Power Rangers as a whole

The group next to Udonna look like the Shadow Rangers from Wild Force.

Oh, that they are. Thanks.

I wonder if Linkara will review this at some point.

I've watched a ton of Power Rangers, but I'm a little less clear what the other Sentai shows of the 90's were like. I know Masked Rider had plot in the first two episodes and then everything else was filler, with the final episode just being a normal episode where no stuff was resolved. I've seen a little Beetleborgs. I know some kids wished for superpowers and became Beetleborgs, but the wish also created some villains so they had someone to fight. Can't remember anything about the baddies. I know that the kids got new powers in season 2 and new villains. Not sure the hows or whys of this. Did they beat their season 1 villains? Did the season 2 villains just show up one day and kill them off to show they were badder? I am familiar with Superhuman Samurai Cyber Squad. I don't think there was any ongoing plot outside of the first episode where we are introduced to the status quo, although one of the team members does get replaced. I have never seen an episode of VR Troopers and don't even know the premise outside of being a sentai. Did the status quo ever get shaken up? Or was everyone just spinning their wheels and never accomplish anything?

VR Troopers wasn't a Sentai. It was three different Sentais spliced together into a weird Frankenstein of a show. I don't remember much of Big Bad Beetle Borgs outside of the evil brother of the in-universe Beetle Borg comic was involved in drawing up a new villain for the second season.

Basically, the theme songs literally give you the basic premise in both seasons.

Season 1 has the 3 kids go into a Haunted Mansion, find a Phantasm(despite the character specifying this as his preferred race, the theme song just says ghost), free him, and he grants a wish. They become Beetleborgs from the Comics. However, the Comic Books are still open, which let loose the villains themselves. It's not simply a case of "having someone to fight" in this case. That applies later for the White Blaster Beetleborg, who was created to fight the Shadowborg. As soon as Shadowborg is defeated, White Blaster ceases to exist, and the character just leaves. It was.. a really poorly thought out arc, to be honest.

The second season starts off with the Beetleborg Comic's creator's brother(who is insane, legally speaking), who creates a new powerful foe, that the season 1 villain lets loose. When the Beetleborgs defeat the season 1 villain, the new one takes over and literally blows away their powers(again, the theme song is pretty clear on that one). They get the Comic Book creator to give them new Metallix powers. Eventually this leads into an arc to get two weapons, both legendary that control huge sentient(but not highly intelligent, much like some Combiners in Transformers G1). They also have to get the Astralborgs while fighting the Mantrix. I might've gotten some names wrong, mind you, but eh. All of them have coins among these two groups.

Some notable things is that the mansion has 4 monsters(and eventually one more in Season 2) who all enjoy eating humans(mostly children), which leads to silly "chase time" comedy akin to the Scooby Doo scenes(even having silly music, and tons of doors that legitimately lead to the same area, as well as secret passages). Vlad The Impaler is the king of the vampires, and actually a heroic person. So to speak. He still obviously wants the whole vampire thing to work, you know, getting blood slaves, turning people into more, etc. But he still sticks up for the good guys in the end. Count Fangula is one of the many vampires. There's also Frankenbeans, who has his father, a "doctor", of course. I can't remember the other major monster names, though, not counting the phantasm. I rewatched it over a year ago, so eh. The mummy(Mumms) character has a mom, who cares deeply for her son. The werewolf(Wolfie) is never shown to have family, but a clear fighting instinct/desire. And there's a little ghoul of sorts that shows up in season 2(as I noted earlier). She's the only recurring female of the monsters.

As for the Beetleborgs, Red is not the leader, but is the girl. Blue is the leader, with Green as somewhat closer to a lancer of sorts. White is as close to a sixth ranger as you can get. Red, you would think, would be the chick, but she's actually the strongest one physically due to her superpowers. Green gets superspeed, while blue has telepathy(moving objects with his mind). White gets invisibility.

If I remember right, it's based upon B-Fighter Kabuto, and another one among various Sentai-based series, as well as Tokasu. Something people might not know is that Super Sentai is specifically the series that gets adapted into Power Rangers. Sentai is an actual genre, that includes various kinds of superheroes. It's among what would be best called "Japanese Superheroes". Tokasu appears to be a variation of it, possibly more the idea of being vehicle based(Kamen Rider), while Sentai seems to concentrate more on transformations. But that's solely an observation I have. I don't know the major differences at all.

edited 5th Dec '17 9:16:54 PM by Irene

Super Sentai is specifically the franchise that became Power Rangers. Those other shows were in the same toku genre, but distinct franchises. VR Troopers and Beetleborgs were different incarnations of Metal Heroes, while Masked Rider was part of Kamen Rider. Sentai is easily the most famous, in large part due to Power Rangers boosting its international recognition but it is still the longest lasting and most continuously running show, codifying the majority of the tropes associated with the genre.

Sorry, I meant Tokusatsu, but for some reason the word had escaped my vocabulary.

VR Troopers, did it follow Status Quo is God? Looking at the episode list on Wikipedia it seems to have a lot of multi-part episodes in it's two seasons. It seesm liek it would be more serialized that Masked Rider or Super Samurai Syber Squad.

I forgot about one other 90's Saban show. It's not Tokusatsu, because it wasn't made in Japan. I'm talking about the Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog. It's set in Ireland, and is supposed o be about Irish folklore, but it really isn't. It's just a Power Rangers clone with knights and magic instead of morphing. The four knight had powers based on the four elements. I recall the main hero found out the main bad guy was his mom, here was a fifth knight whose element was forest, and there was a monster who was also the child of the main villainess and therefore the main character's half-brother. I don't recall watching an episode from beginning to end, at least not after the first five or so, but I must have watched bits and pieces while other shows were on commercial or something, otherwise I wouldn't be remembering all this stuff years later.

I do recall one other time Saban tried making a show from scratch. They made it about lucadors. Yes, I'm talking about Los Luchadores. Never watched this one, but of all the Saban shows of that era, this one felt the most desperate.

Troopers plays it safe for the most part, although there are still big revelations concerning Ryan's father Tyler, and Ryan and Grimlord do have a considerable boss upgrade in season two to match the new footage they used.

Troopers was weird. It smashed together a pretty stock Toku with a remake of Kikaider. It never really made a lot of sense because they literally had to split everyone up to use the footage.

Speaking of footage, here’s the cast dubbing stuff while drunk following the cancellation of the show.

edited 7th Dec '17 9:28:42 AM by Beatman1

That Crisis poster has some surprising inclusions, the Putty Rangers, the Robot Rangers from Lightspeed, and even Crash and the Creeps/Zokurangers. There's also some fat pink thing I don't recognize on the far right.

My first thought about that Pink Ranger next to Orion's foot was that it was Bulk, but I can't be certain.

Super Ninja Steel premiered today, and it established thanks to a return engagement with some familiar faces crossing over that this season takes place in an alternate reality.

edited 27th Jan '18 1:58:42 PM by Zarius

Oh Sledge and co., 1) never change and 2) become the new Rita and Zedd and keep coming back.

edited 27th Jan '18 5:18:05 PM by NickTheSwing

I am fine with this

Why the hell would they bring in Sledge and his crew, and you make them just leave stage left. I'm assuming this will lead into a team-up down the road but it just seemed odd...

Establishing continuity, I guess. The Neo Saban era seasons have been tying into each other much more than the Disney era or late Saban era seasons did. I like it, tbh.

I thought it worked well. I mean, it's less confusing that the time stuff in Super Dino Charge, at least.

So this thread is for discussing the Boom! comics, too, right? Because holy moly, those are good.

In other news the rights have been renewed til 2021.

Not only that Saban cut their toy merch contract with bandai

http://comicbook.com/powerrangers/2018/02/15/saban-brands-power-rangers-cuts-ties-bandai/

A new brand logo was also leaked online this week, but Saban took it down and have been banhammering anyone who attempts to upload it

edited 16th Feb '18 7:00:23 AM by Zarius

And it's official. Hasbro have the merchandising license

Huh, wonder if we'll finally see some non-garbage PR toys.

edited 16th Feb '18 8:48:07 AM by Ghilz

“Garbage” quality or “garbage” the Sentai haven’t been aesthetically appealing?

edited 16th Feb '18 2:51:20 PM by GethKnight