Ranger Keys On Parade

I don't usually buy a lot of merchandise from the new tokusatsu shows -- unless I really, really, really, really like the show -- but I have a bit of an addiction to the Ranger Keys line, and I think the Japanese fans do, too. They're the rare toy release that's continued after the show it's associated with has finished, they're always sought after on auctions, they seem to be keeping Sentai's toy sales up in a year where viewers are disappointed with the latest show (Go-busters) and its lame-o toyline. And the funny thing? It's the old heroes that make the Ranger Key line so alluring. The old heroes -- what Toei is sooooooo deathly afraid to ever focus on in their shows or movies is what has made these things move. (Because it sure ain't hearing Tomokazu Seki shriek "BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIOMAN!" when you put the Key into the Mobirates.)

They're kind of...like neat little figurines, and some of the first new merchandise pertaining to old shows. You can find figures of every Kamen Rider ever in every pose ever, but old Sentai shows? Not so much. It's also a nice alternative to paying half a grand for a certain show's henshin item -- don't want to pay $500 for Dyna Brace? Having the Ranger Key's sort of the same difference, eh?

Now, I know there are people out there who collect every single Ranger Key that's released, but I just try to stick to either the shows or heroes I like, if it's a character played by a performer I like, or if I just think the Key looks neat. I've tried to buy at least one Key from each Sentai series, which was a pain to decide when it came to something like Boukenger -- I don't exactly have a favorite character in that show because, well, I freaking hate that show, but I ended up choosing Bouken Blue because he was least offensive, was a spy (because I'm a 007 fan) and because Yasuhiro Takeuchi was cool in-suit. Here's some of my favorites:

My Top 5 favorite Reds.

The Dream Team -- the awesome guest-star line-up from Gokaiger 49.

The cool guy Keys.

Gokaiger tried to make Aka Ranger and Big One the sort of Riders 1 and 2 of Super Sentai, when I think it should be Aka Ranger and Battle Japan. So...take that, Big One!

I wanted the Rio Key because I thought it looked cool and it was a villain Key, but I still think he's sucky, so here's the cooler Geki Violet putting him in his place.

The sucky thing about the Gashapon Keys -- the stickers always popping off!

A little idea I had.

And, finally, Keys of all of the Niibori Reds!

One thing that I think is a pain is...where do you store 'em? The treasure box that came out only holds a certain amount, and who wants the Keys all clashing together?

Sentai Sausage Is Eraser People

One of my favorite items of merchandise when I was a kid was the "eraser figures." (Or, as my mom called them, "eraser people." They were made out of eraser-like rubbery stuff, but not meant to be used as actual erasers.) Similar in size to the popular Kinnikuman/M.U.S.C.L.E. toys that littered shops in the '80s, the eraser figures would be packaged with just about every piece of merchandise for a show -- a few would come with toys, a few came with the tokusatsu-related snacks, but the best place to find 'em was in a Gashapon machine.

Not knowing what the hell those weirdo Marudai Sentai Sausage snacks were made of -- a white mystery meat that requires no refrigeration? -- my mom would buy the sausages just for the eraser people and throw away the meat, not allowing me to eat it! I'm still curious what those sausages tasted like, but I have a feeling I'd find them disgusting. (Imagine my surprise when, rediscovering these shows with the help of the internet, to find out the sausages were made out of various processed fish. So, I guess I should say thanks, mom, for forbidding me to eat those! Ugh...) Marudai still makes tokusatsu-related sausage, but now they just come with lame-o cards instead of the awesome eraser figures. In fact, I don't think they've even made eraser figures since Timeranger/Kuuga in 2000. I guess today's kids don't find 'em interesting and probably look at them the way everyone looks at tin toys. How could you have fun with these? Imagination, sucker!

A special Bioman set -- heroes, villains, Juunoids, Mecha Gigans! And a vinyl Bio Robo...

What I really liked about the eraser figures was the variety of characters they offered. Not just the five heroes, but most of the villains, mecha, and monsters of the week, even. When I was a kid, Sentai toys were pretty limited. You had mainly the soft vinyls (which I also loved) of the heroes and those die-cast figures (which I always thought looked funky) and mecha toys and that was about it. From Bioman through Turboranger, they made soft vinyls of some of the villains, too, which was AWESOME, but...

You're playing with the soft vinyls and you're like, well, where does this awesome fight scenario you're creating go to next? The mecha! As a kid, I frigging hated the DX mecha toys. They're a pain in the nards to build and then you build them and you'd be like "OK, what next?" Because there's nothing to do with them! (The only mecha toys I liked when I was a kid? The cool and easy to assemble Flash Titan and the nothing to really assemble Land Galaxy.) You spend all that time putting the toy together and...who's the mecha supposed to fight? They didn't make monster toys, so is it just supposed to fight other mecha? Is my Change Robo supposed to go beat up Golion or Optimus Prime or something? Enter the eraser figures...

The eraser figures had the same limited moveability as the soft vinyls which required similar levels of Super Kid Imagination, and there were not only the heroes and the villains (in fact, more villains than would be released as soft vinyls), but...INDIVIDUAL MECHA! MONSTERS OF THE WEEK! You can perfectly recreate the show and have the team blow away a monster, pretend it grows, and use the mecha to fight it! (Not only that, but I remember making the Change Robo eraser figure smack his fists together like in the show -- definitely can't do that with the DX one.)

Round 1: Change Dragon VS Buuba, Hidora and Space Beast Soldier Goomu

Change Dragon was victorious! Gyodai is dispatched to revive Goomu

Call out the mecha! Combine, Earth Conversion!

Uh-oh, it's on! Goomu faces Change Robo. Can't you imagine Tatsumi Yano's BGM?

One thing I remembered about the fun Kinnikuman/M.U.S.C.L.E. toys is that they came out with a ring that you could connect two figures, each on opposing sides, and have them "fight." I'd shove the Sentai eraser figures in there, so imagine my surprise when a couple of years ago, I saw listed on an auction site that they released (pretty much the exact same) ring for Turboranger! (Where were rings for the shows I was in Japan for, dammit?)

I wanted to focus on how extensive the eraser figure line could be. The soft vinyl set of the Flashman villain team Mess consists of just La Deus, Neferu, Wanda, Garus and a Zoro. With the eraser figures, you can pretty much complete the whole Mess line-up! The Kamen Rider Black line had the Golgom priests, which was awesome, because usually the Black villains were SOL unless it's Shadow Moon.

The entire Mess gang! Ulk and Kiruto! Lee Keflen! A frickin' Lee Keflen figurine!

Kamen Rider Black's Daromu

Yareyare! Maskman's Okerampa and Anagumas

The figurine of Maskman's Zeba funnily matches the early promotional shots of Zeba with his mask removed.

One thing that neither the soft vinyls or eraser figures doesn't fulfill? The heroes out of suit. I always wanted toys of the heroes out of suit when I was a kid. Who's supposed to be transforming into these heroes? I guess I was just a weird kid, because they never really made toys of the heroes out of suit. There were toys for Dyna Red, Red One and Change Dragon where you could take their helmet off, but that wasn't the same as having the whole team. (And they were also so out of scale you couldn't really do anything with 'em.) And while they eventually went on to do those head-flippers (what Power Rangers called the "Auto-Morphers") for a few shows in the '90s or something like the Souchaku Henshin figures for Kamen Rider, to me it's not quite the same as having figures to match the soft-vinyls. The person behind the mask always mattered to me, and they've really gone unrepresented in terms of merchandise. You should have gotten on that, Bandai!