[Den-O]

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"Where's mah autograph book?!"

It's time for another installment in TokuNation's long series of toy galleries! And today is very special indeed as this thread marks our 400TH GALLERY ENTRY! To celebrate this momentous milestone today's gallery will be a 2 for 1 special. We're doing back to back photo sets of the big bad boss from the Original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Movie! The galactically feared, globally reviled, and universally despised Ivan Ooze!

Today's gallery breaks down into 2 posts. The first post will focus on the vintage Evil Space Aliens series Ivan Ooze figure while the second post will spotlight the MMPR Movie Legacy 5" Ivan Ooze! But there's also a third element to this gallery, a poll! We've posed the question to you, the community, which of these 2 Ivan Ooze figures is the best? Which one would you prefer in your collection? After you've checked out both reviews and all the pictures within head to the top of the thread to vote!

Now let's get started!

Evil Space Aliens Ivan Ooze Review

Packaging
A real blast from the past, like the character himself, is the Evil Space Aliens Ivan Ooze figure. Definitely a product of the 90's this figures packaging is a bit at odds with what the card backs looked like for many Power Rangers toys of the era. Gone were the primarily green season 1 & 2 cards, now solidly purple.

The back of the card features several cross sells , one of which is kind of perplexing too. Featured is a small section labelled as "Movie Edition" Evil Space Aliens. It's odd because yes Ivan is in that section as is Zedd, but so is a Tenga Warrior & Mordant. None of these figures were ever released in packaging labeling them as "Movie Edition" despite this cross sell, Actually aside from this cross sell image nothing on the packaging would even indicate that Ivan comes from the MMPR Movie toyline. The logos used are all MMPR TV even. Whereas the 6" & 8" Movie Ranger figures had come in specifically movie themed packaging.

This cross sell image is also one of the only known images of the prototype Ivan Ooze figure. It's entirely different from the final product released. Based on that lone prototype it appears as though Ivan's lower body is a solid chunk of pink plastic with what appears to be arms that are sculpted as though they are crossed. The only purple detailing appears on his head and around his neck frill. I'd very much like to see what this figure would have been like in hand. Aside from cross sells, a very brief demonstrative image is also printed on the back showcasing Ivan's action feature. A small dial on his back that when rotated moves his arm up and turns his head to the proper forward direction.

Main Figure
Now when you pop Ivan out of the package the first thing you should notice is that his head is turned at a 90 degree angle towards his right shoulder. This is intentional sadly. Because of the above mentioned dial gimmick, Ivan's head at it's resting position stares out across that shoulder. When you spin the dial to raise his right arm up, the heads looks more directly forward in increments. So the only way to have him face properly forward is to raise the arm up completely.

Aside from this I have to admit something, for a toy made in 1995 based on a one-ff movie villain this figure is detailed pretty well. Mind you it's nowhere near accurate, but it looks great. A very vibrant pink clashes with lilac robes and a putrid purple head & hands to really make a nice evil villain figure. The sculpt on his arms in particular is incredibly detailed for a figure of this nature. But then again so are the robes and the intricate ornamentation on the front of them. his back side however is pretty flat and bland.

The head sculpt, while horrifyingly derpy, is actually fairly close to the actual movie look. The horns and growths on his face are generally all where they should be though the proper separation of colors has been lost. With toys for movies though they're generally developed a bit in advance of the films release so some times an early draft of a character is all a company has to work with. For a figure made by BOA in 1995 with these conditions, he looks great. That being said he really can't do much. One arm that can rotate, and another whose rotations is permanently linked to his head mean he's pretty bland for most any pose at all. He's essentially a brick with 1 & 1/2 arms worth of movement.

Accessories
Ivan Ooze includes just one accessory. An unnamed and otherwise non-existent Staff. This odd accessory has no basis in the film but again dues to the production time of this figure may indicate that an earlier version of him did not use the Flute/Wand seen in the actual movie. As is it's a pretty cool looking piece though it's made of pretty gummy soft plastic.

Final Thoughts
For a toy of it's kind and of it's age the vintage Evil Space Aliens Ivan Ooze is pretty interesting. Given the time BOA had to produce it and what they had to work with in 1995 it really isn't too terrible. It fits in more with a collection of 5" scaled toys than anything though as he doesn't mix too well with any other villain figures I own. But for what he is, this representation of Ivan is pretty passable. Now let's movie on to the 5" Legacy Ivan Ooze!