Friday, June 12, 2009

Teamups that Power Ranger fans will never see

UPDATED 5/17/10 8PM EST
In order to dispel any more confusion, which I thought stuff that was pretty clear but I suppose it was not. Super Sentai teamups started in 1977, there was JAKQ vs. Goranger and a couple after that but it did not become an annual thing until Ohranger vs. Kakuranger. In Power Rangers, the first teamup started with the Zeo Rangers and Alien Rangers in "Rangers of Two Worlds Part 1 & 2" and did not become annual until Lost Galaxy and Space Rangers in "To the Tenth Power."

There was no team-up between Wild Force and Ninja Storm in Power Rangers Ninja Storm becuase Ninja Storm was the first series filmed in New Zealand and there was cost problems and cast costs didn't let them do it. Bascially they couldn't afford to fly the Wild Force Rangers. Hurricanger vs. Gaoranger did happen and the Elephant, Tiger and Shark merged with the 'Ninja Storm' megazord.

Mystic Force and SPD team-up never occurred, what did happen was the character Piggy appeared in the episode "Ranger Down" and met Jenji. Some optismtic fans thought this meant it was just a sneak-preview to a real teamup but what it really was the closest thing to be a teamup because the actor who played Piggy also played Toby so he was on the payroll. The reason it didn't happen was because of budget cuts. They had decreased the episode count in that series. I believe it was also about money to get the SPD cast because majority of the SPD cast was from Canada and the United States. In Magiranger vs. Dekaranger, the SPD battlizer appeared, which it is the first Battlizer to ever appear in Super Sentai because Super Sentai has no battlizers. Battlizers originated in Power Rangers.

Jungle Fury and Operation Overdrive teamup didn't happen because of costs once again. Also why the Red Ranger didn't get a Battlizer. What he got close to was the cycle armor. In Gekiranger vs. Boukenger, we got GekiRinToujaWolf--which also appeared in Go-Onger vs. Gekiranger but did not appear in Jungle Fury.

There was no RPM and Jungle Fury teamup because of budget cuts. The closest thing we got was the Jungle Karma Pizza place briefly appearing in Corinth in the episode "Ranger Green."

3 comments:

Sean Akizuki said...

If you ask me, I think the Power Rangers battlizers might have been inspired from Hyper Blue Beet in B-Fighter.

Cmdr Crayfish said...

For the record, the actual reason that there aren't teamups on an annual basis anymore is because Disney corporate tends to believe they're wastes of money. Being their first exposures were Reinforcements and Forever Red, I'm not surprised.

Additionally, Wild Force/Ninja Storm was fought for REPEATEDLY by Jackie Marchand. The simple fact of the matter was that Disney was not going to spend the money to pay for a minimum of nine SAG actors to return. The six Rangers, Shayla, and the Dukes. Jackie discussed this herself at PMC.

And for the record, the budget allocation of the Jungle Fury Battlizer -- Battlizers and "secondary bikes" are subsidized by BANDAI, not Disney -- was given to the Spirit Rangers instead. Again, at Jackie's insistence. This has been stated by the show's producers on public venues.

Lavender Ranger said...

Thank you for that CC, I knew it had something to do with SAG but I wasn't sure. And that is interesting about Bandai subsidizing. I wonder if it was Bandai America or Bandai Japan. A Sentai Producer mentioned Bandai America having some say in Super Sentai stuff.