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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

17 Years of Power Rangers Memories Part 1

Here are my own personal memories concerning the Power Rangers, many many years.

Summer 1993
I remember first seeing commercials for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers toys and me and my cousin at the time were into the X-Men cartoon on FOX Kids and wondered if Power Rangers was gonna be a cartoon or live-action, since those days there was no YouTube or internet in our houses, so seeing just 15 seconds didn't stay in our memory. I was at K-Mart with my mom on a Saturday morning and they were playing the first episode on FOX on a TV. I ran to the TV section and stood in front of all the televisions watching Zordon tell each Ranger what color they were. I wanted to stay there forever. The next Saturday they played "Food Fight" and I fell in love. The following Monday on WDZL 39, in which they showed the rest of Fox Kids on weekdays, I saw the full first episode at 7:30 in the morning. Power Rangers was on morning weekdays for a bit in 1993.

Halloween 1993
My cousin, my nephew, my neice and I were into Power Rangers but the costumes didn't fit us, so we decided to make our own. For one, I was 11, too big for the outfit and my nephew wanted to be the Green Ranger and that time there was only red, blue and pink. So what we did was get sweaters and sweatpants and my mom sewed diamonds on them and me and my dad made paper-maiche helmets. We had a blast. As a 11 year-old Power Ranger fan in Middle School, I was teased endlessly but I had already been teased for other things, so I was like "what's the difference?"

Christmas 1993
My parents got me the 8 inch Trini, I was happy with and promised me the others for Christmas. That christmas eve, we usually opened our presents at midnight (because we are Hispanic) but since everyone was sick, my dad let me open them at 8pm, I was so thrilled. Mom and Dad got me Jason, Zack, and Billy; while my grandparents got me Kimberly. I liked how it was a joint effort. My grandmother searched everywhere for Kimberly. They went to Service Merchandice, which at the time sold toys, especially Power Rangers and my grandpa helped my grandma up and the pink ranger was at the end of all the boxes on the shelf. I put a skirt on my Kimberly for a while.

Late Spring 1994
I was in math class when a friend passed me a video game magazine that had a small blurb about the new season 2 toys of Power Rangers, with two pictures: one was the six Auto-Morphin figures and second was a small pic of the White Ranger (from helmet to belt, I didn't see his cuffs). They also talked about the Thunderzords, just mentioning dragon, griffin and unicorn I believe. I was intrigued, especially with the White Ranger, with who he was and why his outfit was so different. I was all full of wonder. As soon as I knew they were in stores, I called Toys R Us to find out what other animals they had. The guy told me but he had an attitude and took forever.

Summer 1994
I joined the Power Rangers Fan Club and got the video and a small poster advertising VR Troopers. In the end of the video, there was a tease to VR Troopers with another version of Professor Hart. There was also a TV Guide issue that came out in July showing off Lord Zedd and his new monsters (that I can remember there was Octophantom, Invenuusable Flytrap, Primator, Baboo, and I forget who else. The first time I ever heard of the series that Power Rangers was adapted from... "Zyuranger" and nothing else was mentioned. Anyhoo, it was an exciting time. Finding out new things at every turn. Oh and the FOX primetime special of the three-part Season Two opener "The Mutiny."

Summer 1995
What a summer! I listened to the FOX Kids radio show (2 hours), that was broadcasted on Y-100 locally but it was on pretty early on Saturdays. It was on like at 6am or something. Anyhoo, the music they played will remain in my mind. They played the music from the Movie's soundtrack and I eventually got it for my birthday. We all went to see the movie: my dad, my niece, my nephew, my cousin and I think my sister, not sure, but I was so psyched. I ended up not liking the movie but having fond memories of it and still hold it in high regard for its design style. The movie is the hands-down best from the two movies, it has its flaws but with all the stuff that happened behind the scenes, I am happy with the results. In 1995 I got the internet for the first time through AOL and they had a section with MMPR:TM pictures and sounds but that was it.

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