Power Rangers Lightning Collection Green Ranger
Tommy Oliver was a teenage martial artist who was kidnapped and placed under a spell by Rita Repulsa in order to serve her by becoming the evil Green Ranger. The Power Rangers eventually managed break Tommy free of Rita’s influence and he becomes the sixth Ranger on the team. Tommy would eventually stay to on become the longest-serving member of the Power Rangers team through its various incarnations.
The figure is a retool of the previous 2-pack release Green Ranger that came with a Putty soldier. This new release now features show-accurate placement of the sheathe for the Dragon Dagger with a corrected paint pattern for his helmet.
The set also comes with a new “bandana-sporting” Tommy Oliver head.
I think the likeness of actor Jason David Frank is fairly good, but the one from the original 2-pack (also reused for the White Ranger) is better.
The Dragon Dagger is now correctly located on the figure’s left, unlike the two-pack version which was erroneously on the right side.
The Dragon Dagger
Aside from being a melee weapon, the Dragon Dagger is used as a flute to summon the powerful Dragonzord.
Also included in this set is the same “Sword of Darkness” that came with the 2-pack version of Green Ranger.
Originally belonging to Zordon, but was stolen by Knasty Knight and given to Rita Repulsa 10,000 years ago, Rita gifts the Sword of Darkness to her new pet, the corrupted Tommy Oliver, which increased his strength as well as give him the ability to launch green flames of energy at his opponents.
In the original Japanese Zyuranger series, the sword is called the “Devil Sword Hellfriede”.
After the Rangers were able to destroy the Sword of Darkness, Tommy was freed from Rita’s control. Tommy joined the Power Rangers as their sixth man, hoping to redeem himself for his past evil actions.
Overall, pretty decent. I do wish the figure sported a teal-shade color rather than just plain green, to make him more show accurate to the Japanese costume colors, though I think the shade of green here matches the costume used for the US-produced footage? The new Tommy Oliver head is a nice touch, at least they didn’t just reuse the head from the 2-pack or White Ranger figure.
Prior to this getting announced, I was originally going to try to track down the 2-pack version with the Putty, but a good friend convinced me that it was highly likely Hasbro would release a corrected version of the Green Ranger down the road, since there were so many inaccuracies with that previous release. By George, he was right (thanks Erik!).
Gold
