It is 2019 and the first of Hasbro’s Power Rangers Lightning Collection is beginning to hit store shelves. Fans are getting glimpses of the possibilities of this collectible toy line’s potential after the cancellation of Bandai’s Legacy line and the purchase of the entire Power Rangers Brand by Hasbro.

It is now 3 years since and the line has had it’s up and downs, but more recently its downs. From the White Dino Thunder figure fiasco to the atrocious paint apps on the highly anticipated Ninjetti Figures, to the overall lack of quality control that seems to have infected multiple Hasbro figures lines including the once invulnerable Star Wars Black Series and Marvel Legends lines.

Interestingly enough over the past 3 years, Hasbro has licensed out the Power Ranger brand to other toy collectible makers such as ThreeZero, Mezco, and most famously Super 7. All who are taking a crack at their own iterations of Mighty Morphin-related merchandise. While ThreeZero continues to be the most expensive at $100 a figure, the eye lately has been on Super 7. With Hasbro’s prices creeping up from $20 to $30 a figure, a lot of collectors no longer see the point in sticking with Hasbro as the problems continue but the prices increase. Super 7 Ultimates priced at $55 a figure, catches the attention with eye-popping packaging, color, and loads of accessories that Super 7 is known for. Then Hasbro clapped back.

2023 marks the 30^th Anniversary since Mighty Morphin Power Rangers originally debuted on television. In addition to the 30^th season of Power Rangers, now known as Power Rangers Cosmic Fury, will also come a Netflix Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Special titled “Once and Always”. This special brings back most of the surviving Mighty Morphin cast from seasons 1-3 and promises to satisfy those 90’s nostalgia vibes. There was thought that there might be some Lightning Collection releases to celebrate the 30^th anniversary but nothing was known until the end of December.

What originally started as a leak on Twitter in the last days of 2022, grew into more excitement for the line since its inception. As covered extensively on “The Legacy of Nerd” YouTube channel, all that was originally seen was a picture of a box of a new Blue Ranger. But that one picture spoke a lot, it told effort was going back into the line and attention to detail. These were all promising, but fans had been fooled before, we needed to see the actual figure. Initial thoughts by the fandom were either excitement or skepticism. A lot of new collectors had missed the original releases and this was their chance to catch up as some of these figures had inflated to over $100 on the secondary market. Some fans wanted to know the price and wondered if this would be a $50 figure and some scoffed saying Hasbro is making the fans pay again for a figure that was already released.

Then a couple of weeks into January, Hasbro finally acknowledged its existence. Not only did they show off the Blue Ranger, but they also already had a Yellow Ranger ready to go! They also promised remastered versions of all 6 original rangers. The Power Rangers Lighting Collection Remastered series promises better paint apps/deco, better accessories, more accurate sculpts, and overall, just a better-made figure. The head sculpts for both Billy and Trini both look tremendously improved and the accessories sport a new handheld Morpher in the figures’ scale, which many fans had been asking for. As of the writing of this article, the figures have already been released in the Netherlands and Portugal. Initial reports are that it is a vast improvement over the original releases (although some reports of the legs being wobbly due to the pinless joints).

With the price of the figure sitting at the deluxe price point of $33.99, fans seem to be optimistically waiting for the full release of the team. There is little doubt with the anniversary special coming up on Netflix, these figures will be popular items and the demand for Mighty Morphin will begin to spike even higher. Mighty Morphin continues to be the most popular of the Power Rangers franchise and most recognizable, seems only fitting that they may save the Lightning Collection.