Thursday Throwback: Power Rangers

(Every Thursday WKFTB will bring you a throwback, something that reminds us of our late-80s-early-90s childhood. Today's edition: Power Rangers.).


Ho ho hooooooo. This is one of my favorite throwback editions yet. (Props to Balla on the idea.) Power Rangers were a global phenomenon that no one -- not even evil creatures grown to giant sizes -- could stop.

And I'm not talking about the later editions that we saw down the road -- in fact, the show is still around today, believe it or not. I'm talking about the original Might Morphin' Power Rangers.

Here's something to listen to as you read. Go Go Power Rangers!



The show, the toys, the movies were all huge. People would get in line around Christmas time for the release of these puppies. Not since Tickle Me Elmo, was there a rush and chaos of this magnitude for toys. And by the way, what the FACCCCKKK was the fascination with Tickle Me Elmo? Are you effn kiddin me? It's a stuffed animal that giggled when you touched it. Nothing revolutionary at all. Wasn't nearly as good as mine -- the Lick Me Elmo. (Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week.)

Anyway, pretty sure my mom almost got trampled fighting with other bitch moms for the ultimate prize: the Megazord, aka the top toy of our generation. Thanks mom.

The toys all originated from the characters on the show, which was like a Japanese ninja show that combined Saved By the Bell with Ninja Turtles and added technology. Truly strange. The five "teens" rocked in colored ninja suits and had corresponding zords they could call on for backup. The zords were all dinosaurs, which is lol worth. T-Rex, Triceratops, Pterodactyl, Sabertooth Tiger and the Mastodon. Woooo.

Let's take a quick look at these peeps:

Couple very underrated things:
1)How ill is it that the people wore colored clothes corresponding to the color ranger they were?
2) The Yellow Ranger is ASIAN and the black ranger is BLACK. See, before everyone was all PC, you could pull this crap.
3) The Pink Ranger was a secret babe. And they made her dumb as shit, like the first time they morph and everyone says something witty as they get into their zords and she says "Sweet radio!" I also remember when the talking ranger toys came out and one of her sayings was "Totally styling!!" Again, you have to cherish the non-PC world. I truly miss it.

The dude in the middle of the above pic is Tommy, the Green Ranger, and obviously the illest one. Sucha bad ass hearthrob, Tommy was a bad guy to start (which is prolly why I sweated him) before changing to a good guy and becoming the bitchy, yet powerful, White Ranger.

Tommy also rocked the Dragonzord. C'mon with these things:

The show was either dudes in redic suits fighting in mini hand-made cities to look giant size or shots of actual toys speeding to the rescue. I honestly think that's why the toys were so successful -- they looked exactly the same as the things on the show. Well, that and they were a series of toys that could connect and form a mega toy. Can't argue with that.

Looking at the videos though, budget must have been low on this thing. Someone the corniness didn't resonate with me back then.

All the individual dino zords were dece, but Oh God, don't EVER make them call upon the MegaZord:



Here's a lil compilation at all the different combos that came about, including the vaunted Mega-Dragonzord which was a combo between the two:

I really can't get over some of this stuff. The toys were out of this world. The show has unintentional comedy that rises to levels never seen. The song is still incred. In fact, it may be stuck in your head the rest of the day.

This took me down memory lane. I could go on and on about these guys. How the puddy were just worse Foot Soilders, the dubbed English on everyone, etc etc. I also had younger brothers and sisters, so Power Rangers stayed in my life a little longer than I wanted (or was it?).

--Nick