1996 was a very important year for kids in Malaysia, as TV1 aired Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1, featuring dinosaurs and dragon as the components of their Megazords. My parent must hate the series for sure, as I forgot how many times I nagged them to buy me the toys from the series.
Season 2 was about the emergence of Lord Z, the evil villain with an iron staff with a huge letter Z on top of it. The Megazord of the Power Rangers becomes some mystical eastern beasts including the Red Dragon, Black Lion, Yellow Griffon, Blue Unicorn, Pink Phoenix and the White Tiger. My parents hated that series as well because I nagged them for buying me the toys as well. Finally they gave up and bought me this White Tiger Megazord.
My parent bought this from India Street, and yes, it’s not the genuine stuff from Bandai. Actually I didn’t know that there is any difference back then. So unfortunately this fella can’t transform as it can magnificently in the cartoon. I remembered how disappointed I was with the lack of its ability to transform. That’s the problem when your parent have difficulties understanding how a tiger turn into a robot, and later some other animals come and combine with him and form an even bigger robot. It can be hard to be a kid sometimes.
Anyway, only the leg components (the Griffon and the Unicorn) can transform. The good thing about this fella is the size: it’s around 30cm tall, about the height of a PG Gundam model. When I was a kid, who has never seen such a big toy, it’s quite a thrill to even hold it with some envious eyes from some of my other friends.
Together with the robot comes the figurine of the White Ranger. The figure can pose with some basic movements, and is ‘transformable’ between a masked Ranger and the unmasked version. It’s such a hoof to think that the company which produced the toy has no idea who is the White Ranger, or probably they are confused with the gender of Tommy who is the White Ranger since he has long black hair. The face revealed for the figure is actually a girl! Well, you can’t expect much when you know it’s not the real stuff, can you?
Anyway, I don’t think you can get any of the toys of the previous Power Ranger series anymore, since the company have halted production on them a long time ago to give way to the new series. So, transformable or not, the White Tiger Megazord I have becomes extra valuable now.
