Henshin Grid: 9/2/12

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Kamen Rider Wizard #2 Images

Sorry no Go-Busters images.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Can a Girls Line for Power Rangers work?

UPDATED 5/12/13

I was tweeting and e-mailing PR fans about the idea of a girls merchandise line of Power Rangers. I also mentioned it with my friends at Power Morphicon. I remember the "Power Rangers for Girls" dolls but some people feel that those focused only on Pink and Yellow, that they focused on beauty, fashion and so forth.

Back in the day of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, there was not only dolls and shirts but also pajamas, slippers, Birthday invitations, walkie-talkies, jewelry and other things. But of course all of this came in pink and yellow. One fan mentioned that girls not only liked Pink and Yellow. I agree with this.

Just like with Power Rangers items aimed to boys like the book bags, t-shirts, other clothing, lunch bags, notebooks and party supplies that only have three or four male Rangers, companies might think Girls only want Yellow and Pink in their merchandise.

When Disney licensed the adult T-shirts that looked like each Ranger, there was red available in Women's sizes and pink available for Men. But at Hot Topic, they only had Pink and Yellow in the women's section and the other four in the men's section.

In the Disney era, it was rare to have the females in any other merchandise. Mystic Force plush dolls had all five just like now with Power Rangers Samurai and also small plush figures. For Power Rangers Samurai, it seems they are being more inclusive like back in the day of MMPR. There is more available, and that is great. But what I think what fans want the most is more figures from Bandai.

Fans are happy that the Yellow Ranger has figures in the MegaBloks line but not so much about Pink. That each Ranger gets a zord set and a hero pack (with cockpit) except for Pink. Yellow gets her zord but not Pink. And so far, it looks like Pink is only getting three figures (Mega mode in blind pack #1, regular form in blind pack #3, and Super Mega mode in Megazord bonus pack) while Yellow has around four or five. MegaBloks has no plans to make a pink Turtle Zord nor a hero pack with cockpit (even though her cockpit is available in the bonus pack).

And as for battlizers, which are usually coveted for Red Ranger (on the show, but now we had Blue and Pink on Samurai) and the male Rangers get their versions in the toys. We got to see promotional photo of Yellow Shogun and saw Pink Shogun in action but none got toys. But in Lost Galaxy and Power Rangers in Space, there were toys that had armors. As for Samurai toy line, we got figures of the girls in regular, Mega and Super Mega but not Super mode. And we did get a figure of female Red Ranger but it was only available in the United Kingdom.

So what fans want are more girl toys in the regular toy line but Bandai knows they don't sell as well as the boy toys. I know this too. I see the girl toys sitting on the shelves. Rita is also sitting there. But it would be nice to have more variety like back in the day. Girls got cycles, armors and sets. I say more girls merch because little girls like Power Rangers too and clothing would be cool. Maybe if the clothing was more unisex and had the whole team instead of just pink and yellow. Luckily coming up with Megaforce, there will be clothing of the pink and yellow Rangers solo. But Go-Busters (2012 Super Sentai) has only one female and she is yellow no pink. Most likely Go-Busters will be adapted for 2015.

I also say that if they do dolls and merch for girls, they should have them in girls aisle. I think the reason the 'Power Rangers for Girls' toy line did not survive because it was in the boys aisle. They had planned three Zeo Ranger dolls (including Tommy the Red Ranger) but it never happened. That would had been cool. Above is a picture of the Micro Machines Pink Ranger back in the day.

I think more girl toys will sell. If they made cycles and armored figures, they could make a few of them like they do now with the action figures. If they don't sell enough, why not make a whole section in the girl's asile? I know girl superheroes don't sell well (look at Golden Girl, Princess Gwenviere, Sailor Moon, etc.). Or maybe have a limited amount of girls toys but as collectibles or chase figures (like Deker, Camile and other figures that were sold in small quantities). I think an aggressive sell of a girls toy line (one that looked identicial to the regular toy line but in the girls aisle but centered around the female Rangers) would work because Power Rangers is an established brand. It is too bad the female Red Ranger comes in the tail end of the series, because it would had been nice to see a toy line headlined by her. Little girls love Power Rangers. Girls at school are always telling me how they love PR. And I know fellow Power Force member Joe Rovang's girls want superheronies too.

MMPR/ZYU 2: Matching Props

Going through the episodes of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season One and Two that had footage that Toei shot for Power Rangers that was not in Zyuranger or Super Sentai at all, I notice some things. Not only did they get the new monster suits from Rainbow Productions, it seems that they also got random props. The strange thing about the footage was a common theme of objects being Blue and having Billy's Triceratops symbol on it.

In Wannabe Ranger, Kimberly hands Billy a mirror, we can't really see it good but we can see it is blue. At a closer look, it has the Triceratops symbol.

In the Zyu 2 footage, Billy hands it to the fake Tommy and we clearly see it has the Triceratops symbol but seems smaller symbol than the one in the American prop.

In "Grumble Bee," Alpha made a special weapon for Billy to combat the titular monster. Here is the Japanese footage.

Here is the American footage. It looks like the same exact prop.

In "Bloom of Doom," Kim is given a new weapon by Zordon. Here is the American appearance.

Here is the Japanese footage version.

In "Green Dream," the Sword of Power comes out of nowhere seemingly. Apparently the six Rangers combining their powers together made this sword. It was not established before and never mentioned again. I think it did get a mention in the official magazine and trading cards but that was it.

It looked different from the one in the Zyu 2 footage, where it looked like 3 diamonds and 'horned' while the American prop looked more round and bulbous.

Here is the American prop that looks more bulbous and round.

Here is something curious:

In the episode "Flea or Not to Flea," Billy makes a spray can to make Jason stop itching. It says "Billy's" and what looks like "Pow," there probably more but I couldn't get a good enough look.

In the Zyu 2 footage, the prop looks exactly like the one in the American footage but since the Blue Ranger is covering the top of the can, you can't see if it says "Billy" or not. I doubt the Japanese put Billy's name in it but maybe since it was meant for Power Rangers, maybe they did. But there is no way to prove it. From what the writers said at PMC3, they didn't know what the footage was from. It is most likely the Japanese just made the footage according to Saban's guidelines: Blue being an inventor, Yellow having female stances, and Green and Pink having a relationship and Green loosing his powers. And they didn't have input with the actual writing. The writers were probably handed the footage and they just wrote just like the other Sentai footage.