1. Who produces the toys?
Bandai America has and continues to produce the official line for each Power Rangers series. Bandai America is a subsidiary of Bandai, a company based out of Japan which has been responsible for the toys for the Sentai genre for years.
2. Where can I get the toys?
Almost all larger stores that have a toy section will carry a close-to current line of Power Rangers toys. If a store near you does not carry the Power Rangers line, you can check websites such as eBay or Amazon, as well as many other small business sites.
3. What about getting sentai toys?
You can usually get the current toys at online retailers such as Hobby Link Japan, BigBadToyStore, or Toys N Joys. Additionally, items appear on the American based auction sites, as well as Yahoo! Japan Auctions. However, to use the latter, you must utilize a third-party bidding site unless you can read and have a computer that can type in Japanese.
4. What's the difference between the American and Sentai toys?
Depends on the toy itself. Sometimes, they're practically identical. Other times, that couldn't be further from the truth. Bandai Japan tends to produce toys made of a stronger plastic, using higher-quality paint, and throw in Diecast metal whenever it could possibly be warranted. This produces a stronger, nicer piece to look at it, but also one that is much more expensive to produce, and that expense is passed on to the consumer.
Bandai America doesn't use as high of a quality plastic, and usually resorts to a cheaper, less shiny paint, or choose stickers over heavy paint-detail. In addition, many items usually lose their die-cast parts, which therefore makes the items more reasonably priced to the American consumer. This keeps the price down for mom and dad.
