Ranger Strike & Sentai Choco!

[Igadevil]

Yeah, I'd love to see more toys based on the villains from the 80's shows, or Sentai villains in general- they seem to be few and far between. It's cool to finally see some Go ones, and I hope this won't be just another line they stop after one or two sets, like ill-fated Sentai Chara-Eggs (the only place I've ever seen henchmen from Jetman done in toy form, aside from probably some vintage one.)

The problem, I think, is that aside from Goranger and maybe JAKQ, for the last few years most all of the Sentai merchandise always seems to focus on the new show. Whereas with Rider, you get stuff based on the new show as well as nearly all older shows coming out at the same time, and because they do old Riders, there's a lot of old bad guy figures too. It'd be great to see something like a Buuba Medicom, but we'd probably have to wait until after they make the good guys (or at the very least, Dragon) first, and as far as I know only Goranger and possibly JAKQ's Big One got the Medicom treatment. Which means we'd probably be seeing Changeman sometime in 3046. But given that it's an anniversary year, I think they should at least do a Gashapon set, or something for every team besides cards & getting one picture in a double-page spread in TV Magazine. :laugh:

Charawheels seems to be more or less dead unfortunately...I remember how they were going to release the Blade motorcycles individually, then they ended up just sticking them in that "Everything we didn't do yet" set for the Heisei Riders. Poor Leangle never even got one.

 

[Gadf1y]

Basically in one packet you get a chocolate wafer thingy and one card. This makes collecting all of them virtually impossible

:bawling:

So much for me getting my hands on the card. I don't think there's anywhere online to get them, but even if there were, I didn't anticipate that they'd be sold in this manner. Bleh.

 

[urutora]

Rangers Strike cards ~ Official Website!!

 

[Shougo B'Stard]

Charawheels seems to be more or less dead unfortunately...

That's what I was afraid of. I think it was due to some poor choices they made. Like...Back to the Future III and all of the Space Sheriffs riding into Maku Space? WTF!?! I think those Uchuu Keiji are the kiss of death. Souchaku Henshin, beware. :laugh:

Yeah, I had been waiting for Another Agito, but they tossed him into that set you were referring to -- but I didn't want the other winners that came with the set. They need to put some cool people in charge of these companies! Because who in their right mind OK'd the Surfing Agito CW? :laugh:

Rangers Strike cards ~ Official Website!!

The Maskman one rocks! The Flashman one, too, with the Flash Seijin in the background. Makes me wonder what they would have done with a Changeman one...

 

[Igadevil]

The Choco snacks are out, I picked a couple up. There are 3 different package types; one with all the Reds, one with all the Pinks, and one with some of the more recent Mecha. Only opened three packs so far, and got Dynaman's Dark Knight, Abare Yellow, & Time Fire. I'll take some pictures after I open a couple more (I bought a bunch. Hey- I really like those wafers. :laugh

That's what I was afraid of. I think it was due to some poor choices they made. Like...Back to the Future III and all of the Space Sheriffs riding into Maku Space? WTF!?! I think those Uchuu Keiji are the kiss of death. Souchaku Henshin, beware.

Yeah, I didn't get what was up with throwing in all those other seemingly random choices like the Delorean, and I think even KITT made the list. What the hell!? :laugh:

What they should have done (or do) is keep it focused on Sentai & Rider, and add a couple of the other characters like Kikaida, Zubat and all that. But not go hog-wild like they did with the repaints & rehases (Camo-colored MAT car, Kikaida bikes with the animated characters riding.) The apex of this, which I confess I bought, was the 7 Riders set that was mostly repaints of some of the bikes they felt they screwed up on the first time, and a couple new ones that were cool enough to justify buying the thing (Stronger & Tackle, and the only versions of the Cyclones they hadn't managed to do by that point.) But we never got anybody from Skyrider to J (aside from RX's car, which may as well be like not getting anything) and that big Kuuga~Blade set seemed to be the final gasp for Charawheels in general. Sentai fared even worse, I think they also did Goranger's bikes and that's about it. There's a lot of untapped potential. I *think* they might have done one more set, but it was Batman or something.

One thing Charawheels did do right, and I wish we got to see more of these- the Shocker & Gelshocker soldiers on bikes. Villain toys are always welcome in my book. I bet if they moved away from the "it has to roll" part (which does sort of the defeat the purpose, but bah!) they could do some cool stuff like the enemy fighter plane/space ships a bunch of the Sentai villains had, and maybe even the Holy Grail of Rider toys for me- that big crazy tank thing from the Skyrider movie!

 

[Igadevil]

As promised, some pics of the Choco packages & cards.

Reds Package

Pinks Package

Mecha Package

Abare Yellow & Time Fire

Hariken Yellow & Kabuto Raijer

Kuroko Robo & Dark Knight

I still can't believe, out of all 150-something cards, I actually got those Kuroko Robo guys. What are the odds?

On a semi-related note, the one box I bought of those SD Super Sentai figures was a success, as I got the one I wanted.

Fighting Pose!

 

[Shougo B'Stard]

I still can't believe, out of all 150-something cards, I actually got those Kuroko Robo guys. What are the odds?

:laugh: That's the one I wouldn't want showing up, but I have a feeling they produced more than any other. Every trading card set has that one useless card that turns up more than the others, which is why I'm surprised there's no Peebo.

But at least you got the Dark Knight card, that evens things out.

Anyway, that's some cool stuff there! :thumbs:

 

[Igadevil]

Thanks, it looks like Dark Knight's the coolest one yet. 3 packs later, and I now have Hariken Red & Blue, and Kuwaga Raijer. I think they're trying to tell me something. :laugh:

This makes me think that the distribution might not be so random by the box (there's about 20 packets in one box) as all the cards I've gotten have been characters from the same series except three. I bought two packs from another store, they turned out to be repeats (of Hariken Yellow & the damn robo guys no less.) Maybe they're being released in waves? Or I just have bad luck!

I bet we'll be seeing more of these since there were already 2 Rider sets (and we'll probably see another, since one came out in '04 and the other in '05.) I'm pretty sure those super-deformed "Sentai Hero Kids" will have another set, as the boxes for the first one say "Chapter 1". I also noticed that they list the team names in English, including "Gorenger" and "Dainaman"! I've always wondered what's up with Gorenger, because I see that one used everywhere when it's written in English.

Hopefully someplace will start carrying the wafer snacks so you guys can get some. I know in the past they've sold some similar-style "candy & sticker/card" packets by the boxload at HLJ.

 

[Basri RX]

Awesome stuffs you've got there, Igadevil! :buttrock:

 

[Igadevil]

Thanks Basri!

Latest cards:

-Ginga Green & Yellow
-Go Red
-Go Pink & Green
-Rouki (Loki?) from Gaoranger
-Lenticular changing card of Shinmei/Aoranger

I'm sort of glad I got Rouki, if only because that's another "Dark Character" card which means I might yet find someone like Inazuma Ginga or Kaura.