[Den-O]

"Mastodon!"

An interdimensional wizard asking him to defend the earth from a 10,000 year old witch may have been just too weird for Zack Taylor, at first. But faced with a choice, let monsters attack him and his friends or step up and defend the Earth, he was always going to do the right thing. Clever & brave, Zack was gifted the powers of the Mighty Morphin Black Ranger & the powerful Mastodon Dinozord! Protecting Earth from the likes of Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd, Zack was the first in a long line of Black Powers Rangers and powerful black heroes.

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
The mold that never dies, returns again! This is now the 7th outing of the male Mighty Morphin body, including the second Green Ranger that I've yet to get in hand. (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. And it is exactly what we got before with the Red Ranger & Blue Ranger, the only differences being cosmetics and a new helmet.

As mentioned above, nothing has changed other than cosmetically. The Mighty Morphin Black 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 Mastodon Power Coin, while a holster sits on the left hip for the included Blade Blasters.

Like his mold mates, the Black 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 Black Ranger design. It is of course carried over directly from the Dragon Shield Black Ranger release. As for articulation, the neck assembly is identical to the rest of the line. Nothing new, just solidly functional.

Accessories

1 - Zack Taylor civilian head. Joining an exclusive club of only a few characters which have had multiple head sculpts in the line, Zack gets his 2nd one here. It seem Hasbro was probably going for an MMPR Season 3 look, roughly around the White Light storyline with this head. Whereas the head that came with Dragon Shield Black Ranger represents Zack at some point roughly during the first season. I have to say that this new Zak likeness isn't nearly as strong as the first one. It still gets the point across that it's based on actor Walter Jones, but it definitely could have been better. Luckily the head that came with the previous release works just fine on this one.

1 - Power Axe. A re-pack of the accessory included with the SDCC Red Ranger and with the Dragon Shield Black Ranger, the Power Axe is a nice beefy compliment to the Black Ranger. What I really appreciate about it though is that it's functional. The sliding mechanism of the barrel allows you to display it as either the Axe or Blaster modes. The grip for blaster mode is a little bit too large to be held properly by the included hands, but this is even more apparent with the axe handle. It's an incredibly thick handle, and you will have to stretch the hands a bit to make him hold it correctly. Since this is a repack of the weapon as we've seen it previously, it can also combine with the other individual Power Weapons if you so choose.

1 - Power Axe Blaster Effect. Another reuse from a prior release, we get the Power Axe blast effect again, but this time recast in a swirling red with glittery accents. IT plugs directly into the blaster end of the axe and could be use either for the individual blaster or for the combined Power Blaster. I think the intent may have been to use this read one for the combined mode given how that effect is generally rendered in the show.

1 - Blade Blaster (Blaster Mode). Continuing an unfortunate pattern, Hasbro has opted to include the Blade Blaster 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.

1 - Blade Blaster (Sword Mode). Now this is unique. The standard Black Ranger is the first and only ranger to include this version of the Blaster. The SDCC Red Ranger came with the only fully collapsed Dagger Mode, while every other ranger in the line came with the Blaster Mode version. For whatever reason though, Zack includes the the extended blade/sword version of the Blaster. So it's about 1/3 extra length compared to the collapsed version. And it also makes no sense in the hip holster. It's really cool that Zack includes this, but if you wanted your core Mighty Morphin Rangers to each have one you'd have to buy 4 more Black Rangers to do it.

2 - Alternate hands. Continuing another recent trend with Lightning Collection figures, the Black 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 Black Ranger finally rounds out the 5 core Mighty Morphin Rangers, while a standard version of the Green Ranger has also been released recently. So now the whole team in their standard suits is out there and we can finally display the full team. It's great that the line has already gotten to this point only in it's 2nd year. And with the bulk of all the MMPR releases out of the way, though I'm sure there will be more, I look forward to what areas the Lightning Collection expands into next. As for my next Lightning Collection review, I'm finally getting the chance to tackle Alpha 5 & Zordon!