Henshin Grid

Friday, October 31, 2008

Why didn't VR Troopers have another season?

VR Troopers is Haim Saban's second series, the one after Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It ran from 1994 to 1996. It was syndicated, unlike other Saban series that ran on Fox Kids. VR Troopers was adapted from two different series Metalder and Speilban. They used up most of the footage by using one episode from each series for one episode, bascially two episodes. For Season 2, they replaced the Metalder footage with an older series Shaider, so Ryan got a new 'VR suit.' It had ended with season two and had no proper series finale. Most fans liked it because it was a bit more serious than MMPR and because it was syndicated, it was much more violent, very little was edited. Now this hasn't been discussed much but the number one reason it ended was because they had no more footage. There was plenty other Metal Heroes series they could take from. Initally only Metalder was going to be used and it was to be called Cybertron and star Jason David Frank. But because of the Transformers copyright and that Tommy was popular, it was all scrapped.

Gavan (center) and Sharivan (left) were series before Shaider. I think they could have used Sharivan for Ryan and Jaspion (below) for JB. Maybe they didn't want to keep changing costumes for the same reason they didn't for Power Rangers. The first three seasons, they didn't change suits because believed kids wouldn't like the change. Most fans say they gave up by Zeo because of the costume change. But I think changing was wise because many combinations were different and hard to explain and the Japanese series only last one year. Same with Metal Heroes. Saban tried again with Metal Heroes in the form of Beetleborgs. B-Fighter only had one spin-off, so they only had 2 years. There was talk of using their own footage for Bettleborgs but that never happened.

Jaspion really looks like the costume of Speilban and it was the series between Shaider and Metalder. I think they could have used it for JB. But I guess they didn't continue because they had no other suit or footage to replace for Kaitlin. Metal Heroes had no other female in a series other than SolBrain, Blue Swat and B-Fighter. And those series (SolBrain and Blue Swat) didn't have costumes that matched with the ones used in VR Troopers. So I guess the major reason they didn't continue was because they had no more female hero footage. As for the series finale, they really should have had one. There was the reunion between Ryan Steele and his father; but they didn't destroy the main villain of Grimlord.

UPDATED NOVEMBER 1, 2008
Yeah that was 'Battle Grid' space which they wanted to have an equivalent to the rangers fighting putties and also, to have all three troopers together since all footage was derived from two different shows. So they used the Red Ranger's helmets and re-painted them. Above there they are. They did the amazing skill of make the Red Ranger helmet look feminine (right).

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

RangerStrike Cards and Power Rangers Collectible Card Game

Rangers Strike is a Japanese trading card game created by Carddas (remember those Bandai trading card vending machines in Toys R Us back in the 90s?) initially based upon Toei's Super Sentai Series television franchise. It was released in 2006 in commemoration of the Super Sentai series' 30th anniversary. The game was expanded with several expansion packs, such as the The Masked Rider Expansion collection in 2007, featuring characters from the Kamen Rider Series television franchise, and the Special Metal Edition in 2008 featuring characters from the Metal Heroes Series television franchise. Well, now it is coming to the States with Power Rangers Collecting Card Game.

And sure enough, like the show itself that is from the Japanese, they took the beautiful illustrations and put them in English. Reading a couple of the scans, the descriptions are short but pretty accurate. I think they did a good job, I jut wish they didn't use only 60% of the image.

To the left is the only Japanese card and to the right is the American one obviously.

And the most famous image and probably will be the most popular. I think it is a shame that they zoomed in this image because it omits the Green Candle, which is iconic with the Green Ranger.

Of course there will be lots of cards that won't be used, all the other Super Sentai cards of things that were not used in Power Rangers. Most likely these new cards will be sold in Wal-Mart, more updates when they come along. I am glad Power Ranger trading cards are back, I miss them.

The Official RangerStrike Website

Sunday, October 5, 2008

21st Century Colors

UPDATED 8/14/14

The 2009 Super Sentai series is rumored to be called Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and be based on elements like Earth, wood, fire, etc. So their helmets will have the elements on them, much like Ohranger and Magiranger. Their colors are yellow, red, green, pink and blue.

One interesting thing I have noticed in this past decade, none of the team's colors have matched back to back fundlemently. I like it at Toei's effort each team color scheme was different. In the 90's, they used the same color scheme (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Pink) about 5 times (Dairanger, Ohranger, Carranger, Gingaman and GoGoV), and two times in a row. Also Pink was used very sparingly in this decade where it was used 8 1/2 times in the nineties (White Swallow of Jetman had hints of Pink).

2000 - Timeranger - Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Pink, Red
2001 - Gaoranger - Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, White, Silver
2002 - Hurricanger - Red, Yellow, Blue, Crimson, Navy, Green
2003 - Abaranger - Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, White
2004 - Dekaranger - Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Pink, Black, White, etc.
2005 - Magiranger - Red, Yellow, Blue*, Green, Pink, Gold^, White
2006 - Boukenger - Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, Pink, Silver
2007 - Gekiranger - Red, Yellow, Blue, Violet, White
2008 - Go-Onger - Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, Green, Gold, Silver
2009 - Shinkenger - Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Pink, Gold
2010 - Goseiger - Red, Yellow, Blue, Black, Pink, Silver
2011 - Gokaiger - Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Pink, Silver
2012 - Go-Busters - Red, Yellow, Blue, Gold, Silver
2013 - Kyoryuger - Red, Green, Blue, Black, Pink, Cyan, Gray, Gold, Violet, Navy, Silver
2014 - Toqger - Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Pink, Orange

* - technically MagiBlue is light blue, so Dekaranger and Magiranger have a similar color scheme but fundamentally not the same one.

^ - more than one color but the majority of their suit was this color.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Power Rangers Halloween Costumes

UPDATED JUNE 28, 2015

I covered Halloween costumes before, but not on accuracy of the costumes, if they are show-accurate. When it comes to the Halloween costumes, for SPD, we got all the male rangers and for Ninja Storm and Jungle Fury, one was skipped.

MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS (1993-1995)

The Halloween costumes were unique as when the show came out, there were only Red, Blue and Pink. A three-Ranger stable that will continue occurring through the years. Later in 1994 and 1995 for Seasons 2 and 3, there were the other colors (Black, Yellow) including White, but never Green. Green was only available in sewing patterns. All the Rangers, except White were show accurate, they were a middle mix between the toys and the show suits with the 'coin decal' on their chests.

There was the White and Pink Ninja Ranger outfits, that were pretty basic, water-downed versions.

POWER RANGERS ZEO

The costumes, I recall all six Ranger Costumes being available in stores but online, I can only find Red, Pink and Gold. The costumes were show-accurate but the Gold Ranger's shield was flat, not popping out like the White Ranger.

POWER RANGERS TURBO

Turbo, I think this is the first year to only have four Ranger costumes (Red, Blue, Pink and Phantom). The unique part of this one is that Phantom Ranger was used twice, I think the first one-year Ranger to be repeated twice. The Phantom Ranger costume is a simple version of the show version. Funny thing is that they had a generic logo.

POWER RANGERS IN SPACE

The Silver Ranger got no costume. The only Rangers that got costumes was Red and Pink. That's it. It was the first time the Blue Ranger got shafted. The other costume sold with them was Phantom Ranger, who made cameos in the series. I finally found a pic of Red Space Ranger on 10/16/10.

POWER RANGERS LOST GALAXY

As for the costumes, as in Power Rangers in Space, there was only two Rangers and this time we got four--Red, Blue, Pink and Magna Defender. The Rangers were accurate, but the Magna Defender was a dumbed-down version of the costume. As you can tell, the 'muscles' started early on with the Galaxy costumes. This was the first to do so.

POWER RANGERS LIGHTSPEED RESCUE

For Lightspeed, only three were produced (Red, Pink and Titanium). This is the second time the Blue Ranger got no costume. It is the last time to have only 3 Ranger Halloween costumes. The outfits were fairy accurate. As for the Titanium Ranger, there was a yellow line above the 'Y' mark. Also, the yellow is deeper shade in the show.

POWER RANGERS TIME FORCE

For Time Force, we got four: Red, Blue, Pink and the Quantum Ranger. The Quantum Ranger is not accurate at all, it had a split of lines in the helmet and suit. Also, the yellow mark on the helmet and he is a darker shade of red, which on the show, he and the Red ranger were the same shade of red. This 'look' was also in some illustrations of him.

POWER RANGERS WILD FORCE

Wild Force, four again: Red, Blue, White (female), and Silver. The deluxe version were show-accurate, with gloves, boots and weapon.

POWER RANGERS NINJA STORM

Maybe because this was the first Disney series, most of the Rangers got costumes: Red, Blue, Navy, Crimson and Green. Also introduced to the Halloween costumes was the muscle suits, there is the choice between without muscles and with muscles.

Red, Navy, and Crimson got muscle suits. Blue above is the deluxe version.

Yellow Ranger did get a Disney Store exclusive.

The Green costume was very very show accurate.

POWER RANGERS DINO THUNDER

For Halloween, there was Red, Blue, Yellow, Black and Triassic. Black Ranger only came with muscles for boys.

Also unique was Adult costumes for once: Black and Triassic. They are as simple as the kid ones, including 'muscles,' no real gloves or boots, the helmet is a double part mask.

And even the only PR costume ever for dogs! Of course only in Red. I wish there was Pink cause I have girl dogs. There was no White, White was the only one ignored. Other than Black Ranger's gold accents being yellow and the Triassic Ranger being a darker shade of red, the others were show accurate.

The Disney Store exclusive was of Red and Blue in Super Dino mode.

POWER RANGERS S.P.D.

SPD was unique as there was there so many Rangers. 13 in the series and 7 in the toys. In Halloween, all the main Rangers got included... except for the yellow ranger, she didn't even get a Disney Store exclusive. Red Ranger and Blue Ranger got regular, muscle suit and deluxe 'Swat Mode.' Pink Ranger got regular and Swat. Omega got a muscle suit, Shadow got a regular suit, and Green got regular as well. Six is the most ranger costumes we have gotten lately. The costumes were fairly show accurate, but the swat and Shadow Ranger were a bit watered down.

POWER RANGERS MYSTIC FORCE

In costumes, Red, Green, Pink and the Solaris Knight. The female Blue Ranger at least got a Disney Store exclusive. They were all fairly show accurate, except for the Solaris Knight, it was stream-lined. It got some muscles in it, it is the only one. Red and Green got regular and muscle. Pink got regular and shinier 'deluxe' costume. And again, Yellow got shafted. No male Yellow Ranger has gotten a child Halloween costume.

POWER RANGERS OPERATION OVERDRIVE

For PROO, only the male rangers got love and in the costumes, there was 5 costumes (Red, Blue, Black, Pink, and Mercury) but no Yellow. Black, in a loooong time got a costume. All the boys got muscles and regular costumes. All the costumes were show accurate, boots and gloves came separate, but Mercury Ranger's blue color seemed a bit off.

POWER RANGERS JUNGLE FURY

Jungle Fury is a unique creature on its own. Because like Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder, the series started with three rangers (a female yellow ranger), so since there would be no new Rangers until July or so, they made Elephant, Bat, and Shark Rangers. So there is the muscle costumes: Red, Blue, and Rhino; regular: Red, Blue, Yellow and Rhino. Surprisingly, the other Rangers are fairly show accurate. I like the details in the back.

And the Disney Store exclusive is Bat Ranger, which is not show accurate at all! I already covered this, so I won't bore you.

The Rhino Ranger has a Halloween costume and he is being called 'Special Ranger.'

Violet Ranger did get a costume months later in the United Kingdom, I don't think this was released in the U.S.; this costume is fairly accurate.

POWER RANGERS RPM

Brand new revealed in July 2009, we got the main five, which has not happened since Ninja Storm. The suits are fairly suit-accurate except for the boots. Boots are sold seperately and they have in black and green but it has the regular tire-color cuffs. No Gold or Silver, I think that's fair if they have to exclude something. The boy colors all come in regular and in muscle and Yellow comes in regular and shiny like with Mystic Force.

'Classic Power Rangers'

Surprise! For 2009, we get Red and Pink child costumes of MMPR. It doesn't say MMPR in the title in the online stores.

Thre has been Red adult costume, it turns out to be official and they are making Pink one for adult too. The Red one is shiny for some reason.

Since last year, the boys could get muscle Red Ranger suit. And this year, the White Ranger costume was released, with abs and biceps or not, a simple saba sword sold separately.

This year for some reason they don't have the diamonds on the bottom cuffs, maybe the boots are sold separately that come with the diamonds and I don't see them.

And even though the Green Ranger is probably the most popular Ranger of all time, there was no Halloween costume for him until 2012, other than the sewing patterns made in 1994.

POWER RANGERS SAMURAI

Red Ranger Costumes. Regular, Muscle and Toddler muscle suits; Super mode called 'Mega' and available at Wal-Mart. First two 2011-2012 and last two 2012.

Pink Ranger Deluxe and Regular; 2011-2012

Blue Ranger Muscle and Regular; 2011-2012

Gold Ranger Muscle and Regular; 2011

Toddler and Mega Mode (Target); 2012

Green Ranger Muscle Costume available in 2012.

In 2010, a young boy made a Make A Wish request for a Yellow Ranger costume and instead of giving him the Yellow Mystic Ranger costume, they modified a Operation Overdrive costume to be yellow as there is no male Yellow Operation Overdrive costume.

MEGAFORCE