[Den-O]

"Okay Cruise, let's do this!"

Last week, we here at TokuNation received a rather generous gift. The good people at Hasbro sent out a pretty huge and impressive Product Review Mailer containing the entire first wave of Power Rangers Beast Morphers product! A number of fan sites and toy reviewers received them and we were lucky enough to receive one of these free mailers ourselves. While we plan to review all the products it contained, we wanted to kick things off with a review of the big bot in the box. The Beast Racer Zord Action Figure!

Packaging
The Racer Zord comes in a really slim window box that gives you a great view of the product you're about to purchase. Interestingly the bottom of the box is lined with a city skyline of buildings so it looks like the Zord is stepping out over building. Is it a minor touch? Sure, but it's a pretty cool little nod to include on the packaging. The Racer Zord and simultaneously released Beast-X Megazord come in the same size and style of box, which if you're familiar with Hasbro's other properties, you'll recognize the similarities to their Titan Hero line of figure's. In fact they wind up about the same size as the Titan Hero style Endgame Hulk that's on shelves currently. This type of slim style packaging really lends itself quite well to retail shelving and allows manufacturers to get quite a number of products on the shelf at a time.

Main Figure
The Beast Racer Zord is a big, chunky, but most importantly affordable representation of the zord suit it's based on ($19.99 retail). As I've mentioned before, it's designed very similarly to Hasbro's line of Titan Hero figures. In fact Beast Morphers is also getting it's own line of Titan Hero style 12" ranger figures. But the Racer strikes a great balance of being big and having playability. In box, the Racer Zord's feet are detached so that it can still have the same form factor as the Beast-X Megazord. Both boxes being the same size makes for better retail shelf presentation. The feet plug on very snugly and as hard as I've tried they can't be taken back off easily. Not that you'd need to remove them either.

With feet attached you have the complete figure. Clearly based on the suit used for filming rather than being a streamlined toy design, the Beast Racer Zord has some properly heroic proportions. This is largely thanks to the wide legged stance and broad shoulders. You might assume that since this is a pretty affordable toy, that Hasbro may have skimped on the details as well. But much like their 6" Basic Figure line the detail is all their, even if a handful of inconsequential paint apps aren't. The fact is that this toy is insanely well detailed. Looking at any surface on the figure, you can see a wealth of sculpted detail. Front back and side, the Beast Racer Zord has a lot to off in the right light. Funny enough this figure *almost* scales right with the 1" line of Micro Morphers rangers too. So if you have some of those throw a Red Ranger on it's shoulder for fun. I tried to create a sense of scale with some of these figures in a "hangar" type set up, mileage may vary though.

This figure also offers some limited albeit not entirely useful articulation. Each hip is jointed at a 90 degree angle. So the legs can rotate fully forward, though it can't balance on one leg. There's no waist articulation but each arm scan spin a full 360 at the shoulder. Each fist can similarly rotate. And the head has some side to side movement. While that's minimal, at the price point it sells for, the Beast Racer Zord can make enough subtle movements to look pretty good most of the time. It's like the paint apps, while some things are missing, what's there is placed well enough to do a good job. In particular I think the Racer Zord figure features the most accurate head that any toy based on this design has ever had.

When I look at this thing, I tend to think of it like a giant vinyl or even a small shogun warrior type release. It has some delicious super robot proportions, some action features, and just comes across and a great big chunky toy. It's a wonderful addition to a Beast Morphers or Go-Busters collection as just a nice static robot. And it has weapons!

Accessories
Before cracking the box open, I hadn't actually realized that the Beast Racer Zord came with any weapons, but the two included make for a little more bang for your buck than before. Each Racer Zord comes with a sword & an axe! The Sword is based on the Go-Buster Ace's Buster Sword, though it has so far gone unnamed in Beast Morphers. The Axe is swimilarly unnamed and as best as I can tell, a toy original design included with this figure. Each fits perfectly into either open fists of the Beast Racer Zord. Again I really appreciate the chunker suit style proportions of the weapons. I guess that's my thing with giant robots.

Final Thoughts
As far as $19.99 action figures go, I think the Beast Racer Zord does a great job at being an affordable yet fun toy for kids. And I'm not just saying that because I got it for free. Plenty of you know how critical I've been of Power Rangers toys through out the years, but with things like the Beast Racer Zord, we're definitely taking a step in the right direction. Kids will find lots of play in this chunky robot, and collector's will find a great display piece. It's really the best of both worlds. And if you don't like it, just remember that there is a transforming Racer Zord coming out later this year for $25. There's something for everyone.