Power Rangers 2014-beyond: Fully articulated combining Zord-builder Megazords?
 

With BoA taking polls in recent months for collectors, and with some PLEX designers now working with BoA on the Power Rangers line, in addition to more interesting toys(build & morph zords, et al).....do you think BoA will start making fully articulated combining Megazords?

I think BoA is taking note that fully articulated figures aren't bad additions. Notice the newest Retrofires, Gosei Great and Gosei Grand. The main 4" line has quite a bit of articulation and the 6" Armored Might figures are fully articulated.

The Zord builder line would be more fun for me, if it had fully articulated zords. I would definitely start buying them for sure.

Thoughts?

That does sound cool, but unfortunately if BoA were going to do that they would have by now.

Yeah i am surprised that they are not articulated already wether in Sentai or Power Rangers. I think the reason they don't is because of the certain aesthetic they want. I would love to see it happen. One look at any of the 3rd party combiners in the Transformers community will say it all.

I would be okay with this. If they're going to do something like this, then maybe instead of down-scaling the BOJ DX versions, they could up scale the candy toys. That would be really cool.

I might actually start buying them if this happens.

Considering not even DX Sentai mecha don't even have elbows despite them being unobtrusive to add for most figures, I doubt we'll see them on BoA stuff.
Inb4 Minipla.

Dammit, you beat me to it. :lol

Good luck with this ever happening. I'd be happy if they just imported Minipla.

Well I'm not saying minipla, minipla would be cool but I'm talking zordbuilders.

You'd be surprised how compatible the Minipla are.

Unless they're compatible with ZB, it really don't factor in.

Changed title for clarity

id be shocked if this came to pass. i know they redesign the BOA mecha to suit their requirements, i cant see them making them more complex.

Id like to see the retrofire megazords improved or get more in line with the chogokin versions

that right there will never happen

It's not like SOC hasn't made a Sentai mecha before.
http://external.ak.fbcdn.net/safe_im...1HXY5VFZQL.jpg

EDIT: Misread that. Megaforce Retrofire is as good as it's gonna ever get.

For the record: I knew full well what the thread was about. I was just saying I'd rather have them import minipla.

he meant the SRCs though

Honestly, fully articulated toys that combine is impossible. One cannot exist with the other. Sure, you could use Toynami's MP Voltron or Mattel's giant one as an example, but even those are limited in what you could do with it. Fully articulated mecha can only work if they are one piece.

I'd imagine it's a completely feasible engineering feat, if we're thinking on the same lines of what "fully articulated" means. Now, in terms of resource management and cost-cutting? That window is much, much smaller, and I agree. But with a certain degree of partsforming and perhaps replacing limbs, it's absolutely within the realm of possibility.

But that's not true at all. Take Minipla, make them not so mini, a standard size, and have them prebuilt. Boom, fully articulated Zords and Megazords.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I don't think there's too much of a problem with that idea, it's just the word "fully" here. My assumption was more of a pipe dream that it meant SRC-level or something. I'd be amazed if BoA could pull that off successfully in any figure of theirs.

I just want elbows.
We had them for Gao, and then they just said "Screw that" ever since.

Anyway, miniplas are nice, but since ratchet joints are a thing, it's not like it's impossible to put an elbow here, and for mecha who's legs allow, waist joints and knees for DX mecha.

Gao was such a beautiful mech..

My Animus toy is missing 90% of it's accessories.
It's still better than most other DX mecha. :I

Which is both a testament to how awesome Gaoranger's Mecha were, and how godaweful they are now.

well we need all to thin in the design side with BOA its one or the other. but if they gave an idea like this to some one else say hasbro or mattel then yea i can see it.

All DX mecha need to be sufficient for me are:

1) Full-rotation shoulders
2) Elbows
3) Wrists
4) Waist
5) Cut neck

Basically, Gekitouja with elbows and neck.

I don't think they even need leg articulation, which is often useless unless fully articulated like a Figuart.

I still think there's a shot. BoA has been utilizing articulation more and more in their Ranger releases.

Baby steps.
If I can get elbows and wrists, then I'd be good.
However, if they're Voltron-Ohs, then lack of waist had damn well be for their gimmick.

I'm not so sure. The problem being that the Megazords are still 5 individual robots all coming into one larger robot.

Well I can deal with compromises so long as the combined mode is fully articulated. For example, I would have definitely bought the Samurai Megazord had it been fully articulated, despite the zords lacking emblem modes(which is terribly disappointing for me).

Full articulation for me would be:

• Neck swivel
• Ball/universal joint shoulders
• Elbows
• Ball/Universal joint hips
• Knees

Thigh/bicep swivels, ab-crunch and ankle rockers would be icing on the cake.

Concessions have to be made somewhere. Either you sacrifice the look of the individual zords for an articulated Megazord or you sacrifice an articulated Megazord for screen accurate zords.

It has to start with the zord design first, from TV to toyline.

That's a bit much, though. Joints in the shoulders needs to be accommodated by both central robot and attaching piece, and many transformations can't make that compromise without ruining the aesthetic of the arm's vehicle.
Same goes for hips, which would almost always need to be ratcheted because of the weight they need to support (Blah blah cheap BoA plastic is light, yes, but it can still get cumbersome).

I don't need bicep swivels and an ab crunch is a pipe dream, but neck swivel, elbows, and maybe knees if I'm feeling fancy, would be all that I would want, right now.

I can take a sacrificed aesthetic for the individual zords, for a fully articulated Megazord.

But that just leads to the question of why have the DX mecha make the aesthetic and visual sacrifices when things like SRC drops the combination all together for an articulated Megazord?

I don't see this ever happening. The design philosophy behind mech/zord toys isn't about articulated robots, it's about the combination gimmick. The toys need to be able to have separate modes, a combined mode, combined modes with later releases, and sometimes alternate solo modes. All the engineering goes into that and articulation is typically the first thing on the chopping block to accommodate the combining. Unless Sentai goes back to mecha that are either standalone or formed out of 2-3 components, I don't see articulation ever getting much better than 2-5 points on average.

It's because I'd like something that combines too.

But at the end result you'd have something like Hybrid Style Convoy. Making so many sacrifices for the robot mode that the alternate is just hideous.

How is it that a recent combiner from Transformers (official or fan-made) can be articulated and good looking in all modes? Candy toy Sentai Robos are more articulated than DX and also accurate (hit or miss on that, but even DX toys are or at least feel inaccurate in proportions) to the show.
BoA is stuck making new molds, and if Samurai is anything to go by, they don't care if your TigerZord doesn't drill things properly or your BeetleZord is a sheild.
Besides, ZordBuilder is (possibly) doomed by Go-Buster and Kyoryuger.

I can't vouch for the fan-made stuff, but Hasbro combiners always have to sacrifice something for their articulation. Usually it's stability or compromised aesthetics. None of the modern Hasbro combiners feel quite as solid and durable as the Bandai Super Sentai ones. It's no wonder people still prefer G1 combiners over the stuff we get nowadays.

I do think we'll see the end of the Zord Builder come GoBuster's adaptation...

At least Hasbro tries. Execution might not be pitch perfect, but "A" for effort.

Look at galleries of the GoBuster mecha and try to place the Zord Builder pegs without completely compromising everything. It's fairly hard.

And Kyoryujin's legs can't work with the Zord Bulder pegs either. The shoulders maybe, but those pegs would be under a LOT of stress.