Stunt Suit Actors for Female Rangers

People always ask how many stuntmen have played female warriors and how many actual women have played the female warriors. I hate the convention of the color blue for boy and pink for girl but I used this time for the chart to be easy to understand. In this chart, Pink represents stuntwomen and Blue represents stuntmen who have had to 'stuff' their chest.

The men Midori Naito, Hiroshi Ueda, Ryoji Kurihara, and Shoji Ohara played Momo Ranger in Goranger and Minoru Yokoyama played Heart Queen. Lisa Komaki played Miss America and so did Eiko Onodera, she is Tsutomu Kitagawa's wife, Kitagawa has played Ninja Black, Battle Kenya, Shishiranger, Bat Li, and Godzilla suit since 1999, to name a few. Kitagawa played Miss America for the tough stunts. After that, Mr. Michihiro Takeda played the pink warriors (Denji Pink to Pink Five) and then guys Yuuichi Hachisuka and Masato Akada played the females from Changeman to Jetman. Shinobu Shimura also doubled as Goggle Pink and Dyna Pink, don't know if Shinobu is male or female. It wasn't a woman back until Zyuranger with Kiyohito Nakagawa. By Zyuranger, it was a stuntwomen once again until Carranger, where both female warriors were men. For Megaranger, MegaPink and NegiPink were women while MegaYellow and NegiYellow were men. GingaPink to TimePink were done by Motokuni 'Mr. Pink' Nakagawa.

GaoWhite was done by Yuuichi Hachisuka (above), who has also done DekaBright, MagiMother, Mele's Beastman form, Gosei Pink, Hime Shinken Red, and Gokai Yellow. Then until Hurricanger, it was women again. Boukenger had men (Nakagawa and Hachisuka) and then Gekiranger, women again. Motokuni Nakagawa has also understudyed for Oh Pink, Pink Blocker, Mega Pink, Gao White, and Deka Yellow. Female Keiko Hashimoto (DekaYellow) also understudied for Oh Yellow. Interestingly enough Yuuichi Hachisuka played White Swan and his twin brother Shoji Hachisuka played Blue Swallow in Jetman, but Yuuichi was replaced by Masato Akada from episode 25 until the end of the series. Shoji took over for Yuuichi as BoukenYellow in Gekiranger vs. Boukenger as Yuuichi played Mele. Mr. Masaru Oobayashi who played Yellow Racer, has played Vankyuria in Magiranger and Dayu in Shinkenger, but has also played male Rei in Boukenger and Master Elehen Kempo in Gekiranger. Also worth mentioning, female Naoko Kamio has played a Hanaranger, MegaPink, and Snowijel but has also played the male Master ShaFu and gender-neutral RoboTough in Gekiranger. I think it is also worth mentioning that Kamen Rider Femme (Keiko Hashimoto) and Kamen Rider Larc [Yuuki Ono (Hurricane Blue, MagiPink, DekaSwan and AbareYellow)] were played by women; except for Kamen Rider Shuki--who was played by Naoki Nagase. Female Mizuho Nogawa has played MagiBlue, Go-On Silver, Gosei Yellow, and Gokai Pink---she reprise all three roles at least once in Gokaiger.

For the Power Rangers, most of the female rangers are portrayed by men, namely Namihei Koshige, who has played the Yellow MMPR Ranger (He started in 1995) to White Aquitar Ranger to Yellow Jungle Fury Ranger and most likely the RPM Yellow. He is one of the rare stunt actors that started in MMPR and has been there for New Zealand other than producer Koichi Sakamoto. For Power Rangers, a whole team of people play one ranger. Sometimes a woman (Bridget Riley, Minerva Adams, Sophia Crawford, Motoko Nagino, Nami Hanada, Jun Yamashita, and Hiromi Sunaoshi) would but the majority of the work has been done by men. Funny enough most of the gender-changed yellow rangers (Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed, Time Force, Wild Force) were played by men, except for the American MMPR Yellow Ranger.

Check out the stunt section on my website SuperSentai.com

RPM Ranger Green joins Disney World's Hollywood Studios

This will be probably the last time I cover this! Big tear running down my cheek! The Power Rangers have been in Disney World resort and park's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida since 2005. They are part of the Disney Stars and Motor Cars parade. Kids go in hordes. They only allow five at a time. Each year a Ranger gets replaced by another.

In 2005, there was the Pink Time Force Ranger (from the 2001 season), the Lunar Wolf Wild Force Ranger (silver, from the 2002 season), the Green Samurai Star Ranger (from the 2003 season), the white Dino Thunder Ranger (from the 2004 season), and the Red S.P.D. Ranger (from the 2005 season). Though they had irregular colors on the team not common for a standard five-color team: Red, Silver, White, Green, and Pink.

In 2006, the Pink Time Force Ranger was retired by the Pink Mystic Force Ranger. She was selected to clearly replace the other Pink Ranger. Pink Time Force Ranger was at the park for only 2005.

In 2007, the Lunar Wolf Wild Force Ranger was retired by the Yellow Operation Overdrive Ranger. She was probably selected to have two females. The Lunar Wolf Ranger was at the park from 2005 to 2007.

In 2008, the Green Samurai Star Ranger was retired and replaced by the Blue Jungle Fury Ranger. They still had irregular team colors: Red, Blue, Pink, Yellow, and White. He was probably selected because the series started with Red, Blue, and Yellow and they already had Red and Yellow. The Green Samurai Star Ranger was at the park from 2005 to 2008, for three years.

The White Dino Thunder Ranger was in the park from 2005 to 2009, for four years. On March 7th 2009, the White Dino Thunder Ranger was retired by the Green R.P.M. Ranger! I thought this year wouldn't be done because there will be no new season filmed in New Zealand (and Bandai America saying it won't be canceled doesn't prove anything to me) and there is 0 publicity being done (no official website, no merchandise other than toys so far), but I stand corrected! And for the first time ever, the DisneyWorld Power Ranger team has standard Ranger colors: Red, Green, Blue, Pink and Yellow. I am surprised they didn't go with Black--it would be the original colors of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but I guess they wanted to stay with colorful colors--they are also the colors of the original Super Sentai... Goranger.

If you are parent and reading this, they say this Ranger has the power of the Shark, but the animal on his helmet is actually an Orca, the fin faces the opposite way, but Bandai America labeled it as a shark, probably thinking children shouldn't be educated about killer whales.

Female Kamen Riders Merchandise

For those who do not know, Kamen Rider is a boy's club, the great majority of Kamen Riders are men. In Japan, there are only THREE female Kamen Riders so far. I have covered this on this blog, but someone had asked for me to cover how much merchandise has been done for the female riders and I was happy to oblige. Kamen Rider Femme has rather a few figures and such, 7 to be exact and if her American counterpart Kamen Rider Siren gets one, then it will be 8 in total!

UPDATED 1/12/10: Turns out the Kamen Rider Dragon Knight toy line has been canceled by Bandai, so there will be no Kamen Rider Siren figure.

Masked Rider Ryuki - Rider Hero Series - Vinyl Figure
The Standard, she came with her weapon. Arms can move up and down, nothing else. It was made during the series.

She got an Advent Deck, it came in a set of 12, it is a henshin device. It came during the series.

Collectible Figure
Comes in a few pieces, do not how many, I don't have it so I do not know. It was made after the series, part of a collection of Riders.

Head Bust
I have this one, came in four pieces including base. My four-year-old niece thought it was a bobble head and was disappointed. This was made after the series, part of a collection. Volume 3 that included Kamen Rider Verde, Faiz, Odin, Blade, and Kabuto, to name a few.

Cell Phone chain
Cute. I do not know when this was made.

Souchaku Henshin Series Masked Rider Femme and Masked Rider Ryuga
Articulate figure set with human faces and armor pieces. This was made years after the series.

Mini Statue
Never seen this before but apparently it exists. I do not know when it was made. This was made during the series, part of the collectibles.

Candy Toy
Very small, not articulate at all. No weapon included. It was made during the run of the series.


Masked Rider Blade - Rider Hero Series - Kamen Rider Larc Vinyl Figure
The only figure of Kamen Rider Larc, only movable arms. This was made during the run of the movie she was in. She was also in a trading card series, she only had one card of course.

Kamen Rider Shuki figure
The only one, real small gasphon figure, comes in 3 parts with stand. Don't know when this was made but probably after the series' run, it is part of a collection of Riders.

Kamen Rider Amaki (as Transformed Akira)
In the S.I.C toy line, Amaki was released as "Transformed Akira."

Related Topic: Female Kamen Riders

Power Rangers RPM - Episode 5 - "Handshake"

No Opening Credits change! No Ziggy!

Summary:
Dillon and Scott are fixing their cars and competing on which one is best when they can't hear Dr. K's call for Dillon, so Summer tries telling them. Venjix sends a new monster and is not so thrilled with Tenaya and wants to destroy her, so he sends Grinders on her, which she totally wastes. Dr. K wants to test Dillon's invincibility shield but it is not working, they keep testing and testing to the point that he takes a break in the break room, opens the refrigerator to find a canon pointed at him. The golden general is 'destroyed' or just damaged. Scott's father informs them of Grinders entering their city. Dillon is about to take his car but Flynn informs him that he is changing the tires so Scott takes him. The Rangers race to where the Grinders are and each of them morph.


Black fight/teases with Tenaya. The Rangers blast Tenaya with their three-weapon blaster. The fight is over and Green still is fighting.. with air. Tenaya leaves them a little something under one of the cars and leaves. The gang returns to the base and Dillon questions Dr. K, having enough of her and asks if anyone knows who she really is. Scott gets mad at Dillon. She swears she wants to destroy Venjix. She returns to the base and she reveals to Venjix (who really does sound like Zordon) that she left her hand. The hand closes up the door and they can't go out. The hand claws up into Scott's shirt and the others try to hit it. Dillon jumps off the stairs and hand tackles him. The four Rangers excluding Dillon morph. The four fight the hand on the pool table (silly as it sounds).


Dillon morphs and tries the invincibility shield. Tenaya is about to set a bomb or blow up the place, so they destroy the hand with the cannon from the refrigerator. Tenaya has failed again and instead General Crunch gets scrapped for saying how Venjix's new bot will be defeated. The trio destroy the bot and Venjix makes it bigger. The Megazord is called but Drones are deployed, so Dillon and Ziggy call their Zords and fight off the drones. The bot is destroyed and Venjix is mad once again. Back at base, Flynn congrats Ziggy and Dillon on their zord work. Dillon apologizes to Dr. K. She says she has something to reveal... her true identity, which most of us knew if we saw the YouTube trailer or went to PRC (my friend Mike left the pic of her true identity on her description). The Rangers are shocked and she asks if they thought she was taller.


Comments:
The Simpsons writers in their DVDs say that the best payback in writing is when you payback a joke, and that's what they did here with the cannon in a refrigerator. A very jam-packed episode, and used very little of the Japanese footage. And why only test Dillon and not Ziggy? Anyhoo, nice Tenaya episode but not so crazy about the hand sequence.

This episode will be released in the first volume DVD on July 7th in America. And since YouTube and Blogger is most concerned about American copyright, I can not keep this episode online while it is avaliable for sale because of copyright and they will delete my account.

Toys that went from Bandai America to Bandai Japan

There was a habit around the time of 2005 that Bandai Japan copied Bandai America's toy habits. For excample, since PRWF (2002), there were these large Power Ranger figures with removable suits and sometimes removable helmets.

By Magiranger, Japan decided to have their hand in this and made them (red, green, yellow). Bandai America then just took the same toys and repackaged them for Mystic Force, they only made originals of Legend Red, Dragon Fire, and Solaris Knight. Japan only made red, green, and yellow.

For Boukenger, red, black and blue were made. In PROO, they repackaged red, black and blue and made Mercury Ranger.

Bandai America made the Mission Helmet for PROO (2007) and continued in PRJF...

And now Bandai Japan made a similar Go-On Red helmet in 2008.

Chances are we will see a version of this, this year.

Now from Japan to America...

The figures from the Sky Hokis (Mystic Racers) in Magiranger were used as the regular action figures in Mystic Force.


Bandai America had a habit of making rangers into zords since I think Lost Galaxy. Japan made their first in Dekaranger and in Boukenger. They were passed over to SPD and PROO.



UPDATED 8/10/09 10pm EST:
Rescue Action Series 6: Red Ladder and 7: Green Hover
They then became Deluxe Vehicles/Rescue Zords - Aero Rescue Three and Pyro Rescue One. These actually came with figures. The green one came with Green and Blue. The originals had no figures but could fit them.

Kamen Rider Dragon Knight Cutie #7: Michael Cardelle

Cuban-American actor plays Chris Ramirez/Kamen Rider Sting in Kamen Rider Dragon Knight.

He played Victor Reynolds in gay horror film House of Usher.

He played Rafael Ortega in "As The World Turns" in 2005.