william-james88 wrote:Just curious, the Japanese counterpart to Bandai of America Power Rangers toys come out first right? So do we have a look at their version of this upcoming Ninja Steel Megazord?
Yes.
Originally, Powers Rangers was always about one year behind Super Sentai in their adaptations, with MMPR season 1 beginning in 1993 while Zyuranger began in 1992. This trend continued all the way up to 2009's Power Rangers RPM being adapted from 2008's Go-Onger.
But after the Disney Era ended, 2009's Shinkenger would not get adapted for Power Rangers until 2011 as Power Rangers Samurai, and then extended in 2012 as Power Rangers Super Samurai, putting Power Rangers now two-three years behind Super Sentai.
During the interim year of 2010, Bandai of America filled that gap with a redux of MMPR season 1 in the form of a new toyline and a reversion of the TV show with newly-added, badly-done special effects that were evocative of the Transformers: Generation 2 version of the G1 cartoon or the Adam West 60's Batman TV series.
Anyway, 2010's Goseiger became 2013's Power Rangers Megaforce, making Power Rangers three years behind for this series.
2011's Gokaiger became 2014's Power Rangers Super Megaforce, keeping Power Rangers three years behind.
2012's Go-Busters... was skipped entirely by Power Rangers. This was the first time Toei ever permitted Power Rangers to skip over a Sentai series, as there was some previous contractual obligation that required Power Rangers to not skip any series. I guess an exception was made for Go-Busters due to how poorly it did in Japan (both critically and commercially), as well as for how different its suits were from the traditional Sentai/PR ranger suit look (the Go-Buster suits were leather instead of spandex, and looked a bit more soldier/commando-esque than superhero-esque).
Because of Go-Busters being skipped, 2013's Kyoryuger has become 2015's Power Rangers Dino Change and extended into 2016's Power Rangers Dino Super Charge. For 2015, that put Power Rangers at being only two years behind like with the first season of Samurai, but the second season in 2016 restored it to being three years behind once again.
And now, we've come to the present for Power Rangers, but 2014 had ToQger for Super Sentai, which like Go-Busters is also going to be skipped for Power Rangers. My guess for this one's being skipped is that Saban might have figure that the rainbow-colored, railway-themed series with a heavy imagination-based gimmick would have been far too silly even for Power Rangers' currently-low standards. And both the suits and the main megazord are pretty plain-looking too, so probably not as marketable in the West.
Thus, with ToQger skipped, we come to 2015's Ninninger becoming 2017's Power Rangers Ninja Steel, which will put Power Rangers back to being two years behind. But should it get another season that extends into a second year (like what happened with Samurai and Dino Charge), that would put it back to being three years behind.
As for the Ninninger version of the Ninja Steel Megazord, behold 2015's
Shurikenjin: