Buffy the Vampire Slayer connections with Power Rangers

Before Power Rangers, what lead me to it was "Saved by the Bell," with its teenagers and outlandish situations, meant for kids. Power Rangers was a natural progression. After PR, it was Buffy the Vampire Slayer the series, when it premiered in 1997, I was a teenager. Actually, there are quite a bit of connections and references from Power Rangers to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There are many similarities to the first season of Buffy, like teenagers fighting monsters, strong females, witches, a stuffy male mentor and somewhat campiness. But of course, Buffy was much more better crafted, all original and got more sexual and adult as it went on. So it was a natural progression as I grew up.

Xander Bly
The most obvious reference, which hasn't made clear if it was a reference but many fans did believe so, that Xander Bly of Mystic Force was a reference to Xander Harris of Buffy.


Sophia Crawford
Stuntwoman Ms. Crawford went from playing the Pink Ranger in the first three seasons to being the stunt double for Sarah Michelle Gellar in the first two seasons of Buffy. This was reference to in the 2nd part of "What's My Line?" when Buffy called fellow slayer Kendra a 'Pink Ranger.'

Alison Macinnis and James Marsters
Alison who played Dana in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue in 2000 dated James Marsters (Spike for 5 seasons of Buffy and 1 season of Angel) for a brief while. This is them when they were at an Cosmopolitan event when Sarah Michelle was on the cover.

Walter Emmanuel Jones
How else could I forget that Zack himself guest starred as a college student in the episode "Fear Itself" of Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He is only seen in one scene and doesn't interact with the main cast.

Michelle Trachtenberg
Equally Michelle Trachtenberg guest starred on Walter Jones' after-MMPR show "Space Cases." She guest starred in the episode "All You Can Eaty" with her "The Adventures of Pete & Pete" co-star Danny Tambereli. Michelle went on to play Dawn on Buffy.

Ron Rogge
Ron Rogge, who played Captain Mitchell in Lightspeed Rescue played a cop arresting Buffy and Faith in Season 3 episode "Bad Girls". Roggé has several lines and appears in two scenes of the episode.

Karim Prince
Karim Prince appeared in Season 5 episode "Spiral," as one of the Knights of Byzantium, who wanted to destroy the Key (Dawn) before the main villain Glory could use it. You may not recognize Karim Prince but he played Cestro the Blue Aquitar Ranger. He also appeared on Malcolm in the Middle as Francis' military cadet friend.


Tom Wyner
Voice Master Vile and Sid the Dummy in the first season of Buffy.

Last three pictures thanks to After the Power. Let me know if I missed anything else.

MMPR Retrospective in SFX Magazine; first covered by No Pink Spandex site

This is the January issue of SFX Magazine, which I have read in the past. No Pink Spandex covered this earlier but I just noticed now. They complained about Goldar and Snizard, but what I find alarming about the article is that they call the original yellow ranger 'technically a transsexual' which is very incorrect and a common misconception of transsexuals. If they want to really comment on the yellow ranger having no skirt and once being male, they got it wrong. Saban and company just change the genders, that's it. Trini is female, that's it.

I hate to get all preachy but I think it is an important point to bring up, as it is apparently still taboo in mainstream culture. Intersex is still called hermaphrodite and transgender is still incorrectly called transsexual. My Firefox browser spell check doesn't have any of these terms in their dictionary. Anyhoo, enjoy the article.

The story was provided to No Pink Spandex by SnoopsWarner via Rangerboard.

No Pink Spandex Post--SFX Magazine

Who Would Win? Round #5

Rita vs. Bandora
177 people voted that Bandora (106 votes) could beat Rita (71) in a battle. When Rita was roaming around in space due to Lord Zedd, she ended up in a worm hole into Bandora's Palace. She got out of the dumpster and they went out witch versus witch.

Scorpina vs. Lami
165 people voted that Scorpina (63) would be beaten by Lami (102). When Rita was beaten by Bandora, she asked her to send Lami to kick Scorpina's butt for working for Zedd. Lami happily obliged and snapped her neck, that's why we never saw her again. (or that's what my crazy mind says)

MMPR the Movie team vs. Dairanger
Out of 146 votes, fans believe Dairanger (84) would kick butt and I agree. It was a close call, MMPR the movie got 62 votes! Dairanger was the bloodiest series. When Ivan Ooze was destroyed, it created a wormhole that let the Dairanger arrive. The Rangers would think the Thunderzords were stolen and the Dairanger would think one of them were imitating Kibaranger.

SPD Rangers vs. Dekaranger
137 fans out of 186 say the Special Police Dekaranger would kick the butts of the B-Squad SPD Rangers. A wormhole would open and the SPD Rangers would end up in Japan again, only to discover it is the year 2004 and they are arrested by the Dekaranger. Their SP-Licenses tell them to eliminate them.

The Degree of Gold in the Gold Rangers

UPDATED 5/15/13 11PM EST

As I covered the degree of silver in the Silver Rangers and wanted to make a post covering Gold, I decided to do this. Gold is less used than Silver. Even though he was called the Gold Ranger in Zeo, King Ranger is not considered a gold ranger in Sentai, he is considered a black ranger, I will have him in the post. Deka Gold is actually the first warrior in Super Sentai to be called Gold, even though she is exclusive to the movie (seen only for a few seconds). She was seen briefly and was like a orange-y gold color. Magi Shine / Solaris Knight was essentially navy blue suit but with gold armor on top. His gold was more like a golden yellow. Go-On Gold / Ranger Gold was the first official gold warrior in Sentai and the second Gold Ranger in Power Rangers--the only to be completely gold. His gold was more shiny, much like his partner Go-On Silver. Shinken Gold had blue and gold, his gold was just as shiny as Go-On Gold but had a yellow-ish tinge. Unlike the color silver--that there has been two female silver rangers, gold has only one female. For Sentai, Silver was first used in 1997 and Gold started out in 2004 but no real toy until 2009. For Power Rangers, Gold started out in 1996 and Silver in 1998.

Now in 2013, we have legitimate five full-time Gold Rangers. Well King Ranger wasn't really a 'Gold' Ranger and Deka Gold was barely even seen over a minute. As I said before Magi Shine / Solaris Knight had mostly gold, it was the armor and it wasn't shiny shiny. Go-On Gold / RPM Ranger Gold was shiny gold, like someone once said was like a Duracel battery with half black. Shinken Gold / Gold Samurai Ranger had blue and gold, his gold was just as shiny as Go-On Gold but had a yellow-ish tinge. Beet Buster of Go-Busters is half black and gold like Go-On Gold but just as shiny. Kyoryu Gold of Kyoryuger is more gold than all of those rangers combined in his suit alone. He has some navy blue and black but he is mostly gold.

Related Topic: The Degree of Silver in Silver Rangers

RPM Micro Megazords

This might be old news but...

In Spring of 2009, Bandai America released the RPM Micro Megazords. They got a lot of reaction from fans because the High Octane and ValveMax came with a 'bonus' zord and Torque Megazord was a whole-new original Megazord, with four new zords. Fans asked Bandai America for what animals they are but they didn't give a straight answer. The Black one at the top was Panther and car mix; the middle purple one was a fox or bat like sci-fi car; and the cyan one was like a condor racecar. The red bonus is a car-like pick-up truck. With ValveMax, came with a purple Cobra Bonus zord. The High Octane shield became a black frog, so it wasn't completely original.

In late 2009, they made three other Micro Megazords with bonus zords of themselves. But they were only released in the United Kingdom and possibly other European countries. The important part is that they were not released in the United States. Recently, PRRPM came to Germany, marketing is different, some things that weren't released in U.S. where released there and things that were aren't. It depends on the market and it is another branch of Bandai. Mach Megazord came with a silver and navy bird-like jet bomber; PaleoMax came with a red manta ray shield; and 'Engine Shogun' came with a black space shuttle. The space shuttle to me looks like a orca or a dolphin. The color schemes match, I wish they went a little more 'out there' with the colors.

Engine Shogun Megazord is based on Dai Shogun, the re-version of High Octane Megazord from the Go-Onger movie. This megazord didn't appear on the RPM show. Bandai America did plan to release the deluxe Megazord but never did, anywhere. I find it interesting that it is called 'Engine Shogun.'

Related Topic: Movie-Edition Zords

Power Ranger-Exclusive Monsters (Not Main Villains)

Now that I covered the monsters not used from their Super Sentai source, B-Fighter monsters used in PR, and combination monsters, here are some American and New Zealand monsters exclusively made for Power Rangers. I am not covering all the humanoid ones to appear in InSpace, Lost Galaxy, and SPD. I am also not covering main villains (like Lord Zedd, Thrax and Mesogog) or the recurring footsoldiers, which I have already done before.

MMPR

Wizard of Deception
When they filmed "The Return of the Green Ranger" in Season 2 in Australia, we got this guy with a pumpkin mask and long black hair wig that made the Tommy clone. He was not defeated.

Rat Monsters
Ah, the infamous rat monsters. When I first saw these guys in "The Return of the Green Ranger" in Season 2, I thought they were the most lame monsters ever seen, so lame. I thought they got them off a costume rack. But little did I know, Saban was banking on them. Rumor is Haim Saban loved them.

A true fact was that the monsters were originally created for MMPR the Movie, evidenced by the photo above. I was glad someone did talk sense into Saban to get rid of them. But they were used in the show and that's just fine.

TURBO

Maligore/Dark Spectre
Made for the Turbo movie, he was used again for Dark Spectre in PRiS, I still can't tell the difference between them.

IN SPACE

This creature to fall unto Andros was a re-construction of one of the grunts (Maggots) from Masked Riders. The Maggots were original creations by Saban. Above photo from a scan of a Japanese book talking briefly about Power Rangers.

LOST GALAXY
These Skeleton warriors (there were four of them) were original creations. These were for one episode only. They were color coded (green, yellow, blue, and white).

TIME FORCE
These five warriors came in with Vypra, they were also American-made. These were for one episode only. They were color coded (red, green, yellow, blue, and pink).

DINO THUNDER

Mesogog is a main villain and an original creation but I also got to mention that his final monstrous form was also an original creation. For me, it was a pretty impressive creation.

SPD

Don't know this guys name and don't remember what episode he was in. He kinda looks inspired by that Darkness demon monster from Legend, except the horns are pointing inward. Above photo from a scan of a Japanese book talking briefly about Power Rangers.

This alien was captured by the B-Squad and A-Squad. For me, he looked like a token alien monster. Above photo from a scan of a Japanese book talking briefly about Power Rangers.

Omni
The revealed 'big boss' that had two forms, both original creations. The final Megazord fight scene with this thing was all new made by Disney. The only case of an original Megazord battle from the New Zealand crew. Above photo from a scan of a Japanese book talking briefly about Power Rangers.

Related Topics: Unused Monsters from Super Sentai on Power Rangers #1 -- Saban Era | Unused Monsters from Super Sentai on Power Rangers #2 -- Disney Era | Unnamed Monsters in Background | Mix and Match Monsters | American Footsoldiers

White Sentai Warriors: Males don't have 'White' in their names

I brought this up before in past posts, but I thought I would highlight it in this post. That in Super Sentai, most of the White Rangers that have the actual word 'White' in their titles are women and all the men don't have the word 'white' in their titles. In fact since the series started in 1975, the first to have the word 'white' in their title was White Swan in Jetman in the year 1991! There has only been 3 official warriors with the word 'white' in their titles.

Big One (JAKQ, 1977) -- The first white warrior, he was introduced later in the series. He was the fifth warrior. In the above picture, he is in the lower right corner.

Change Mermaid (Changeman, 1985) -- Sayaka is the second white warrior, the first female. She had pink accents in her uniform, she is one of 3 to have pink accents.

White Swan (Jetman, 1991) -- Kaori is third white warrior, the second female and the first to have the word 'white' in her title. She had pink accents in her uniform.

Kibaranger (Dairanger, 1993) -- Kou is fourth white warrior and second male white warrior, the first and only youngest warrior. He was the first white warrior to have a vest and the first to be a sixth ranger.

Ninja White (Kakuranger, 1994) -- Tsuruhime is fifth white warrior and third female white warrior, she was the first female leader. Her picture is to the bottom left.

Gao White (Gaoranger, 2001) -- Sae is the sixth white warrior, the fourth female white warrior, the third to have pink accents and the last warrior to have the word 'white' in their title. Her picture is at top right.

Abare Killer (Abaranger, 2003) -- Mikoto is the seventh White warrior, the third male white warrior and the second white warrior to be a 'fifth member.' He also is the second white warrior to have a shield. He is the first white warrior to be evil. According to Gokaiger, he is considered a sixth ranger.

Deka Break (Dekaranger, 2004) -- Tetsu is the eight White Ranger and the fourth male white warrior. He is the second white 'sixth' ranger--as he is treated as a sixth ranger.

Deka Swan (Dekaranger, 2004) -- Swan is the ninth White Warrior, she is technically with black and orange accents.

Magi Mother (Magiranger, 2005) -- Miyuki is the tenth White Warrior, the fifth female white warrior and the third female white warrior to not have the word 'white' in the title. She is the second female warrior to be sixth or seventh.

Geki Chopper (Gekiranger, 2007) -- Ken is the eleventh White Warrior and the fifth male white warrior, he is the second white warrior to have orange and black accents.

So the point I am making is that maybe it is a culturally thing that the only female white warriors have been called 'white.' They probably view white a feminine color, a bit like the color pink, but they still have white male rangers. For Sentai, there are 5 male white warriors (all not called 'white') and 6 female warriors (only 3 called 'white').

As for the Power Rangers, male White Rangers do get called white. There are 4 male white rangers (only 2 called 'white ranger') and 4 female white rangers (3 are called 'white ranger').

Kiba Ranger = White Ranger
Ninja White = White Aquitar Ranger
Gao White = White Ranger
Abare Killer = White Dino Ranger
Deka Break = Omega Ranger
Deka Swan = Kat Ranger
Magi Mother = White Mystic Ranger
Geki Chopper = Rhino Ranger

Of course, there was White Racer, which was just Radiata Fanbelt who was a fan and wasn't an official member. But also to mention she was called 'White' and was female. Carranger, 1996

Super Sentai Group Shot 2010 -- Everyone included or some excluded?

I wish this was bigger, because it is hard to see some. It has Aka Red in it, but it doesn't have Deka Master (Shadow Ranger), Deka Gold, Deka Swan (Kat Ranger), Deka Bright (Nova Ranger), Magi Mother (White Ranger), and Wolzard (Koragg). Now some are expected not to be there but I am surprised Deka Master is not there.

Favorite Re-Color of Morpher

Lighting Morpher
Red re-color of the basic morpher. PR only. This is the name for the toy.

Triassic Morpher
Re-colored and re-modeled form of the basic morpher for the Battlizer. Power Rangers only.

SP-License of Deka Swan and Gold / 'Kat Morpher'
Re-paints of the Delta Morpher, the black parts were repainted white and the white letters were re-painted, one orange and another red. Funny enough, Deka Gold's morpher went to Kat Ranger instead of Deka Swan's. I found it interesting. Neither got names on the show, these are fan names.

'Bright Throttle'/'Nova Morpher'
Gold re-paint of the Omega Morpher for Deka Bright/Nova Ranger. Neither were named on the show, these are just fan names.


Battlized Morpher
Re-paint of the Omega Morpher. It wasn't exclusively seen when the Battlizer was used for Magiranger vs. Dekaranger.

Mother Phone and Fire Wolzaphone
Re-paints of the basic MagiPhones. MotherPhone didn't appear in Mystic Morpher but the red one did but with no name.

WolzaPhone / 'Dark Morpher'
Purple re-paint of the MagiPhone with a W remodel. In Mystic Force, it wasn't named on the show.


Fierce Dragon Morpher
Re-paint and addition to the Solar Cell Morpher, Power Rangers only. This is the name for the toy.


Sentinel Morpher
Re-paint of the Mercury Morpher, Power Rangers only. This is the name for the toy.