Power Rangers as a whole

How Austin St. John landed the role of Jason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo52IEcZEtI

Has anyone tried to keep good track of when Ranger costumes differ from Sentai's? I don't know much about the different grades of spandex, but I heard about how Power Rangers' helmets usually have clasps on the outside to open them that can't be found in the Sentai footage. At first I'd read that the helmets with the external clips were only used in Japan for live stage shows, but while I was in the middle of In Space I was informed that Super Sentai also uses those helmets for duplicate rangers, as if they only made one set of helmets with internal fasteners and then made extras with the "easy" mechanism for all the pretenders. So when I watched Megaranger fight the disguised Neziranger again, I noticed that this was the case, and I could tell the fake Megarangers by their helmet clips! (But the example everybody cites is Primator 'cause First Installment Wins.)

But Lost Galaxy appeared to have had the original "hero" helmets for most of its run, as I looked hard but never saw any outer clips until "The Chameliac Warrior". (When I looked at Kendrix's final episode as the Pink Ranger that season again, in some scenes she had the clips and not in others!) Did absorbing the budget of canceling The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg allow more time to deal with those tricky inner locks? Well, I didn't see the clips in the Turbo movie either, but then that did have a whole alternate suit design missing some emblems from the series.

I was surprised at how much more creative Lost Galaxy got after the summer break after its first third, which was pretty much just remaking the first half of Gingaman even when it didn't make much sense. At least Magna Defender's arc still worked because Kerrigan Mahan turned in a great performance, though.

When Captain Mutiny showed up, I thought, "Wow, he still has the scar from Hyuuga putting that ax into him!" But no, I'm pretty sure that obvious damage to the costume happened after his final Japanese appearance. And the American Swabbies had really creepy eyes, as if they didn't fill in the black parts thick enough when they remade the masks. Maybe that's why they weren't used sooner...? And maybe I should have saved my Gundam jokes for the ending, or referred to the Space Rangers not having seen Char's Counterattack or they would have tried throwing more Megazords at the asteroid sooner.

And wow, Lightspeed Rescue is finally dubbing the main villain lair as its own again, and the voices sound especially corny to me since I never saw this season on TV but have been watching plenty of Gogofive. Then the joke's on me for trying to recall which Gogofive monster Ghouligan was.

The clasps vs internal fasteners thing on the helmets isn't so much "duplicates" as it is a case of hero vs stunt costumes.

Trailer for the five-minute short film, "Dino Mega Charge"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNTTUw3A-W8

Edited by Zarius on Aug 5th 2018 at 4:26:26 AM

Lost Galaxy like In Space benefits for being its own thing rather than a one to one of the Sentai.

The anniversary episode will be titled "Dimensions In Danger"

Looks like the movie might be getting a sequel after all

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/power-rangers/275509/power-rangers-movie-sequel-in-development

Too vague to get excited about but I certainly would like another film.

Dino Mega-Charge is up

Hm, wonder if the new special will use what IIRC was the plot of Forever Red before the budget ran out - Dark Specter reborn vs. absolutely everyone. Or was that just a rumor?

I dunno, but I wonder what an All Red Rangers Megazord/Ultrazord would end up looking like.

Going to assume it's very red.

Crazy talk.

To me an all red Megazord would be uninteresting.

Like, the red zords are not made to combine (Outside of the Red Wild Force Zord being retconned into being able to combine with the Super Megaforce Zords) So you'd end up with just a mush of Red Zord parts that don't form a cohesive whole and that don't actually combine coz they can't.

It's the same reason the Movie Megazord sucked. It's not the sum of its parts. Outside of the wings, it shows no sign of being made of the individual zords and there's no way they can actually combine into it. So the show just has them fall in a hole and come out combined.

Edited by Ghilz on Aug 9th 2018 at 10:24:20 AM

But will there be horrible Ivan Ooze CGI zords?

I can imagine, I was mostly kidding, either way, after all, wasn't the red ranger usually the Megazord's torso or head or something like that?

It is usually the core of the Megazord in some way, if not strictly the head (as another zord might produce the head or helmet) then definitely the upper body. Exceptions include the season three Ninja Megazord, where the red zord was simply an arm, and the Super Zeo Megazord, where it is more of the torso as the yellow zord became the shoulders and head. I guess technically a number of seasons where the zords are not quite so Ranger-centric, like In Space or Time Force.

I have a fondness for Dino Thunder in how each zord is not merely an appendage but actually contributes a new weapon, armor or tactical shift. The Thunder Megazord on the other hand is VERY red ranger centric, but I like how it is a suit of armor instead of a normal plug-and-play.

The Thundersaurus and Dino Charge Megazords are both made mostly of their respective Red zords, which probably counts.

Wasn't saying they didn't, I was just pointing out Megazord designs that I liked more over others.

Always hated the "Zord as swappable limb" approach that many modern sentai series / Power Rangers series

It devalues the other rangers Zords

"Hey, get your mech out of there so we can swap it for some other mech."

Especially since the change of tactics bit tend to be underplayed. At most it tends to be just a new finisher, with whichever is the "newest" arm zord presented as the most powerful (Therefore presenting the non-red rangers zords as the weakest). Rarely ever is it "Oh we'll use this Zord as it'll counter the monster's ability!"

Part of why the Dino Thunder / Dino Charge Zords rank so damn low for me.

Edited by Ghilz on Aug 10th 2018 at 8:17:49 AM

Plot Details On "Dimensions In Danger" (caution, very spoilery)

And trailer

I like auxiliary zords but more imaginative megazords are nice. Over in Sentai Kyuranger had a nice compromise - every individual mech could be an arm or leg for the primary combination or an arm for the secondary one, so there was a place for most even when swapped out.

Re Dimensions: Tommy as something other than MMPR? That's a surprise. Why even bother with that many returning Rangers if only two actually get significant dialogue though?

Edited by FerrousMaelstom on Aug 10th 2018 at 7:42:06 PM

But what about Tommy and getting everything I ever wanted hashtagshow! :V

The Hashtag article also mentioned the possibility of an extended cut being exclusive to Netflix.

I think mostly that as a Ranger actor you want your zord to be distinctive and contributes real value to the megazord. Johnny Yong Bosch tried to adlib a joke in the Turbo movie about how he is driving a minivan that becomes a leg, while others are a race car or monster truck (a companion of sorts to his "I'm a frog" adlib used in the first film, the response by the producers were "You're not funny.").

That's part of the reason I am in favor of auxiliary zord combinations, rather than limb attachment zords. That usually implies that the zord is dangerous by itself, and is contributing to the megazords overall danger level. This includes things like the dragonzord fighting mode, mega dragonzord or mega tigerzord, which are different configurations based on the same core zords. It ups the strategy on the part of the rangers too, at least in theory.