Hasbro's Power Rangers era and General Tokusatsu discussion

[Christopher]

Kamen Rider Saber episode 3

Kind of a cluttered episode. They introduced something like three new Sword of Logos members, but only one appeared as a Rider. They introduced Kento and set up some mystery involving Touma's past, and then mostly lost interest in him to focus on the guy based on the Turtle of the North from the Chinese zodiac.

It's rare for a Rider to have a henshin driver that isn't a belt. We haven't seen a Rider with a sword as his driver since Sasword in Kabuto. Drake in Kabuto and Diend in Decade had guns as their drivers, as did some non-Rider antagonists like Mashin Chaser in Drive and Night Rogue and Blood Stark in Build. The AIMS Riders last year had their Shotrisers, but they had to be in belt mode for the henshin rather than gun mode.

So any Megiddo can respawn indefinitely even after being destroyed. That's a handy way to save money on new monster suits.

I think it would be interesting if we got a future Kamen Rider series where the protagonist was a father and had to handle family life being a Kamen Rider

Kamen Rider Kozure Ookami?

 

[JD]

Entertainment Weekly has the first trailer for PR: Dino Fury, which premiered during the Hasbro PulseCon, which is going on right now.
Do they usually have CGI Zords? I had assumed they were still physical miniatures, or puppets, or whatever they were back on the old shows.

 

[Samurai8472]

Our new cast revealed

https://news.tokunation.com/2020/09...-rangers-dino-fury-cast-teaser-released-68848


The first 3 Dino Fury Rangers have been revealed-

*Russell Curry as Zayto, the Red Ranger
*Kai Moya as Ollie, the Blue Ranger
*Hunter Deno as Amelia, the Pink Ranger

 

[Christopher]

Do they usually have CGI Zords? I had assumed they were still physical miniatures, or puppets, or whatever they were back on the old shows.

These days it's typically a mix of CGI and stuntmen in suits. In the clips shown there, Tyramigo (the red tyrannosaur) was a practical suit effect, while the other Kishiryu were CGI (since they weren't major characters like Tyramigo, who could shrink to human size and interact live with the Ryusoulgers).

I see that the trailer was made almost completely from Ryusoulger footage. In the closeup of the morphers, you could see Koh's distinctive Ryusoul Tribe shirt and jacket, so that's clearly not new footage. So I guess they haven't done any filming to speak of so far.

It sounds like they're following on Beast Morphers' precedent and maintaining the connection to the franchise history and the concept of the Morphin Grid. Beast was about drawing on the Grid for energy, and this ties into the origins of the Grid -- as well as specifically invoking MMPR. Might they bring things full circle and reference Zordon as the creator of the Morphin Grid?

The first 3 Dino Fury Rangers have been revealed-

*Russell Curry as Zayto, the Red Ranger

Okay...

*Kai Moya as Ollie, the Blue Ranger

Okay...

*Hunter Deno as Amelia, the Pink Ranger

*Jaw drops to floor*

Whoa. Stunning.

Sounds like they might be following a similar path to Ryusoulger, starting with the first three and then folding in the other two gradually.

 

[Samurai8472]

*Jaw drops to floor*

Whoa. Stunning.

Uh yeah. There is a lot of pics with our new pink ranger actress, Hunter Deno on Queen-Kitty's DeviantArt profile

Some of it might not be appropriate either

HA!. They're using tvnihon fansubbed footage in their trailer

 

[Christopher]

Uh yeah. There is a lot of pics with our new pink ranger actress, Hunter Deno on Queen-Kitty's DeviantArt profile

Some of it might not be appropriate either

Okay, I Googled her. That was... pleasant. A lot of bikini photos on her site. Still, it looks like she has a decent number of acting credits too. I certainly hope she's good at it. Her Ryusoulger counterpart, Ichika Osaki as Asuna, was a fantastic actress, expressive and nuanced in a way that was always compelling to watch, and with excellent comic delivery too.

After all, when Power Rangers casts models in lead roles, it doesn't always work out...

 

[JD]

Hasbro has also revealed their next batch of figures in the Power Rangers Lighting Collection, MMPR Green Ranger, a Z Putty, and Dino Thunder Red Ranger.

 

[Samurai8472]

After the huge outrage at unpainted dino thunder white ranger helmets we get unpainted diamonds on the green ranger figure

hasbro cutting corners again

It's even more disappointing considering this is the 2nd MMPR green ranger figure from Hasbro. The early waves had "fighting spirit green ranger + putty two pack"

The fighting spirit green ranger DID have a painted diamond on it's chest



It remains to be seen if fans can get Hasbro's attention like they did with the dino thunder white ranger helmet.

Hasbro is offering painted replacement heads

https://twitter.com/PowerRangers/status/1303783768369504256
https://twitter.com/Ajax_Ranger/status/1307241889683460096

DRAGO POWER! WHITE RANGER! The Dino Thunder White Ranger is now available exclusively at Walgreens! We apologize for the deco issue and we're making it right! Go to http://consumercare.hasbro.com for info on receiving a replacement helmet for free!

Also revealed are some two-pack figures

Metallic Armor MMPR Kat

https://news.tokunation.com/2020/09...or-mighty-morphin-pink-ranger-katherine-68839

 

[Christopher]

Since these figures have interchangeable heads, I kind of feel they should offer both Sentai and Ranger heads to go with the same body. Now it's Tommy, the Green Ranger -- whoosh, now it's DragonRanger Burai! I suppose the market for such a thing would be pretty limited, but many of the original Sentai seasons are available on video in the US now, so it's not as small a niche as it would've been once.

 

[Samurai8472]

Since these figures have interchangeable heads, I kind of feel they should offer both Sentai and Ranger heads to go with the same body. Now it's Tommy, the Green Ranger -- whoosh, now it's DragonRanger Burai! I suppose the market for such a thing would be pretty limited, but many of the original Sentai seasons are available on video in the US now, so it's not as small a niche as it would've been once.

Well this kinda fits that?

Bandai Japan rereleased their original Zyuranger TyrannoRanger figuart with Jason's head as added incentive

I got him

 

[suarezguy]

I think the Power Rangers fandom is divided into three big groups, those who like Jason best (but don't like Tommy much so like MMPR Season 1 best but don't like the rest of the series that much), those who like Tommy best (and so love the whole MMPR/Zeo run and era best) and those who like one of the later leaders best (and therefore one of the later series best).

 

[Christopher]

I find it vaguely interesting how the past two Pink Power Rangers have both used professional names that are simplified, somewhat Anglicized versions of their real names -- Chrystiane Lopes went by Chrysti Ane, and Ashley Hunter Denoyelles goes by Hunter Deno. Yet in between them, as the Beast Morphers Yellow Ranger, we have the unapologetically unabbreviated Jacqueline Scislowski.

 

[DigificWriter]

Spoiler

Although they haven't been formally announced, the names of the actors reportedly playing the remaining two "core" Dino Fury Rangers have leaked online, and it appears as if Hasbro is reviving a franchise trope not seen since Wild Force by taking a male character and making them female.

 

[1987SpaceGuy]

I think the Power Rangers fandom is divided into three big groups, those who like Jason best (but don't like Tommy much so like MMPR Season 1 best but don't like the rest of the series that much), those who like Tommy best (and so love the whole MMPR/Zeo run and era best) and those who like one of the later leaders best (and therefore one of the later series best).

You are probably not far off indeed with that assumption.

Group 1 aka Jason MMPR here and I really dislike JDF a lot.
Still did watch up and including Zeo when I was a kid.

Only in the past few years watched a few standalone PR episodes of more recent versions out of curiosity + the Uchu Sentai KyuRanger (the space/star-sign Rangers that haven't made it to the "Power Rangers" yet) since they finally had a real orange Power Ranger

 

[Christopher]

My attachment was generally more to the female Rangers, though I did think Austin St. John was a pretty effective lead. Overall, though, I tend to rate PR seasons by the quality of the writing rather than the cast -- and unfortunately those tended to be inversely proportional, since we started out with an excellent cast and terrible writing, and the casts got weaker as the writing got stronger. I don't think we had a case where both were strong until maybe Time Force.

After watching the Sentai series, I find it interesting that the quality of SS and PR kind of aligned there for a while -- the three seasons that MMPR was based on are among my least favorite Sentai series, but it was consistently good from Megaranger through Hurricaneger, while PR was excellent from in Space through Time Force.

It's odd, though -- Time Force and Wild Force were both extremely direct adaptations of their Sentais, down to specific episodes and character arcs, yet TF was the first PR season that actually improved on the original (since it had all the original's strengths plus the addition of a more nuanced main villain), while WF was weaker than the excellent Gaoranger, despite being almost verbatim aside from the different Red Ranger and main villain. I guess it came down to the cast and execution not being as good. (Same as the other near-verbatim adaptation -- Shinkenger was probably my favorite Sentai, while Samurai is easily the worst PR series. It just had such a lame cast and slapdash execution, plus the incongruity of doing such a profoundly Japanese series in an American context with almost no changes.)

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

since they finally had a real orange Power Ranger

We still haven't had a official Brown Ranger in Super Sentai yet.

As far as Kyuranger, I'm not a fan of Lucky having a transformation into the White Ranger.

And the fact that there are 2x Red & 2x Blue Rangers kinda irks me.

You can have 13 different colors with 13x different characters, why not go that route?

You could've given Lucky a different type of Power Up instead of having him change colors.

 

[Samurai8472]

As far as Kyuranger, I'm not a fan of Lucky having a transformation into the White Ranger.

It was a nice looking upgrade though

Nice username btw!

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

It was a nice looking upgrade though

It is a nice looking upgrade, but they could've re-colored it as mostly Red and place it on top of his existing suit as upgraded Armor or Suit Pieces.

I would've preferred an extra White Ranger / Actor / Character.

If you're going with a super large ensemble team, I would've wanted 13 proper Colored Rangers / Sentai Senshi.

Red
Blue
Black
White
Yellow
Pink
Green
Gray
Brown
Violet
Silver
Gold
Orange

Those 13 colors would cover most of the most common high level color categories IMO instead of having 2x duplicate colors that are shades or variation of the same color.

Nice username btw!

Thanks! =D

 

[Christopher]

Saber 4: This was an improvement over the past couple of episodes. Now that we're past all the exposition and establishing the toy/action ground rules, we can get into some real character drama and tension, and there are some effective moments with Ogami and Rintarou confronting Touma over his promises. I liked the problem-solving -- not just Touma figuring out the monster's secret by consulting his books, but Mei being clever and resourceful in finding a way to get to the abductees and send the Riders a flare.

We get a couple of recurring baddies facing the Riders. That Desast guy is your stock character type of a warrior with a smirking, laid-back attitude, not a bad contrast to the very driven, serious Ogami. Plus our heroes meet the Dark Rider, Calibur. His costume reminds me a bit of Ouja from Ryuki, with the purple color and the visor design.

It's a bit refreshing to have the action back in more grounded, less video-gamey locations. I guess they can't afford those every week, even with Unreal Engine. But the storybook-based powers are getting weird, especially that "Fighting Fairy" version of Tinker Bell. Apparently she's played by a well-known pro wrestler, so I guess Japanese audiences would've gotten the joke. (I thought it was Mei at first, but I wasn't sure.)

 

[Samurai8472]

Kiramager episode 25

The road to the power up starts.

It was quite unexpected that we'd get actual actor to play a female villain. I think it's been quite some time. Kyoryuger's film was the last time we had villains in human form. She made a pretty strong first impression and we got another user for the Yodon changer. Yodonna is really creepy with her tongue quirk.

At the 9:13 mark did I detect a hint of the MMPR theme? with "Go Go Power Rangers"?