Other AmeriToku actors who have passed on

Here is a list of actors from other American Tokusatsu (AmeriToku) who have passed on. Special thanks to Khal F.

Gardner Winston Baldwin
March 22, 1951 – September 7, 2011; 60 years old

Cause of death: heart attack

- Played Karl Ziktor and voiced Grimlord in VR Troopers.

- Voiced monster Mandible in the Masked Rider episode “Pet Nappers”.

Richard L. Rabago 

August 14, 1943 – May 18, 2012; 68 years old

Cause of death: unknown

- Played Tao Chong in VR Troopers.

- Played Master Lee in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episode “Plague of the Mantis”.

John Finbar Cassin (a.k.a. Barry Cassin)
November 23, 1924 – January 14, 2017; 92 years old
Cause of death: unknown - Played Cathbad in Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog.

Vivian Lee Smallwood 
June 18, 1933 – July 22, 2017; 84 years old
Cause of death: natural causes - Played Nano Williams in Big Bad BeetleBorgs and BeetleBorgs Metallix.

Peadar Lamb 
1930 – September 1, 2017; 86-87 years old
 Cause of death: unknown (died in sleep)
Played King Fin Varra in Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog.

\Verne Jay Troyer 

January 1, 1969 – April 21, 2018; 49 years old

Cause of death: suicide by alcohol

- Played Ferbus in Masked Rider.

Joseph Pilato (a.k.a. Joey Pal) 

March 16, 1949 – March 24, 2019; 70 years old

Cause of death: unknown (died in sleep)

- Voiced Vexor in Big Bad BeetleBorgs.
- Best known for his performance as Captain Rhodes in the 1985 film Day of the Dead.  

What if other Saban tokusatu the movie treatment?

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.

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. 

Villains Week: VR Troopers Villain Figures Show Accurate?

 

I always wonder why Bandai didn't do VR Troopers as they did Metalder and Speilban. At PMC 4, I found out that Bandai thought there was no point to make toys for an old series. Probably they already lost the patterns and models for the toys from the 80's. Kenner (now owned by Hasbro) opted to make the toys. So here I compare the action figures of the villains with how they look on the show.. if it was show accurate.

 Decimator
He was just a monster of the day, his face became black, he remained with silver, red and black and his cape but slight differences. He was from the Metalder footage.

 

General Ivar

General Ivar kept his cape and most of his details in tact. The silver triangles on his lapel did move up though and some of the buttons on his chest changed.He was one of two figures to be from the Speilban footage.

Dark Heart

The robot that turned out to be Ryan's father, the yellow lining became white, the red remained, some black parts became grey. He was the second from the Metalder footage.

Tankotron
While the color seems to be off, it is actually a lighter version, while the show version wasn't a dark green, it was much in the spirit. The figure doesn't look as bulky as the real one though. He was the 3rd from the Metalder footage.

Air Striker

It was hard to tell by the show but I think he was more black and red than purple and gold but other than the colors, I think he is more or less show accurate. He was the 4th from the Metalder footage.

Skugs

They were show accurate. They are the second villain figures to be from the Speilban footage. That I know of, there was no villain figures that were made that came from the Shaider footage (season two VR Ryan).

Villains Week: Non-Power Rangers Ameritoku Main Villain Figures

 

Commanding Count Dregon (Saban's Masked Rider)

Came with Sword

Bandai also did a small collectible figure.

Vexor (Big Bad Beetleborgs)

The main villain of the first season of Big Bad Beetleborgs, one figure was made by Bandai.

 Evil Crustacean Nukus (Beetleborgs Metallix)

The main villain of the second season, it was also repackaged with some other figures in a set.

 Kilokahn (Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad)

Came with a variety of figures. The Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad line came from Playmates, who do Ninja Turtles

Grimlord (VR Troopers)

Apparently there was this bendy figure but I don't remember Grimlord being part dinosaur.

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/sabans-vr-troopers-grimlord-bendy-16127289\

 

This is a prototype of a Grimlord figure that never came to be, it is also half dino/lizard.

VR TROOPERS HAPPY 20TH ANNIVERSARY

I feel so bad that I forgot the 20th Anniversary of VR Troopers! It first aired on Saturday September 3, 1994! If you follow me on Twitter, you'd see I kept mentioning it. But I somehow confused it with my cousin's birthday, I confused the two. Also, lots of fans were doing the 21st anniversary of Power Rangers with marathons and memories and hashtagging #powerrangers21 or #pr21, I tried to make #vrt21 but it didn't seem to take. I guess there is always next year. By the way, today is also the birthday of Azim Rizk, Beyoncé, Jason David Frank and fellow Floridian fan Scott Finni. Yes Scott, I just mentioned you on my blog. So, I digress, going back to VR Troopers. Brad Hawkins was so excited meeting fans, he was such a delight.


Closed Captioning in MMPR Box Set and VR Troopers DVD

At the Power Morphicon, I got the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers DVD Box Set and VR Troopers Season One Volume One from Shout! Factory. I love closed captioning. My sister is deaf and I grew up with closed captioning. Sometimes I can't hear well, so it helps. I noticed some mistakes.

In one of the featurettes for the MMPR Box Set, Haim Saban is interviewed and says 'Toei' and the closed captioning as 'Toy.' In the episodes, they always get the song 'Combat' wrong. When it says 'C-Co-Combat,' they have it as 'Go Go Cry' or 'Go Go Pow.' The DVD producer Brian Ward says "Those captions were the ones provided by Saban, unfortunately. We didn't produce the captions." "Ha! To be fair, I think it's likely just the caption house not knowing. But it's good to know. Thanks!"

 

Also VR Troopers closed captioning has Ryan Steele as 'Steel.'

Lavender Ranger Editorial: Technology is Magic

I am not literally saying that 'Technology is Magic' but it is a belief that is prevalent in fiction from the 20th and 21st centuries. Prime examples are in 1994-1998 American television series Weird Science (which was based on the 1985 film and Jem, which was based on the Habro doll line from 1985 to 1988. And various examples in Super Sentai, Power Rangers, VR Troopers, Kamen Rider and various other Tokusatsu. It is believed that any technology that doesn't currently exist is 'magic.'

 Weird Science

In 1985, personal home computers was still a strange notion and very little homes had them, they were not common place. The Inernet was not even called the internet yet. Yet this 1985 film made teens believe that they could make a woman out of a couple of pictures and a doll with their home computer. Computers and technology seem to be able to do 'anything' so the premise was passable for science fiction those days. As a kid, I accepted it and thought it was cool. In 1994, the internet was prevalent and it played part with Lisa, who was a genie and her powers were more 'magic.' Lisa was enigmatic and had strange rules that seem to be vague. One could say her powers were 'god-like' but they always came with a terrible consequence and she had a power source that villains would often want to destroy or steal. 

Jem

I am obsessed with this show, yes I know---especially if you look at my DeviantArt and Tumblr accounts. Synergy was the supercomputer that 'transformed' Jerrica into rockstar Jem. Supposedly she just made holograms of light and sound and a hologram went over Jerrica to project Jem but being a cartoon, there were various mistakes that would lead one to say it was 'technomagic.' One time they ask Synergy to make flames to scare robbers (except the robbers can't feel heat from it but still got scared), make a tidal wave and rain (but the villains would not be able to feel rain), and various size changes when vehicles changed and other mistakes. Anyway, Synergy was supposed to be advanced technology but seemed to be unstoppable and could project anywhere with no signal problems and had an unspecified power source. Girls franchises before and after were all about magic and Jem was very much like the 'Magical Girl' Anime theme but this one focused on 'technology.'

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

More specifically, Zordon. Zordon was a wise sage from another planet presumably and had access to the Power Moprhers which look like technology and Zords which were clearly robotic. The first seasons were clearly technology vs. magic, which was discarded in later seasons and somewhat touched upon in later seasons but only by coincidence by Super Sentai plot points. But since we can assume the technology Zordon had was 'alien,' it was much more advanced and almost magical. He could pluck 'five teenagers with attitude' with ease and see ANYTHING on his viewing globe, even if there didn't seem to be a camera in the place or even a villain's lair. That was very magic like.

 Super Sentai/Power Rangers

Super Sentai had various series that claimed to be 'technology' that seem to work like magic. Some off the top of my head are JAKQ, Goggle V, Changeman, Denjiman, Bioman, Jetman, and various others. With Shinkenger and Power Rangers Samurai, some people might believe that Mojikara and Symbol Power is god-like powers. But too much Mojikara or Symbol Power is deadly, overusing it does weaken the user. It can be argued that Mojikara/SP is ancient magic and Genta/Antonio simply brings magic to modern times with technology and that they fight magic WITH technology against magic.

 Kamen Rider

Many of the Kamen Riders (more than anything the Showa era) had to given some technology or ancient alien power. Some of them were part cyborg. But the technology they possessed were advanced from when they aired or even now. And this 'technology' almost seemed like magic. For example, Kamen Rider Ryuki displayed alternate mirror dimension and technology seem to make these Contract Beasts; Kamen Rider 555 had the Orphanchs that seem to be brought on by science and the list goes on and on. Also, the current Kamen Rider... Fourze, has a lot to do with technology, but like any Tokusatsu series, seems almost magic-like.

VR Troopers

'Virtual Reality' is already an antiquated idea. But even in the parameters of 'technology,' the Troopers did disappear and re-appear in different locations and times instantly but that had to do more with editing and stock footage. Also, their car flew... which we now know is a pipe dream. But back in the 90's, flying cars were the big thing... remember Back to the Future 2? Back in the day, we thought technology could do ANYTHING. Now I feel more grounded in reality. But we do have phones that can do almost anything... even more than a Power Rangers communicator or the VR Troopers' com devices (well... they had clearer video images from any location).

What I am trying to say is NOT that the ideas of flying cars, superhero technology and all the stuff in Tokusatsu might never happen and are poppycock but it is interesting how times have changed and how writers saw the future and technology. Some predictions were incorrect or too far fetched and some were very accurate. It is just interesting who Magic and Technology merge or coincide in Science Fiction, especially Saban's tokusatsu because it was designed for children and most logic flew out the window (like breathing in Space and gravity on the Moon).

Related: http://henshingrid.blogspot.com/2010/06/physics-laws-in-power-rangers.html

Shout! Factory to release Power Rangers on DVD

 Above picture from http://www.homemediamagazine.com/tv-dvd/shout-factory-distribute-power-rangers-other-saban-titles-26645
 (Left to Right): Shout! Factory founders Garson Foos and Bob Emmer with Saban Brands President Elie Dekel and VP of Distribution Frederic Soulie.

This posted this on their Power Rangers Facebook, Sabans Power Rangers on Youtube and  Power Rangers News on Twitter:

We are excited to announce that Shout! Factory will be releasing classic episodes and seasons of Power Rangers on DVD starting this year, most of them previously unavailable on home entertainment shelves! Get ready to relive those awesome moments from your past, check out episodes you may have missed, share your love for the show with a new generation of fans, and stay tuned for more info!

We are excited to announce that @ShoutFactory will be releasing classic episodes and seasons of #PowerRangers on DVD starting this year!

Shout! Factory has released My Little Pony: The Power of Friendship and Transformers Prime, which are the newest incarnations of those franchises. As for older shows, they have released Captain N, Rocko's Modern Life, Reboot, Puca, Dinosaur King, Ahh! Real Monsters, G.I.Joe and Jem. They are also releasing Tennessee Tuxedo on DVD, which was highlighted on Entertainment Weekly magazine. I didn't like what they did for the Jem complete series box set because the quality was bad but maybe they will do better because judging by the quality from Netflix and Powerrangers.com, the quality is good.

 The multi-year alliance provides Shout! Factory with exclusive home entertainment packaged media (DVD/Blu-ray) and select digital rights to Saban Brands’ extensive catalog of properties including more than 700 episodes of Power Rangers (1993- 2009), 92 episodes of VR Troopers, 26 episodes of Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, and 88 episodes of Beetleborgs for home entertainment releases and digital distribution across select entertainment platforms in North America.

 “We are incredibly excited about this new relationship with Saban Brands. Power Rangers continues to stand as a global pop culture phenomenon to this day. We look forward to bringing these highly entertaining series with great packaging and extras to fans and on family home entertainment shelves,” state Shout! Factory’s founding partners in a joint statement. “Our partnership with Shout! Factory is important and exciting news for our fans. Shout! Factory will provide unequaled access to archived content from Saban Brands,” said Elie Dekel, President of Saban Brands. “Fans can enjoy past episodes they haven’t seen, relive some of the exciting entertainment in these episodes, or even share them with a new generation of fans.”
http://www.deadline.com/2012/03/power-rangers-owner-saban-brands-sets-home-entertainment-pact-with-shout-factory/

The deal reportedly does NOT include the current incarnation of the show, Power Rangers Samurai, nor does it include the theatrical films spun off from the program (Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie and Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, whose rights have been retained all along by Fox Home Entertainment).  he HMM story by John Latchem reports that the "Initial rollout plans for the Saban are slated to begin in summer 2012, according to Shout! Factory, with single-season sets to start and potentially complete-series sets in the future."
Taken from: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Mighty-Morphin-Power-Rangers-DVDs-Planned/16646#ixzz1owji2TGm

Power Rangers: Almost Canceled?

UPDATED 8/3/12
The following are speculations and rumors and nothing confirmed, the only one that was for sure was that Disney was quitting on Power Rangers by 2010. These are rumored instances of when Power Rangers was 'almost canceled.'

By Season 3, Power Rangers' ratings started to decline but Toy sales remained high enough to make the show profitable to all the companies involved. It was said that Big Bad Bettleborgs beat PR in the ratings for a short time. They then decided to change the name, suits, everything except most of the cast for Zeo and ratings were better.

The first half of Turbo had low ratings and sequel got mixed reviews and not a whole lot of profit, leading the crew to think their time was almost up. But the second half of Turbo had better ratings and led them to do In Space. They got Judd Lynn to lead the way for the second half, old plots were abandoned (like Divatox/Dimitria), no more Lerigot, and 4 new castmembers. I don't know if Fox Kids threatened them to cancel them or not.

A lot of evidence leads fans believe the crew thought Power Rangers in Space was the final season was because of the bringing together of old villains, the search of Zordon and of course the finale--that brought together Blue Senturion, Phantom Ranger, Gold Ranger and the Aquitar Rangers and the destruction of all known villains. But because of high ratings, the crew was led to make another season. I think by this season, they were expecting to just close up shop and wasn't threatened to be cancelled. Bandai did help with the budget for the Battlizer and continued to do so.

Lost Galaxy was also thought to be the last season, Saban was only producing Mystic Knights. Mystic Knights, the first live-action Saban did that had no existing Japanese Tokusatsu footage was to have a second season but they opted not to do it and all the budget was allocated to the second part of Lost Galaxy. Ratings were passable for Lost Galaxy so they continued. They had a lot of budget for Lightspeed, ratings were great for Lightspeed and Time Force. To give you an idea of the budgets, I made the chart above. 1995-1996 and 1997-1998 were the only two times they had 3 shows filming at the same time: Season 3 of MMPR, VR Troopers Season 2, and Masked Rider; Power Rangers in Space, Beetleborgs Metalix and Ninja Turtles: Next Mutation. While Turbo, Space and Lost Galaxy ran in the course of one year and not between two years, Beetleborgs, Mystic Knights and Next Mutation ran between two years, from September to Spring. Also, Beetleborg monsters were used for seasons of Power Rangers starting with 'In Space' and also Mystic Knights.

Rumor is that Jungle Fury was going to be the last season because it was the last one Disney really promoted and it was the last one to air on Toon Disney. When Toon Disney became Disney XD, Power Rangers was knocked out and new episodes only aired on ABC. RPM got no promotional photos like past Disney seasons, almost no promotion, very little merchandise (save for the toys) and it was rumored that the only reason they did RPM was because Bandai released the toys. Judd Lynn swears Disney did care about PR during RPM, I believe at least at a production standpoint. Even though not officially 'canceled' since MMPR reversion aired in 2010, production did stop in New Zealand and Disney was in conversations to sell it back to Saban. It is rumored Bandai helped with the budget, not for new Rangers or Battlizers, just for budget all together. So Power Rangers was never officially canceled but ratings did get low and there was rumors of it being 'the end.' The closest thing to being 'canceled' was the 5 months between the reversion being off the air (in September) to when Power Rangers Samurai premiered in February.

 Mystic Knights: Battle Thunder was the planned second season of Mystic Knights but never happened. Of all the Saban shows, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Lost Galaxy are available on DVD, so are VR Troopers, Beetleborgs and Ninja Turtles: Next Mutation. It has not yet been announced if Mystic Knights or Masked Rider will be DVD yet, but I suppose they will be some day.