Originally posted by me, Lavender Ranger, here at HenshinGrid!!!
In 1994, when Haim Saban was producing the first season of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," he believed he needed more footage than the 50 episodes of Zyuranger. What had happen was that more episodes were ordered after the 40 episode run, because of its unforeseen popularity. 'Doomsday Part 2' was the original final episode, and it was given an new ending. Originally, like Zyuranger, Rita was going to be sealed up. Also in the end, the Rangers were going to be given the option of giving up their powers (this still kind of stayed). Proof of this was seen in a United Kingdom printed episode guide summarizing this ending. So Saban contacted the Toei Company and Rainbow Productions (which produced the monster suits) to produce more 'Zyuranger' footage. The companies agreed to produce 25 'episodes' with new costumes designed and built with new in-suit battles and 'Megazord' fighting scenes, this was filmed in Japan.
The footage was sent to America and spliced with American footage just like before. Fans have coined the footage as 'Zyu 2,' it is unknown what the Saban company officially called them, if at all they did. The 'Episodes' are not known to have titles but fans have give them titles but they are not the official ones. It was also requested to keep some Ranger personalities like Blue's smarts and the relationship between Pink and Green.
For some unknown reason, Yellow was still not made female and remained male and in the "Bloom of Doom" episode, you can clearly see the stuntMAN's bulge (From the Bloom of Doom episode). Unlike most of the monsters of the Japanese footage, Saban and co. had all the monster costumes in the United States. This is obvious as most of the 'Zyu 2' monsters appeared in later episodes and seasons as background characters. Now, this is where it gets interesting. Saban decided to use the "Dairanger"(1993) footage for the Thunderzords for the second season. The first season had 60 episodes and only 15 out of the 25 'Zyu 2' episode footage had been used.
Using the 'Zyu 2' footage was difficult for the second season, because they couldn't use the footage containing the original Putties due to the change to the 'Z' Putties and the original Megazord footage was exchanged with the Thunder Megazord. So, there was 10 times of monsters awkwardly fighting a megazord since they were never together in the first place. There was not a lot of physical interaction between the two, sometimes you could occasionally see the old Megazord through explosions and smoke. They tried to fix it with some new American footage of the monsters punching the Thunder Megazord, the most obvious use of this was in the episode "The Power Stealer" with the Octophantom. A few years ago, a Japanese book came out with pictures of the monsters and had kanji with names, some were very basic like Parrot Monster, Crayfish Monster, etc.; some had the same name like Soccadillo, Peckster, Pumpkin Rapper, etc.; and some had alternate names like Speed Shark, and Galamander for Saliguana.
Now, there are many many unsolved mysteries with the 'Zyu 2' footage. Some of the monsters had no Megazord footage, making people wonder why. Most of all being Bloom of Doom, there is a rumor Lorkar was used in the battle but this has not been proven. The footage brought great things like in the episode "Oyster Stew," Tommy gave Zack his shield and the Megazord underwater (which never happened in Zyuranger). The above trading card has Zack in a fluffy cotton shield, which is the American shield, while the Japanese shield (which was later used in Dino Thunder) was hard and foam. Zack was never seen in the fluffy shield in that episode, many believe this is just a publicity photo, an re-creation. Or maybe they shot American footage of the scene but it wasn't used. Zack was seen in the hard foam shield thanks to the 'Zyu2' footage.
For some unknown reason, Yellow was still not made female and remained male and in the "Bloom of Doom" episode, you can clearly see the stuntMAN's bulge (From the Bloom of Doom episode). Unlike most of the monsters of the Japanese footage, Saban and co. had all the monster costumes in the United States. This is obvious as most of the 'Zyu 2' monsters appeared in later episodes and seasons as background characters. Now, this is where it gets interesting. Saban decided to use the "Dairanger"(1993) footage for the Thunderzords for the second season. The first season had 60 episodes and only 15 out of the 25 'Zyu 2' episode footage had been used.
Using the 'Zyu 2' footage was difficult for the second season, because they couldn't use the footage containing the original Putties due to the change to the 'Z' Putties and the original Megazord footage was exchanged with the Thunder Megazord. So, there was 10 times of monsters awkwardly fighting a megazord since they were never together in the first place. There was not a lot of physical interaction between the two, sometimes you could occasionally see the old Megazord through explosions and smoke. They tried to fix it with some new American footage of the monsters punching the Thunder Megazord, the most obvious use of this was in the episode "The Power Stealer" with the Octophantom. A few years ago, a Japanese book came out with pictures of the monsters and had kanji with names, some were very basic like Parrot Monster, Crayfish Monster, etc.; some had the same name like Soccadillo, Peckster, Pumpkin Rapper, etc.; and some had alternate names like Speed Shark, and Galamander for Saliguana.
Now, there are many many unsolved mysteries with the 'Zyu 2' footage. Some of the monsters had no Megazord footage, making people wonder why. Most of all being Bloom of Doom, there is a rumor Lorkar was used in the battle but this has not been proven. The footage brought great things like in the episode "Oyster Stew," Tommy gave Zack his shield and the Megazord underwater (which never happened in Zyuranger). The above trading card has Zack in a fluffy cotton shield, which is the American shield, while the Japanese shield (which was later used in Dino Thunder) was hard and foam. Zack was never seen in the fluffy shield in that episode, many believe this is just a publicity photo, an re-creation. Or maybe they shot American footage of the scene but it wasn't used. Zack was seen in the hard foam shield thanks to the 'Zyu2' footage.
Toys were made of these monsters, five large 8" figures (Rhino Blaster, Pirantishead, Soccadillo, Goo Fish, Guitardo) and nine 5.5" tall figures (Slippery Shark, Two-Headed Parrot, Grumble Bee, Peckster, Dramole, Invenusable Flytrap, Stag Beetle, Robogoat, and Pythor). Pythor never appeared in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, it is yet another mystery if a suit was made of this monster and if it the footage was filmed. Maybe Pythor is unrelated and had no footage at all and is just a toy. The 'Zyu 2' footage was and has never been seen in Japan in Super Sentai or in any form. I wish this could be answered but I am afraid we may never know any of these answers. Fans will forever be lost in this. Many of the regular public have no idea about this.
UPDATED MAY 1, 2009
Hi, when you said "Zack was never seen in the fluffy shield, many believe this is just a publicity photo, an re-creation" I believe it's not true cos there's one episode shows the green ranger transfer the shield to the black ranger, i guess either in MMPR season one or two.
ReplyDeleteThe episode of "Oyester Stew," what I meant to say is that Zack was in a shield, it was a foam shield, and fluffy shield, is one made of cotton. So yes he wore a shield.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this article because I am a fan of Zyu2 and it and it's monsters are one of my favorite aspects of MMPR.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if you were going to do an article about the possible Zyu3, and the Megazord design Toei made.
I was also wondering if Rainbow Productions still made the monster suits for Sentai.
Slasher49, I think Rainbow still does, I am not sure.
ReplyDeleteI had a longer post typed but Google redirected me to a 404 page when I tried to send it. The "trading card" is actually a sticker from a Merlin collectable random 6-pack, that you would place in a separately-sold Sticker Album.
ReplyDelete