The CD Collection--Kaito Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger CD Single

Welcome to a CCLemon99 review of this year's Super Sentai Theme Song CD Single. This is the companion post/review to my video on the Lupinranger VS Patranger CD Single.

While Japan is one of the few countries resilient to declining CD sales, there is still an ever-growing need to include incentives to CD releases to make them just a little bit more collectible than your standard release. My aim here is to kinda walk through this release from start to finish. I did a short video for my Youtube channel to show off all the goodies, but I'd like to explain everything with a little bit more detail here on the site.

I would also like to put out there that no, I will not give you the music. Buy the CD. That's kinda the point of this post. I want to kinda explain the point of CD collecting in 2018 versus mindlessly downloading everything. Buy a CD every once in awhile... A theme song single like this is a perfect example of something you should buy. It's cheap and usually has some kind of bonuses to make it worth while. Before I get into the package...how about I take a look at each track on this disc? This is a CD after all.

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Kaito Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger Shudaika
COCC-17428
2018.03.14

01. Lupinranger VS Patranger [Project.R(Tatsuhiko Yoshida & Hitomi Yoshida)]

I'll have to evaluate this song as best as I can without getting ahead of myself...

This song incorporates themes from both Lupinranger, Dial o mawase and Chase You Up! Patranger. The weak link by a country mile is Hitomi Yoshida. My...word... I really haven't been paying attention to too much Project.R for this very reason. I...cannot stand her voice. It's not singing. It's just a series of shrill noises. Project.R's uninspired music and horrible vocalists has made me fall out of love with Tokusatsu music in a big way.

At least we were spared Hideaki Takatori or worse...YOFFY's honking.

02. Lupinranger, Dial o mawase [Project.R(Tatsuhiko Yoshida)]

The much better theme song. This almost has a late 90s feel to it. I was kinda surprised to find out that Tatsuhiko Yoshida is only twenty-eight years old. He has a little bit of a Shinichi Ishihara thing going for him...though he's a little too wooden. He was a good pick for this song. The overall smoothness of this song is kinda reminiscent of the Dekamaster theme song and

03. Chase You Up! Patranger [Project.R(Hitomi Yoshida)]

Bad. The singing. I really can't deal with the singing over top the boring music. I was hoping that the Karaoke version would kind of remedy this, but the music just isn't all that exciting. This too reminds me of a 90s Tokusatsu theme song...Vanny Knights. Hell, even the singing is just as bad in that one. Actually, it's probably worse.

Remove "Patranger" from the lyrics and this can be a song from any anime. "Drag-onball It's Show Time". Yeah. Ugh...

04. Lupinranger VS Patranger [Original Karaoke]

05. Lupinranger, Dial o mawase [Original Karaoke]

06. Chase You Up! Patranger [Original Karaoke]

07. Kaito Sentai Lupinranger no theme [BGM]

Jazzy! I really dig it. I mean, even when they announced Lupinranger VS Patranger, my mind immediately went to Lupin III...and when you think of Lupin III, it's hard not to think of Yuji Ohno's incredible theme song and subsequent jazz soundtrack to back it. It should come as no surprise that the BGM theme of Lupinranger fits the name like a glove.

08. Keisatsu Sentai Patranger no theme [BGM]

Sounds like music from Go-onger...and Goseiger...and Gokaiger...and ToQger...and...

OVERALL: I enjoy the two dedicated Lupinranger tracks quite a bit. The Patranger tracks are just either incredibly bland or just ruined by that woman-child voice. I'm not up on my Project.R history, but wasn't Mayumi Gojo available? If they needed a decent Project.R singer, they should have gone with her. I really liked the Go-On Wings theme song...

Looking past the blandness of the Patranger music, this single wasn't bad at all. Given the nature of the show we got more content than usual...plus some BGM tracks! A pretty good value for what is usually only a boring four-track single. Twenty-five minutes of music for a low price...I approve.

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There's more, though! As I was rambling about earlier in this post, this CD came with some extras...and even more extras if you bothered to pre-order it. Nippon Columbia has done extras to varying degrees of splendor in the past. For Go-Onger we got an Engine Soul and for Gokaiger and Go-Busters we got a Ranger Key. There were some stinkers out there like the ToQger lenticular print and the Kyuranger pop-up nonsense.

This release...kinda combines the good and the bad. The sheer amount of features kinda inspired me to make the video since there is a little bit too much for me to share in just this post. I took like forty-plus photos of this damn set...

The CD itself comes in a sleeve with a pop-up of Lupinranger VS Patranger. OK, kinda weak. BUT. If you're brave enough to cut up the designated pages of the booklet, the pop-up suddenly becomes a calendar covering April 2018 to March 2019. Neat. It would kinda be neater if I could do this without destroying the booklet, though. Hahaa.

A special Carddass card was also included for use with the latest version of NamcoBandai's card-based arcade game.

The main extra is probably going to become the most desired over time, though. If you had the foresight to pre-order the CD Single, you got yourself a swing keychain featuring both the Lupinranger and Patranger logos on it. Pretty neat, huh? My only gripe is that it wasn't incorporated into the case at all. It was just kinda lazily taped onto the wrapper.

All things considered, this is a pretty jam-packed set for only $14. A pretty lengthy CD Single, pop-up case with calendar, Dice-Oh card, and the cool little keychain. I approve. Nippon Columbia has taken a wise approach to making CD collecting more appealing this time around. Just think back to fifteen years ago when you paid the same price and got the Abaranger theme songs, it's Karaoke versions and absolutely nothing else. Dark ages...

So yeah...remember to pre-order CDs even if you aren't totally convinced that you'll buy them. You never know what kind of bonuses will get tossed in and you can always cancel before it ships. Hehe.

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For more Tokusatsu CD goodness be sure to check out my CD Collection page. Next month on this site I will be doing DAILY POSTS. Thirty new posts in the month of April. It's insane and I'm really looking forward to it!

-CC

Top Seven Toys That I Wish Existed

Welcome to another CCLemon99 Top Seven List!

This time around I'm going to reveal my Tokusatsu toy wish list. Given the toyetic nature of Tokusatsu shows, it's pretty rare for something shown on screen *not* to have a toy. However, there are a handful of occasions where we missed out on something potentially great. I'm sure I'm missing some things out there, but these are the big ones that I could think of.

I'm going to leave out things like Super Robot Chogokin and SHFiguarts because, well, I pretty much do an annual wish list for things like that. Those lines are more or less still alive despite Figuart's obsession with Disney these days. Practically everything on this list has zero chance of getting a release...except maybe my top pick. *fingers crossed*

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07. DX Fire Wolzaphone [Mahou Sentai Magiranger]

Mostly so people can stop asking me where I got mine...

This is actually a good request, though. There is, and always has been, a massive demand for this toy. The fact that Bandai never gave it a standard release is trifling. You can only really go two routes for this one. Either wait very patiently and fork over a truckload of cash for the incredibly rare magazine giveaway, or do what I did and go the custom route. In my case, my friend Kingranger actually made mine to my own specifications--and even made an awesome custom box. The electronics feature the standard Wolzaphone sounds, so it would have been nice for Bandai to put some kind of quick release together. Alas, this was the days before Premium Bandai...

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06. DX Giga Bitus [Seijuu Sentai Gingaman]

I reviewed Giga Bitus recently. While I enjoyed the toy that was released...I kinda wish there was some kind of full scale release to hold both DX Chogokin Giga Phoenix and DX Chogokin Giga Rhinos.

While having a mecha that can comfortably hold ten other mecha inside of it would be prohibitively expensive and large, a boy can dream...

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05. Densetsu no Buki & Hellfriede [Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger]

I might be alone on this one. I actually really like the normal versions of the Zyuranger's Legendary Weapons. That said, they might be just a little bit too drab for toy versions to be necessary. We did get the transformed weapons at least.

Hellfriede, on the otherhand, should have definitely gotten a toy. If you were fighting your younger brother in the backyard, you obviously were re-enacting the Tyrannoranger vs Dragonranger fight. It's pointless without Hellfriede!

It was an awesome design that was just begging for a toy version...

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04. Witchblade [Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers S3]

I was disappointed when I learned that this toy doesn't exist. The seventeenth episode of Kakuranger is one of my absolute favorite episodes of the series. It explored an idea that I wish was revisited more than just this once in the series--revenge. Yokai Amikiri is after Saizo because his ancestor cut off her arm. It resulted in one of the most striking and memorable battles in Sentai history.

The most maddening thing about the cancellation? It was the only figure from this 1995 Action Evil Space Aliens line that never made it to production. UGH! Between this and the lack of Scorpina/Lammy I think Bandai may have had something against Ami Kawai characters...

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03. DX Roborider & Biorider Henshin Belts [Kamen Rider BLACK RX]

I might be only one of three people who care, but I would have liked the final two iterations of the King Stone. Roborider had those cool mechanic gears while Biorider somehow managed to make the King Stone whole again.

While the DX Sunriser isn't perfect, it would have been nice to have DX versions of the other two to go along with it.

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02. DX Fuun Maboroshijo [Ninja Sentai Kakuranger]

Kakuranger has an already great toyline, so this one breaks my heart in a big way.

So Bandai definitely had plans for this one. What made them back out is anyone's guess. It could be that the Wind Illusion Castle is hardly ever seen in the series. It could also be that, from a series perspective, Muteki Shogun was usually seen busting through the roof.

Based on the concept drawings, I can't even say that this would have been that large of a toy. DX Muteki Shogun isn't all that large, and the concept shows that it would have done a clever job of storing the Jusho within.

This toy doesn't appear to be that much less than what King Pyramider was just a year later. I'm sure some more fun features could have been tacked on as well... This likely would have been one of my favorite Kakuranger toys had it been released.

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01. Vulcan Brace [Taiyo Sentai Sunvulcan]

*sigh* I know what you're thinking. Whenever Bandai releases or announces new Sunvulcan toys, it usually kills the line that it's from. DX Ranger Keys (non-Web Exclusive) and SHFiguarts are two examples where some of the final toys released were from Sunvulcan. Well...this is one that I kinda hope comes into fruition.

A 1981 release of this likely wouldn't have been all that special. Given the Goggle Brace and Dyna Brace that we ended up getting, it probably would have only focused on VulEagle. You know what though, so what? It would have been *something* much in the same that the Goggle Brace and Dyna Brace are *something* as well.

This is where the Super Sentai Artisan line would come in. How hard would it be to make this happen? It's an easy design that can utilize a basic faceplate swap system. It's also the only major Sentai Henshin item that doesn't friggin' have any kind of toy representation.

While I would love to have a toy from 1981 Popy, a 2018 Premium Bandai version would be just as welcome in my collection.

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Those are some toys that I could think of off the top of my head. What non-existent toys do you long to see become a reality? Let me know! I'd honestly love to hear what everyone thinks. Dream toys? Cancelled toys? Impossibly limited quantities? Let's hear them!

I will be back next week with a new annual segment that I would like to try out. April is going to be a monster month on CCLemon99.com. Thirty new posts. 3-0. Every single day. Stay tuned for that...

See ya!

-CC

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