Thursday, August 14, 2008

Power Rangers: Boy's Club

As we all know, Power Rangers are targeted towards boys, but with the merchandise sometimes they show the whole team, and sometimes just the boys. Also interesting to see which Ranger colors got Halloween costumes and which ones didn't.
Starting with the first series, most of the coloring books, magazines, t-shirts, backpacks and lunch boxes had the five Power Rangers on it. Only very few clothing had three male Rangers. Then came the female line in 1994, so there were pajamas, videos, clothes, and dolls.




The Halloween costumes were unique as when the show came out, there were only Red, Blue and Pink. A three-Ranger stable that will continue occurring through the years. Later in 1994 and 1995 for Seasons 2 and 3, there were the other colors including White, but never Green. Green was only available in sewing patterns.

I'm not only going to do underwear, but here is a unique example of all the genders being used in a product. I had trouble finding anything only with the male rangers. As for the costumes, I recall all six Rangers being available but online, I can only find Red, Pink and Gold.




Turbo, I don't have pics of any other merch. I think this is the first year to only have four Ranger costumes. The unique part of this one is that Phantom Ranger was used twice, I think the first one-year Ranger to be repeated twice.

Power Rangers in Space, was unique as they advertised the Silver Ranger a lot in merchandise and toys and such, but for some reason he got no costume. The only Rangers that got costumes was Red and Pink. That's it. It was the first time the Blue Ranger got shafted. The other costume sold with them was Phantom Ranger, who made cameos in the series. So yeah the girls got no love at all in the series, starting the long trend.

In the toy line, the girls got shafted with the bikes and all the clothes, books and such had just the boys. For example above, temporary tattoos showing off the 'sixth hero' with Magna Defender. As you can see, Magna Defender has a bike, which was only a toy, not in the series.

As for the costumes, as in Power Rangers in Space, there was only two Rangers and this time we got four--Magna Defender.

For Lightspeed, mostly all the Rangers were used in merchandise. As for the costumes, only three were produced. This is the second time the Blue Ranger got no costume. It is the last time to have only 3 Ranger Halloween costumes.

For Time Force, only the males appeared in shirts, clothes, bedding, birthday stuff, etc. except for the video game that had five rangers on the cover. As for costumes, we got four: Red, Blue, Pink and the Quantum Ranger.


Just like Time Force, Wild Force only had the males. Even got lazy--same image for the game as for a calendar! As for costumes, four again: Red, Blue, White (female), and Silver.

Ninja Storm was unique because the first series started with three Rangers, one being female so the female got the coverage. Now, when it came to costumes and other role-playing or glove merch... Yellow got the shaft.

Maybe because this was the first Disney series, most of the Rangers got costumes: Red, Blue, Navy, Crimson and Green. Also introduced to the costumes was the muscle suits, there is the choice between without muscles and with muscles. Yellow Ranger did get a Disney Store exclusive.

Dino Thunder also started with three Rangers with the Black Ranger later. Most early merch has all 3 Rangers, some other had 4 and then later on it only had the males (Red, Blue and Black). The White Ranger that came in later got no love when it came to bedding, stationary, or costumes etc.

For Halloween, there was Red, Blue, Yellow, Black and Triassic. Also unique was Adult costumes for once: Black and Triassic. And even the only PR costume ever for dogs! Of course only in Red. I wish there was Pink cause I have girl dogs.
For Birthday stuff, only Blue and Red got love.

SPD was unique as there was there so many Rangers. 13 in the series and 7 in the toys. As for the merchandise, mostly the three male Rangers were covered.
This is a picture of a towel when Omega Ranger came out. The Shadow Ranger was covered in some merch but not as much as Omega.
The strangest and rarest thing ever.. in this bedding, the pink ranger was included! Not only her but the Omega Ranger. Maybe they felt as they had the female rangers in the bedding in the last two years, they would include her.

In Halloween, everyone got included... except for the yellow ranger, she didn't even get a Disney Store exclusive. Red Ranger and Blue Ranger got regular, muscle suit and deluxe 'Swat Mode.' Pink Ranger got regular and Swat. Omega got a muscle suit, Shadow got a regular suit, and Green got regular as well. Six is the most ranger costumes we have gotten lately.


By Mystic Force, all was 'right' with just three male Rangers. Like Ninja Storm, Yellow male Ranger got the shaft. In most two-ranger merch like walk-talkies and role-play items, only Green and Red. In costumes, Red, Green, Pink and the Solaris Knight.
The female Blue Ranger at least got a Disney Store exclusive.

For PROO, only the male rangers got love and in the costumes, there was 5 costumes but no Yellow. Black, in a loooong time got a costume.
Jungle Fury is a unique creature on its own. Because like Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder, the series started with three rangers (a female yellow ranger), so since there would be no new Rangers until July or so, they made Elephant, Bat, and Shark Rangers. Elephant Ranger was along with Red and Blue in the first line of toys, while Bat Ranger (whose color is black) got the majority of the merch, all the merch to be exact. I personally think they picked black because last year was red, blue and black. Of course they couldn't use the Shark Ranger because he is a degree of blue.

The Red and Blue Ranger illustrations do appear on the toy boxes but no Yellow nor Bat. Now that the Wolf and Rhino Rangers premiered, so far they have not appeared in the clothing, hat, backpacks and I doubt they ever will. The Rhino Ranger is getting a Halloween costume.

As for Power Rangers 2009, which has no confirmed name yet, everyone is calling Power Rangers R.P.M. There is four male Rangers: Red, Blue Black, and Green, since they always stick to 3 for merchandise, I wonder if Green or Black will be the third member. I think they might alternate them, most likely Black will get the most exposure because he is the 'leader' of him and Green and number 4--not the last one like Green.

Updated September 21, 2008:
And when it comes to the Halloween costumes, for SPD, we got all the male rangers and for Ninja Storm and Jungle Fury, one was skipped. So RPM, we might not get one of the male rangers, for sure Red, Blue, and Gold, but either Black or Green is the question. As for female RPM costumes, of course Yellow and since most second fiddle females are skipped, I doubt we will be getting Silver. We could get Silver in the Disney Store like we got Blue for Mystic Force, but since she is a seventh ranger, I doubt it.

:::Note: All above was written in 2008 before RPM came out:::

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