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.
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:::
Many people are calling it Power Rangers R.P.M., but we still don't know if that is the official name for the 2009 series. Here are my theories of how the toy line will play out, people might say you don't need theories because it will be a horde of different boy-oriented toys, repaints, new smaller molds of the zords with little paint and addition of new stranger zords that won't be on the show.
Since this show is much different when it comes to its zords, with talking animal/vehicle hybrids, I think the American-made 'Transforming' zord line will be much like the first one for Operation Overdrive, nothing to do with the series designs.
Some of the 'zords' have been coming in individual packages like before, but atleast 3 each make a megazord so that will make for cheaper packages, maybe $20 or $30 for each three-pack megazord. And like the surprise one for Jungle Fury that contains 9 zords, we might get that too, but maybe new smaller molds.
As for the action figures, many are jesting we will get a redux of the Spirit Rangers with Engine 6 Carrigator and Engine 9 Jumbow-hale. I doubt it because there will be 7 Rangers, but 9 wouldn't be that bad, since now we have 8 Jungle Fury Rangers and Dai Shi was included in one part of the 'Morphin' line like Koragg was in Mystic Force. I think the first batch will be the five rangers and a henchman. The second might be Gold, Silver and some kind of special addition to main five (since they don't have upgrades like SPD, Mystic Force, Overdrive or Jungle). As for the villains, dunno if any of them will be toys, maybe the gold leader.
There is a awful lots of weapons, 'morphers' and 'soul chips,' for sure we won't get all the soul chips because we never get everything and maybe one weapon will get skipped but mostly likely we will be getting a lower form of the morphers. The Go-Onger soul chips actually talk and have different phrases, doubt we will get that.
For some reason, I don't think we will be getting two Yellow Rangers. I don't why I think this. But we have gotten two before with no upgrade, like in Dino Thunder. Mostly likely we will be only getting one Silver Ranger, since she is female but definitely lots of Red, Blue, Black, Green and when he appears, Gold in different armor and such. I am even thinking we might get no Silver, because we got no White in Mystic Force because stores believed it wouldn't sell. But we did get the first female villain in a long time.. Camille, but she was sold limited and I no longer see her in stores. So most likely Silver will be sold the same way. Definitely we won't get a Silver Ranger Halloween costume.
