A Personal Look at Power Rangers Jungle Fury

Before I start, I'd like to thank NinjaJack for welcoming me into the G.K.A. family.

I'll admit that before I watched the premiere of Jungle Fury, I did not have high expectations. Like a lot of people, I was pretty disappointed with the previous season, Operation Overdrive, and wasn't sure whether or not this season would be more of the same thing. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised with how the first two episodes went. I will admit that it while it wasn't the best season of Power Rangers I've ever seen, it definitely wasn't the worst.

Here were what I thought were the strong points of Jungle Fury:

• Decent Storyline: Even if the idea of a secret martial arts organization purposed in training young warriors (in this case, the Order of the Claw) to fight evil may sound pretty cliche, it really seemed to work here.
• Cool Mentor: The JF Rangers' mentor, RJ, is simultaneously wise, powerful, and extremely funny.
• Awesome Villain: For the first time in a very long time, I feel that Dai Shi is truly a worthy villain for the show. He's not goofy, he's not a pushover, and he has this very Lord Zedd-esque scariness about him.
• A Likeable Team of Rangers: This year's defenders of Earth are a pretty fun bunch. So far, it seems like they know what they are doing, but at the same time aren't taking themselves too seriously. I really hope this doesn't change.

Like everything else in this world, JF also has its negative points:

• The Theme Song: I am an obsessive Rock 'n Roll fan, so, naturally, I was very happy when I had heard that Disney was ditching the Rap direction. When I heard the new opening song, however, I almost lost it. It reminded me of a lot of bands that I really can't stand, such as Fall Out Boy and Story of the Year.
• Flit the Fly: As much as I liked the Super Sentai show that JF is based on, Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger, I could not get over how utterly annoying Bae was. His American counterpart, Flit, is not much better, but he at least doesn't make those irritating 'buzz' noises.

So far, Power Rangers Jungle Fury is shaping up to be a pretty decent season. I guess we'll just have to see where 2008's adventure is gonna take us.

Dig Doug Reviews Power Rangers Super Legends' Green Ranger Chaser Figure

Today, I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of only 20,000 MMPR Green Ranger chaser figures, and for only seven dollars! Since this is my first toy review, I'm not sure how well this'll go, but let's start by taking a look at the packaging:

To anyone that's ever bought any toys from the original MMPR line, this style of packaging should look very familiar. I got a great sense of nostalgia seeing the original logo on top of the old-fashioned green background. Although, this is just the case with the front.

On the back, we see pictures of both the Green Ranger and Lord Zedd, the two chaser figures for the Spring '08 line (the Fall '08 line will consist of the MMPR White Ranger and the Zeo Gold Ranger), as well as a some of the other 5 inch Jungle Fury figures.Now, the fun part!

I don't think I've ever seen a more articulated Power Ranger figure than the one you're looking at right now (then again, this is the first PR figure I've bought since Zeo ended). With 13 different points of articulation, you can put this guy in many cool poses. Check this out:

Awesome, huh?

Some more things I definitely like about this figure is that, unlike the original head-flip figure I had of him, the shield actually stays on (very well, I might add), and it actually comes with the Dragon Dagger instead of the generic ranger gun. A definite improvement over any Green Ranger figure made before it

PROS: Very articulate and poseable; really nicely detailed; tight joints; more faithful to the original Zyuranger design than any American figure made before it; old-school packaging; very low price

CONS: Not quite as shiny or detailed as the promo picture made it seem (although anybody who's familiar with Bandai of America's practices knows that this is nothing unusual)

BOTTOM LINE: If you're lucky enough to stumble across one of these things, buy it. Seriously. Don't hesitate. This is probably one of the best toy purchases I've ever made.I wish you all the best of luck in finding one of these