords of the season combined apart from the missing electronics, but, there are also examples like Super Megaforce. They zord builder concept hindered the gimmick of the season. It was a unique gimmick that was unnecessarily watered down to accommodate zb ports, tho i feel like boa also went cheap. Not every zord is created equal to have a universal port.

In more cases than not the Zord Builder part of Bandai America's product line hampered the toy rather than accentuate it.

Legacy Tigerzord, anyone?

To give props to Zord Builder, it let me make a better final form for GokaiOh than the actual one.

Overall, I think BOA did a great job with PR toys given their budget. This is especially true for much of the legacy merchandise. That being said, Hasbro does have more resources, so there will likely be an improvement to the mainline PR toys. There will still be cost cutting measures though. Just look at their mainline Transformers figures.

It isn't as easy for them to just import the BOJ toys. You'd have to sell the megazords for like $80-100 and that is still too much for the average customer. So I think there won't be as many changes to the American/Japanese distribution. Hasbro will handle the American PR toys and BOJ will handle the Super Sentai toys.

I don't know why some people are so hesitant to import the Sentai stuff. If you want it, that's what you have to do. There are several sites you can get them from.

Anyway, I'm hopeful to see what comes next, particularly for the legacy line.

It's been proven that it can be done right numerous times. Dino Charge Megazord was never going to have electronics in the first place, so that's not a good example. All the Dino Charge Zords are very modest with their Zordbuilder usage. There aren't even any ports/pegs on the Blue, Pink, or Aqua Zords.

It wasn't Zordbuilder that hindered the Legendary Megazord, it was the $35 price point. There's no reason a Zordbuilder Legendary Megazord couldn't have also had the original gimmick. The Aux Zords could have even still connected via Zordbuilder, but it would have been Zordbuilder ports within the limbs rather than on top of them.

Tigerzord was just laziness on Bandai's part. They needed the Zord to be compatible with a hypothetical Thunder Megazord, and the easiest option was to slap some Zordbuilder pegs on it and worry about it later. The added bonus was that it gave Tigerzord an extra selling point/functionality while people hoped for a Thunder Megazord to be made.

BOJ could make he's own mechas designs now they don't need of BOA.

BOJ always have. The ONLY time BOJ have ever listened to BOA on designs was Kyuranger.

BOJ have always been the only ones designing Sentai suits/mecha/weapons and they always will be. Hasbro won't get a say, and Hasbro being the American partner rather than BOA won't affect BOJ's designs one bitl.

What if Hasbro buy Toei/Bandai ?

Are Power Rangers exclusive Ranger forms and weapons come from BoJ as well?

Unfortunately, I think this an honest question - and that honestly baffles me.
Hasbro buying Toei and Bandai is impossible. For one, they'd have no interest in buying Japanese companies, two, they wouldn't have enough money, and three, Toei and Bandai would never sell.

Things. Aren't. Changing. Not in that way.

You mean the extremely few times that happens in the show? I'm not sure; I don't think so, though, no, I think that would be BOA.

Toy-only shit though, like, say, the bonus Dino Charge toys would definitely have been purely BOA though.

Yes, these pointless armored forms for their original cockpit scenes and the new weapons they use that weren't in the original sentai. If these were purely BoA creations then good riddance. I hated finding these figures with these stupid armors clogging the shelves instead of the figures of them outside the cockpits.

Will Hasbro be able to afford to import the BOJ molds to the US or will they resort to making their own molds instead?

I imagine they'll probably import, to be honest.

This news didn't surprise me. Bandai's UK office truly hate the show and have genuinely believed they could produce it better for years. Now they have an in-house creative agency working on a rival franchise, in London and with Toei in Tokyo, so they've servered ties and are looking forward. Good.

Credit to Saban Brands realising they're not talented enough to do this alone, so have just agreed to sell it to Hasbro. That's pretty refreshing.

It depends. Bandai Namco is expected to increase its shares in Toei into a controlling stake later this year, and I could see some hurdles being added on-top of an already trying relationship. That could include exclusivity over things like molds. Heck, maybe even stopping Saban Brands from licensing the show, if Bandai Namco can adapt Super Sentai itself. They now have the resources and budget to, according to their restructuring announcement.

But not the rights. Saban own the western distribution rights for the Super Sentai franchise.

Given Saban and Hasbro have just announced they're adapting Go-Busters, it looks like there is indeed some sort of issue...

I hope the zord builder system survives but I don't expect it to. I like that whole thing but I don't think it was super sustainable with Bandai.

If a mecha design is going to use pegs, then they can make them zord builder compatible. Those pegs can be a standard size. But don't force something to use ZB for the sake of using it. Like Kyurenoh relies in a different type of connection and shouldn't use ZB.

So Imaginext Power Rangers is over now right?

Here comes every Ranger Key that was and wasn't in Super Megaforce by Hasbro.

I have to wonder what this means for Bandai of America. To my knowledge, the only popular line they really have now is Dragonball Z.

Hasbro has worked with the company that makes the Chinese version of Super Sentai, "Giant Saver, Space Deleter, & Rescue Engine".
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20140405142151 https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20150124040322 https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20160928143913

Also Takara Tomy had it's own version of Super Sentai as well, the Tomica Hero Series "Rescue Force & Rescue Fire".
https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20150517130402 https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20150508012959

So maybe they could use them as Power Rangers maybe.

I would love to get my hands on the Space Deleters Morphers. Lol!

I mean, the deal is still with Toei, so that's probably not going to happen.

That's one thing I don't understand. If BoA co-designed it why is it not Zordbuilder friendly? I was really curious to see what they had planned for that one. I guess we'll never know now.

As a life-long Magic: The Gathering player (created by WoTC, subsidary of Hasbro), I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I'm ecstatic to see BoA out of the picture; product quality has significantly dipped ever since they had a few higher up execs leave the company and their product distribution hasn't been so great either. On the other hand, the card quality of new Magic products has been trash for the last two years or so and both Hasbro/WotC have been silent on the matter. However, at the end of the day I suppose that Hasbro is the one company I'd trust in regards to product distribution and brand-recognition. Based on what I've seen from the Marvel Legends line, I'm actually very pleased with the articulation, paint, and overall quality in general.

Didn't Hasbro try to get Lionsgate last year? Makes me wonder if they were just trying to their hands on owning all live action toy movies.

I realized that with Hasbro doing the toys this would mean there will no longer be those 'Cockpit Modes' right? Since Go-Busters already had Powered Custom.

So are we guessing that Megazords will be the same size as Combiners from Transformers?

Can Takara help design the new Megazord figures?

Not in a million years. The Megazords are designed by Bandai of Japan - Takara’s biggest rival. There is no way they’d pay their rival to help them out, and then have to pay them a fraction of every profit.

It'd be like Sony asking Nintendo to help design their next handheld. It just won't happen.

I meant for Hasbro's Power Rangers toylines, not design Megazords for the Sentai.

Yes, I know. Bandai will not allow their biggest economic rival to design toys for their property.
If Takara helped design them, then Hasbro would have to pay Takara for the work, and that means Takara would be profiting from BoJ's time and money.

Refer again to my 'Nintendo designing Sony's next handheld' analogy. It won't happen.

Funny how you say that about Sony when the playstation was a collaborative project between Sony and Nintendo at first.

Keep in mind companies may help others out to make sure the market is healthy. Competition is healthy

Now as to Takara working on stuff.

We are talking about Power Rangers. BOJ can't do anything about business in the US when it comes to Power Rangers. If Hasbro is designing the toys then BOJ can't jump in.

I don't think Hasbro is going to be BOJ distributor. They aren't going to take BOJ molds to make the megazords and other figures.

So Takara would not be profiting off BOJ's work.

I never said PlayStation, did I? I said ‘handheld’ as in a generic thing. Don’t put words in my mouth.

Furthermore, there is every chance that Hasbro will, indeed, use the BoJ molds.
And even if they don’t, Hasbro has to pay BoJ for the right to make Power Rangers toys in the West.
And if Takara were to design those toys, Hasbro would have to pay Takara too.

Therefore, yes, Takara would be profiting from Bandai’s intellectual property. Or rather, it’s joint intellectual property with Toei.

Bottom line, BoJ would have had to have been part of whatever negations resulted in Hasbro getting the licence, and considering how bitter rivals BoJ and Takara are, it is highly likely that a ‘keep Takara out of it’ clause would have been in the agreement.

It’s simple business studies.

Does Bandai own Super Sentai though or is it Toei?

As I say in my post - they own it jointly.

If that was true then Power Rangers would not have been able to leave Bandai at all, right?

It is true. That is a fact.

And that is exactly my point. For Bandai of Japan to let the toy rights for Power Rangers slip from their American branch they must be convinced it is in their best interest.

Hence the likelihood that there is a lot to the agreement that we will just never know - all kinds of provisos and what not. Chiefly of which, of course, would be not letting Takara -their chief rivals - anywhere near it.