In some of Bandai's 2010 product announcements, I came across what appears to be a new 1/18 line. Some info just showed up on Ngee Khiong about it and confirmed my suspicions and what the line will be for. The line is called Pop Action. Figures are 100mm tall, which is 3.90" or so, so they'll be just the right size. They're going to come with weapons as well. It looks like the first lineup will be for the 2010 sentai series Goseiger. From the looks of things and the listed 300 yen price, I am of the suspicion that these are actually capsule toys rather than blind boxed like the Motion Revives. On the down side, these guys only have about 8 points of articulation.

Hmmm, would that Sentai series Goseiger be what we would've gotten in the States in 2011 if Disney hadn't decided to throw Power Rangers into reruns of Mighty Morphin?

On the upside, this sort of thing beats the nearly unposeable vinyl statues that Bandai USUALLY produces for their Sentai series. The price isn't bad either, nor is the fact that they DON'T come "blind-boxed."

Downside -- yeah, eight points of articulation ain't much. They could at least throw in elbows? I've got a Sentai "capsule" toy from a couple of years back, what we called the Purple Wolf Ranger, and he's actually pretty cool and certainly well articulated.

I'll be interested to see what comes of this.

It happened because their contract with Toei ended.

Anyway, I hope this extends to Rider stuff, too. I missed out on Riders 1, 2, and 3 during Motion Revive.

OK...
Its great that they continue the 10mm format, but its too bad they dropped the articulation level and the Rider franchise. I really could use a W in my MRS line up.

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Which one would suspect Disney could have renewed. They shut down the production facility in New Zealand, too. Word I've heard is it happened because what would've been next year's Rangers was too culturally-centric to translate readily, and Disney had been looking for an excuse to minimize the Rangers for years, but the product was still selling well. It doesn't cost Disney much to do reruns, and Bandai can jump on the retro train with new toys. The new toys aren't bad, but I don't think it speaks to much more of a future for the Rangers. If these new Japanese figures are THEIR new Rangers, I might want to round them up.

Maybe after the first wave of Goseiger figures, we'll get previous teams.
Megaranger or Time ranger might look cool among the joes.

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