Power Rangers Lightning Collection: Villains Missing in Action

For a very long time, I wanted to do one of these lists where I run down figures that I wish various toy companies have cranked out before a particular IP was sold off or the toy line dropped off a cliff. With Hasbro's Power Rangers Lightning Collection effectively dead with the announcement of Playmates' Power Rangers Re-ignited toyline geared mostly to younger collectors and fans of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, I have an unique opportunity to talk about some glaring omissions in terms of villains from Hasbro's toyline that I wish they would have tackled before the Lightning Collection was phased out and had the rug pulled out from underneath them.  

The Royal House of Gadgetry (King Mondo, Queen Machina, Prince Sprocket, Princess Circuitrina, Klank & Orbus - along with Prince Gasket and Princess Archerina (Power Rangers Zeo)

Optional: Louie Kaboom

These could be in a big set, much like the Alien Rangers or Psycho Rangers multi-pack, then include Prince Gasket and Princess Archerina in a separate 2-pack. I doubt anyone would lose any sleep if Princess Circuitrina wasn't included when she only appeared in a handful of episodes anyway. Louie Kaboom could have been filler in any wave TBH. For Christ's sake, they made Boomtower in that Dino Fury 5" line, so why not?

While we're at it, why not do a few villains from Zeo in general? There were so many fun monster designs, such as Silo, Wolfsbane, Midas Hound, and Altor to pull from. 

Trakeena, Villamax, Deviot (Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy)

Trakeena, Villamax, and Deviot could have all been a great three-pack for those interested in giving the Galaxy Rangers someone to stand off against. Out of the options, they were Hasbro's best bet that didn't include the headache behind having to do a Scorpius figure or Captain Mutiny and his culturally insensitive minions. 

If they didn't want to pay Trakeena's original actress (Amy Miller) for her likeness they could always include the ninja mask look for her that she had in the Lightspeed Rescue crossover/team-up 2-parter when actress Jennifer Burns filled in for her. Villamax was a vastly underrated villain in Ranger lore in general that deserved a figure when so many monsters of the day from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers plagued this line. Deviot's design was so cool that his look just screams for a figure in my humble opinion. 

I wouldn't be surprised that this release would call for a Red Galaxy Ranger Battlizer vs. Trakeena (fully transformed into her green insectoid form) deluxe 2-pack to recreate the scene from their final battle. 

Vypra, Diablico, & Prince Olympus (Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue)

They could have released these villains individually or in a 3-pack. 

Not going to lie, but I really thought Lightspeed Rescue was awful upon my first viewing in my teenage years. After rewatching it over the years, I have a MUCH better appreciation for this season. The heroes and villains made this work given the material the writers reworked from its Sentai counterpart GoGo V. That being said, the villains were standouts for sure. 

Lightspeed’s original Ranger for the season and the first completely new Ranger that never appeared in the Sentai footage, the Silver Ranger, deserves a figure too, despite him not having too much screen time given how expensive his original scenes were to shoot. In case anyone was wondering, I give a hard pass on a figure of Queen Banshera when was immobile in majority of this season and did all of jackshit anyway. 

Lothor and his army of Evil Space Ninjas (Power Rangers Ninja Storm)

Lothor's Army consisted of himself, Kapri, Marah, Zurgane, Choobo, Shimazu, Motodrone, Beevil, & Vexacus. All no brainers in my humble opinion in terms of representing this season's cast of villains. 

Motodrone and Beevil were robots/drones that were created throughout the season in one matter or another but were recruited by Lothor after their initial defeat/demise at the hands of the Rangers. I personally don't have to have Choobo and Shimazu included in this line-up, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that they don't have cool designs that would make for some amazing looking figures.

Sucks that this line died off before we could have at least gotten a Lothor figure (of the late Grant McFarland's likeness) to fight against that Mesogog (like in the Dino Thunder/Ninja Storm crossover) Hasbro released in one of the final waves. 

Thunder Rangers AKA Blake & Hunter (Power Rangers Ninja Storm)

Dino Thunder saw representation of that entire team and their main antagonist, Mesogog, along with that season's evil Ranger turned good, Trent Mercer/White Dino Thunder Ranger. Meanwhile, the Lightning Collection didn't see a single member of this team show up, even though the Wind Rangers were part of the Bandai's Legacy Collection that predated the Lightning Collection, so there was something. The least Hasbro could have done was complete that team since Bandai started it in the previous line. Blake and Hunter didn't get shown any love when it came to having any figures made of them in either line and that's pretty messed up when the Disney era of Power Rangers is seen as the highlights of the entire franchise even to this day. 

Broodwing, Emperor Gruumm, & Morgana (Adult Mora) (Power Rangers SPD)

Out of all of the villains in SPD, Hasbro chose to make figures of the A-Squad, despite their lackluster costumes that looked even worse as toys than they did in live-action from recycled old Ranger costumes and BMX gear. Unlike the A-Squad, I doubt these figures would be sitting on discount store shelves even to the day of this posting continuing to collect dust as no one wants them. Gruumm and Broodwing are no brainers along with a few the orange and blue head robotic minions (Crybots) while Morgana rounds out the trio.

Koragg the Knight Wolf (Power Rangers Mystic Force)

Koragg was a goddamn no brainer for this season in figure form (just from how many epic battles he had with Nick alone), with ALL of the Ten Terrors in some capacity too. I wouldn't mind figures of Necrolai, Morticon, and Imperius too if I'm honest. It sucks that the Lightning Collection line didn't have a single representative from this season in the least in terms of both Rangers and villains. That was a MASSIVE misstep in my eyes, especially when this season has some of the best costume and villain designs across the entire franchise up to this point. 

The "New" Alliance of Evil (Power Rangers Operation Overdrive)

The main novelty of the villains in this season was that they were all divided up into their own respective factions: Moltor who commands his fire-based minions, Flurious who commands his ice-based minions, Kamdor & Miratrix who deploy their own ninja-like minions, and the Fearcats who enlist their fellow alien felines to assist them and enhance them with cybernetic enhancements. In the "Once A Ranger" 2-part crossover, the son of Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa, Thrax, makes his debut in this season to bring these factions together as a new alliance of evil that successfully severs the Overdrive Rangers' connection to the Morphin Grid. 

Thrax deserves his own singular, individual release while I could see 2-Packs for the others. Bundle Moltor and Flurious together since they are brothers, then another for Miratrix and Kamdor and the Fearcats. At the same time, I could see the argument to put Thrax in a 2-Pack with his hated rival/eternal enemy, the Sentinel Knight.

Dai Shi (Jarrod) & Camille (Power Rangers Jungle Fury)

Even though some of the Phantom Beast General designs were pretty top notch, I think Hasbro missed an easy layup in terms of not giving fans figures of Dai Shi and Camille in this toyline. Given the Karate Kid/martial arts movie theme of that season, they would have gotten more use out of recycling those Cobra Kai crossover molds for their unmorphed looks too.

This was another season that got the shaft BIG time in terms of lack of any representation in the Lightning Collection toyline. 

Kilobyte, Tenaya-7, & Venjix (Power Rangers RPM)

Venjix got a release (sort of) as part of the Beast Morphers 5" toyline as Evox, but there's no harm in re-releasing him here. Would be nice to see RPM get some more love in terms of figure representation. Hasbro could have had fun choosing which one of his numerous bodies/upgrades to adapt into figure form. 

Tenaya-7 was another cool villain design that deserves a figure with Kilobyte being the cream of the crop in terms of villain designs in this season. 

Master Xandred, Dayu, Octaroo, Deker & Serrator (Power Rangers Samurai/Super Samurai)

Dayu and Deker's backstory was definitely my favorite story to come out of both seasons of Samurai, with Xandred and Serrator's involvements to their plight adding to their curse(s) and internal turmoil. Never forget that Dayu's sadness is what drove the Sanzu River waters to flood into the human world, allowing Xandred and the rest of the Nighloks to run rampant into our world in the first place. Then the icing on the cake was her sacrifice that allowed Xandred to not just survive Siba Family's banishing symbol but to survive in our world without drying out after any extended period away from Sanzu River waters. Having Octaroo get a figure too is a gimme since he was Xandred's servant and Dayu's confidant throughout the season. 

I don't think it would have been a big ask to see all of them in a big deluxe set or at least individually or a variety of multi-pack releases. I think the only issue would be getting a figure of Deker in his human appearance from his portrayal by former Power Rangers Wild Force Red Ranger Cole Evans actor, Ricardo Medina Jr., due to his arrest for murder charges that he was imprisoned for in 2017 to 2020.  In that case, I would fine with a figure of Deker in just his Nighlok state. 

Vrak & Metal Alice (Power Rangers Megaforce)

Vrak and Metal Alice were easily my two favorite villains out of both seasons of Megaforce if I'm perfectly honest. In my honest opinion, the best part of Super Megaforce was when Vrak returned for that two-parter. Metal Alice's arc towards the end of the first half of Megaforce that led into Super Megaforce was arguably the best moments of this season given the exploration of humanity compared to artifical intelligence that forced Robo Knight to question his stance against humanity in terms of his mission/programming to preserve the environment. 

I think Hasbro could have fun making multiple figures of not just Vrak's three notable appearances, but decking them out with so many accessories and weapons. For everything bad about Megaforce & Super Megaforce that most Power Rangers fans have dragged these two seasons through the mud for (and rightfully so), Vrak was definitely criminally underrated in terms of how awesome of a villain he was in this. 

Sledge, Poisandra, Fury, Snide/Heckyl, Lord Arcanon, Singe, and Doomwing (Power Rangers Dino Charge/Dino Super Charge) 

I think Sledge, Poisandra, and Fury could have been an EASY three pack to drop with Snide and Heckyl being a 2-Pack in some capacity. Additionally, Heckyl deserves an individual release from his heroic turn as the Dino Charge Dark Ranger from his appearance(s) in Cosmic Fury. Lord Arcanon, Singe, and Doomwing could round off another villains 3-pack from this season.

Robo-Roxy (Power Rangers Beast Morphers)

It was weird that Hasbro did a figure of Robo-Blaze but failed to make a figure of his partner in crime. As previously mentioned, Evox (AKA Venjix) was released in the 5" inch line of figures outside of the Lightning Collection with Roxy and the other villains, but it wouldn't hurt to revisit them in the Lightning Collection scaling and accessories. 

Void Knight, Void Queen, Robo-Rita & Master Zedd (Power Rangers Dino Fury/Cosmic Fury and Once & Always) 

For those wondering, I'm not intentionally skipping/omitting Ninja Steel. It's because I have never seen that season in its entirety. So I will gladly come back and edit this post/article after seeing that season if there's any worthy candidates. 

Void Knight and Void Queen are two easy no brainers, even though I feel like Void Queen would be as immobile as she was in the show. And it's not like she got her hands dirty against the Dino Fury Rangers until the end of that season in her fully transformed Sporix corrupted state. Void Knight's "corrupted" state as Void King was released as part of Dino Fury's 5" line, so I wouldn't mind if Hasbro decided to recycle that for Lightning Collection either. Out of all of these though, I feel like it was a massive misstep not to at least have Robo-Rita (from Once & Always) and Master Zedd (who was essentially the final boss of Cosmic Fury) appear in the last wave of rereleases in the Lightning Collection, especially when Hasbro didn't bother to make anyone other than Zayto and Izzy to represent that Ranger team. Robo-Rita was the primarily antagonist for what was a celebration of the franchise's roots while Master Zedd was the antagonist to celebrate what could have been the finale of the franchise of a whole before this recent news of a new Power Rangers series being developed for Disney+ came out last week.