[Den-O]

"Morphinominal!"

Billy Cranston was an average kid with a way beyond average intellect. Making his way through high school with his friends was hard enough, before a benevolent inter-dimensional being chose him and 4 others to protect the Earth from an ancient evil sorceress! Patient & wise, Billy was gifted the powers of the Mighty Morphin Blue Ranger & the powerful Triceratops Dinozord! Part of an incredible team, Billy defended the Earth for years to come as it's one and only Blue Ranger. When things changed, Billy was always there with a steady hand and strong mind to help guide the Power Rangers towards victory.

Packaging
As we are all pretty familiar with the line by now, I'm sure I probably don't need to go through my usual list of reasons why it's awesome. Hasbro was keen to make sure these appealed to collectors and fans of the franchise from throughout it's various eras. And they also really pop thanks in no small part to some wonderful box art, lovingly crafted by artist Tom Whalen aka @strongstufftom on twitter. His artwork is breathtaking, and makes these figure's feel like just a bit more of a passion project from the folks at Hasbro.

Main Figure
It should be obvious by now, but this isn't the first time we've seen this mold. This is now the 4th outing of the male Mighty Morphin body. (MMPR White & Lord Drakkon share their own basic mold, differing from this one a bit.) What we have here is the exact same body type we got with the Dragon Shield Red Ranger, Dragon Shield Black Ranger, & Fighting Spirit Green Ranger, just sans the shield and armbands. This is a functionally identical toy in every single way to the standard Red Ranger released in Wave 3.

As mentioned above, nothing has changed other than cosmetically. The Mighty Morphin Blue Ranger features full rotating rocker ankles as well as a clicking swivel joint for them to go back and forth, giving us a solid start. Above this is a shin swivel as well at the boot cuff, allowing you to rotate that portion of the leg 360 degrees below the knee if you wish. There's a very playful double jointed knee which allows you to fully bend the leg back in on itself. This is already great but there's also a 360 thigh swivel as well as full hips with back/forth and outward motion. All of these cuts are executed in the now standard Lightning Collection styling, doing their best to not be obtrusive to the character's design. On the belt is the classic Power Morpher featuring the Triceratops Power Coin, while a holster sits on the left hip for the included Blade Blaster.

Like his mold mates, the Blue Ranger features the same torso articulation. The lower half of the torso has the same satisfying ratcheting ab joint I've come to appreciate from the line while the upper half sits on a ball joint. The combination of the two gives you quite a bit to work with when posing. The arms hit the sweet spot with that classic butterfly style shoulder joint. As you angle the shoulder back, the armor slides out to fill the gap and vice versa. There's a full 360 rotating bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, and the same peg style hands as the rest of the line. The head also nails the sculpt and design of the Blue Ranger design. It feels a bit stronger and more well defined than the Red Ranger for sure. As for articulation, the neck assembly is identical to the rest of the line. Nothing new, just solidly functional.

Accessories

1 - Billy Cranston civilian head. Like most any Lightning Collection Ranger, the Blue Ranger comes with an alternate civilian head. Based on the likeness of actor David Yost. Now I've seen lots of complaining about this head online, but I'm not sure I get the distaste of it. I think this winds up being a pretty great likeness of Mr. Yost ala MMPR season 1. It's lifelike, there's an expression which many heads in the line lack, and there's a great attention to detail particularly with the glasses. Is it perfect? No. But I don't think this one deserves much of the derision is gets. It's nothing like the generally terrible Dino Charge Gold & Zeo Blue civillian heads.

2 - Power Lances (separate). These are straight repacks of the ones that came with the SDCC Red Ranger in the Power Blaster set. While I know they don't have a specific name for when they're separated like this, there more like sai's in this form than lances. As is they feel a little more rigid than the ones that came in the Power Blaster.

1 - Power Lance (full length). Now this is more like it. While I find it difficult for Billy to hold it with two hands in pose that doesn't bend it substantially, it's certainly nice to have both versions of the Lance included. And this one being the proper length really does it for me as well. It would have been a real shame if it weren't scaled properly.

1 - Blade Blaster (Blaster Mode). Continuing an unfortunate pattern, Hasbro has opted to include the Blade Blaster only in it's Blaster form. Meaning that when holstered in the any of the MMPR Ranger's belts, it's entirely inaccurate. In all Zyuranger footage, and even in American produced MMPR suit footage, the Blade Blaster is always closed and usually fully collapsed when holstered. You can hide the butt of the gun at certain angles but it just isn't the right accessory. If we were going to get the blaster, then they should have also included the holstered form too but I've said that with what, like 5 MMPR releases at this point as well?

1 - Energy Effect part. This one's been recast in different colors a couple times in the line, mostly recently with the single pack version of the Zeo Gold Ranger. It's maybe my least favorite effect as well. It's just really flimsy and doesn't secure around anything very well. Particularly something as spindly as Billy's lance.

2 - Alternate hands. Continuing another recent trend with Lightning Collection figures, the Blue Ranger comes with his two weapon holding hands attached in box. And his alternates are both closed fists, giving us two matching sets. As always I'd like more variety, but honestly I really appreciate having some matching pairs like this.

Final Thoughts
The Lightning Collection Mighty Morphin Blue Ranger certainly doesn't do much to change up the formula of the other MMPR releases, but it's still another solid entry for this team. As much it's hard to find new ways to talk about a mold that's been out as many times as this one, a fresh coat of paint and new accessories really can do wonders. The next time I tackle an MMPR review, it'll be for the Black Ranger. Finally completing the core team of rangers without Dragon Shields.