I have mostly shifted my collecting over to the Minipla/Super Minipla/Shokugan Modeling Project series, because I will no longer stand for brick zords, plus they take up significantly less space. However I admire what they've done with the Dino Fury zords and I came very close to pulling the plug on them the other day after passing them in stores repeatedly. The one thing that stopped me was that I hadn't seen the Black and Blue zord set for a while and I was afraid it would be hard to find. The store I was at only had the Red t-rex and the green/pink zord sets. It's all or nothing so I went with nothing. Then the next day I saw some of the black/blue set at another store. Oh well. I'll grab them soon enough.
Emerje wrote:If this really is Hasbro's take on PR Masterpieces then I'd like to think the prices will not be normalized the same way they aren't in TR Masterpiece. For example the Thunder Megazord isn't all that complicated, it really should cost less
I adamantly object to the notion that the Thunder Megazord is less complicated than the Megazords on either side of it, especially if we're going to give it decent articulation. There's a reason it's usually significantly more expensive than other Megazords. The red dragon has to transform from the dragon mode to the human mode and be articulated in that form. So ankles, knees, hips, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and neck. All of that is on top of the joints needed to transform it between dragon and warrior modes, although some of those transformation joints do work as articulation on the robot.
On all iterations of Dairenoh/Thunder Megazord so far (BOJ, BOA, Legacy, and Artisan), only the shoulders, elbows, and neck have had articulation. Making the dragon into a decently articulated figure on its own shouldn't pose much of a challenge, but then you stack the armor on for the megazord mode and you have parts bumping into parts. Typically you rotate the inner robot's legs sideways to insert them into the leg components in order to space the legs out more in combined mode. If they did that then they have to add additional knee joints on the side of the inner robot's legs for the combined form. You also need a way to have the thigh covers stay attached to the legs when it poses and they need to be able to go where the legs go. The firebird/houou forms waist armor, which can get in the way of articulation. The lion/shishi needs a way to accommodate the waist articulation, since the head forms the codpiece. So you're either looking at a complex swivel mechanic or the head portion detaches from the chest armor. Lastly, the fists of the inner robot slot into the elbow joints of the combined robot, so most likely they'd have to redesign that attachment method a bit to give the megazord elbows. Meanwhile the main concerns that the Dino Megazord have are adding knees and elbows, which are pretty easy to squeeze in. Everything else boils down to a little more articulation on the existing joints. There's a reason that Bandai Shokugan hasn't tackled this in their Shokugan Modeling Project line yet, because to pull off this design with their standard of articulation while also being reasonably affordable would take a lot of black magic. There is a non-transforming figure of the Thunder Megazord coming out soon that poses like a dream in ways that I don't think any transforming/combining version would ever be able to replicate because of the intricacies of its design.
Emerje wrote:while the Ninja Megazord is roughly as complicated as the Dino Megazord so should be about the same price, but more if they include the Falconzord (and they should).
If anything the Ninja Megazord is simpler, even when you look into adding articulation. The frog forms the entire lower half of the robot, and the frog legs already have to bend a whole bunch for transformation, so that's pretty much set. Allow for a swivel joint on the waist instead of multi-point attachment so it can rotate, engineer some outward swing in the shoulders and add some elbows to the ape and wolf.
A possible shogun megazord is where things will get interesting, as trying to fit hip and knee articulation into that thing proved to be a challenge on the Super Minipla that they weren't able to fully overcome. Also each zord needs to be fairly articulated on their own, at least basic action figure level. Separate legs, knees, hips, shouders, elbows.
