What if I told you I went to a Power Rangers convention two weeks ago? The casual Fwoosher may ask, “There’s a POWER RANGERS convention?” It was actually the second one. So if you grew up on He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, ThunderCats, G.I. Joe, Voltron, Super Friends, and Transformers, get ready. I’m going to make you really SUPER OLD right now.
“Power Rangers” is almost old enough to vote.
The original episode aired August 28, 1993. And if Bandai and your local Hot Topic have anything to say about it, they’re not waiting for a 20th, 25th, or a 30th Anniversary to celebrate Power Ranger fandom. The party’s starting early. And thanks to the amazingly kind and talented team at Bandai America, I got to tag along to get a glimpse of the future fanboys and girls of America, and abroad, to see why anytime is Morphing time.
The last weekend of August, the Pasadena Convention Center was home to the 2nd POWER MORPHICON, the world’s only Power Rangers convention. Never have I seen so much bright spandex in one place that WASN’T Wrestlemania. Fans from all over the world flew to California to share stories, attend panels, and meet many of the actors from previous series, including the patron saint of Power Rangers himself, Jason David Frank, also known as Tommy the original Green Ranger. For the uninitiated, Power Rangers has a new cast every season. Multiply that times 17 years and you get quite a lot of star power for a Power Rangers fan young and old…er. All the former cast members were exceptionally kind, generous, and really excited about seeing their fans one on one, as well as getting re-acquainted with familiar faces. Panels ranged from an all-female ranger panel, to Bulk and Skull, to voice acting and writing workshops, to a standing-room-only Jason David Frank panel, where “Tommy” himself talk about his Power Ranger past and his current foray into MMA fighting.
As for me, I got the opportunity to play ToyGuru (call me ToyZordon) this weekend at the Bandai booth. It would’ve been really funny for someone like Dave Vonner, Scott Neitlich, or Jesse Falcon, to watch me deal with what they go through on a regular basis. For those keeping count, by and large the most popular questions and requests were:
– A Rita Repulsa figure. By and large the most requested figure. One of the few female enemy leaders in any children’s program, she never got past the prototype phase in 1994. It’s like not making Darth Vader. Even Rita’s voice actress, Barbara Goodson, wants one, offering to do the voice for it if Bandai were to make it a “talking” figure… which would be AMAZING!
– A real scale prop replica of the Power Rangers morphers and communicators– specifically the Green Ranger’s gold morpher, only made in Japan and commands anywhere from a few hundred to over a THOUSAND dollars on ebay!
– The Green Ranger’s Dragonzord scaled to use with the Megazord released last year.
– A real scale prop replica of the Green Ranger’s Dragon Dagger This guy’s popularity is off the charts!
– A collectible Bandai S.H.Figuarts style 6-inch super poseable Power Rangers line – with fully painted costumes (front and back) and painted weapons, like Bandai Japan’s popular Kamen Rider.
– Figures of other Mighty Morphin Evil Space Aliens (Scopina, Finster, Squatt, Baboo, Psycho Rangers, Monsters-of-the-Day, etc)
– Action figures based on Dairanger. The 2nd season of Power Ranger used the Dairanger robots and monsters, but not the hero costumes (except White Ranger).
– Importing the same Zords from Bandai Japan in place of sculpting new ones.
If you’re sad you missed out on this Ranger love-fest, no worries. Power Morphicon was a great success and they’ve (so far) confirmed the next one for 2012. Haim Saban, the original creator and owner of Power Rangers, recently repurchased the franchise back from Disney and is producing a new season, “Power Rangers Samurai.” Early casting shows that he’s going back to the original formula that brought him huge success in the early to mid 90s. Along with this renaissance, Bandai America also nabbed the elusive ThunderCats license, which marks one of the first times Bandai America is working on a brand based on an existing “nostalgia 80s” brand. We already know how Hasbro and Mattel have tackled returning brands, so it’ll be interesting to see how ThunderCats is executed. And while my booth-mates at Bandai were tightlipped about details regarding the launch of the new ThunderCats, according at their initial press release, it looks like we may be looking at Bandai’s first ever 2-pronged kids AND collectors lines! And with Power Rangers 20th anniversary closing in fast, fans are anxiously anticipating some Megazord-sized toy announcements!
Although details are still being worked out behind closed doors, in the meantime, Bandai’s facebook, twitter, and blog pages (next to the fwoosh, of course) are quickly becoming the best way to begin communicating our ThunderCats and Power Rangers’ Anniversary wants ‘n needs. My poor wallet.
See? I feel old.
I want to especially thank Amanda Burns, Tanya Sexton, Taku Nakano, Sean Coolidge, and the rest of Bandai America for their generosity in allowing me to tag along with them this weekend, and allowing me to be a Toygu…y for a few days.
*The article is my opinion and does not reflect the views or opinions of Bandai.
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