[Den-O]

Today TokuNation taking a look back at a very special vintage figure with Battle Grid Ryan Steele from VR Troopers!

This unique form is the product of Saban's constraint to use both Metalder & Spielban footage during season 1 of the show. Since the footage came from 2 shows the 3 heroes could never really be shown together on screen without the cost of filming new footage with the Metalder, Spielban, & Diana Lady suits. The easiest solution was to create these new cheaper costumes and write them in as new forms. These were incredibly cheap spandex suits with basic padding on them that all featured poorly repainted Mighty Morphin Red Ranger helmets. Though they definitely aren't as polished as their finished counterparts, they're kind of a fun & quirky love child of the 90's american toku industry. The figure is itself much the same.

Packaging
Typical of the VR Troopers toy line Battle Grid Ryan Steele comes carded, though this card back is a bit larger than most of the figures released in the line. Packaged on the same style of widened cards as the Battle Tech & Turbo Tech figures, you can see tons of cross-sells for the rest of the line. These more Deluxe releases included more accessories than standard VR figures and generally featured weapons and designs not seen in the show. The Battle Grid suits themselves were featured in series, but the weapons the toys included were not. The front of the card features some seriously wicked art that makes a goofy spandex suit with a repainted Red Ranger helmet look truly awesome.

Main Figure
For those who don't know the VR Troopers toy line was actually contracted out by Bandai. Unlike their Power Rangers & Beetleborgs figures, VR Troopers was produced by Kenner. As a result the toy line wound up being a bit of a hodgepodge of various toys and figures, some Japanese molds, some new american molds, and even others imported from other toy lines. The Battle Grid figures are of course entirely US made.

Battle Grid Ryan Steele is pretty unique. It's got the handicap of 90's articulation working against it, but it's otherwise a nice toy. It has basic shoulders & hips, and one "floppy" right elbow joint. It's meant to swing swing the attached blade for a Lightning Strike Punch attack when the legs are squeezed. The figure actually has more to it than the full suit did with the ribbed detailing. And although the show helmet is itself a repainted MMPR Red one, the toy is not a mere repaint but is an original mold meant to evoke it. Which is kind of ironic and awesome.

Accessories
Like any good action figure released in the 90's Battle Grid Ryan Steele included so many accessories that he can't even use them all, nor are any of them relevant to his show appearances. None of theme are officially named on the packaging or elsewhere:

2 - Energy Katanas. Each cast in translucent yellow plastic. They actually aren't that bad, but the figure is only capable of holding one at a time while storing the second in his back holster. Only the left hand is molded open to hold a weapon while the lightning strike right fist is molded shut. So the second katana is kind of overkill. One could assume this weapon is maybe an homage to Metalder's Katana, but that's probably not something that was part of the design process for this toy.

1 - Sai. This is a really odd one. As the only non-energized accessory in the set it's really out of place. Again Ryan can only hold it in his left hand or store it on his back, but that's now 3 weapons he includes with places to put only 2 of them.

1 - VR Troopers Shield. This one is the most awesome accessory in the set. Emblazoned with the VR Troopers logo it's clearly a toy only item that really screams 90's, but it's my favorite thing included with Ryan. Why not bash in a monsters face with a shield bearing your team's name? As with the above accessories you can only place this in his left hand and it can't be stored on his back, so you run into the accessory storage situation again.

Though the accessories are confusing and superfluous they're right in line with what we should expect from a toy released in the mid-90's.

Final Thoughts
Obviously it's hard to review a toy like this 20 years after it's release and try to hold it to some kind of crazy modern standard. This thing is silly, fun, includes a ton of weapons, has an action feature, and honestly looks pretty cool. With some more basic articulation it'd be pretty much perfect. I'm always a sucker for forms created specifically for american toku shows and the Battle Grid suits from VR Troopers take the cake for most odd and fun. Battle Grid Ryan Steele is one weird and awesome piece in my collection. I have Kaitlin as well, but have never been able to find a J.B.