Power Rangers as a whole

I did see one person mention trying to run PR in Gurps if you want crunch, though not sure I'd recommend that.

No, Cosmic Fury was very light on merch. There was the basic megazord, the morpher, and for some reason a Zenith Ranger roleplay set◊ and that was literally it. There were strong rumours that we'd get figures for some but not all of the team, but ultimately no figures appeared at all.

In-person in the few shops I check, I've only seen unsold Dino Fury stock (and Lightning Collection), haven't encountered any Cosmic Fury toys in the wild.

I guess we're not getting it since Cosmic Fury came out half a year ago. I figured we'd at least get a line of figures and both of the Zords. Hasbro must have walked back their initial plans. The Megazord set feels more like an obligation than anything since they'd have to put something out. It was a Prime exclusive to. I guess it wasn't worth the time or money developing a whole line but still worth it to create whole new suits for the show?

It does feel like Hasbro's slightly given up on PR, and is/was banking on the reboot to do better for them. Beast Morphers and Dino Fury already had fewer toys, but the Cosmic Fury line was just a joke. They seem to be focusing more on their other brands.

We might still get something eventually, but I wouldn't count on it. We did get the Dino Fury Dimetro Zord weirdly late, but they still didn't get anywhere near completing the Zord lineup. Lightning Collection is 'on hiatus' (whether it's actually coming back or they just don't want to say they cancelled it is unclear) but they've released some random other stuff so that's always possible.

Exalted 2nd edition had a rulebook on how to run a campaign in multiple genres and time periods (from space opera to modern era, etc). And 1 of the playable Exalted types is called Dragon-Blooded and they're split into 5 elements (fire, water, wood, earth, air) so figured you can make a Power Ranger team out of them.

Hasbro already has their own homegrown super hero team with a nostalgic fanbase and a massive franchise centered around giant transforming robots. Did acquiring Power Rangers even make sense?

Hasbro, till all are one.

True. Although if they're putting all this PR stuff on hold do you think they're gearinf up to sell it?

It's so weird, spending presumably a decent amount of budget on original props and suits (showcasing them in the same way prior seasons would)... and then not making toys to make that bank back.

It is strange, even with the smaller toylines (presumably a result of budget) you have to assume Cosmic Fury had more than 3 items planned. I read somewhere that the Cosmic Fury suits were designed like that so they could share the same molds (while the Kyuranger suits have quite a few various differences and therefore couldn't) but then they didn't make figures anyway.

Hasbro owns masses of brands, so buying it was probably just considered yet another addition to the portfolio. Even with no new content they could probably still make some money off of selling collector items but given that's seemingly disappeared I wouldn't be too surprised if they sold it off. Don't know who'd even want to buy it though.

They could easily just sit on it and license seasons to streaming platforms. Is there a streaming site that does have all of them or is it split up? I remember when all the seasons were on Netflix.

So this is cool, David Yost and Amy Jo acting out "The Return" on Instagram.

A few seasons are on Netflix, and a lot of seasons are just on YouTube now. Not entirely sure why, since they used to all be on Netflix, there was a weird decision at some point.

Bandai or Toei maybe?

Jason David Frank's son Jacob (who appeared in the show as the baby in "The Ninja Encounter") has set up an e-bay store where he will sell exclusive merch signed by his father before his passing. He put out a video which was shared by the official Power Morphicon convention, Jacob's even been getting some kudos for his uncanny vocal similarities to his father.

...But unfortunately if you do some digging, as some already have online, it turns out Jacob has pleaded guilty to repeated acts of sexual assault, some of which involve minors.

Austin St. John, who has his own controversies, was endorsing Jacob's store also.

I mean Hasbro letting PR die would be disheartening after the goodwill from Beast Morphers onwards.

Edited by Mizerous on Feb 28th 2024 at 8:30:52 AM

Outside of homegrown franchises like Transformers and GI Joe, Hasbro hasn't exactly been nailing it w/ some of the franchises they acquired. Like the whole controversy behind DND's OGL rewrite and, depending on who you ask, Magic the Gathering's focus on crossover sets w/c now includes Fallout and Assassin's Creed.

The obvious counterpoint is that Hasbro acquired D&D 27 years ago and Under Hasbro D&D's popularity exploded from something niche only nerds did to something mainstream. Like, at this point Hasbro's owned D&D longer than TSR did.

Like, Hasbro's OGL stuff is scummy and their new edition looks like shit and im never believing they'll release that VTT in a useable state that wont be a money sink, but going "Man D&D's really withered since Hasbro's got it" or acting like the brand's been on the downslide since Hasbro got it is a fantastic re-writing of history.

I dont think Hasbro's gonna let PR die. But I also dont think they'll commit to yearly seasons the way PR used to be made. That's not how they handle their other brands, like Transformers and the likes.

Edited by Ghilz on Feb 28th 2024 at 10:59:16 AM

How much of DND becoming popular bec of Hasbro and how much was due to Critical Role is debatable. Let's also not forget that during that time period, DND was changed to 4th ed and said changes weren't well liked to the point that it allowed Paizo's Pathfinder to overtake DND as the #1 tabletop rpg until DND changed to 5th ed and after 5th ed became popular that's when they pissed all the newly acquired goodwill away w/ the OGL rewrite.

It really isnt. Even 3rd edition sold more and was more mainstream than any of TSR's editions and releases. Heck, 3rd ed was like the first tabletop edition you could find regularly stocked in big brand book stores and not just in hobby stores, which was entirely possible because it was mega giant Hasbro pushing them. And that demand opened the path for Pathfinder to do the same.

Heck, Critical Role arent even the forebear of the "lets do a d&d podcast live thing", Penny Arcade beat them to it by almost a decade and acquisition incorporate happened thanks to a partnership with WOTC. The format Critical Role follows exists because it's a thing Hasbro helped make happen.

The only reason the OGL exist for us to complain about Hasbro fucking with it is because Hasbro made it in the first place.

Like, has Hasbro fucked up a bunch of times, sure. And so did TSR. But again, it's ridiculous and dishonest to act like the brand withered under their watch.

Edited by Ghilz on Feb 28th 2024 at 11:13:32 AM

That's the conflict when it comes to the vast majority of content we are appreciating, it takes money to make these things and they are ultimately products for a company to be financially successful. All of the artists putting in long hours making expertly crafted things are not in control.

Power Rangers itself I can't imagine they'll just abandon, but will take a break while they rethink the brand strategy.

Yeah. A season every year just isnt how Hasbro does things. I'd expect more distancing between the shows. I'd also expect them to go animated but maybe I'll be surprised there.

I guess this is one way to solve the "do we acknowledge that SPD is now in the present" problem?

D&D has been fairly popular within like, nerd subculture for quite a while and generally speaking nerdy stuff seems to get more mainstream over time. Stranger Things season 1 seemed to give it a notable boost too. In general it's got a lot more popular over the last decade or so. To their credit Hasbro at least tries with marketing, though they certainly pick and choose which brands they actually care about.

Hasbro's brand strategy at the moment seems to be just focusing on the most popular ones, and PR certainly isn't one of those (from their own official statements it's MTG, D&D, board games, NERF, Play-Doh, Peppa Pig and Transformers).

What kind of agreement does Hasbro have with Toei?

Who knows.