Mighty Morphin Power Rangers!

It's morphin time!

On the way to watch Thor 2 the other night, which by the way is very good, I was pondering what to write about next for Matropolis. Then my best friend mentioned Power Rangers and seeing as a group of us were all singing the 'Go, Go, Power Rangers' theme a few nights earlier it was sealed. 

Yes I'm a geek. Live with it :)

If you were a kid growing up in the 90's then the majority of you will believe that this show was the absolute bomb. Seriously, it was awesome! 5 teenagers in colourful costumes fighting against a horde of strange aliens and monsters, who doesn't enjoy that?

As a kid MMPR did so many things right. From Zordon to the Megazord and from the Putties to Rita Repulsa.

She sees you when you're sleeping...

Rita Repulsa is an evil sorceress who is released from a dumpster by two astronauts in space. Think it may have been the moon where the dumpster was found. She then decides to conquer Earth. Don't they all?

Helping her out are Goldar, Scorpina, Finster, Squatt and Babboo and the Putties! Now everyone remembers those grey costumed fools made out of clay, quite entertaining I'd say. This is the process used to create the Power Rangers enemies. Finster makes a clay model of them, puts them through a machine and hey presto! They're alive! Sent to destroy the Rangers and the Earth. Which for Rita doesn't always go to plan.

The Putty Patrol

Jason, Zack, Kimberly, Billy and Trini are the teens from Angel Grove chosen to protect the Earth by Zordan, who was the one who trapped Rita in a dumpster on the moon but in doing so Rita trapped Zordon in a time warp so he now appears as a floating head in a tube. Not as scary as it sounds!

Each teen is given their own morpher and communicator, a wrist watch that plays a tune whenever Zordon needs them. Each morpher allows them to morph into Power Rangers who all have connections with dinosaurs.

Listen to the wise floating head!

Jason (Red) : Tyrannosaurus
Kimberly (Pink) : Pterodactyl
Zack (Black): Mastodon
Billy (Blue) : Triceratops
Trini (Yellow) : Sabertooth Tiger

As well as their new powers each Ranger has a zord to control (see above) which can then unite together to create the Megazord, a giant robot that comes in handy against Rita's monsters when they grow to enormous size by means of a blast from Rita's staff. Power Rangers is based on the Japan show Super Sentai and as we know the Japanese are crazy for their robots!

I actually had the Megazord toy and Power Ranger action figures, I loved them. I spent many hours with them in my childhood and for some reason always had Trini as the best fighter in my mind although I have no reason why as my favourite colour at the time was red but is now blue. I'll be testing you on this later of course.

Speaking of Trini, sadly the actress who played her,Thuy Trang, tragically died in a car accident back in 2001 at the age of 27. Although Power Rangers was many years ago I was gutted to hear this. Thank you Thuy!

RIP

Two other great characters were Bulk and Skull. Two bullies who always got their comeuppance but they were played by great actors and were fun to watch.

Another strong point to the show was the green ranger story arc where Rita kidnaps Tommy and brainwashes him into being her own Power Ranger with his very own Dragonzord that emerged from the sea whenever a tune was played on his dagger. He kicks the Rangers butts at first but later becomes one of them and eventually the White Ranger. 

Oh and who remembers Aplha-5?? Ai-ai-ai!

In season 2 Lord Zedd would be introduced to replace Rita but later ends up marrying her after she uses a love potion on him. He was pretty bad-ass when he first showed up. The Putties become stronger too but have a simple weakness. The Rangers simply had to strike an emblem on their chest to destroy the Putties.

As the series progressed new characters replaced some of the original Rangers and costumes and Zords were all updated. The name would change too to Power Rangers Zeo, Turbo, In Space, Lost Galaxy and a lot more. Turbo was the last series I watched which I plan to write about in the future. 

A movie was also released that I went to see in the cinema.

Besides the action figures I had the Sega Mega Drive game, a music cassette and Tommy's dagger as well as other various merchandise such as pencil cases, clothes etc.

Never had my own costume though! Now that would have been awesomely awetastic! :)

To end I need to know one thing...did anyone else have a crush on Kimberly????? ;)

Amy Jo Johnson ♥