Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

I just hope they keep Power Rangers as far from Transformers as possible. I don't want the IDW reboot cluttered with even more unnecessary crossovers than we have now.

eh, cool I guess. I never really cared for Power Rangers myself but my friend likes it enough. Not really wanting any crossovers. Power Rangers tends to be more of the japanese style I detest when in Transformers.

L3281 wrote:I just hope they keep Power Rangers as far from Transformers as possible. I don't want the IDW reboot cluttered with even more unnecessary crossovers than we have now.

The comics licence is still with Boom! Not with IDW.

@reluctantyouth you do realise that the western power ranger toys haven't been the bandai Japan ones for a while now don't you? I'd argue that hasbro will have better quality then bandai America put out.

Rated X wrote:Ewww...power rangers. The biggest Voltron rip off in history.

Even aside from the previously pointed out fact of Sentai's first combining robot being released the same year as Golion, the two shows had pretty much nothing else in common except giant robots, and giant robots were already a genre unto themselves at that point anyway. I believe the most generous thing that can be said about this non-existent competition is that GoLion was the first five piece combining robot toy (to my knowledge).



Anyway, given how lackluster the franchise has been since Saban's reacquisition of it, and the decline of the Legacy line after a change in leadership at Bandai, general consensus among the ranger fandom seems to be that this is a good move. I know I'm eager to see how they handle it. It would be difficult to do worse than Saban has, at least. Now if we could get a goddamn Legacy Shogun Megazord.....

fenrir72 wrote:
Their storylines were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than the Saban edited versions. Heck, sometime too serious/mature for a show intended to sell toys.

Nay,that isn't always the case.

ShinkenPrime wrote:Between skipping series, combining series and just trying to make a single series last 2 years...I'm hoping Hasbro rights the ship.

That last one is due to Nickelodeon's whole "no seasons longer than ~20 episodes" thing. Hasbro can't fix one that if the show stays on Nick.

AlphaBass wrote:

Rated X wrote:Ewww...power rangers. The biggest Voltron rip off in history.

Well, at least Voltron bested Power Rangers that one time.....

And I would guesstimate PR made way more money than Voltron at this point, so....

Both Voltron and PR are but small pieces in a much , much wider brand of Japanese fiction that goes back further in time than either of them.

Still, this move is a bit puzzling. If anything, I thought Saban would have sold it back to Disney. This is the 2nd Japanese property (the other being Distributution of Studio Ghibli films), that Disney has let go. Of course having Pixar, and Marvel, and Lucasfilm, they aren't hurting for cash...oh well.

I have never purchased a PR toy, but I know Bandai is known for quality in Japan, not sure how it's US product compares. Also I wonder how feels knowing their western *counterpart* for lack of a better word, just picked up the brand of one of its greatest competitors. Of course, if Bandai in Japan purchases ....

o.supreme wrote:Still, this move is a bit puzzling. If anything, I thought Saban would have sold it back to Disney.

Disney didn't even want Power Rangers in the first place. They treated the series and its production company like a redheaded stepchild. The good seasons we got out of the Disney Era were all from the efforts of the show's production staff rather than from Disney itself.

o.supreme wrote:

AlphaBass wrote:

Rated X wrote:Ewww...power rangers. The biggest Voltron rip off in history.

Well, at least Voltron bested Power Rangers that one time.....

And I would guesstimate PR made way more money than Voltron at this point, so....

Both Voltron and PR are but small pieces in a much , much wider brand of Japanese fiction that goes back further in time than either of them.

Still, this move is a bit puzzling. If anything, I thought Saban would have sold it back to Disney. This is the 2nd Japanese property (the other being Distributution of Studio Ghibli films), that Disney has let go. Of course having Pixar, and Marvel, and Lucasfilm, they aren't hurting for cash...oh well.

I have never purchased a PR toy, but I know Bandai is known for quality in Japan, not sure how it's US product compares. Also I wonder how feels knowing their western *counterpart* for lack of a better word, just picked up the brand of one of its greatest competitors. Of course, if Bandai in Japan purchases ....

The US Power Rangers toys can be a hit and miss depending on the marketing whims of Bandai of America, especially when it comes to the Zord Builder gimmick. Starting with Operation Overdrive, they're simplified in various degrees, eliminate the electronics, and the marketing of the add-on Zords is a nightmare at times (right now, if you wanted one, you pay for a Megazord redeco. No kidding!). To give credit, they did release the big Zord toy for this year. Just ridiculously oversized to turn it into a play set for greater appeal.

And TakaraTomy shouldn't have to care, really. There's no real conflict of interests as Hasbro doesn't deal with Bandai of Japan directly, especially if they continue the tradition of designing the toys for the US market instead of importing the (hugely expensive electronic) DX Sentai toys.

King Kuuga wrote: Now if we could get a goddamn Legacy Shogun Megazord.....

Oh ****! I just realized that with this change of hands, the Legacy line might totally change and we wont get a shogun zord compatible with the falcon zord they previously released.

o.supreme wrote:I have never purchased a PR toy, but I know Bandai is known for quality in Japan, not sure how it's US product compares. Also I wonder how feels knowing their western *counterpart* for lack of a better word, just picked up the brand of one of its greatest competitors. Of course, if Bandai in Japan purchases ....

Thats not really how it works. Power Rangers is not a Bandai Japan brand and the toys havent even been made by Bandai Japan for almost a decade.

It will be easier if I just show you a review for you to see that its totally different from the Hasbro/Takara dynamic and differences between releases.



So in short, quality is poor and cheap, the differences between brands is apples and oranges, and Power Rangers has not been affiliated to Takara's competitor for almost a decade.

william-james88 wrote:So in short, quality is poor and cheap, the differences between brands is apples and oranges, and Power Rangers has not been affiliated to Takara's competitor for almost a decade.

Thanks for the info. Man it must suck to be a PR fan. With Transformers, sure the product was slightly better, and had decos or slight modifications that a portion of the fan base (myself included) preferred, and the prices while higher were not that bad. Now of course, the toys are virtually the same. I had no idea that the toys produced for the PR market were completely different from those produced in Japan for Super Sentai. Getting watered down *knock-off* like toys must be frustrating, and even worse, the imports seem very expensive.

So, I was just reading on other sites, acquired other Saban Brands as well, not just PR. Could this finally be our chance at getting RiD on DVD?.... S!F produces both TF series and PR on DVD, so here's to hoping.

o.supreme wrote:

william-james88 wrote:So in short, quality is poor and cheap, the differences between brands is apples and oranges, and Power Rangers has not been affiliated to Takara's competitor for almost a decade.

Thanks for the info. Man it must suck to be a PR fan. With Transformers, sure the product was slightly better, and had decos or slight modifications that a portion of the fan base (myself included) preferred, and the prices while higher were not that bad. Now of course, the toys are virtually the same. I had no idea that the toys produced for the PR market were completely different from those produced in Japan for Super Sentai. Getting watered down *knock-off* like toys must be frustrating, and even worse, the imports seem very expensive.

The Legacy line is high quality stuff, at least, when it comes to the megazords.

o.supreme wrote:So, I was just reading on other sites, acquired other Saban Brands as well, not just PR. Could this finally be our chance at getting RiD on DVD?....

Nope! Disney still had RiD.

Sabrblade wrote:

o.supreme wrote:So, I was just reading on other sites, acquired other Saban Brands as well, not just PR. Could this finally be our chance at getting RiD on DVD?....

Nope! Disney still had RiD.

Then needs to acquire that back. I mean, as you said earlier, Disney probably doesn't even realize they have it, and don't care. They did not air it on any of their channels, or release it on DVD to capitalize on the popularity of the live-action films. It's not available on any streaming service. It's doing nothing for Disney, might as well make some chump change by selling it back to its original owner.

ZeroWolf wrote:

L3281 wrote:I just hope they keep Power Rangers as far from Transformers as possible. I don't want the IDW reboot cluttered with even more unnecessary crossovers than we have now.

The comics licence is still with Boom! Not with IDW.

Well that's a relief. Hopefully it stays that way.

william-james88 wrote:

King Kuuga wrote: Now if we could get a goddamn Legacy Shogun Megazord.....

Oh ****! I just realized that with this change of hands, the Legacy line might totally change and we wont get a shogun zord compatible with the falcon zord they previously released.

I'm crossing my fingers that Hasbro will be as attuned to the fanbase as they said in their Toy Fair statement and continue the Legacy Line in a similar vein to what BOA was doing. At the very least, a Legacy Shogun Megazord compatible with the existing zords. I'm not the biggest fan of Zordbuilder, and the legacy season 1 zords could stand for a redo aside from the Soul of Chogokin versions, but I'd also rather not restart a legacy Zord collection from the ground up.

Honestly what I'd really like is something similar to the Playmates Voltron model, release larger individual zords at a $20-30 price point and build a bigger megazord than the standard deluxe release. And better quality than the awful 2017 movie toy, bleh.

WilliamJames88 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:I have never purchased a PR toy, but I know Bandai is known for quality in Japan, not sure how it's US product compares. Also I wonder how feels knowing their western *counterpart* for lack of a better word, just picked up the brand of one of its greatest competitors. Of course, if Bandai in Japan purchases ....

Thats not really how it works. Power Rangers is not a Bandai Japan brand and the toys havent even been made by Bandai Japan for almost a decade.

It will be easier if I just show you a review for you to see that its totally different from the Hasbro/Takara dynamic and differences between releases.



So in short, quality is poor and cheap, the differences between brands is apples and oranges, and Power Rangers has not been affiliated to Takara's competitor for almost a decade.

In all fairness, sometimes the BOA version of the toy improves upon certain areas of a megazord. Usually proportions or stability. They're budget releases sure, but generally worth the $30. BOJ's toys are also veering towards being very silly. Lest we forget, the 2016 main megazord was literally three cubes stacked on top of each other and skewered.

o.supreme wrote:So, I was just reading on other sites, acquired other Saban Brands as well, not just PR. Could this finally be our chance at getting RiD on DVD?.... S!F produces both TF series and PR on DVD, so here's to hoping.

Why read other sites? We report it in the very first paragraphe of the article.

Well to be fair, while the content of the articles was similar, other sites headlined with Saban Brands, while this article headlined only with Power Rangers...

Emerje wrote:

Lucky Logician wrote:

Rated X wrote:Ewww...power rangers. The biggest Voltron rip off in history.

For the record, Super Sentai (Himitsu Sentai Gorenger) premiered in 1975. Beast King Go Lion didn't come around until 1981.

On the mecha side Super Sentai wouldn't introduce combining robots until 1981 themselves with Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan. Neither were the first to introduce the concept, there are plenty of older examples in Japan including the stuff Takara was cranking out under Diaclone in 1980 or the series World Events intended to make into Voltron, but got sent the wrong "the one with the lion" show instead of GoLion, Future Robo Daltanious from 1979.

Emerje

I think a lot of people misinterpreted my comment so let me be more specific on why I call Power Rangers the biggest Voltron rip off in history....

First of all remember im from the US. I dont know anything about Japanese cartoons that pre-date voltron. And as a child we here in the US knew it as Voltron. It was the brand. As a 7 year old thats all I knew. Hell I didnt know Diaclone either. All I knew was those after school and Saturday morning cartoons. Thats it.

Now lets fast foward to the early 90s when power rangers came out in the US. I was not into cartoons or toys at the time. I was in high school. But they were so popular you couldnt help but notice them. Naturally I watched the show a few times out of pure curiosity.

My biggest issue with the show was live actors (actual humans rather than cartoon) And to make it even stupider they were ninjas. So it was a ku-fu fest of brightly colored leotards with motorcycle helmets. After 15 minutes of foolishness each episode would climax in a voltron style battle with a zord and some kind of monster. It was so stupid because after watching nearly 20 minutes of saved by the bell humor mixed with horrible kung fu scenes, all of a sudden it becomes killer robot combiners from outer space.

So the reason I call it a voltron rip off is because you have a team of 5 pilots that have adventures and then combine their vehicles to form a giant robot to battle a different monster every episode. But at least in voltron the pilots were just pilots, not ninjas. And at least in voltron, they stuck to animation rather than switching from human actors to metal costumes, stop action toy sequences or whatever they used to do the "zords". It was just really stupid. I mean really stupid. It was a rip off of voltron with live actors and a TMNT twist because ninjas were more popular that robots by the 90s in the US.

Horrible show, just horrible. Even captian power was better.

Rated X wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Lucky Logician wrote:

Rated X wrote:Ewww...power rangers. The biggest Voltron rip off in history.

For the record, Super Sentai (Himitsu Sentai Gorenger) premiered in 1975. Beast King Go Lion didn't come around until 1981.

On the mecha side Super Sentai wouldn't introduce combining robots until 1981 themselves with Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan. Neither were the first to introduce the concept, there are plenty of older examples in Japan including the stuff Takara was cranking out under Diaclone in 1980 or the series World Events intended to make into Voltron, but got sent the wrong "the one with the lion" show instead of GoLion, Future Robo Daltanious from 1979.

Emerje

I think a lot of people misinterpreted my comment so let me be more specific on why I call Power Rangers the biggest Voltron rip off in history....

First of all remember im from the US. I dont know anything about Japanese cartoons that pre-date voltron. And as a child we here in the US knew it as Voltron. It was the brand. As a 7 year old thats all I knew. Hell I didnt know Diaclone either. All I knew was those after school and Saturday morning cartoons. Thats it.

Now lets fast foward to the early 90s when power rangers came out in the US. I was not into cartoons or toys at the time. I was in high school. But they were so popular you couldnt help but notice them. Naturally I watched the show a few times out of pure curiosity.

My biggest issue with the show was live actors (actual humans rather than cartoon) And to make it even stupider they were ninjas. So it was a ku-fu fest of brightly colored leotards with motorcycle helmets. After 15 minutes of foolishness each episode would climax in a voltron style battle with a zord and some kind of monster. It was so stupid because after watching nearly 20 minutes of saved by the bell humor mixed with horrible kung fu scenes, all of a sudden it becomes killer robot combiners from outer space.

So the reason I call it a voltron rip off is because you have a team of 5 pilots that have adventures and then combine their vehicles to form a giant robot to battle a different monster every episode. But at least in voltron the pilots were just pilots, not ninjas. And at least in voltron, they stuck to animation rather than switching from human actors to metal costumes, stop action toy sequences or whatever they used to do the "zords". It was just really stupid. I mean really stupid. It was a rip off of voltron with live actors and a TMNT twist because ninjas were more popular that robots by the 90s in the US.

Horrible show, just horrible. Even captian power was better.

Everything is a rip-off nowadays by current popular definitions. Even Transformers was a rip-off of Gobots back in the day (remember, Gobots came first).

Rated X wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Lucky Logician wrote:

Rated X wrote:Ewww...power rangers. The biggest Voltron rip off in history.

For the record, Super Sentai (Himitsu Sentai Gorenger) premiered in 1975. Beast King Go Lion didn't come around until 1981.

On the mecha side Super Sentai wouldn't introduce combining robots until 1981 themselves with Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan. Neither were the first to introduce the concept, there are plenty of older examples in Japan including the stuff Takara was cranking out under Diaclone in 1980 or the series World Events intended to make into Voltron, but got sent the wrong "the one with the lion" show instead of GoLion, Future Robo Daltanious from 1979.

Emerje

I think a lot of people misinterpreted my comment so let me be more specific on why I call Power Rangers the biggest Voltron rip off in history....

[lots of stuff]

I can understand how it would seem like a ripoff when you were younger and didn't know any better, but now you ARE older and you DO know better. Giant robots and the people that pilot them are a genre, superheroes are a genre, Power Rangers combined the two to give you fights at different scales. Was it capitalizing on what was popular at the time? Absolutely. The live-action Ninja Turtles movies were fresh in people's memories and dinosaurs have always been en eternal kid favorite, but Jurassic Park also came out right around that time, making them an even more popular concept. Put them together and it's no wonder it sold like hotcakes. But taking popular concepts and putting a different spin on them does not a ripoff make.

NO! NO! PLEASE GOD! NO!
ITs a qoute from the office u.s. btw

In related news, Saban Brands is going bye bye!

Saban Brands LLC, owner of the Power Rangers and other entertainment properties, announced the layoff of 60 employees as Hasbro Inc. is set to buy the company.

Century City-based Saban Brands will shut down July 2, according to a Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification letter sent to the state of California from Saban Brand lawyer Lawrence Stone, an attorney at Jackson Lewis.

The letter was dated May 1, which coincides with the date toymaker Hasbro announced its acquisition of Saban Brands.

Saban Brands parent Saban Capital Group, an investment firm that specializes in entertainment investments, will continue as a company, according to the letter. It has equity in Paul Frank Industries and Celestial Tiger Entertainment among other companies.

Occupations of the listed layoffs run the gamut from creative director to financial analyst to director of accounting. Fifty-one of the 60 layoffs are set to happen on July 2.

Not known is whether Hasbro will re-hire any employees subject to layoff. The letter made no mention of rehires, and a message left with Saban Brands May 23 was not immediately returned.

Can't say I'm surprised. Kinda happy actually, Saban Capital has always been pretty shady (as most companies with "capital" in their names are and it never felt right with them continuing to handle children's stuff. They were pretty innovative in the FOX days, but after they shuffled stuff back and forth with Disney they only seemed to be going through the motions.

Emerje