I have an almost 6 year old son who absolutely adores the Power Rangers. Over the past couple years, he has collected quite a few action figures, as well as many toys that bear the black faced helmuted heroes. Overall, we've been pleased by the quality of these toys for the money. They are often relatively inexpensive, but this time we were disappointed and felt we paid too much for the Power Rangers Conquering Blue Ranger Set .

The set comes with one Blue Ranger with moveable parts, which is the highlight of the toy. The action figure itself was a good purchase, but the "extras" that made the toy so enticing to my son were a waste of money.

Included in the Power Rangers Conquering Blue Ranger Set are various small pieces Ban Dai calls ARMOR and I call a joke. These assorted pieces are supposed to serve two purposes. First, they can be snapped onto the Ranger to cover his body and create a sort of body shield. The picture provided looked pretty neat, but we were never able to put them together as shown. While trying to make the leg shield snap on, the shoulder attachment would fall off. Then while reattaching the shoulder armor, the rescue drill would fall out of the Ranger's hand. It was incredibly frustrating for me and for my very impatient child who was angry at himself for not being able to assemble it. He kept pointing to the picture expecting it to look like that and it never did. I finally gave up and told him to do the best he could on his own. He played with the Ranger usually with only one piece of armor on at a time because that was all he could make fit at once.

The second purpose of these small plastic shields and weapons was to fit together independently to produce a robotic vehicle. Again, we never quite got what the picture showed. The instructions were at best vague and the pieces didn't fit tightly together so it would often crumble in my son's small hands while trying to assemble it. After much frustration on his part, the pieces were placed into a small baggie and placed on the shelf where I believe they still are at this moment collecting dust - about six weeks after the toy's purchase.

Overall, I have to give the Power Rangers Conquering Blue Ranger Set a poor rating. The Ranger itself has been chosen for play often and has held up very well. My son "battles" with his blue Ranger playing roughly with it and it has provided him with hours of fun. The extra accessories were a big disappointment and definitely a waste of money. I would recommend buying the action figures at a few dollars less and leaving the small plastic armor sets in the store. I think it will save both you and your child quite a bit of frustration as well as about $5.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 9.99
Type of Toy: Action Figure
Age Range of Child: 6 to 8 Years