Vault Review: Super Samurai Green Ranger (Legends)

Vault

For the last sixteen years, there has been some version of the Power Rangers on the airwaves, and for the last sixteen years there has been a toy line to accompany it. When a toy line runs for that long, there are bound to be issues. Over the years, different characters were made while others were left out. There’s been a plethora of body types and different scales – making it hard to cobble together a single collection of all the different teams. Until, Bandai finally caught on. Under the title of “Super Legends” and coming on a distinctly retro-green colored card, these chase figures allow Power Ranger fans to start putting together teams of toys from our childhood.

The Super Samurai Green Ranger comes to us from Power Rangers: Ninja Storm. Cameron Watanabe is the son of Kanoi Watanabe, the Sensei to the Ninja Rangers. At the beginning of the Ninja Storm series he is not a ranger, but after going back in time he retrieves a family heirloom which allows him the power to morph.


All modern Power Ranger figures pretty much have the same body. It’s Bandai’s version of a “buck”, and it works pretty well for the most part. The Green Ranger here is no different. Swivel joint for the neck, ball joint shoulders, hinged elbows, swivel wrists, ball joint thighs, hinged knees, and for some reason instead of giving them an ankle joint they are given swivel calves. This gives all their figures a pretty good range of movement, but I really find those swivel calves a poor substitute for a good ankle joint.

There aren’t any problems with the few paint apps present. Most of his body is molded in green plastic and his upper arms are molded gray. This just leaves the few spots where they had to fill in the white, gold, and black. There’s no paint slop or missed applications, something I’ve come to notice Bandai is pretty consistent with on all their Rangers toys. This is kind of annoying. Not because of Bandai, but because of other companies that don’t do as well.

This leads me to the price. You can go out right now and pick up a Power Ranger for about seven dollars. They have decent articulation, great paint jobs, and usually an accessory or two. Marvel Legends, DC Classics, MOTU Classics will all run you at least twice as much and you’d be lucky to get any accessory and such a good paint job. This is a really sore subject for me on MOTU Classics, which are twenty dollars plus shipping, and consistently seem to have some sort of slop problems with the paint. Sure makes me wish I only liked Power Rangers.

Last but not least for our green guy are the accessories. He comes with three, technically. But, I’m going to count the third as more of a pack-in than accessory. First is his sword, which is molded green and not painted. It’s made of soft plastic so it can bend, but it does also retain its shape very well. There’s also his scabbard which is made of hard plastic and can hold the sword. The scabbard attaches to his belt with a square peg and there’s a swivel which allows for it to be positioned back or forth to keep it from hindering the articulation.

Now, I have to be honest with you. I’m not the biggest fan of the Ninja Storm series. There’s nothing wrong with it per se, it just never really grabbed my attention like some of the other series have. So when I first saw this guy at the store, I didn’t really care so much. At least, not until I saw what came with him. Kanoi Watanabe is the Sensei of the Wind Ninja Academy, teacher of the Ninja Storm rangers, and father of Cameron, the green ranger. Pretty fancy for a guinea pig. He wasn’t always a guinea pig though; the main villain turned him into one. But don’t worry; he gets turned back into a human by the end of the series. Hope I didn’t spoil it for anyone.

Sensei is one solid piece of gray and has no articulation. I do give him credit though because he can stand on his own, and he’s mostly to scale with the regular figures. The paint aps on his head, arms, and belt are really good. There’s no slop for such a small piece. The only bad thing about him for collectors is that Bandai is only going to include him with the Super Samurai Green Ranger. So if you really wanted the Sensei, or wanted to just complete the team, you’ll have to buy this figure.

The Super Legends figures are chase figures, only one per case. So if you want one, you will have to hunt for them. Other than that, they are well worth owning. It’s definitely nice to be able to combine the different teams seamlessly. There’s some really good quality control here, and for the price of what a toy used to cost eight years ago, you can’t beat that.

35 thoughts on “Vault Review: Super Samurai Green Ranger (Legends)”

  1. Your reviews bring on the weirdest ads. First, Mr. Freeze had to protect his wife and kids froma attack and right now, this Power Ranger is bringing up ads asking if you suffer chronic pain. 😀

      1. yeah, Tommy was awesome as the Green/White rangers, but now he’s like the ranger that won’t die lol.

  5. These look too plain for my taste. It’s good they don’t cost as much as some of Mattel’s nicer stuff.

    1. They are plain, but it serves the purpose. Power Ranger outfits just aren’t that detailed usually.

  6. I will never understand how Power Rangers takes up so much aisle space. I guess I’m just too old.

    1. appealing to kiddies for over a decade now. Bandai knows what they’re doing I guess.

  7. It’s a nice change of pace to hear positive things about Bandai–if you spent any time on a dedicated Power Rangers board, you’d swear Bandai was responsible for every major crime against humanity in the past 15 years.

    I suppose, like with every other line, disapproval of the product comes from the ridiculously high expectations of the fans. They forget the target audience of Power Rangers consists of 8-year-olds with $10 to spend on a new toy, not 35-year-olds who can afford to import the “superior” Japanese Megazords with the die-cast metal, lavish paint jobs and (as of late) gimmicky candy toy add-ons in the vein of Mini-cons or Cyber Planet Keys from “Transformers: Armada” and “Cybertron,” respectively.

    So now–in case you hadn’t heard–the next line of toys is going to focus on the original “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” series. Awesome, right?

    Well, apparently Bandai found another way to screw things up. Instead of keeping the figures 6″ (like Super Samurai Ranger), they’re just above 4″ like a G.I. Joe. So of course, the fandom cried foul and raised their fists in despair. God forbid that Little Timmy can now have the Red Ranger, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Snake Eyes and Spider-Man all team up in 3 3/4″ scale. Oh, no. THE LONGTIME FANS WHO HAVE SUPPORTED THIS FRANCHISE FROM THE BEGINNING HAVE BEEN BETRAYED! THERE WILL BE NO REST UNTIL THE STREETS OUTSIDE BANDAI’S OFFICES RUN RED WITH BLOOD! A SACRIFICE MUST BE MADE! DRAGONZORD MUST BE PLEASED!

    1. Oh, and I forgot to mention, this is indeed the SUPER Green Samurai, but there is another, non-Super version. The “normal” version has a green vest/shoulder armor that (loosely) fits over his torso, and his helmet is spun around (the cross-shaped section on the back of Super Samurai’s helmet is the default version of his helmet).

      It actually makes sense…

      1. That’s a pretty familiar thing when it comes to any fanbase I think. At least, it seems that way with MOTU, DC Classics, and comic books.

    2. I know! PR fans can really suck sometimes.

      I’m excited to get some stuff in the 3 3/4 range. It’s always been my favorite scale.

      1. It’ll be really cool to have Power Rangers in the same scale as all those other 3 3/4 figures. I wonder if they’ll get to Rita this time?

  9. mr vault guy, if i might posit the other side of this… i’d take paint slop over lack of useful articulation any day. i’m one of those freaks who buys motucs and yet still acknowledges that they’re over-priced… but at 20 bucks for those, i can place where my money is going… the seven bucks you spent on this, i’m having a harder time seeing… of course there’s no paint slop, there’s no paint. he looks like he’s made of toothbrush plastic. he has non-sensical articulation, one uber cheap looking sword, the pen-cap scabbard, and a hamster, which props due, looks nice. teela was 20 bucks, came w/ an extra head, a sword, snake armor, a staff, and a falcon. the paint on her body is well done to give her a pleasant flesh tone, but she also has a white and gold body suit that fits over her whole torso. it had a little paint slop, but mileage varies (i’ve seen some pics much worse than the example i own, but i’ve seen two samples better than mine as well)… but she’s also large, sturdy and well articulated.

    i’m not naysaying power rangers as a property, lord knows i’ve bought some, but for example, the TRU exclusive anniversary figs out year before last were larger than this guy by quite a bit, had better artic, and went for only ten bucks (w/ one accessory). PR has offered better deals than the “super legends” line so i guess i don’t get the hype.

    1. What kind of paint or detail do you want on this figure? It’s a guy wearing spandex suit with no detail fer cryin’ out loud. Is extra airbrushing going to help anything? A molded fabric fold? The sword could be better and an extra articulation point here or there wouldn’t hurt, but what else? It’s well worth the 7$.

      Your Teela might be better, but it’s not 4X BETTER and it costs 4X as much.

      You bring up MOTU, so you’re probably older than the average Power Rangers fan. A complete set of these in the same style is something we’ve been wanting since we were kids. And they look like toys because THEY ARE TOYS. I think that’s something the older 80s crowd forgets sometimes.

      2. dude, don’t get too in a tizzy… as i said, even barring the competition from motuic, i think power rangers have offered bigger figs, w/ better artic for barely any more cash. and i bought mine on clearance, 5 bucks a pop. so my red ranger army can outkick yours, they’re bigger, certainly feel sturdier, and have vac metal parts… and fit in w/ other toy lines i collect. these are fine for 3 3/4 collectors, but come on, at seven bucks for him, spent the extra dollar or two and get a gi joe w/ more paint and a crapton more accessories.

        i guess not being a diehard of the franchise, it’s easy to dismiss these cuz they look cheap. but if i start comparing them around in scale and price tag, it’s nothard to see that you MUST be a fan, cuz objectively, as a casual observer, there’s are lots of alternatives in that scale/price range right now that just seem like better deals. you are right, i’m older than the power rangers franchise, but i certainly know what a decent toy is… and this just doesn’t cut the mustard for a 7 dollar toy. i understand the designs are cheap and easy to do, so like as you pointed out, you don’t need spray aps to define muscles you can’t see anyways… but this industrial packing grade plastic they’re using looks el cheapo my friend. i wouldn’t buy a power ranger made of out twisted up six pack pop rings either. this isn’t an aesthetic thing i’m talking about, that sword? i have decorative coctail toothpicks made of plastic that looks just like that. so i guess from your POV, the power ranger’s sword being food safe is a valued added feature, right? 😉

    2. The paint jobs on the Power Rangers toys is consistent though. For MOTU and DCUC, it’s the luck of the draw. I’m not saying Power Rangers have the best figures ever, but I do think they are worth the seven dollars. I can’t always say that about MOTU, which only recently started adding in “bonus” accessories. Or DCUC, which hardly ever has accessories, cut out the neck articulation, and has recently gone up in price. Or Marvel Legends, which has gone down in quality so much that they are definitely not worth the price.

      It’s ok if you don’t see the value, because a lot of it is in the fact that you can start collecting the different versions of the characters in the same scale (finally), like what McNallies said. It’s just a collector thing.

      1. really? only recently? cuz the very first fig was king grayskull, who had a cape that wasn’t designed to be removed, but could be, a sword, an ax, a shield, and came in a box that folded out unto a mini castle grayskull, and had a jawbridge that when opened, flashed lightning and yelled “i have the power.” yup, no bonuses there. 😉

        i certainly get the idea of getting all the rangers in one scale, but to a non-fan, that’s really the sell feature i see. otherwise, they seem small and cheap (like in poorly made, not inexpensive). i suppose motuc & dcuc aren’t the best examples, but looking around at what else is being offered in this scale & approximate price point right now, these don’t seem to stack up against the star wars or gi joe stuff at all. but as i said above, i’m only a passing fan in the first place. and i certainly understand the rapid fan mode (albeit w/ other properties), i’m just not seeing it w/ this line.

    3. Power Ranger fans went nuts over the Super Legends line because the first figures in the series were the original Green Ranger and Lord Zedd. Fans immediately thought, “Oh my god, we’re gonna get a set of nicely-sculpted, nicely-articulated Season 1/2/3 figures.”

      Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. So far, the line’s consisted of “sixth Rangers” (Green, White, Gold from ‘Zeo,’ etc.) and a sole villain. The original MMPR Pink Ranger recently won a poll to be the next Super Legends figure, but she probably won’t be out until middle to late next year.

      I believe the “anniversary figures” you refer to are the “Epic Red Rangers.” Most fans didn’t like those because, oddly enough, they were overly-muscular and “looked like He-Man characters.”

      1. yup, them’s the ones. and despite the aesthetic, what sold them for me was the vac metaling and the increased articulation.

        and what exactly happened anyway? i saw the first couple of these, the black ranger, the white ranger and zedd, but this dude seems cheaper, smaller, and less articulated? i thought the sell feature was uniform presentation across the ranger incarnations…

        1. Rather than a stand-alone line, the Super Legends are an offshoot of the current series’ toyline. As such, they use the build and setup of that season’s figures.

          Compare Super Samurai to Gold and White in the picture above. Notice their hip joints.

          White and Gold were released during “Power Rangers Jungle Fury,” in which the figures were designed to be taller, realistically proportioned, and more articulated to compliment the fast-paced, martial arts theme of that season.

          Super Samurai comes from “Power Rangers RPM.” Instead of using the bodies of the Jungle Fury Rangers, Bandai chose to make new, smaller molds for that season. As a result, Super Samurai uses that framework, and doesn’t blend in as well with the previous Super Legends.

          Compare the general body design of the Jungle Fury Rangers…

          http://linearranger.com/JungleToys/JFToy04.htm

          …to that of the RPM Rangers…

          http://linearranger.com/RPMToys/RPMToy05.htm

          …and you’ll see what I mean.

          2. so then, the intent was NOT to give fans a uniform series of rangers across the incarnations that are consistant in scale and articulation? so what makes these any different that any other rangers series? the more you explain, the more i think bandai gave you folks the shaft again. at least the rangers on bikes are all roughly the same size & artic scheme, wouldn’t give fans a more homogenous display than this line, which seems neither super nor legendary?

            1. Yeah, it sounds like a crap deal, especially when structure consistency across the line is one of DCUC and MOTU’s strong points. But like others have said, this line is focused at kids and not collectors, so things like size difference and a missing point of articulation isn’t going to mean as much as, say, if the Joker had been shorter than Harley Quinn.

  11. Obviously, this is in the toy aisle for you and not for me.

    I’ll stick with the more expensive items.

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