Power Rangers opened beyond expectations in the US and since they are planning six movies which would retell Mighty Morphin Power Rangers saga. One fan mentioned if they brought back one of the old Saban tokusatsu properties back. There is VR Troopers, Big Bad Beetleborgs, Masked Rider and The Mystic Knights of Tira Nog. Mystic Knights is not on Netflix like the other proprieties neither it has been on DVD from Shout Factory, it probably wasn't popular enough for a release. Mystic Knights was an original property without any Japanese footage. Masked Rider has tremendous copyright blocks from Toei and Shotaro Ishinomori family who do not want to give the copyright for any DVDs and any new adaptions. I highly doubt any of these shows will get the movie treatment as the DVDs did not sell as well as expected. If they did, we would see more products about them like anything from Funko, Loyal Subjects, Welovefine, Bandai, etc.
VR Troopers
Aired: 1994-1996 (2 Seasons)
Source Footage: Shaider, Metalder, and Shaider
Original Premise: Ryan Steele has been missing his father who mysteriously disappeared, he and his two friends get a message from Steele's friend Professor Hart. They become VR Troopers to fight Grimlord from the virtual world, who in reality is an industrialist by the name of Karl Ziktor. Did I mention the Dojo, talking dog and flying car?
Movie Ideas: Bad boy Ryan Steele has been without his father through his teen years and went through foster home to foster home. He bumps into childhood friend and computer hacker JB who he hasn't seen in years. JB is openly gay, Ryan finds him strange, and JB Reese may have a crush on him. Ryan secretly wants to find his father even though he openly says he is a deadbeat for abandoning him. JB helps him track down his father. Kaitlin Star, a budding online investigative journalist is investigating industrialist Karl Viktor who is running for president ala Trump. Viktor is also an interdemensional being bent on conquering the real world. Eventually they find armor and technology from Ryan's father to become VR Troopers and fight Grimlord and his army. Gone would be talking Jeb and Professor Hart.
Appeal: When I thought Virtual Reality would never be back in style but it has come back in style. And the series was already serious to begin with. The movie could concentrate on faith, where Ryan lost his faith in finding his father and then gets hope again. And to never give up.
Big Bag Beetleborgs
Aired: 1995-1997 (2 Seasons)
Source Footage: B-Fighters, B-Fighters Kabuto
Original Promise: Three average kids enter a seemingly abandoned house and free a genie that makes them their favorite comic book superheroes, unfortunately it frees the comic book villains. The house also has classic monsters like a mummy, werewolf, vampire, etc.
Movie Idea: Lots of fans, even my grandnephew want this to get the movie treatment but I find it way more goofier a premise than Power Rangers. One fan suggested it could be like Spy Kids. I don't see it as serious as Power Rangers with PG-13 rating, cursing, vandalism and sexual exploring. But if it kept the tone of Spy Kids and had edge then maybe we had something. How about the haunted mansion become a whole abandoned amusement park and each attraction had one of these conflicted 'monsters' like the count is a conflicted vampire who doesn't want to suck blood, werewolf keeping it a secret, etc. Flabber can be an actual genie that grants wishes and the kids were the only ones that could free them. They can have common superpowers and not individual ones like on the show. The main villain can be Shadowborg instead of Vexor and his cronies. Or instead of being too close to the source material, they can get rid of Flabber and the monsters and just have the three kids be actual spies and work for the government. The government can give them superpowers and Shadowborg can be a rogue experiment gone wrong.
Masked Rider
Aired: 1995-1996
Source Footage: Kamen Rider Black RX
Original Premise: Orphaned alien is adopted by a multiracial family while he had to fight his uncle Count Dragon as the Masked Rider. Fans of Kamen Rider didn't really like it but lately American Toku fans have taken to Ferbus and started a meme "Hail Ferbus." As I said because of legal ties and failure of Masked Rider twice in America (in 1995 by Saban and in 2009 as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight by Adness Entertainment) Toei have been reluctant to release anything on DVD or even let adaptations happen again (Power Rider). One hope would be if Power Rangers (2017) does extremely well internationally, especially in the Asian market and Toei takes notice and allows for a dark Kamen Rider production.
Aired: 1994-1996 (2 Seasons)
Source Footage: Shaider, Metalder, and Shaider
Original Premise: Ryan Steele has been missing his father who mysteriously disappeared, he and his two friends get a message from Steele's friend Professor Hart. They become VR Troopers to fight Grimlord from the virtual world, who in reality is an industrialist by the name of Karl Ziktor. Did I mention the Dojo, talking dog and flying car?
Movie Ideas: Bad boy Ryan Steele has been without his father through his teen years and went through foster home to foster home. He bumps into childhood friend and computer hacker JB who he hasn't seen in years. JB is openly gay, Ryan finds him strange, and JB Reese may have a crush on him. Ryan secretly wants to find his father even though he openly says he is a deadbeat for abandoning him. JB helps him track down his father. Kaitlin Star, a budding online investigative journalist is investigating industrialist Karl Viktor who is running for president ala Trump. Viktor is also an interdemensional being bent on conquering the real world. Eventually they find armor and technology from Ryan's father to become VR Troopers and fight Grimlord and his army. Gone would be talking Jeb and Professor Hart.
Appeal: When I thought Virtual Reality would never be back in style but it has come back in style. And the series was already serious to begin with. The movie could concentrate on faith, where Ryan lost his faith in finding his father and then gets hope again. And to never give up.
Aired: 1995-1997 (2 Seasons)
Source Footage: B-Fighters, B-Fighters Kabuto
Original Promise: Three average kids enter a seemingly abandoned house and free a genie that makes them their favorite comic book superheroes, unfortunately it frees the comic book villains. The house also has classic monsters like a mummy, werewolf, vampire, etc.
Aired: 1995-1996
Source Footage: Kamen Rider Black RX
Original Premise: Orphaned alien is adopted by a multiracial family while he had to fight his uncle Count Dragon as the Masked Rider. Fans of Kamen Rider didn't really like it but lately American Toku fans have taken to Ferbus and started a meme "Hail Ferbus." As I said because of legal ties and failure of Masked Rider twice in America (in 1995 by Saban and in 2009 as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight by Adness Entertainment) Toei have been reluctant to release anything on DVD or even let adaptations happen again (Power Rider). One hope would be if Power Rangers (2017) does extremely well internationally, especially in the Asian market and Toei takes notice and allows for a dark Kamen Rider production.
Movie Idea: My movie idea would do nothing with the Masked Rider premise and be closer to Kamen Rider the First, the Japanese reboot. Kamen Rider The First was about a college student being kidnapped and brainwashed by a terrorist organization named Shocker to become a cyborg assassin named Hopper. The names could be changed but I think it would be a good premise. Let's say: Heath Henderson, college student gets kidnapped and conditioned by the terrorist group S to be a cyborg assassin called H. H remembers his humanity when attacking Journalist Ana and her fiance Kyle. Kyle is killed by one of the cyborgs, Spider. Heath rebels from S and given a motorcycle called the Cyclone. S creates another cyborg like H called H2 that resembles Ana's fiance. Heath swears to Ana to save her fiance and free whoever he can from the hold of S.
