I'm a little sad that this is last Armorsaurs figure I will be reviewing for the foreseeable future. This line hit the market fast last month and has significant shelf space in both Target and Walmart in the US. MGA was smart to fill the void left by the absence of modern Power Rangers shows. The last Power Rangers show was Cosmic Fury in 2023, and that show wasn't merchandized. Hasbro seemingly bought the franchise and then scuttled it. 2024 was the first year in 30 years without new Ranger content/product. And coincidentally, that final unmerchandised Cosmic Fury season featured a female Orange Ranger (Fern) that I was really looking forward to adding to my collection. So this Aquatech Prisca figure from Armorsaurs is especially satisfying since she looks like spiritual successor to the neglected Cosmic Fury Orange. I know there is supposedly some big Rangers reboot coming, but dare I say that the biological dinosaur element in Armorsaurs adds a dimension that is more exciting than Power Rangers.
UNITING ALL WOMEN OF PLASTIC
Showing posts with label Dinosaur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dinosaur. Show all posts
Monday, June 1, 2026
Saturday, May 30, 2026
Armorsaurs - PALOMA!
When 3.75" action figures have translucent parts, my mind instantly goes to MicroMan toys - specifically the resurgence of products in the early oughts. For the first time since the original prolific toyline began in the 1970s, there was an abundance of female characters. They all had translucent bodies and an abundance of metallic armors and weapons. I was rather obsessed with them and managed to collect nearly 20 ladies. But they were very expensive and tricky to display, so I made to sad decision to sell them all. Now twenty years later, these Aquatech variants of the main five Armorsaurs pilots take me right back to that early fascination with the small lollipop-colored toys. I know these toys have only been on the shelves for a few weeks, but I'm already very excited to see what the future of this line holds. I hope they keep a steady stream of new figure variants coming, and maybe even new characters is the show introduces them. I could easily get hooked. Let's check out the Aquatech Paloma below!
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Armorsaurs - PALOMA!
I've been aware of MGA Entertainment toys for many years. They've been a major player in the pink aisles for years. While I wasn't personally wowed by their flagship Bratz, I was thoroughly impressed by the design and production of several other projects like Novi Stars and LaLaLoopsy. A few months ago I learned of their newest foray into the action figure market, Armorsaurs, and was really excited. Their previous "boy" lines like Ninjombie, Alien Racers, and Shrek just didn't appeal to me. But this new sentai-like action dinosaur line was just my speed. The kismet thing is MGA started their toy journey in the 90's with the Power Rangers license (making a variety of branded handheld games) so this seems like a return to form. I love that the main lineup of Armorsaurs pilots have two female characters.. and they each ride a velociraptor (a decidedly aggressive choice that I greatly appreciate). The whole line is very tempting. Let's check out Paloma below!
Monday, May 25, 2026
Armorsaurs - PRISCA!
In October 2025 a new live-action/CGI hybrid show premiered on Disney called Armorsaurs. I best describe it as a mash-up of Power Rangers and Dino-Riders. In this world, the ancient dinosaur extinction event is described as the dinosaurs all being "taken" by alien forces... only to be used in modern time invasion of Earth with advanced armor and tech (or maybe the invading dinos are completely robotic...it's hard to tell). There are five teen pilots recruited to pair with five earthborn (a'la Jurassic Park) dinosaur steeds. The pilots have a rare genetic anomaly that lets them telepathically connect with birds... and now dinosaurs. The show is based on South Korea's 2021 Armored Saurus. All the Armorsaurs action sequences are CGI and "human" unmasked scenes are live-action. I haven't proved it, but it appears that some/most of the CGI scenes are reused from the Korean show. It seems Korean toyline never produced pilot figures, so this new MGA line is very exciting. Let's check out Prisca below!
Thursday, February 26, 2026
Jurassic World Rebirth - ZORA BENNETT!
In 2025's Jurassic World Rebirth, the traditional gender roles of the two main characters swapped. In every movie so far, the lead "hero" was male with a secondary female character being a brainy sidekick (who is also consistently shown as a formidable adventurer, but that's never the primary characteristic). In Rebirth, Scarlett Johansson plays a secret ops agent tasked with leading a dangerous clandestine mission into an abandoned island overrun with dinosaurs. And her sidekick is the brainy paleontologist Dr. Henry Loomis played by Jonathan Bailey. The best part about this swap is that I didn't even bat an eye - I only really acknowledged it when I was distributing the accessories in set and assumed all the weapons belonged to the female character - not a subconscious thought I often have. I love how prolific the modern Mattel Jurassic line has been. The actor likenesses are never the best, but the sheer quantity of female figures is amazing. Let's check out Zora Bennett below!
Wednesday, February 25, 2026
Jurassic World Rebirth - ZORA BENNETT!
I thought Jurassic World Rebirth was a refreshing return to what I love about the Jurassic franchise. After years of movies in atypical settings and with casting choices I've grown weary of (not you, Bryce), it was nice to have a stand-alone movie largely taking place in a tropical jungle and with a fantastic cast. From the trailers, I expected there to be a little more of an added Indiana Jones vibe with ancient temples and ruins, but that was unfortunately only one small scene. Scarlett Johansson plays Zora Bennett, a freelance former government operative who is tasked with safely escorting some scientists and civilians on an expedition to an off-limits South American island where the dinosaurs from a former inGen facility have taken over. It's a simple plot and small cast of characters - so the environment and the dinosaurs get their time in the limelight. I just watched it for the second time yesterday as a refresher from this Summer and, although much more enjoyable on a big screen, I still highly enjoy it.
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
MiniForce: Super Dino Power 2 - LINA!
MiniForce is a long-running Korean animated series from SAMG (nine seasons between 2014 and now) that is notable for merging genre styles in a kid-oriented format. The show features a team of cute anthropomorphic animals who can turn into human-like Agents or Rangers (in a Super Sentai aesthetic). Then these rangers can pilot various mecha or robots (in a Transformers or Robotech aesthetic), and again back to Sentai when in season 6 and 7, the mecha would transform into dinosaurs (akin to Zords). for the majority of the series, there was only one token female, a pink fox named Lucy. But in the 6th Season (Super Dinosaur Power 2 - 2020-2021), a new white bunny character named Lina was introduced (sometimes translated as Rina) who turned into an orange ranger and piloted the Stegosaurus Armorbot. (Note that one of the core characters, Max, is a yellow beaver who is often represented with an orange hue. When Lina joined, he consistently appeared more yellow and her more orange).
Sunday, February 9, 2025
Power Rangers - DINO THUNDER YELLOW!
The recent news of a new Playmates Power Rangers line has inspired me to finally post the last few Ranger figures in my queue. No one really knows what the Playmates figures will look like yet, but the five-year Hasbro run seems to have drawn to a close (2019-2024). Dino Thunder was the eleventh iteration of the US Power Rangers franchise and the first to revisit the dinosaur theme since the initial Mighty Morphin series. This series is personally notable to me because the Bandai Dino Thunder figures were the toys on the shelf when I began collecting action figures a an adult in 2004. The toys were pretty simple and having only one lone female character in the roster kept my interest mild. I never made any purchases, although I did recently pick up a great vintage piece I will review soon. I only have one more Lightning Collection figure to review after this one (plus the two Street Fighter crossovers). It's a sad close to a powerful toy line, but excited to see what the future holds. Let's check out Dino Thunder Yellow below!
Sunday, January 19, 2025
Spidey and His Amazing Friends - GHOSTASAURUS!
In the August 2024 episode of Spidey and His Amazing Friends titled "Go Dino-Webs Go!", the main three heroes, Spidey (Peter), Ghost-Spider (Gwen), and Spin (Miles) are given Dino-Web suits by their new shape-changing friend, Reptil. These suits each have green crystal spider logos on the chest, and when the heroes press that crystal they can transform into a dinosaur. Spidey becomes a T-Rex, Spin becomes a Stegosaurus, and Ghost-Spider becomes this awesome Pterodactyl. This is all done to combat the Green Goblin who is terrorizing the countryside in a giant mechanical Tyrannosaurus Rex. I really dig anthropomorphic dino characters in general, but when I saw this Ghostasaurus figure, she reminded me of the female Archaeopteryx Teryx from Dino-Saucers with her color scheme and wings (a sentiment I also had for Gormiti's Jessica). But this toy is very cool in its own right. Spider-Gwen's costume design would look awesome on anything though. Let's check out Ghostasaurus below!
Monday, January 13, 2025
GoGo Dino - VIKI MECHA!
GoGo Dino is a long-running South Korean animated preschool show that first aired in 2016. The character designs look similar to Super Wings, another South Korean import, but instead of aircraft, they are all cutesy robot dinosaurs (see the box side below). I regularly dive into Korean pop culture to check out the toys, so I've been aware of the property for almost ten years, but I wasn't interested until I saw this new toyline. The newest iteration of the show has the five main robo-dinos transform into cool humanoid mecha. Two things to know: the popularity of this show apparently exploded in China and production of the shows seems to have moved there. The show logo on the packaging translates to "Bang Bang Dragon Adventure Pioneer 2", but who knows what the title will be when it is finally adapted for English audiences. The mecha each has an additional elemental theme, so Viki is a Brachiosaurus as well as "Water" alongside teammates Thunder, Hurricane, Fire, etc. Let's check out Viki below!
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
Saurozoic Warriors - PAVA PERGIA!
The late 80s and the majority of the 90s were filled with cartoon properties featuring anthropomorphic characters. Street Sharks, Biker Mice from Mars, Swat Kats, Extreme Dinosaurs, Bucky O'Hare, Barnyard Commandos, Moo Mesa, Battletoads, etc dominated the toy aisles and television sets (and I'm not even mentioning the big marquee properties - TMNT, Thundercats, etc). But a sad thing for me was that this genre rarely featured any (non-human) female characters. And if they did, they almost never got a toy. My favorite of these properties was DinoSaucers (1987) which had several great female characters in the animation. Unfortunately the Galoob toyline was never released (Glasslite in Brazil later purchased the unused Galoob molds and released 5 characters), but none of the ladies were ever in consideration for plastic. This new Saurozoic Warriors line is a sort of love letter to this era, and specifically to DinoSaucers. The characters are all-new, but there is an occasional nod to the past properties.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Jurassic World Dominion - MAISIE LOCKWOOD!
Maisie Lockwood is a very interesting character. We first met her as Sir Benjamin Lockwood's granddaughter in 2018's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Lockwood was an old associate of John Hammond and we eventually learn that Maisie is in fact a clone of his daughter who had passed away. With the scientific advancements made by the Jurassic World scientists over the years, it shouldn't have been so much of a surprise that someone had attempted to clone a human, but it sure was. By the time Jurassic World: Dominion came out in 2022, she had been taken in by Claire and Owen as their adoptive daughter and hidden away from the same poachers that hunt down all the dinosaurs for their genetic material. She is a surprise focal point of the movie. This figure is especially great for the representation of a teenager - particularly in comparison to her previous figure when she was an adolescent. The subtlety of scale is impressive. Let's check out Maisie Lockwood below!
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Jurassic World Dominion - DR. ELLIE SATTLER!
Ellie Sattler was always the most memorable character from Jurassic Park for me. I loved one of the earliest scenes where they are in a jeep entering Jurassic Park and she is so taken aback by the prehistoric leaf she has found that she is not even noticing the dinosaurs. I can totally relate to this level of obsession and distraction. I also loved her acrobatic sprint to turn the power back on and her search for berries in the Triceratops poop. I just thought she was so cool. And I give all credit to Laura Dern, because I had read the book when it came out a few years before and the character barely registered with me. I was very happy to see the original trifecta of Dr. Grant, Dr. Sattler, and Dr. Malcolm resuming their roles almost 30 years later in 2022's Jurassic World Dominion. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and I'm glad so many of the characters got action figures. Ellie was definitely the hardest to get since she's exclusive to a large pricey boxset, but she's worth it. Let's check her out below!
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Dino Ranch - MIN & CLOVER!
When I was a kid I had a true obsession with dinosaurs. I know this is a very common theme for children in modern times. But when I was young it made me a weirdo. Don't get me wrong, there were still dinosaur books and toys catered to me, but they were a very small fraction of what we see today. And everything I did see back then was factual and scientific. There weren't any fun fantastical properties until a little later with the introduction of Dino-Riders and Dinosaucers, so I just had to create my own fictional worlds with my museum-quality replica toys. When these preschool toys for the Disney+ animated series Dino Ranch started showing up early last year (initially only in CVS of all places), I was really intrigued by the property. They were quite literally a cartoony version of a concept my young brain had invented decades earlier. I wanted dinosaur pets and dinosaur steeds more than anything else in the world. I still haven't seen the show, but the nostalgic pull of these toys was impossible to resist.
Sunday, February 5, 2023
Jurassic World Dominion - KAYLA WATTS!
I really enjoyed Jurassic World: Dominion. I think the franchise has gotten to the point where every viewer has their own specific recipe of expectations for these films that are impossible to live up to. I have several diehard Jurassic fans in my life and they were all highly disappointed, but I was happy. I thought the energy good, the story was engaging, there was a great variety of dinosaurs, and none of the actors (except for Chris Pratt imo) were annoying. That sounds like a successful Summer blockbuster to me. My favorite of the new characters was Kayla Watts. she is an ex-Air Force pilot who now specializes in dino transport. She doesn't have strong allegiances initially but gets pulled into helping Owen, Claire, and Maisie. I recently read that her character was inspired by Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and Sarah Harding - and that totally makes sense and explains the appeal. I wouldn't hate it if she was the lead character in the next movie. She certainly has the screen presence to pull it off. Let's check out Kayla below!
Thursday, December 8, 2022
Power Rangers - DINO CHARGE PINK!
Power Rangers Dino Charge (and it's sequel Dino Super Charge) both hold a very special place in my heart. I have always loved dinosaurs, I love Super Sentai, and a I love female characters. The original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series is obviously the most popular dinosaur-themed iteration of the franchise, but I was at an odd age when it first aired and the lore just wasn't strong enough to get me over the choppy effects and cheesy dialogue. When Dino Thunder came out in 2004, I was much more receptive to the genre, but there was only one female Ranger and I didn't have cable to watch it. Flash forward to 2015 and the premiere of Dino Charge: Streaming made it accessible, the special effects had 25 years of improvement over MMPR, and there were three female Rangers (including the first time Purple and Cyan Rangers (both female)). Shelby Watkins is the Triceratops-themed Pink Ranger and is a wonderful addition to the Lighting Collection. Let's check her out below!
Friday, August 5, 2022
Lost World: Jurassic Park - SARAH HARDING!
Leading up to the release of Jurassic World: Dominion, I made an effort to re-watch all the movies. The surprising thing was I quickly realized I had never actually seen The Lost World: Jurassic Park. My vague memories lead me to think I was protesting the movie because I had read about the differences from the book. I was a pretty big Crichton fan in my teen years and I think I was appalled at the (perceived) insult to the source material. Of course my memories of the book are even fuzzier now and I enjoyed the movie quite a bit now that I finally saw it. Julianne Moore plays Dr. Sarah Harding, a behavioral paleontologist and Ian Malcolm's girlfriend. She is a strong-willed character who puts the pursuit of knowledge before her own safety, much to Malcolm's dismay. She is a great character for a movie like this, because she gets into trouble and is a catalyst for good drama, but she never comes across like a damsel in distress. This toy was unexpected, but much appreciated. Let's check out Sarah below!
Sunday, June 5, 2022
Jurassic World Dominion - SOYONA SANTOS!
I have tickets to see Jurassic World: Dominion next weekend and I'm very excited. Even if the plots aren't great, and even if certain (popular) unnamed actors annoy the crap out of me, as soon as I see dinosaurs on the big screen I am a kid again watching Godzilla and Ray Harryhausen movies. Surprisingly I didn't see the first Jurassic Park movie in the theatre back in 1993. Rather, I saw it a year or so later at a local auditorium in my hometown where they would play second run movies for free on a big screen, I instantly regretted not seeing it with the full sound and picture experience and vowed never to make that mistake again. This character of Soyona Santos is a mystery. There have been no images of her from the film; only this figure, and a Lego set. Even IMDb only included the character name recently. Dichen Lachman plays Soyona. I am unfamiliar with this actress but her roles in nerdy sci-fi shows is impressive (The 100, Altered Carbon, Supergirl, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Being Human, etc)
Friday, June 3, 2022
Jurassic World Dominion - CLAIRE DEARING!
I love Bryce Dallas Howard. I first took note of her in The Village back in 2004 and she has been a favorite ever since. Every few years I see her in a performance and am in awe of her talent. She's definitely not just coasting on a family name. My favorite was the Nosedive episode of Black Mirror. She was just brilliant in that and I've watched it 10 times. I'm saying all this because I know most people might only know her from the Jurassic World franchise. And as a fan of both the actor and the movies, I can admit that these roles don't utilize her talent to the highest level and therefore she might be underestimated by the audience. But kudos to her for getting that franchise cash and taking on a role that gets you repeatedly immortalized in plastic. This is the third action figure of Bryce as Claire Dearing (plus one Imaginext figure). I know she technically had a figure in the Twilight line as Victoria the Vampire, but I always had a sneaking suspicion that figure was based off actress Rachelle Lefevre who originated the role.
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Jurassic Park - LEX MURPHY!
When you watch Jurassic Park, it's easy to focus completely on the dinosaurs. But I was surprised to recently learn that there is only 15 minutes of dinosaur time in the entire movie. What makes the movie so engaging are the human characters. And when you think about those really iconic scenes like the raptors fogging up the glass, the Brachiosaur eating the tree, or the water rippling as the Tyrannosaur approaches, the young characters Lex and Tim are right in the middle of the action. That's why it is so surprising that we haven't seen these two characters in toy form until recently. Tim was released in a big set last year, but Lex just appeared for the first time last month - that's 29 years after the movie hit. On a side note, Ariana Richards plays the lead love interest in Angus, one of my favorite movies from my high school years, so I will always be a fan. The actor likenesses at this scale are never spot-on, but I think this figure captures the spirit of Lex well. Let's check out this long-awaited figure below!
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