Winners and Losers of 2012: Power Rangers and Super Sentai

I decided to do posts for the end of the year in review if it isn't already evident by the last posts. Here are the winners and losers in Power Rangers and Super Sentai. I grouped them together because you will see why, they work together.

WINNERS and LOSERS of 2012

5. DVD Buyers

Winners:

We have gotten a flurry of DVDs this year: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers three seasons box set, Zeo-Lost Galaxy box set, Beetleborgs dvds, VR Troopers dvds, and Ninja Turtles: Next Mutations dvds. Also Power Rangers Samurai and Power Rangers Super Samurai dvds and complete season of Super Samurai.

Losers:

Saban Brands gave out Blu-Rays to Power Force members without asking if they had Blu-Ray. One disadvantage. Also, fans don't like that Zeo-Lost Galaxy DVD box set is not available on sale yet other than Time-Life but we are sure they will be out soon. No Power Rangers Samurai season one complete season yet though.

4. Power Rangers Samurai/Super Samurai

Winner:

#1 Kids action show and high toy sales, Saban successfully made Power Rangers a hit with kids once again.

Loser:

Well the real loser is Power Rangers Samurai, not Nick. Nick is just fine. Well the real real loser is kid fans who love the show and are treated by too many repeats and too many months of waiting for new episodes. For info on what I think should have done, check my Year in the Review on Scheduling of Power Rangers.

 3. The Color Pink

Loser:
This past year, the Pink Samurai Ranger got shafted when it came to Mega Bloks, with no turtle zord nor her own hero pack. Plus her regular figure was cancelled. In Sentai, there was no Pink Ranger this year with Go-Busters. They did get a 'Pink Buster' but it was just a crappy costume ala AbarePink.

Winner:
This past year, Pink Ranger did get a costume and a Mega Mode mask in the Samurai line. Also, the MMPR Pink Ranger seems to be getting love in 20th anniversary collectibles and Halloween costumes for women. In the coming year with the new sentai Juuden Sentai Kyoryuger, the lone female ranger is Pink and her mecha, unlike other Pink Ranger's mecha is COMPLETELY Pink.


2. The Color Yellow

Winner:
In the past year, Yellow Ranger got stuff in MegaBloks that the Pink Ranger did not in Power Rangers Samurai like Ape Zord, Super Mode Hero Pack and multiple figures. Also, she is often grouped with the male figures unlike the Pink Ranger. She also got a Morphsuit.

Loser:
For Samurai Halloween Costumes, Yellow Ranger did not get a costume. This is common on teams with a Pink Ranger. Also there was no adult Yellow Ranger costume, sans the Morphsuit. Samurai Yellow's Shogun Mode was not seen in action on the show. This upcoming year, there will be NO yellow Ranger for Juuden Sentai Kyoryuger (2013), making Yellow also the loser for 2016 when it is adapted for Power Rangers.


1. The Fans

Winners:
It has been confirmed that we will be getting the Legend War for Power Rangers Megaforce but not clear at which point. Also we have Power Force, 20 influential fans selected to represent fans and give feedback to Saban Brands. Also the 20th anniversary will be giving new merchandise and also a new Power Morpher! Also the Power Morphicon had Saban as a presence and it was just plain awesome.

Losers:
Lol just kidding... uh.. not really. Well, you guys know what. We are always unhappy about something. Look at Nick, where we don't even get promos anymore. Or look at PRS itself, where adult fans are not happy. But that is just part of being a fan. Not everyone is going to happy because there is always different opinions on how to run things.

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Year in Review: Failure of Go-Busters?

(The following is just my theory--not fact to why the series did not perform well with Japanese kids, it has nothing to do with the worth of the series at all. I liked the series, it was a solid show.)

Word is that Bandai president says Go-Busters had low ratings and low toy sales. Initally they thought it was doing great, rumor is probably because of the Ranger Keys sales. Also supposedly they blame the Go-Busters storyline for being too 'Dark.' I personally don't think it was so dark. I think the series just didn't have a lot to go on. I do like Sentai series that concentrate on story, but I just couldn't get into Go-Busters. I don't hate it, I do like it, it just never 'sucked' me in. Go-Busters also served many unconviental concepts such as the monsters not growing but having seperate giant robots fighting the team, no stock footage of transformation, no auxilary robos like most years and also no Sixth member.

The new sentai Kyoryuger has one female and not yellow. I understand the thinking behind one female and 4 males. Because like it or not, it is a boy franchise. And boy toys sell more. And lately, Bandai has only had limited figures of the females so instead of having 3 boy toys to sell, they can sell 4. Most likely they got inspired by Go-Busters' 4 male lineup and decided to do the same with Kyoryuger. I don't see Go-Busters as a failure. But here are some points to review...

No Auxiliary Robos
Most fans would bemoan the use of too many Auxiliary robos or weapons to 'catch them all' (ala Gaoranger), but it has now become a Sentai stable. Not that I don't like the robos of Go-Busters. I did like that they were triple changers: went from animal to vehicle to robo. There was the frog robo from the movie but it wasn't the mass quantity like in Abaranger, Boukenger, Gekiranger, Go-Onger, Goseiger, and Gokaiger. Dekaranger and Magiranger sort of took a break on this concept but Dekaranger had multiple robos and Magiranger had different miscellany. Go-Busters only had one extra mech.


No Collectible Items
 In past years like Go-Onger, Shinkenger, Goseiger and Gokaiger, the teams had a item to collect like the Engine Souls, Hiden Disks, cards and Ranger Keys. Go-Busters did not have this. Mostly because Bandai still had the Ranger Key line going on and released multiple versions of the Go-Busters as keys and continued the remainder of Ranger Keys that were missing. The Ranger Keys were so popular with Gokaiger, they decided to conclude it in Go-Busters. I think the lack of both extra robos and of these items lead to low sales. Could the Ranger Keys have hurt Go-Busters?

Long drawn out Storyline
I might not agree but some might see the downer in the show itself was that since there were no collectible items or auxilary robos, the show didn't have much new to introduce so it was slow moving. Maybe kids do need something new to increase viewership. If they had nothing new to obtain, it just gets boring. I was hoping this was not the case but probably now Toei and Bandai believes that to be the case. Granted that back in the day (1975-2000), there wasn't much of these extra things and the storylines did fine. But maybe since kids are so accostumed to it now, it is hard for them to break free.

Dark, not Happy
I don't think Go-Busters was dark. It indeed was serious and wasn't as lighthearted as Go-Onger or goofy as Carranger but it was just as serious as let's say Boukenger or Shinkenger. But this 'last season was dark, this season will be more light-hearted and fun' sounds a lot like what Saban Brands said when they brought along Samurai, saying Jungle Fury and RPM were too dismal. My suggestion to Toei is that change is good but don't change all at once, if you remove something, then don't remove more elements, keep it balanced. Go-Busters having character development and story is great and should continue for the rest of Sentai, but if you want toys to sell, then sell toys. I see Go-Busters as an empty slate, I am sure that Saban and Bandai will add more gadgets and even another Ranger when it comes stateside around 2015.

Color Combo
When I spoke to one of the Bandai artists (Tsuyoshi Nonaka) at PMC, he said that the color combo of Red-Blue-Yellow-Silver-Gold did great. This was a new because usually Gold and Silver are reserved for the sixth and/or seventh and never for fourth and fifth. They are the first team to have Gold and Silver in the core 5. And that they wouldn't do it a lot because it wouldn't have the same impact. This is probably why Kyoryuger's color scheme is more traditional but also different since it is Red, Black, Green, Blue and Pink. Usually when a team has Black and Green (Liveman and Go-Onger) in the core 5, there is no Pink. But Zyuranger did ultimately have Green, Black and Pink. Also Kyoryuger is the first series since Timeranger to have a single female in pink. Gaoranger, Hurricanger, Abaranger, Gekiranger and Go-Busters all ultimately had one female but none were pink. Also Go-Busters was the first to use leather but Kyoryuger has gone back to Spandex.

 It seems after reviewing all the color combos and designs they did in the past with Gokaiger, Toei wants to try different things now. But it is common after an anniversary season like with Gaoranger (2001), the next two seasons of Hurricanger and Abaranger were experimental. Dekaranger and Magiranger were more traditional. Boukenger (2006) was the anniversary and more traditional and then Gekiranger and Go-Onger were experimental. Shinkenger and Goseiger were more traiditional color combos. Gokaiger (2011) was the anniversary and now Go-Busters and Kyoryuger are more experimental, maybe more radically so than before. I think Gekiranger was pretty radical with Purple and White, but Go-Busters threw us with a curveball with having Gold and Silver as 4th and 5th and now no Yellow with Kyoryuger. What is also curious is that Kakuranger (1994) had 5 members, GoGoV (1999) had 5 members, Abaranger (2003) had 5 members, Gekiranger (2007) had 5 and now Go-Busters (2012) have 5. Each around 4 to 5 years apart.



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Year in Review: Pros and Cons of Power Rangers Samurai show, merchandise, promotion, etc. from Saban Brands

UPDATED 12/6/12 10:30PM EST
This post will deal with the Pros and Cons of the show itself, merchandise, promotion, etc. of Power Rangers Samurai and Power Rangers Super Samurai from Saban Brands. I've been meaning to do this for a while but waited until now that the series is almost done.

Merchandise

I have publicly complained that there was not much merchandise in 2011 for the first season of Power Rangers Samurai but there has been a lot more in 2012. Elie Dekel has expressed that getting merchandise has been a journey. I personally think there was a lot of debates of money and licensing and such. But now it seems there are more things coming out that Disney never did (Squinkies, Morphsuits, phone apps, app games, Mashems, Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, etc.) but there are still things that Disney did that hasn't appeared yet (Toothbrushes, towels, etc.). I also commend them on the DVD box sets and finally bringing MMPR to DVD. Also having Super Samurai on Blu-Ray.

What I would really like in merchandise is Power Rangers to emulate Batman, Spider-Man and Star Wars in adult Collector products such as toasters (some have Darth Vader faces), waffle makers (same), busts, helmet replicas (like Halo), car accessories (steering wheel cover, mats, air fresheners, seat covers, windshield covers, and antanee heads), Shot glasses, CD Cases, and a Monster Jam monster truck (like Ninja Turtles has---this is my nephew's request). Update: Today I was informed by Raz that there are indeed bed sheets.

Toy Line (Bandai)
Great part of the Bandai toy line was that most of the toys were show-accurate. The Disney toy lines seemed to be over-flooded and full of re-paints and re-packaging. Also, it was full of toys that weren't on the show. But the Samurai toy line was mostly show-accurate, save for one toy that was originally from Operation Overdrive and the various bikes and the Tiger Tank. What I didn't like was how the girls were treated. When the male regular figures came out, there were no females in the Fall Line of 2011. The regular females came out in Spring 2012 but with the Super mode males and no Super modes were made for the females. The female Rangers came with skirts identical to the one made for Pink MMPR Ranger, which is triangular.


Also, their regular weapons came with the Mega mode figures and other unique weapons came with the regular figures (except for Red who got his canon). But I do have a sinking feeling that some of the 'Original' Samurai toys that were not from Shinkenger were constructed in better quality than the other toys such as the Mega Blade, Battlizer Red Ranger figure, etc. compared to the Samurai Megazord, which is not like the original ShinkenOh nor the Spin Sword, Samuraizer or Gold Morpher. They later than released a deluxe Samuraizer. But all in all, the toy line was 100 times better than the Disney line. What I would like more than anything and I am sure my fellow Power Force members MorphinLegacy and Rovang would agree with me is MORE FEMALE figures [But given what we know about Sentai and Power Ranger's future---Go-Busters (possible PR in 2015) and Kyoryuger (possible PR in 2016) have 1 female, but Kyoryuger could change ala Go-Onger.]. But it seems Power Rangers Megaforce will be going the same direction as Samurai.

Toy Line (MegaBloks)

Power Rangers has a long history with MegaBloks since Ninja Storm (but it stopped with Mystic Force) and the MegaBloks take on Samurai has been a mix bag in my opinion. Some good, some bad. Reminds me of products of Power Rangers back in the day. Some were shody merchandise and others were real good quality. In Disney (many may not agree with me), it was rarely shody merchandise but I might be wrong. Anyways, with MegaBloks we were served mini figures in blind packs that were wildly popular with both kids and collectors. What I didn't like was they mixed up the modes so it was hard to form a team. For example, they had Mega mode Pink in series 1, Mega Mode Blue in series 2, Mega Mode Green, Red and Gold in the Hero Packs and they never released Mega Mode Yellow. Also, they never made a Pink Ranger Turtle Zord, which irked fans but they were comitted to not making Pink Ranger products in fear boys wouldn't buy them. So much that they put the Pink Ranger cockpit within a big expensive set of Samurai Megazord Bonus Pack. I liked the style of the figures but now they are changing the design with Megaforce. Let's see how this one goes.

Promotion

Saban has been really great at promoting Power Rangers, with appearances of suited Rangers at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, the Rose Parade on New Years day, Power Morphicon, San Diego Comic Con, Licensing Expo, the Japanese relief event, White House events and much more. Also they had a big premiere for Samurai. They have also gotten Twitter, YouTube and Facebook accounts for Power Rangers and mPower program. They have lots of YouTube viral videos like the Dubstep one and the current one with album cover recreations.

Misc
Everyone was excited about Saban taking over Power Rangers again but adult fans were mostly dissapointed with how Samurai turned out. Some feel that Saban dealt too much on promotion and hyping the show and not the show itself. In show business, it doesn't matter how big you taut a product, the product itself should be good. All flash, no substance. I think they did a honest effort but just took it in a direction that adult fans weren't expecting. Samurai has a great charasmatic cast and I hope the best to them in the future. I do personally think that Saban Brands concerntrated too much internationally and didn't concerntrate enough in the United States in promotion and events. But it is a slow process and I'm starting to see the fruits of their labor now. Power Rangers is starting to have more promience but not enough in my opinion. Another thing that is bugging fans is the 2 year thing, they are so used to just 1 year for a theme.

The Show Itself
Last but not least! Jonathan Tzachor is the executive producer of Power Rangers Samurai and decided to follow the source Shinkenger closely. I think its funny since many fans thought Samurai's Japanese theme would be unadaptable and not do well in the American market, Saban showed them wrong. They called Kanji "Symbol Power" and kids quickly latched on. Many know the symbols by heart and identify them correctly. Now, a lot of adult fans have complained that Shinkenger was followed way too closely and Samurai was just a carbon copy. There were some changes: no Kuroko (the black cloaked helpers), Bulk and Skull added, cockpits changed with Mega Mode and Shogun Mode added, Shiba Clan being 'Lords,' Dayu's killing background, Uramasa's dark background, Xandred's sake and other tidbits. Kids I've spoken to love the show and see no problems.

Fans have a long list of problems with the show: the writing, the acting, the puns monster say, and overall blandness of the show. Saban and crew said the show would be 'lighter' than past seasons but it is hard with such dark material of Shinkenger. I applaud Tzachor and crew for trying to copy Shinkenger as it was a good series. But it is kind of hard with amatuer actors and emotionless deliveries of lines. Shining light came in Hector David Jr. who brought enthusiasm and attitude to the role of Mike. He just understood it and got it. In many ways I see Samurai as a very complicated satire of Shinkenger, in the kind of way it is so bad its funny and that the seriousness of the characters is just supposed to be taken lightly. I really don't hate PRS. I know lots that do or just think it sucks. My advice to the writers is to not talk down to the audience, make sure the actors emote, and write their own stories. Word is that with Megaforce, they will have more original storylines.

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Year in Review: Pros and Cons of Power Rangers Samurai on Nickelodeon

UPDATED 12/9/12
Pictures thanks to: samuraicast.com
When it was announced that Power Rangers would air on Nickelodeon, I was a bit wary but excited. Wary because their scheduling is always erratic and random. For example, iCarly never had proper numbers for seasons. Most kid shows last 2 years and 65 episodes but according to its creator, they never had a real break between seasons and the last season was filmed as one but split into two. Anyway, now that Samurai is almost over, I want to go over the pros and cons of having Power Rangers Samurai and Super Samurai on Nickelodeon. Now NickToons will be discussed below.

Promotion
In the winter of 2010 and early 2011, there was a lot of promos for Power Rangers Samurai, including mini ones showing off each Ranger. After each episode, they showed a clip of the next episode. Halfway into the first season, they just showed a generic promo. I think they did show 'next on' promos later on in 2011. I do remember a promo running for the Christmas episode. Also, there was NO promo for the "Clash of the Red Rangers" special. The Thanksgiving Parade appearance served as a indirect promotion for it. There was no "Next On" promo for the Super Samurai season. Also, a Fall promo showed up in June but no exact word on when the new episodes would air, keep reading for more.

There was the recent and atrocious mistake done by Nickelodeon where for Thanksgiving promo, they use the Red SPD Ranger in place of a Samurai Ranger when advertising Power Rangers Samurai. NickToons which has aired a varity of Power Rangers seasons, including SPD, have yet to do something of this nature.



Scheduling
PRS started on Sundays at 12 and quickly moved to Saturdays at 12. But for some unknown reason, the first two episodes were not aired first. This caused a lot of debate in fans as to if "The Team Unites" was the first episode or not. Because clips of the first episode was seen in the promos and the first episode "Origins Part 1" did not air until October 15, 2011. Further, Origins Part 1 and 2 barely have anything to do with each other as there are two different monsters. Saban did release promotional t-shirts for cast and crew that said "Power Rangers Origins." While the Origins episodes did not have earth-shattering secrets, it did establish the Symbol Powers and plot, which could had been nice to air at the beginning. We older fans could follow it but younger fans might have a little lost but they got it eventually. Episode 18 "The Ultimate Duel" was the last episode to air chronologically, it aired Oct. 8. After that was Origins and then Party Monsters, Clash of the Red Rangers and Christmas Together, Friends Forever.

First season had a break from June 4th to October 1st (17 weeks) and second season had a break from May 12 to Oct 13 (24 weeks). To kids, 2 weeks is more than a month and 24 weeks, that is like a year. Kids complained to me that there were too many  repeats. With only 20 episodes and 3 specials in 2011, that is understandable. But what I would had suggested was having 5 breaks throughout the year. Like for example, 5 new episodes February-March, take a break and then 5 new ones in April-May and then in August and the rest in October. And the specials after that. But oh well. Also there was erratic time changes to the second half of Super Samurai like moving the show to 1pm and then to 11:30am one Saturday and the Christmas special is scheduled for noon, who knows if it will air at that time.

 Nick LA (Latin America)

Another faux pas (other than Origins and schedule changing) was that Nickelodeon of Latin America aired the last episodes of Super Samurai (revealing female Red Ranger, Shogun mode outside of a zord and Skull's return) before they did in the US. Why was this significant? Because given that Power Rangers was first made to appeal to an American audience and the giant gap of 24 weeks in season two for new episodes, it would had been nice if we got it first. Back in the day of MMPR heyday (1993), the internet was not as prominent and maybe fans would had not noticed. I know that most kids I know didn't know about it. But we adult fans were a bit irked about this. Other countries like UK and France also got episodes before the US.

 NickToons

NickToons have aired Ninja Storm, Jungle Fury, Time Force, SPD, and Dino Thunder and also Samurai and Super Samurai, they have done marathons and also they have aired Power Rangers for seven days straight and at different time. I don't have NickToons so I don't have complaints about it. But from what I've heard, it is all good.

Two Year Split

Yes, Nick is part of the reason that Samurai was split into two seasons. Nick asked for 20 episodes per year. So they were able to do 40 for two years but also add specials. I see the specials as a loophole for Saban to add more episodes. Elie Dekel of Saban Brands said that they did because they wanted to synch the theme with every country into the world, so seasons won't overlap each other and launch a new season at the same time. I personally did not like the 2 years of Samurai AT FIRST because it felt like a delay and also I knew it would delay Sentai even more. Power Rangers was always a year behind the Sentai before 2010.

For example, Go-Onger aired in 2008 and Power Rangers RPM adapted it in 2009. With the 2010 gap (the transition from Disney to Saban), Power Rangers had a two year gap and now in 2013, there is a three year gap. Power Rangers Megaforce will premiere in 2013 but the series Goseiger it is based on aired in 2010. So here we go with two years with Power Rangers Megaforce. The second season is rumored to be called Super Megaforce, the title 'Ultra Megaforce' was copyrighted in 2012. It is also said that Gokaiger footage will be adapted for the second season. And we will be getting 20 episodes and 2 specials for each year as well. Maybe a teamup special will be thrown in there too. In theory, if Saban still has control over Vortexx in 2015, the new Power Rangers season might have more than 20 episodes and last only one year.

Yellow and Green Shogun Mode
Check Power Rangers Super Samurai, Yellow and Green Shogun Rangers appear on the show briefly in a short sequence with five in Shogun Mode but they NEVER appear in action. We saw Yellow (above) in a promo pic in Nick.com and Calendar. Green didn't get a toy or even a promo pic or even appears in the calendar. I asked Tsuyoshi Nonaka why all 5 have Shogun mode and he said Saban asked for it. So my question is.... WHY MAKE TWO SHOGUN MODE SUITS AND NOT EVEN USE THEM ON THE SHOW????

Conclusion
In conclusion, the move to Nick has been a mix-bag. A news article reported that Disney wanted Saban to agree not to have PR on Nickelodeon because that was their competitor and that is exactly what Saban did after gaining the rights back. It has been great that so many kids have seen it but there are still kids that have no cable. So Saban bought CW4Kids and now it is on Vortexx on CW which would be a perfect home for new episodes of Power Rangers. But the buying transcation happened after Saban signed with Nick for Power Rangers Megaforce to air on it.

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