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.
I mean, they've sold off all of their brands so they wouldn't really have anything to oversee. Saban Capital Group will continue to exist and manage other branches of the company. Nothing much to see here. Actually I've heard a theory that Saban reacquired Power Rangers and stuff just to attempt to make it profitable again so they could sell it back off to someone who would do right by it and turn them a profit.
So there doesn't seem to have been much - if any talk about the last couple of lines for super sentai; but after seeing the new pics for the next line, it got me thinking of the cool stuff has/tak could do with the line, assuming they want to utilize some of the great innovations they developed over the last couple of years...
They have the standardized combiner wars port/socket system, which we've already seen applied to figures beyond just the scramble city types (god bomber). They also have the standardized headmaster system, the new combat system (weaponizer deluxes), and the new duocon standard. They have everything they need to make a new zord-builder system, and that's kinda cool to me to think about
It has two add-on's as well that look pretty cool, wonder if the english version will be called Dino-Knights
I dont think they could wrong with a robot dinossaur.
About how Hasbro will handle Power Rangers,I think they will play it safe first,with the core Megazord and the indvidual Rangers toys.I dont think we will have many variants to the core group like previous years thought.
It has two add-on's as well that look pretty cool, wonder if the english version will be called Dino-Knights
I dont think they could wrong with a robot dinossaur.
About how Hasbro will handle Power Rangers,I think they will play it safe first,with the core Megazord and the indvidual Rangers toys.I dont think we will have many variants to the core group like previous years thought.
History shows that they favored bringing over the dino related lines... Plus dinosaurs always go over huge with kids Plus the name practically writes itself
The first wave of Hasbro's new Lightning Collection has already been revealed to feature an eclectic variety of past Power Rangers characters, such as Lord Zedd, the Magna Defender from Lost Galaxy, and even the SPD Shadow Ranger.
Just saw the first episode Power Rangers Beast Morphers.
I'm astonished. It is genuinely a significant improvement over everything we ever got out of the Neo-Saban Era. The episode had so many high moments that any and all low moments (the unfunny comic relief duo, a few of the actors' natural accents slipping out here and there, etc.) were inoffensive enough to be completely dismissed. If the rest of the series is able to carry the same level of quality and competence that this episode had, then we can officially say that Power Rangers has at long last finally become cool again.
Sabrblade wrote:Just saw the first episode Power Rangers Beast Morphers.
I'm astonished. It is genuinely a significant improvement over everything we ever got out of the Neo-Saban Era. The episode had so many high moments that any and all low moments (the unfunny comic relief duo, a few of the actors' natural accents slipping out here and there, etc.) were inoffensive enough to be completely dismissed. If the rest of the series is able to carry the same level of quality and competence that this episode had, then we can officially say that Power Rangers has at long last finally become cool again.
Curious: how does it compare to the source material?
Sabrblade wrote:Just saw the first episode Power Rangers Beast Morphers.
I'm astonished. It is genuinely a significant improvement over everything we ever got out of the Neo-Saban Era. The episode had so many high moments that any and all low moments (the unfunny comic relief duo, a few of the actors' natural accents slipping out here and there, etc.) were inoffensive enough to be completely dismissed. If the rest of the series is able to carry the same level of quality and competence that this episode had, then we can officially say that Power Rangers has at long last finally become cool again.
Curious: how does it compare to the source material?
Never watched Go-Busters, so I dunno. Though, one thing I can say is that there seemed to be little to no Sentai footage at all in the first episode (haven't watched this morning's second episode yet, but I expect it to at least have some Sentai footage for its megazord fight).
For just the Power Rangers side of things, the first episode alone showed a drastic improvement over the past eight years of the Neo-Saban seasons in terms of writing quality, acting quality, fight choreography (yeah, the action was actually allowed to look painful), and most of all, logic and sense!
For the past eight years we've had to endure seasons that were handled so poorly that were, at best, just okay with a smattering of bright spots, and at worst painfully mediocre and outright stupid. This one episode of Beast Morphers had me impressed by how much it felt like something out of the Post-Zordon Era, or even the best of the Disney Era seasons. This new Hasbro Era has me honestly really excited about watching Power Rangers again for the first time since RPM. Granted, I'm not expecting anything as good as that, or even as good as Time Force or In Space or Lost Galaxy or Dino Thunder. But I'd settle for something like Lightspeed Rescue or Jungle Fury, which were both good seasons but not great seasons.
Saw the second episode of Beast Morphers on Sunday. While not as strong as the first episode, it was pretty decent overall.
So far, the look and style of this show remind me of SPD, while the tone and feel are more akin to Ninja Storm. Then again, we're still early into the show, so we'll see where things go from here.
One thing that caught me off guard, though, was in the recap of Episode 1, in which there was a complete lack of the "Power Rangers" part of the show's title in the "Previously on Beast Morphers..." narration, which is something that has never happened in any of the past 25 seasons.
So, the current rumor in the mill is that the next season after Beast Morphers will be adapted from Ryusoulger, skipping over ToQger (again), Jyuohger, Kyuranger, and Lupinranger VS Patranger.
Considering those alternatives, I could see this choice being the wisest decision (if it turns out to be true, that is).
Dinosaur-based series have always done well AFAIK, to the point Korea skipped Lupinranger vs. Patranger, so I could see that happening. On the other hand, Kyuranger could have been made into an In Space throwback, but 88+ Constellations?
ZeroWolf wrote:Was that the one everyone was saying seemed to be tailor made to appeal to an American Market?
Not exactly that, I did hear that Bandai of America had a hand in the design of some of the more current mechs, possibly to expedite redesigns for the US market. But now that they've sold the Power Ranger franchise to Hasbro, who knows?
Should the Ryusoulger import rumor be true, consider me interested. It's worth noting that the Lightning Collection and other Action Figure lines are pretty much a hit with collectors, even improving on some of Bandai's previous work.
I've actually been brainstorming an idea of how they could adapt Ryusoulger for Power Rangers that would easily explain the dual dinosaur/knight motif.
First, set it in the Dino Charge universe as either a sequel or spinoff of that series, since that universe had its history rewritten to allow dinosaurs to coexist with humanity in the present day.
Next, set it in the (fictional) European country of Zandar, which is still a royal kingdom in the 21st century, and ruled by former Dino Charge Graphite Ranger, Prince Phillip III.
This would not only provide an in-universe reason for the Ranger team to be knights (specifically, dinosaur-themed knights), but would also make this team the first ever European ranger team instead of yet another Californian team (as nearly every ranger team since MMPR has resided in some fictional Californian city).
And, if they were a team based in Europe, then that would give something new for the actors of New Zealand and Australia to try, accent-wise, instead of yet another team of American-accented rangers.
I like that idea, which sadly means they won't pursue it. I'd be more then happy for them to drop the faux California setting. Just set it in New Zealand for once to make life easier
In related news, Samuel Benta – who played Will on Operation Overdrive – has finally given his account of what happened with the stolen banner at Power Morphicon 13 years ago. I had mentioned in the Overdrive videos that he had stolen it. This was backed up by Toku news sites reporting that he had done so. In a video, he has given his side and stated that he had not intended to steal it, but take it to the Green Room to get other Power Rangers cast members to sign it, he turned his back for a moment, and it was gone, stolen by someone else. He has explained his reasoning why he has been silent on it for so long and you can view the full video yourself HERE if you’d like to see for yourselves.
Some have asked if I intend to make an addendum or update to the Overdrive video now that he denies the claim. After much consideration, I have decided not to. The thing is, by his own admission… he still took it without permission. Power Morphicon staffers have spoken up and stated that he was not asked to do so, some even saying that the banner already had signatures on it so they don’t know what he intended to do with it, but even then once he took it and lost it, he is still culpable in losing something that was intended for charity because he took it without permission. Regardless of intention (whether malicious, like originally believed [apparently over supposedly feeling he was not compensated sufficiently for his appearance at Morphicon]) or through good intentions, he still took something he should not have and through that action losing money for charity.
The same Morphicon staffers do not believe him, in turn pointing out that on Rangerboard, a popular fan forum for many years (and full disclosure, I am on), he outright stated that he stole it at the time and had no intention of returning it. I have not had enough time in my life to dig through EVERY archived forum post related to Power Morphicon in an attempt to find that, but so far I haven’t seen anyone else locate those posts, either, so it’s entirely possible that people are misremembering or lying, in turn. 13 years is a long time and memories can change, information can be lost, etc. I should also note that waiting 13 years to finally address it is not necessarily evidence of wrongdoing. Bad advice from a public relations person, thinking the incident was not as big as believed, or just worry about being publicly tarred and feathered over the mistake and wanting to put the show behind them are all valid reasons why someone might not decide to speak up. Some have said they have attempted to get his side of it before and received no response on the subject, which could also be concern about perception even for his position.
You are free to believe what you wish, hence why I shared the video, but I do not personally believe this version of events and, by his own admission, he is still guilty of taking it without permission. I may upload a new version of the videos mentioning it in the future excising it, but mostly because as time has gone on I have felt less of a desire to bring the personal lives of the actors into the videos – either because of mistakes I have made or because it’s not actually relevant to the material at hand (for instance, my joke about Cole’s actor not being present in Megaforce was NOT a reference to him stabbing his roommate [look it up if you don’t know what I’m referring to], but rather how the actor had been in the previous season) and because ContentID has forced some of the videos to be blocked, anyway, so they already require re-editing.
Here is the video in question (linking to it instead of embedding due to one f-bomb):
Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2018 6:21 pm
