My posts have been slowed down by my permanent move from New York to Boston, but luckily, there hasn’t been much (or any) news to miss lately on the LEGO or Mega Bloks front lately. Finally I have some spare time today, so I have a chance to get back to what I love best: reviews.

I posted a Photo Preview of the Mega Bloks Power Rangers Samurai Bear Zord 5818 with Green Ranger a couple weeks ago, and now I’ve had a chance to play with it profusely and render a verdict on the toy. At first glance I thought the Bear Zord set was a bit of a dud, but after spending some time with it, I feel a little differently. While I don’t think anyone will compare this set’s quality favorably against any set from the incredible Halo Mega Bloks or World of Warcraft Mega Bloks lines, as a toy, it’s still pretty acceptable…

The Right:

When I was a kid, I could only dream of construction sets existing for my favorite properties. There was no LEGO Star Wars or Indiana Jones yet, and there were certainly no Halo Mega Bloks or Power Rangers Mega Bloks. So the fact that such a wide range of licensed properties exists in construction set form today is a huge blessing. Due to the nature of the Power Rangers Zords as giant robots that the Rangers ride, they’re a great fit for a Mega Bloks theme and one I’m happy to see exist.

The actual set I purchased was the Power Rangers Samurai Green Bear Zord 5818, chosen not for the large Zord, but for the fact that the Green (sometimes White) Ranger Tommy was always my favorite Power Ranger as a kid. To me, the Bear Zord was just a bonus to make my $12 worth a little bit more. At 107 pieces, I thought that this set was going to be a light, 10 minute build. Taking photos for the Photo Preview while I worked, it ended up taking me well over have an hour. It wasn’t a hard build at all, but it was more involved than I’d anticipated, so I definitely got my money’s worth building-wise.

The Mega Bloks Green Ranger figure looks really great aesthetically. This Mega Bloks stylistic interpretation of the Green Ranger is very similar to what I’d always expected the Green Ranger to look like if he was made by LEGO. The paint deco on the figure is all masterfully applied and really makes this generic-sculpted figure recognizable as the Green Ranger. The Green Ranger’s sword has several paint apps on it and ends up looking absolutely terrific–it completes the Green Ranger figure, which looks far better posed with the sword than without it.

The Bear Zord itself is rather… blocky. But really, that’s to be expected–the Mega Bloks Bear Zord looks pretty much exactly the way that it looks on TV in Power Rangers Samurai. The Bear Zord has an articulated head as well as movable legs. In addition, his neck can be flipped forward to either pull out or store the handlebars that the Green Ranger can hold onto while “riding” the Bear Zord. It’s a small feature, but it makes a lot of sense and I’m grateful that I don’t have to keep the handlebars permanently out. The Bear Zord is nothing flashy or refined–and it certainly isn’t the most flexible toy in the world–but it accurately reflects the look and feel of the Bear Zord from the show. I don’t really know what else anyone could have wanted or expected from this toy.

The Wrong:

Maybe I’m spoiled rotten by the amazing flexibility and articulation on the Halo Mega Bloks and World of Warcraft Mega Bloks lines, but the Green Ranger figure included with this set is really underwhelming. Having been playing with ball-jointed Spartans and Elites for years now, the LEGO Minifigure-like articulation on the Power Rangers Mega Bloks figures feels like a huge step backwards. Considering that the Power Rangers are known for their athleticism and finesse-based physical attacks, I really feel like these figures deserve to have the same ball-jointed shoulders and legs as the other main Mega Bloks lines get.

MEGA Brands packed in stickers that are only designed to fit on one side of the Bear Zord. This happened to me just a few months ago when I reviewed the Halo Mega Bloks Covenant Seraph, so it’s pretty frustrating that the same thing has happened here again. The large sticker included is only designed to fit the shape of the Bear Zord’s left side, and including that same sticker twice is meaningless when it simply does not fit on the right side of the toy. This set wasn’t nearly as expensive as the Covenant Seraph, so I’m not as upset about it, but it’s still very frustrating.

The Ridiculous:

The box makes a big deal of the fact that the Mega Bloks Power Rangers Bear Zord 5818 can also be assembled into some sort of flying plane mode, which in and of itself is a great gimmick. This is in “The Ridiculous” because the set doesn’t come with the instructions to make the alternate build! I don’t know if they’re available online or what, but it strikes me as shocking that the set doesn’t include instructions for a build advertised prominently on both the front and back of the packaging! This is just weird, MEGA Brands. If this alternate mode for the Bear Zord is important enough to be advertised on the box by MEGA Brands, I have no clue why they didn’t add a few pages to the instruction booklet to explain how you make it.“Where Can I Buy It?!”
For whatever reason, I had an astonishingly hard time finding the Mega Bloks Power Rangers Samurai Bear Zord 5818 at retail. I don’t know if it’s just the popularity of the Green Ranger or what, but I literally have come across hundreds of Red, Yellow, and Blue Ranger sets and never seen the Green Ranger Bear Zord on a store shelf. The Green Ranger Bear Zord is available for just $12.95 from BA Toys, which is my favorite Mega Bloks online retailer and where I purchased mine.

Overall: For the super-low cost, the Mega Bloks Power Rangers Samurai Bear Zord isn’t a bad toy, but it’s not an especially exciting one either. I’m not blown away by this item in the way that I have been by the similarly-priced World of Warcraft Mega Bloks sets, but I don’t regret purchasing it either. The Green Power Ranger figure itself looks very good, though it is rather unarticulated compared to Mega Bloks figures from their other licenses. The Bear Zord itself is surprisingly fun to play with, and I’m not sure where MEGA Brands could have integrated any more features or articulation into the Bear Zord than they did. I’m irritated about the lack of instructions for the flying mode and the unusable right side sticker, but otherwise the Bear Zord is decent enough. Overall, the Mega Bloks Power Rangers Samurai Bear Zord 5818 is an average set, with a pretty well-rounded set of pros and cons.

GRADE: C+