Throwback Thursday – Power Rangers
Josh Posted on:-28-06-18 Throwback Thursday,
Every child in the 90’s wanted to join the mighty Power Rangers. They were one of the biggest crazes of the early 1990’s and had everything from TV shows, films and toys.
History of the Power Rangers
The first glimpse of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was in the form of a TV show back in 1993, which was first released in America. Created by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy, the show was an adaptation of a Japanese TV show called ‘Kyotyu Sentai Zyuranger’ with stock footage of this series being used in the early Power Ranger series.
The show followed six teenagers who were given the ability to morph into fighting superheroes called the ‘Power Rangers’ and were provided with a variety of weapons to fight evil aliens that were looking to take over the world. Each Power Ranger had their own coloured super hero suit as follows:
- Jason – The Red Ranger and the leader of the group.
- Trini – The Yellow Ranger.
- Zack – The Black Ranger – the second in command.
- Kimberley – The Pink Ranger.
- Billy – The Blue Ranger.
- Thomas – The Green Ranger.
In addition to the TV Series a wide range of Mighty Morphin Power Ranger video games were released for a variety of consoles, with the first being released on Sega Mega Drive and Game Boy in 1994. Following the three TV series that aired between 1993 – 1995 came the first Mighty Morphin Power Rangers feature film which was released in 1995. The film made $66.4 million in the box office and was fourth in the highest earned film released that week.
Merchandise
Off the back of the hugely successful TV series’ and films came a whole load of Power Ranger merchandise. The most successful and well-remembered piece of Power ranger merchandise was in the form of action figures. Each individual Power Range could be bought in action figure form along with their weapon of choice. If you had them all you were the most popular kid school.
As well as the Power Rangers themselves you could also buy their alien enemies, allowing you to battle it out in the comfort of your own home or the school playground. Power Ranger merchandise was everywhere, on lunchboxes, t-shirts, pencil cases, you name it you could probably get a Power Ranger on it.
Modern Day Power Rangers
Power Rangers are still going strong today with films and video games still being released. The most recent film was released into cinemas backs in March 2017 and was nominated for a Teen Choice Award in August of the same year. As well as the films, video games are also still being produced including an iOS and Android game which was released in 2017 as well as ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Mega Battle’ which was released on PlayStation and Xbox again in 2017.
There are also a wide range of Power Rangers merchandise still available in most high street retailers which are much more advanced that the original small action figures. Power Rangers are by no means dead and buried just yet.