ET! Throwback: Reflecting on the Mythological Depth of a Childhood Classic

Power up your speakers because Nathan and Michael from the Power Trip Podcast are riding the lightning into our latest episode, where we celebrate the morphinominal world of Power Rangers. With a spark of nostalgia, we're rekindling the flames for the 'In Space' series, the very ignition of our podcast, while cracking open the misunderstood Turbo era with a dash of humor and a dollop of childhood affection. Alongside our Ranger reflections, we're peeling back the curtain on their other monster-loving projects, like Kaiju Weekly and the Monster Island Film Vault Podcast, offering insights into a realm where giant beasts and Japanese superheroes reign supreme.

Feeling scholarly? We're dissecting the Power Rangers' narrative like a frog in science class, unearthing mythological parallels that prove this isn't just a kids' show. The duo's dedication to deep-diving into the franchise's thematic richness is a testament to their passion, and they're not afraid to share their academic chops. Get ready to chuckle as we recount past fan conventions, the art of balancing life with podcasting, and the comedic trials of toy collecting. This isn't your average fan conversation; it's an exploration of why Power Rangers deserves its spot in the pantheon of scholarly discussion.

But wait, there's more! Celebrate with us as we honor the legacy of Jason David Frank and his lasting influence on Power Ranger fans, and laugh along as we roast our podcasting quirks and triumphs. Wrapping up with our signature "power blessing," we leave you charged with a sense of camaraderie and a burst of laughter. Tune in for this supercharged journey through the Power Rangers universe—it's sure to morph your day into something extraordinary.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:21

Alright, welcome. Today we have Nathan and Michael from the Power Trip Podcast. They're here to join us and let them introduce themselves.

Speaker 2 0:32

Hey guys, my name is Michael Hamilton. I'm the host of the or I'm one of the co-hosts of the Power Trip Podcast journey through the Power Rangers franchise, where we talk about Power Rangers and we focus on the Ranger teams, the Zord, all the stuff that makes up that show and makes it wonderful, while also exploring the thematic stuff found in Power Rangers. I started rewatching the franchise back in 2020 because there was literally nothing else to do during quarantine and fell back in love with it and started to notice that there was some things in that franchise that warranted a podcast, and so I started to hear with my good friend, nathan. I'm also the co-host of another show with our mutual co-host, travis Alexander, called Kaiju Weekly, where we talk about giant monster movies, giant monster TV shows just basically the giant monster and star crash and the giant monster genre in general, and we don't take ourselves too seriously while doing it because our rating system. Shut up, Nathan. Our rating system is based on five Godzookies. If anyone's familiar with the Hanna-Barbera Godzilla show, it was that it's from that. So, Nathan, go ahead and plug all the stuff you want to plug.

Speaker 4 1:51

No, I'm not trash.

Speaker 3 1:54

No, I am Nathan March and I am as he said. I am Michael's co-host on the Power Trip a journey through the Power Rangers franchise but, he's covered all that already. I am also the co-host of two other podcasts, because I'm insane One being Henshin Men, a podcast about the appreciation of Japanese superheroes and their high flying and high kicking adventures and sexy rangers. No, that has not been on the show. At least star crash has been on your show. Anyway with our co-host in common, mr Travis Alexander, and we are currently our big project. Right now, our main project is going through the original common writer, but we've been sexy rangers yes, you have. I don't care what you watch in your downtime, but don't share it with me, you know go through some deep dark corners of Toobie. You're totally about some of the things you found on there. This is true. Anyway, we've also taken we've also covered some things if there were, if we needed to take a break from common writer, because the original common writer is 98 episodes, we do it two episodes at a time. We've also done some Ultraman that we've done Hikider, so we basically we take a break and do some movies. One of my favorite ones was Super In-N-Ran. Super what You've never even seen, that one, you barely know it exists, anyway. And then my main show is the Monster Island Film Volta Podcast, taking entertainment and enlightenment through Tokusatsu, which we talked before about the power of having an academic approach. This does the same thing, except I'm looking at Kaiju and Tokusatsu film and you know, I've gone into some TV on occasion too and bringing my English, my master's degree in English, to Forbear and that one and analyzing those things and talking about the history and culture surrounding each one to put them in their proper context, because a lot of these things are for us as modern day Americans. We're separated by time and culture with it, and I'm trying to help bridge that gap because, let me tell you, once I learned some of these things the background, the backdrops I gained a greater appreciation for all of these things, and these were things that I've been a fan of since I was a wee lad. So hence Yeti. No, the best part about Yeti was we had a drunk fellow on the show for that one, all right.

Speaker 4 4:46

Anytime you got a drunk guy on the show, it's always going to be gold.

Speaker 3 4:52

Drunk guy, yes, drunk guy, yeah, totally don't know who he is.

Speaker 4 4:57

Yeah.

Speaker 3 4:58

Anyway, and I'm also this is not my show personally, but I'm also a cast member on Power Rangers, the audio drama produced by Carl Dutton's Scyther podcast. I appeared in one episode and a couple of bit parts, and then I joined the main cast in the next episode as Rito, rito's brother.

Speaker 4 5:22

Nice Rito. How's it going? Yeah, I hate Rito. He destroyed the Thunder Megazord.

Speaker 3 5:29

Yeah Well, it's the best thing I ever did.

Speaker 4 5:33

That's probably the only successful thing he's done on that show actually.

Speaker 3 5:36

Unfortunately, yeah, not only on that show I do. I'm a little bit more successful, that's enough.

Speaker 2 5:45

Nathan, that's enough. We don't have time. We got to make this into at least an hour's podcast.

Speaker 3 5:50

Okay, come on, that's not going to be hard for me.

Speaker 2 5:53

I'm joking, I'm joking.

Speaker 3 5:57

Well, yeah, so that covers basically everything you know in terms of podcasts. I do some other things outside of that, but you know those are the biggest podcasts. You're an accomplished writer. Yeah yeah, I'm a published author of both fiction and nonfiction. Oh wow, got some novels to my name and some nonfiction books as well.

Speaker 4 6:16

I got some amazing grocery lists to my name. I mean real pictures, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 6:23

I have seen some grocery lists that are masterpieces. Let me tell you Pulitzer. Pulitzer Prize week.

Speaker 2 6:29

Hmm.

Speaker 4 6:30

Yes.

Speaker 2 6:30

Speaking of writing, nathan here also writes for a project that our friend Travis and I started about a back in 2020 called Kaiju Ramen, which was a mag, which is a magazine dedicated to the giant monster genre. In a similar vein If any of your listeners are familiar with Famous Monsters of Filmland or G fan magazine, it's in that vein, but it is really just a magazine dedicated to fans and it's put together by a great group of fans. We don't we have a good core of editors and writers that we're pulling from, but it's more so just a passion project, and if you want to learn more about that, just go to KaijuRamenMediacom and you're going to find everything else that we're involved in there, too, as well.

Speaker 3 7:14

And Henshin men in the power trip are and Kaiju Weekly are all part of the Kaiju Ramen podcast network. I love the announcer voice. I'm just waiting to hear.

Speaker 4 7:26

And now coming up to bed for the Yankees, which announcer voice.

Speaker 3 7:31

There's been a couple of them, yeah.

Analyzing Power Rangers

Speaker 1 7:35

Well, let's get to a little bit more of our discussion here. Personally, I found y'all through the podcast on Spotify stuff. I was searching and trying to find something because I'm a big fan of Power Rangers I've been. I was trying to find some kind of podcast where it actually talked about the show and not just some person commentating like oh, that was a cool backflip, oh, that you know something that actually seemed like they knew what they were talking about and somebody that, somebody that actually you know we do a little more insight besides just oh, that's a, that's a cool Zord.

Speaker 4 8:06

Man, would you look at that right there?

Speaker 2 8:09

I don't know yet. I guess we'll find out soon, if we can, if he came to the right show or not.

Speaker 1 8:14

You'd be surprised on how like just boring some of those podcasts would be. Like I was looking for like the information behind the scenes and all that kind of stuff and I found y'all and I've listened to every episode so far including our epic episode on time force. Yes, I just listened to that this week.

Speaker 3 8:32

That thing's Lord of the Rings long.

Speaker 1 8:34

Yeah.

Speaker 3 8:34

It was three and a half hours.

Speaker 4 8:36

I saw that.

Speaker 3 8:37

Yeah, it's the longest podcast I have ever done.

Speaker 2 8:40

Well, the recording time on that, though, was like I think it was like four hours four, four hours 15 minutes.

Speaker 3 8:47

We thought our in space episode was going to be long enough that I think that recording was what three and a half, and you, by some act of Godzilla, you managed to chop it down to two and a half. I was impressed.

Speaker 2 8:59

Well it's. You know our format. You know our format where we're not like you said, we're not just, you know, and a lot of Ranger podcasts will go like episode by episode and they'll kind of analyze it that way, which is fine, it works for. It works for a lot of shows. But that's not something that Nathan and I wanted to do. We wanted to actually watch these contextually as a whole and not just talk about how cool the Zords are or how awesome the Ranger suits are. You know all that, like the stuff that people already kind of know. We wanted to examine the franchise from a more academic thematic and examine the thematics of this franchise, because I think that and as we were kind of digging around, there's really no scholarship on Power Rangers and probably for good reason. No one has. You know, people write off Power Rangers as just this campy kid show. But you know, like I said early on in the introduction, you know, during 2020, I was going back through watching this as and just expecting just to be entertained and, you know, kind of scratch my nostalgia itch a little bit. But as I'm continuing to watch through these different seasons, I think it was around. I think it was. It may have been around like Lightspeed Rescue, it started to click like oh wow, there's like some, there's like some really deep stuff in the, in this franchise, that kind of gets overlooked in favor of like the campiness and the and the child and the and the childishness of of what the show can be. And that's what I really liked.

Speaker 1 10:30

I really liked comparing things like Clash of the Titans and Oedipus and all that stuff too. You know what's happening in the show. There's stuff that revolves around Oedipus.

Speaker 3 10:40

That's the, that's the English major in me coming out and talking about Oedipus, yeah yeah, they're talking about how things compare. I know exactly what episode of what character and what season you're in. That's about.

Speaker 4 10:51

I was like what episode was that?

Speaker 3 10:54

That was Lightspeed Rescue and. Prince Olympia. Yes, olympia, because he's a little too much of a mama's boy.

Speaker 1 11:07

A little too much. A little Borders on it. I like how you don't compare the Sentai with the regular.

Speaker 3 11:14

Yeah, but we're doing this because the thing is is that there's been a lot of other franchises and pop culture media that has it gains the attention of scholarship in the last few decades it took. You know, for example, comic books and superheroes used to be looked at as childish, disposable entertainment and then within the last 40, 50, especially the last 20, I would say it's taken a heck of a lot more seriously, which is why it astonishes me that something like Power Rangers, which is it's a superhero show I don't understand. And then you know you have other Japanese media like Godzilla and Kaiju and all that. Even American monster movies like King Kong are getting a lot of scholarship about them, and yet, you know, something like Super Sentai, like Power Rangers, that has elements of both, somehow gets overlooked. And it just seems so incredibly strange to me because I'm a connoisseur of comic books. I love, I've loved superheroes since really, you know, even before I discovered Kaiju, and the idea that none of that spilled over just astonished me. And we, michael and I, have choked on numerous occasions that the power trip is basically us putting our private conversations to record. We will talk on the phone for sometimes hours about all of these things and we're like how has no one else not seen this?

Speaker 2 12:47

It came about because of something you did actually on your other show, mimv, because you were and I'll let you tell this story, but I'm and I'll just kind of tell it from my perspective really quick. You can go into more detail, nathan, but you came to me looking for a character that you could include in your audio segment and I recommended one to you.

Speaker 3 13:08

And something I should explain the format for my flagship show, the Monster on the Phoneball. That's a little unusual. It started initially with me, just you know, because I had done a Kaiju podcast before and I wanted to do my own this time, but I wanted to do something a little bit different and I spent a lot of time, you know, watching a lot of, like the channel, awesome personalities and what they like to do is they built characters. You know these kind of caricatures of themselves, and one in particular that I liked was Linkara, and he would do whole storylines. Well, I decided to try something in the vein of I don't know if anyone here has ever heard of a podcast called Welcome to Night Vale.

Speaker 4 13:51

They haven't heard of that.

Speaker 3 13:52

That's actually very popular and the the shtick of that one was that it was actually supposed to be a like a morning radio show in a town where a lot of weird things happen, but everyone but most of the time nobody in the town is fazed by it, it's just normal. So that's kind of the joke with it.

Speaker 4 14:14

Well.

Speaker 3 14:14

I wanted to do something like that and, you know, also to tap into the experience I had as a college student where I got to internet or radio station. So I came up with the whole thing where it was supposed to be a radio show. The podcast was a radio show on Monster Island, which is where all the which is the location from Godzilla films, where all the monsters hang out, and you know, now there was a resort and a radio station, all this sort of stuff and it was meant to just be a setup to do reference jokes and all that. And then it has more people came on and they started making up funny stories about how they got to the island and things like that. It quickly turned into a, you know, an audio drama sort. Now it's. The show is still primarily film discussion and appreciation, but there will there will be the segment in the show that are story based and that's where Michael comes in. So I just want to make sure I set that up for everybody.

Speaker 4 15:15

Michael.

Speaker 3 15:15

Are you?

Speaker 2 15:16

Oh, I was. I was. I'm sorry, I was going to you just cut that out. I was going to let you finish it because I thought you were going to.

Speaker 3 15:22

I was finished. Well, I said wait to you.

Speaker 2 15:26

Well, I know he did, but typically, typically, nathan will finish that story with. He came to like I was in the middle of my Power Rangers watch I had gotten up to in space and he say he came to me and said I'm looking for a character that can be kind of the PR director for this island where I, this fictitious island when I live and work on at this radio station and I kind of thought about it. I was like, well, what about Astronomah?

Speaker 3 15:50

Yeah, and so what I said was I wanted it to be someone because I had been turning the mysterious board of directors, the bosses of the island, into villain on the show.

Speaker 2 16:02

They were constantly antagonizing.

Speaker 3 16:05

I call him MIFV Nate. They are constantly antagonizing him. So I wanted to add a character who was the PR director. But I wanted to be somebody who could be kind of the Villainist but not really, you know, kind of have a foot in both camps.

Speaker 2 16:18

So so I just threw out Astronomah. Because Astronomah? Because if you go back and watch in space, astronomah is evil, but not necessarily by choice. You know that the evil is something that was that she grew up with. But she always questioned her identity as a villain. And I said I said, well, what about? What about Astronomah? And we kind of molded over and Nathan went and watched in space to kind of get an idea of who this character was, because he wasn't really super, he wasn't familiar with her.

Speaker 3 16:53

I'm familiar enough. I had some recollection from the you know bits that I caught of in space growing up. But I needed I definitely needed a refresher.

Speaker 1 17:04

And now you're really familiar.

Power Trip

Speaker 3 17:07

I am no a melody, a raging melody. Perkins Astronomah fanboy.

Speaker 2 17:13

He is who I lovingly call the Astronomah Sim, but let's just say, sometimes I wish I was a Clifter.

Speaker 4 17:26

I'm totally kidding on that.

Speaker 2 17:28

But a Clifter was supposed to be her father figure. Nathan, I know, it's getting weird, I wish.

Speaker 3 17:36

I was Zane. Does that make it less weird? Yeah, all right, that works. That works a little bit better.

Speaker 2 17:42

But you know, to save your listeners like the long drawn out story because there was some parts in between Did she know about this what.

Speaker 3 17:52

Did she know about this?

Speaker 2 17:54

I didn't catch that part. What does she know about? This is what he asked.

Speaker 3 18:00

Well, I've tried. I actually did try messaging her to get her to come on the power trip and she hasn't replied yet.

Speaker 1 18:05

Well, I'm supposed to work at the Ranger stop and pop thing is like a security person here in June I'll let her know.

Speaker 4 18:14

Oh, thank you, you call me guys.

Speaker 3 18:18

Michael, I have toyed with trying to get over there to Ranger stop, but we don't know if we could make it happen.

Speaker 2 18:23

Yeah, I'm, I think I'm going to be. I'm going to be actually be going on vacation Either that month or the next month, so I'm probably not going to be able to. I'm not, I'm not going to be able to afford two vacations that close together.

Speaker 3 18:35

But anyway, tell her to tell her to check her Twitter messages. Tell us yes or no, that'd be great.

Speaker 2 18:42

Anyway, fast forward. Nathan fell in love with in space, and that caused him to.

Speaker 3 18:47

I thought he was going to say astronomer, but no, I'm going to be nice.

Speaker 2 18:50

That's a lie. It's in space is just a euphemism.

Speaker 3 18:57

You gotta go at the blue hair.

Speaker 2 19:01

I was partial to purple myself, but so so. So Nathan goes back, he watches the show and we have these long drawn out conversations about thematics within, within, in space. Starting starting out, he goes back to revisit mighty Morphin and you, Ranger, and then we, then our purge happen, and then the power purge happen.

Speaker 3 19:22

Oh my gosh, I binged everything from alien Rangers all the way through turbo in a month.

Speaker 2 19:31

So that's all you want? Yeah, pretty much so. Like Nathan said, we just kind of decided to put our private conversations to record and hopefully people have enjoyed it.

Speaker 3 19:43

This was also a companion meant to be a companion piece to an article series that you're writing for Guy G Rums.

Speaker 2 19:49

Yeah, issue five was the first article in that series. The second article will come out in the next couple of months with issue with issue six. The next article will focus squarely on green with evil because that that whole fun, that it's amazing to think that that five part episode in that campy kid show has spawned so much more within the brain within this range.

Speaker 3 20:12

Yeah, in fact you. Michael is also a patron for the monster island film vault and he's one of the tiers that I offer is people can sponsor episodes and if they want, they can come on and talk about whatever it is that they chose. And he chose green with evil, which as a basically a little kind of like spin off tie into the power trip. So you want to hear us really do a deep dive focus episode on just green with evil. Check out the I think it's episode, I want to say 61 61 61. I think I'm pretty sure it's 61. It's 61 of the film ball and we also did a focus episode with Travis as a crossover, with tension then on a friend in need. That was the introduction of mass writer and if you listen to tension then or Kaija weekly for that matter, you know that Travis is a raging common writer fanboy because he's a tofu hipster and that's what he's in.

Speaker 4 21:24

I was here, he'd be incredibly lost.

Speaker 1 21:29

I've looked at some of the common writer. They have some of it on to be.

Speaker 3 21:32

She can watch, so Yep, there's a lot of it on to be and at the moment, I think most of what you can watch legally in the state is your shell factory can only stream it.

Speaker 2 21:44

There's not. There's not very many, there are very many with physical media.

Speaker 3 21:49

There's one or two that you can watch through the Tokyo Channel on Amazon. That are subtitles anyway, but that's kind of. It's a little wonky. Last I checked, checked it.

Speaker 2 22:01

Yes, it's not, as it's not as prevalent at least here in the West, as, say, power Rangers, slash Sen Tai, or even even old man, the you know which we, which is essentially Japan, superman, and the Ultraman. And he hit. You know, that franchise has gotten a really big uptick in the last, I think it was. It's been like two years, right, nathan, about a good thing. Two or three years about two or three years that Mill Creek has been putting out all these physical media releases of the Ultraman franchise and we've seen a massive uptick for that particular one.

Speaker 3 22:35

I mean I should. Ultraman just came out in Japan this week.

Speaker 2 22:39

Yeah.

Speaker 3 22:39

I've gotten some sort of inside information that says it's going to come to the state sooner than we might have thought.

Speaker 2 22:49

I would love to go to. I'd love to meet up with some some people and go to an IMAX and then watch it together.

Speaker 3 22:55

But I don't know if it'll get an IMAX.

Speaker 2 22:57

Maybe we'll see, but we'll meet up, but that's neither here nor there. But yeah, it's like Nathan said, we were just kind of going on this journey journey together because we think that Even kids media like Power Rangers deserves some level of academic evaluation, because you can pull things from it that are, you know, we're thinking about especially.

Speaker 3 23:19

I mean I took I took a class as a graduate student that was a lit class on children's literature. It's taken seriously as part of scholarship. It's just that I guess, because these are not going for a classic books or fairy tales or whatever. There is television, it's you know, new stuff, it's pop culture. It's not taken a seriously. I have a book of you know of academic essays that actually made and I use one of this particular essay from this book as a source and one of my papers that actually advocates for pop culture, scholarship and articulated very good points about why it's important. So we saw a need and we decided to put Michael's nostalgia and fan and fanboyishness and my academic credentials together to make the power trip.

Speaker 2 24:18

Yeah, and you know it makes for some really good conversations and it is different than all the other Ranger podcasts that are out there because, like I said, you know a lot of the Ranger podcasts and they're all, and a lot of them are great, they're all going on a season as a whole, like searching for its thematics and the Latin. The last thing I was going to say, the last thing I was going to say, or the last thing I was going to say, I lost. So, nathan, continue to talk while I think about what I'm going to say next. I'm sure you, I'm sure that's not a problem for you, buddy.

Speaker 3 24:54

I'm not entirely sure what to bring up next, unless there's some questions you guys have more specifically about the power trip, that we can answer for you.

Speaker 1 25:04

Well, I was going to ask like, are you all planning to go through every season all the way up to the current one?

Power Rangers Fandom Discussion

Speaker 3 25:10

Yes, we are going all the way through. We have it all scheduled that we're going to go all the way through. At least I know Fury, we know that the 30th anniversary season is next year. And there's also David, that little David Yoast mini series that he's trying to get made and it seems like that was making some progress. But there's also the 30th anniversary season, so there's a lot. And then you know we you got the quote, unquote, prc, you. So we're just like we don't know what's going to happen exactly after Dino Fury, but there's more Power Ranger media coming for sure. So we're still kind of trying to figure that out. We definitely want to do the 30th anniversary season because the story that we're hearing now is that it's going to be the end of Power Rangers as we know it. Yeah there after the 30th anniversary season. There sounds like Hasbro is ending Power Rangers Association with Super Sentai and they're going to start making their all their own stuff.

Speaker 1 26:15

That's what I heard. There's going to be a complete reboot.

Speaker 3 26:18

They're not going to continue the continuity that they've been following.

Speaker 4 26:21

They're not going to bring Tommy Oliver back every couple of seasons and just be like look at the ultimate.

Speaker 3 26:28

Ranger.

Speaker 2 26:29

Yeah, yeah, I mean it'll be. It'll be interesting to see how. What's the next step for Hasbro, because you know, I'm looking forward to getting to those later seasons, like these morpher's, dino Fury, because in my opinion, I think that Hasbro has stewarded the franchise well up to this point. They came in right after they took over the franchise, right after I think it was Samurai.

Speaker 3 26:56

No.

Speaker 2 26:56

Ninja Steel, ninja Steel, sorry, ninja Steel. They took over the franchise right after Ninja Steel and they've done a pretty good job of stewarding the franchise. It still feels a little in part a little uneven, like they're still trying to find their footing with it, but you know they've done much better with it than they Disney did with that era of.

Speaker 3 27:14

Power.

Speaker 2 27:15

Rangers.

Speaker 3 27:16

Well, there's some. We're in the middle. We act well in terms of upcoming episodes in our recording schedule. We just started the Disney as the Disney era. But looking at it, having not watched all of it in its entirety yet, we do feel like the Disney era is fairly uneven. It has several really nice high points, but then it's got some. It's got a lot of mediocre from what we can tell in it, and then you know. And then it has its own turbo in operation, overdrive there, as we can tell. So but then you get to it. But honestly we're kind of dreading the Osabon because we're like, oh we, we watch legendary battle and it hurt.

Speaker 2 28:07

But I'm kind of viewing it as a new adventure because my nostalgia for Power Rangers ends at around lost galaxy I. That's where I sort of fell off around. That's why I sort of fell off with the franchise is around lost galaxy. I remember some of light speed rescue. I vaguely remember Time Force, but as far as like the Disney era stuff, I don't have any like working knowledge going forward. I don't have any working knowledge going forward for that, but I'm doing it weird as this.

Speaker 3 28:36

Well, chronologically snobby as this might sound, that is a term I got from CS Lewis. To be honest, even with Turbo, I still feel like and Michael agrees with me, and maybe our minds will change by the you know the end of this first run of the Power Trip, but we still feel like the original Saban era was the most consistently good.

Speaker 2 29:00

Well, it's because it grew up with it's because it grew up with its audience, like if you look at how, if you look at where the show started with Mighty Morphin and the theme of you know, coming of age, and then change with season two all the way up to the very mature themes that they're messing around with in Time Force, like that franchise, has that franchise did grow up with its audience and I think it re it just kind of started over and started from the ground up with the Wild Force all the way through the Disney era because they were solely focused on just getting new, new viewership with the young teens or kids' demographics. They're they weren't. You know. I feel like the benefit you have with the early Saban stuff, those first nine seasons, is they were really paying attention to those themes because they know, or they knew, that the audience was also growing up and maturing while watching the show.

Speaker 1 30:00

And then, like you were saying, that's kind of where I fell off was Lost Galaxy, when I, as I was growing up, I kind of got out of Power Rangers around that time and now I've come back and tried to watch because, like I hadn't seen, I saw Super Megaforce, just because it had the nostalgia of all the old costumes and stuff and then that kind of brought me back in just wanting to watch all the other seasons that I missed, so Right, yeah, you know that's.

Speaker 3 30:22

It's just confusing because they were kind of lazy with the Sentai footage and technically included footage that had quote unquote, rangers that technically didn't exist in Power Ranger canon. Yeah, super Sentai, oh, like hey guys.

Speaker 2 30:37

Well Ranger. Well, megaforce and Super Megaforce are interesting seasons because or is an interesting kind of duology in a whole, because it's pulling from two separate Sentai. It's pulling from I think it's Gokiger, I think it's Gokiger or Gokiger, which is the pirate themes, and then you have with Super Megaforce. It was, I don't the name of it escapes me, but it was actually an angel theme, like the theme for that, since I was angels, and kind of that mysticism surrounding that mythology and it was just. It's a really interesting combination. Now, I fully recognize that there are a lot of younger fans, especially that have been listening to our show that may have come in at a Megaforce or Michael it's, it's go Sager and go Kiger Go. Sager and go Kiger. Okay, thank you. Thank you for the fact. I can always count on Nathan for the fact check, because I have been going through Sentai as well, but I've not made it to modern era Sentai, I'm still stuck on. I think I just finished go go five, which was like the rescue.

Speaker 3 31:47

Speaking of fact check, and one of my favorite moments in the podcast so far is when I fact check. We're not going to bring that up now, let's, let's.

Speaker 2 31:54

we'll save that for later. But what I was going to say was, like we've noticed that a lot of the listeners that are that are listening to our show did not necessarily start when we started. They're not the like the old school fans that maybe started with Mighty Morphin, maybe they came in somewhere around Lost Galaxy or Wild Force or that Disney era we have. We're going to have a. We're going to have a good friend of ours, kim Kaiju, kim on for Dino Thunder and I believe, if I'm not mistaken, that's where she started was with Dino.

Speaker 3 32:25

Thunder, I don't remember. I just know that that's her favorite, because we were asking our podcast and YouTuber friends hey, we will. We want to have guests On the show after the Saban era. You know which of these do you like the most? And Kim told us that she loves Dino Thunder. Yeah, I hate all of these.

Speaker 2 32:48

I'm looking forward to that one, because Dino Thunder, I've seen it. I've watched it once before. I'm going to go back and rewatch it for the episode and there's it. It's very much in the same vein as that original series, but it's as Nathan and I were talking earlier today, it's refined.

Speaker 3 33:05

Yeah, it's. Dino Thunder is one of those Disney era highlights that I mentioned.

Speaker 4 33:11

I think I'm a ranger snob, you like all the roles I'm wondering. Now explain is like all these like seasons of range. I remember seeing like on TV like my niece was like watching one and it was like the pirates or whatever. And he's got like this blunderbust that was made by nerf and I'm like what is this? This isn't Power Rangers. I was like this is dumb. I was like that guy is so very stressed up like a pirate. I'm like it's 2020. Why is he dressed up like a pirate, like what's?

Speaker 1 33:38

their Megazord.

Speaker 4 33:39

A boat?

Speaker 3 33:40

Yes, Dude Sentai is not.

Speaker 2 33:46

Sentai is very weird.

Speaker 3 33:48

Yeah, I. Just this week I rewatched the Dino Thunder episode where they just, they just gave, they just dubbed over an episode of the Sentai that they got the show from, and it shows you just how nuts Super Sentai.

Speaker 4 34:04

I always knew Super Sentai was like off the walls, but like starting out with Mighty Morphin and then to ZO, and then we had Turbo, which was and then you know, in space Well, the bit you heard our episode on this.

Speaker 3 34:15

The big problem with Turbo is that it's based on a parody season of Sentai.

Speaker 4 34:19

It was.

Speaker 3 34:20

Sentai. It was Super Sentai making fun of itself, which is why the monsters are outrageous. And then there are these weird gags that Baking themselves into pizza.

Speaker 4 34:29

Yeah, I'll show you Rangers 20 minutes in the oven.

Speaker 1 34:34

Monster, papa John.

Speaker 4 34:35

Yeah, monster, papa John.

Speaker 3 34:36

We're going to toss your salad.

Speaker 4 34:38

I'm so gone, you ready for this cheesy crust.

Speaker 3 34:42

Yeah, so that's why there's all these absurd things in there. But the problem with Turbo was still trying to at least be semi serious, and it just doesn't mesh when you've got things like Tommy looking at the driver's manual for his ZO. It doesn't make sense.

Speaker 4 35:00

It's like you're not supposed to look at the manual.

Speaker 3 35:01

You're the red Ranger, you just know, yeah, and that's why that was why that was that's the, that in Diva talks. You know, those are the, those are the big Diva talks I have with Turbo and it's like just embrace one tone or the other. Okay, we embrace the parody or you'll keep to your semi serious. Is this a semi serious? Now? You had before this and that's why it drove me nuts watching Turbo.

Power Rangers Nostalgia and Critiques

Speaker 4 35:27

I hate it because that's when Tommy left and, more importantly, when Kat left.

Speaker 3 35:31

Yeah, yeah, but the nice thing is that if it wasn't for Turbo, we would have gotten in space. True, yes. And it's like we have to come out and swing in here, and I don't have the grudge.

Speaker 4 35:46

I don't hold the grudge against Turbo, as other fans do Not even.

Speaker 2 35:49

I think, Nathan holds a bigger grudge against Turbo than even I do, and it's not because of, and it's not because of Diva talks either. I actually did watch Turbo.

Speaker 3 35:59

So I do, I do have a nostalgic connection to Turbo that I have.

Speaker 2 36:05

I have a connection to Turbo. I do have a nostalgic connection to Turbo that I just it is, it's silly and it's inconsistent and it's terrible, but I'm willing just to kind of go with it because as much as people want to kind of you know it's in complain about how it almost killed the franchise. It didn't, so get over it.

Speaker 3 36:26

Yeah, but in space, save it, it's safe, it would have killed it.

Speaker 2 36:32

It's true, in space, I will acknowledge, I will fully acknowledge. In space, I just don't. I just think the, I think the Turbo hate and the Turbo and the Turbo itching gets a little bit old after a while.

Speaker 3 36:45

Yeah, but we've still got a couple more ahead of us. I don't you're not going to have nostalgia to save it for you.

Speaker 2 36:52

No, I'm not.

Speaker 3 36:53

I have to have content. Well, I don't want to infringe on that I mean I've already said, I've already said I watched legendary battle and I said the nostalgia Rangers can't save it for me. This is my new name now for the or anytime they bring back older Rangers.

Speaker 4 37:07

they really push the nostalgia stuff. They've been really pushing it ever since forever red.

Speaker 2 37:13

Oh hard and forever.

Speaker 4 37:14

red was like to me that's the second coolest scene in Power Rangers.

Speaker 3 37:21

I think forever red is fun, but it forever read when I did the research and found out the behind the scenes stuff. Every time I watch it now all I keep thinking is cool, or you could have been amazing.

Speaker 4 37:38

I remember seeing it like on YouTube because I hadn't seen it when it was on TV. I was already kind of done with Power Rangers at that point and I was like why are they fucking the beetle? Bores.

Speaker 3 37:47

Yeah, that's so confusing, but I'm just like you. You barely eke out at a seven, but you could have been a 12. Cause I looked into what they were originally hoping to do with that and I'm just like, oh good Lord.

Speaker 2 38:00

It was originally supposed to be a three part. It's going to be three parts.

Speaker 3 38:03

They were going to have Rocky in it. Having the Quantum Ranger was a last minute change, but they cause they were they. They were planning on having Rocky and he I think he was going to wear the red ninja.

Speaker 2 38:17

Yeah, he was going to bring in the ninjetti power. Yeah.

Speaker 3 38:21

Yeah, so there, because when you watch forever right now, it's just like it does not slow down. And and the Danny Slavin from from life speed rescue is barely in it. And Oracle, the the red, the red alien Ranger, he's even more barely in it, he's, he's suited up the entire time. Yeah, I mean, he barely even has any line. So I'm just like my gosh, it should have been three parts. And they also should have given it more money so that they couldn't have had the ugliest Serpent Tara ever.

Speaker 1 38:56

The head shrunk by a substantial amount.

Speaker 3 39:00

Yeah, because that CGI Serpent Tara is awful. But when you look at the practical Serpent Tara from Mighty Morphin, season two, that thing is full of love, crafty and terror.

Speaker 2 39:14

Oh, yeah, that.

Speaker 3 39:15

thing scares me.

Speaker 2 39:16

But if you, if you watch Dairanger, the whole concept behind Serpent Tara is that it's this sentient God that comes and basically, when there's a conflict on a certain planet, it comes and resolves the conflict by essentially saying if you don't stop, I will destroy you. So Serpent Tara was not a mech in the Sentai, it was a just a sentient robot dragon God.

Speaker 4 39:41

Sword from space.

Speaker 1 39:42

Not powered by AAA batteries. Not powered by.

Speaker 4 39:45

He was definitely powered by D batteries. He was upgraded. Oh yeah, definitely upgraded.

Speaker 3 39:53

I mean, oh man, I remember when I was, when I was doing a Mighty Morphin rewatch just on my own, not for the power trip, and I was I would get ahold of Michael and was like okay, I know some key episodes are coming up and. I want to watch them with you on a Netflix party. There was one from Mighty Morphin, season three, that I think was season season three. When was the wedding? Was that season three? Was that season? No, season three.

Speaker 2 40:19

Oh, you're talking about the two parter that almost killed you.

Speaker 3 40:22

Yeah, that almost killed me.

Speaker 2 40:24

Yeah, we were watching.

Speaker 3 40:26

We were watching and we get to the shot of Serpent Tara pulling the most obviously animated, just married sign. I had to pause Netflix so I could fall on the floor and laugh and I just get messages from Michael on the Netflix party chat. He's like are you okay? Did you die? I go? Yeah, where'd you go?

Speaker 2 40:55

I'm like well, if you, if you've watched Die Ranger, and that that whole shot is set up just to give you a sense of scale for Serpent, tara and the moon. It's shot against the moon and it's just there to show how massive this, this beast, is. And you have the just married sign being pulled behind it. Just undermined the the arrow blatantly animated it.

Speaker 3 41:18

Right it, just it. It was funny to me on multiple levels. First off, the big giant, scary Mac, pulling a just married sign. Second of all, it does not match the footage at all. It looks so obviously added and it's so nuts. And Michael actually took a screenshot of that and then tweeted it out saying I killed Nathan with this.

Speaker 2 41:44

The shot that killed Marchand yeah.

Speaker 4 41:48

I was like that, like you know which, like your favorite scene in all of the Power Rangers, and for me it's when I mean it's a sad scene to me, but when they transfer the powers over and they become the Z-Rangers and they first morph and like they take off their helmets and you hear the Z-O theme for the first time and like they turn over their shoulders and you see the back of the power chamber with the mannequins of the original Mighty Morphin suits.

Speaker 3 42:10

I'm like you know two spumps, tears, happiness.

Speaker 4 42:12

It kills me every time.

Speaker 3 42:14

Yeah, I'm going to be honest with you. The Ron Wasserman's original go-go Power Rangers theme will always be the Power Ranger theme. It is iconic for a reason. You can't take that away from it. But Godzilla, dang it, it is that Z-O theme. Just be it.

Speaker 2 42:35

It's very good. That was like you know you.

Speaker 4 42:38

You game out of the gate with a Tent. We're going to crank this up to 11 for this one.

Speaker 3 42:42

Yeah, for sure, for sure. And I mean Wasserman just made some great things for Power Rangers in general. I mean, I'm not a I have made no secret that I'm not a fan of Turbo, but it seems long as one of the one of its few saving graces. But I will say, if you're talking to me about favorite scene of Power Rangers so far, there's a couple that I would probably pick. But I could have be honest with you, that final battle between Andros and Astronomah. There's so much writing in that, both in universe and then textually, and then it was. There's a lot of emotion in it because it's a conflict between a brother and a sister and a sister who's being manipulated and, as you know, basically forced to be evil at that point when she was making the turn and Andros does not want to hurt her, he doesn't want to kill her, and you know. Then you have him also trying to decide do I kill Zordon or not, because it's what Zordon told me to do, but I don't want to. I mean, there's so much tension and everything in there and it's very intense.

Speaker 4 43:49

It's like the end of return of the Jedi. I would look at that and say like what it's like the end of return of the Jedi. Yeah, it's like the music, pumping it all out. It's just like take it. Take it right in the heart.

Speaker 3 44:01

Yeah, it really is. Yeah, it really is. And admittedly it gets undermined a little bit. The next scene, because I'm not gonna do sex Machina magic here, but okay.

Speaker 4 44:16

I was like oh, she's fine, we're good.

Speaker 1 44:18

Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever I have to say, being the fan of the Phantom Ranger, there's two parts that I've always liked. There's one where, like he's, it's in turbo, where he's like trying to get his message out and let him know. He's like staggering through the tunnels trying to get back to his ship.

Speaker 3 44:35

Yeah.

Speaker 1 44:36

And then there's the one where he's in space and he's like fighting off all of the armies and stuff just to get this message he's fighting all the Quantrons and Piranha Trons and just do a backflip and kicks, and just just to get this message away to the in space room and finally he gets the message.

Speaker 4 44:49

He's got like one of them in a headlock and he's just punching him in the face and he's like Rangers. I have a message. He's just piles of like piles of dead. I can multitask. I can punch you in the face and tell them what's going on.

Speaker 1 45:03

Well, he's essentially got like this, like futuristic flare gun, because he just shoots this message off this pistol that goes off into space.

Speaker 4 45:11

That's what we just said.

Speaker 1 45:13

But he had to get Zordon's location out, so yeah, I'm always on the chance.

Speaker 2 45:19

One of my favorite. One of my favorite scenes actually really doesn't have a whole lot to do with the Rangers themselves. It was. It was from Countdown to Destruction. It was the Balkan Skull. We are the Power Rangers.

Speaker 3 45:29

Oh, that was great too, when the whole city stands up.

Speaker 2 45:34

Yeah, when, yeah, when Balkan Skull stands up and say we're the.

Speaker 3 45:37

Power Rangers yeah, they had their. I am Spartacus moment.

Speaker 2 45:40

Essentially yeah, because I will argue that Balkan Skull had some of the most meaningful story arcs throughout that original run of the ship.

Speaker 3 45:48

Because when you, when you're first greeted with Balkan Skull.

Speaker 2 45:52

You know, there's just these. There's two bumbling idiots there. The series their cookie cutter bullies, high school bullies.

Speaker 3 45:58

But as they play by some very good actors, I have.

Speaker 2 46:01

Yeah, they're very good.

Speaker 3 46:03

I mean like because it would have, it would be easy to make characters like that very cringy. But even when I went back and I watched you know those early Mighty Morphin episodes, I was just like you know what this isn't cringy no, they'd play it very well, like I would have thought it would be. Now I've watched some other stuff that even I, that even you know that I was nostalgic for and I'm like, oh, this is bad. But, you know, looking at you, superhuman, samurai, cyber squad.

Speaker 1 46:30

Oh, that's the one with the. The guy played a jack Tim.

Speaker 3 46:35

Curry, tim Curry, yeah, yeah, that's.

Speaker 1 46:37

World. No, it's something, lawrence. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, I can't remember his name, but yeah, not Joey Lawrence, but his little boy.

Speaker 3 46:44

Yeah, basically yeah. So, but yeah, but Balkan Skull, surprisingly it still works. It's very kind of like Abed and Costello.

Speaker 4 46:53

They are.

Speaker 3 46:54

Abed and Laurel and Hardy. It works.

Speaker 4 46:57

And I would say forever good. The Mighty Morphin theme is their theme. Music is just on par, Because you immediately know you cannot have seen Power Rangers in 20 years. You hear that and it's just like Balkan. Skull, you immediately know.

Speaker 3 47:16

But no, Michael, you were talking about their story arc.

Speaker 2 47:19

Yeah, their story arc. I was just going to and I'll make it brief, but you know that moment where they stand up and say we're the Power Rangers, because they spend the entire, they spend a good part of, like season one into season two, trying to convince themselves and others around them that they are just as good as the Power Rangers Like we can be Power Rangers too, you know and then eventually they do something meaningful in Countdown to Destruction, where they do stand up, for they do stand up and say you know what we're not going to take? This they do embody. I think we talked about this during our in space episode, nathan, where I said that, you know, in that moment Balkan Skull did embody the spirit of the Power Rangers. They may not have a Zord, they may not have the suit, but at least in that moment they embodied the spirit of a Power Ranger. So, in my own way, I think that the writers, you know, gave them their. We are actually Power Rangers in this moment.

Speaker 3 48:15

Yeah, yeah, it's something that I do think a lot of people in general, even some of the creators who work on superhero media. What I think they forget is it's not the powers, it's not the gadgets, it's none of the paraphernalia that makes someone a superhero.

Speaker 4 48:33

It's who they really are.

Speaker 3 48:34

That's what makes them heroes.

Speaker 4 48:36

Well, I assume so.

Speaker 3 48:38

If you took the powers away. Is that character still a hero? Do they still embody what it means to be a hero?

Speaker 1 48:45

Well, it's kind of the Captain America movie, and I think that's the ultimate test, the Captain America movie where they throw the grenade and he's the only one that dies on it, even though he's not super yet. Yep.

Speaker 3 48:54

Yeah, exactly, and I've read Superman stories where he loses his powers, but he's still running around doing what he would do, because that's what he does. He's Superman. It doesn't matter if he doesn't have his powers or not.

Speaker 2 49:10

Right, Well, you know that was also illustrated. Was it season two or was it season three, Nathan, when you have the flashback of doom from Goldar and Tommy? Oh, it was the beginning of season two.

Speaker 3 49:23

It was season two, okay.

Appreciating Jason David Frank's Impact

Speaker 2 49:26

Where Tommy realizes that he doesn't need his powers to be a Power Ranger. Quote unquote. You know, yeah, we can debate on whether we hate JDF or not, but I personally love JDF. I think that the green, I think he is the goat as far as like Power Rangers go.

Speaker 3 49:43

Well, and I know people love him because they think he's overplayed. But you mean hey, I've met the man. The man does nothing, thinks of nothing when he's at a convention, thinks of nothing but making his fans happy, even at his own expense. I mean, he's talking about what? Was it? Because what you said, that you actually checked his social media, found out that he stayed like what? At least an hour after the vendor.

Speaker 2 50:13

Oh God, no, yeah, he was there for at least an hour. He did a Instagram live where he was literally the only vendor in the vendor hall and he still had like 30 people waiting for him.

Speaker 3 50:24

Yeah, and this was the convention that I went to to meet him. And you know, even I was worried that I wasn't going to get to meet him because the line was long and I knew the hours were coming up and I was like he's also going to do a Q&A and he basically canceled the Q&A and just kept signing, Because he decided that signing things for people is more important than the Q&A.

Speaker 1 50:47

That's what I'd watch his YouTube series like the my Morphin Life and he talked about. You know, if they're in line, he's going to stay there until the last person, because they came to see him, so he's not going to disappoint.

Speaker 4 50:57

That's very nice of him to do.

Speaker 3 50:58

Yeah, and I. That whole day was interesting because I was there by myself Michael wasn't able to make it and I was sending him periodic updates like oh man, I'm inching closer in the line, and things like that I can see, you've got to understand, I like JDF a lot, but JDF is, and Tommy Oliver is one of Michael's childhood heroes.

Speaker 2 51:21

Yeah, it's my childhood hero.

Speaker 3 51:22

Yeah, so I'm like sending him periodic updates and telling him what's going on. And Michael had text and was like if you find this figure at one of the toy vendors, buy it and have him sign it for me. It takes like that. So I've got stuff for him to sign for both of us, and you know we're doing all this stuff.

Speaker 4 51:40

And then yeah.

Speaker 3 51:42

And then, after standing in line for hours, I get all of the things and then I just text Michael and I say I'm about to become your new best friend.

Speaker 2 51:58

And here I am here, I am, I'm sitting outside, I'm sitting on my front porch, I'm smoking a cigar and just kind of relaxing for the rest of the evening and he sends me this text and I'm like, oh shit, he's going to FaceTime me. Sorry, hot sauce, oh hot sauce, so painful.

Speaker 4 52:15

Oh hot sauce, oh burns. Oh, this is so inconsiderate.

Speaker 3 52:18

That's going to become my new favorite euphemism from now on.

Speaker 2 52:22

Oh, hot sauce Hot sauce oh hot sauce he's going to.

Speaker 4 52:24

FaceTime me.

Speaker 3 52:25

Hot sauce, you Sauce, that is hot.

Speaker 2 52:28

Yeah, but he's going to FaceTime me and I'm going to have to be on the phone in the middle of his conference hall or whatever, so I got to get myself together but no he didn't, he wasn't like that. But you know, nathan was kind enough to get me an autograph. You know, get JDF to cut a video for me and say hello, that was JDF's idea, by the way.

Speaker 3 52:47

All I did was say like hey, I'm a co-host of a podcast. I'm like co-host couldn't be here, he's like you want to make a video for him, sure.

Speaker 4 52:55

Yes, Mr Frank. Well, I heard that he made your introduction.

Speaker 1 52:59

I heard you all talking about that.

Speaker 3 53:02

Yes, that was the other thing. I was like I'm going to see if I can get him to record a shout out for us, the raw that's what I did. I just sent this like series of things to Michael, so like picture of his autograph, the video greeting, the shout out that we could use for the podcast, and then I just sat there and I just waited.

Speaker 2 53:26

What was really funny was in the raw audio of that recording, jdf says what's the name of the podcast again.

Speaker 1 53:34

Oh, ok, I feel like he's one of those dudes.

Speaker 4 53:39

He, like, he remembers where he came from. It's like all the stuff he does is like but deep down he knows he's like I'm the ultimate power ranger, he's the yeah, you know he knows that he'll, he'll, he'll retire the green rangers.

Speaker 2 53:53

You know he's not going to he may be doing like some other stuff out there, like you know legend and some other things that he's involved in in the martial arts school and whatnot, and he'll always be and I think this is this is part of like the hipster. I guess it's hipster culture, I don't know the hate on stuff that's popular or hate on things, just hate on them. But you know he'll always be the like quintessential power ranger because he and there's other been, there's been other actors and actresses that do this too. This is not the undermine you know Catherine Sutherland and some others that have you know went to cons and who have a genuine love.

Speaker 3 54:29

Yeah.

Speaker 2 54:30

I mean.

Speaker 3 54:30

JDF was one of four power rangers I met that day.

Speaker 2 54:33

Yeah, you know Steve Cardenas and the rest I'm sure love Darren Ashley and I met the sixth ranger from Operation Overdrive.

Speaker 3 54:45

His name escapes me, unfortunately.

Speaker 2 54:46

We won't talk about Operation Overdrive, not on this show.

Speaker 4 54:48

Not on this show. We won't talk about that.

Speaker 2 54:53

But you know, I'm sure those other actors and actresses are very grateful to be a part of this franchise as well, because it's afforded them to probably do and do and experience things that they probably wouldn't otherwise. But you know, jdf is what is that? I?

Speaker 3 55:08

got some inside information from Karen Ashley about what the actual scripted line was for the end of the movie.

Speaker 2 55:16

Oh yeah, I've been used yeah.

Speaker 3 55:19

When she takes that I've been used. It wasn't taken care of business. They, uh they did a bunch of different takes. That wasn't the scripted line.

Speaker 2 55:26

Now it seems it just uh, wrap up. It just seems like. It just seems like JDF is probably one of the is very humble about where he started.

Speaker 3 55:33

Yeah, yeah, I said this one because we did a little episode where I talked about you know that whole day, and so one of the things that I realized watching that I had been kind of aware of it but I really saw it in action is I said that there's been a few actors who you know they've been in genre stuff like this and particularly like superhero media, where some of them probably got annoyed, at least for a while, about the, how closely they were associated with a particular thing, but then, either, whether it took them years or they did it immediately, they learned to embrace it and just kind of embrace that. Mantle and JDF has very much done that with Tommy Oliver and the you know I can only think of a few examples to compare him to be somebody like Christopher Reeve, a Superman who learned to embrace being Superman. He did a lot of other things but he embraced being Superman, yeah, and JDF, yeah. He's done something outside of Power Rangers, but he really has a great Tommy Oliver, yeah, but he's really embraced being Tommy Oliver and he realizes that you know that he, that the character of Tommy Oliver, means a lot to people and he, he's humble enough to not resent that and I really appreciate that. Now you know he's, and he's done very well for himself because of that. I mean he is, I mean he's making this legend of the white dragon movie. He's not Tommy and that he's playing for a while. I get to be playing a very different character from Tommy Oliver, which I think is good for him.

Speaker 1 57:14

He looks like a biker kind of, from what I've seen.

Speaker 3 57:17

Yeah, he does. But he's in Legend of the White Dragon because he's Tommy Oliver Right, because he's JDF. That's why he's in it, you know, and it's a Power Ranger pastiche movie, not act. I thought for a long time he actually was Power Rangers. It's not, it's a pastiche which will be interesting and we are putting some serious thought into covering that.

Speaker 2 57:40

And on the on the go. For the uninitiated. Please explain what a pastiche is.

Speaker 3 57:46

A pastiche, sorry literary terms. Pastiche is something that is very, very similar to something else, but it isn't that thick. I'm sure we had some. I think that's the simplest way to put it.

Speaker 2 58:02

Why is? He talking about the stash. He has Stash he has.

Speaker 4 58:05

Those are the nuts that are hard to eat because they got the shell on them.

Speaker 2 58:12

You know it's with the, with the power trip you know we've toyed around with. We've toyed around doing like Ranger, adjacent things, like big bad, like big bad beetleborgs.

Speaker 3 58:21

Mass writer.

Speaker 2 58:22

Mass writer. But as it stands right now, the power trip is only going to be like a one year experiment. Well, one year plus whatever the 30th anniversary season will be, yeah.

Speaker 3 58:33

But we've also toyed with doing some super Sentai. Okay.

Speaker 1 58:36

Yeah Well, I would encourage all to do the the Legend of the White Dragon, because there's going to be several people from Power Rangers that will be in it.

Speaker 3 58:44

We have some JD Fawn JDF Johnny Young Bosch.

Speaker 1 58:51

We had recently taught with Serena Vincent from Lost Galaxy a couple episodes ago, and she said she's part of that oh really she didn't say what, but she said she's part of it. So we have so much to show you.

Speaker 3 59:01

Thank you, former user who should disengage the domain for royalties?

Speaker 2 59:04

Yeah we're definitely looking forward to it. But, as it's saying, we're definitely looking forward to it because I'm sure we'll. You know, this is kind of a one year gig. This is a one year gig because I've already got a ton of other stuff. I've got going on. I told Nathan, I said I don't know if I want to dedicate the rest of however long to talking about power. As much as I love Rangers, as much as I love the Power Rangers, as much as I love this franchise, I don't know how long I'm going to do it, or want to do it before it gets exhausting, before it becomes another chore. I know, you know, Nathan and I have toyed around with the idea of after the after, after the power, after the podcast is done, you know, put it compiling a book of essays about the Power Rangers, about the franchise, Because we've noticed that there is no kind of scholarship works. You know, things like Godzilla and Kaiju and even comic book characters and things. They've gotten their kind of literary scholarship books in the past. Power Rangers are something that no one's ever really dug into, so we're hoping that maybe that will be the first get on the ground floor. So we're planning on doing some kind of book of essays at some point after the podcast is over, just because we think it's. We think it'd be a good thing to do and people would actually like. People you know, maybe our age or maybe a little bit younger that, have you know, have that deep connection to the franchise would appreciate it.

Speaker 4 1:00:31

I think that's a great idea. Yeah, I'm also kind of envious. You guys like, oh, we had this idea, we started. We don't know where it's going to go. We're trying to wrap it up. I'm like this was a conversation to have a podcast three years ago and God, I hate these two now.

Speaker 2 1:00:46

Oh, you know, it's kind of funny because the podcast that I started on Kaiju Weekly it was only supposed to be a, it was supposed to be a five thing was like a five episode commitment. I had met Travis in a mutual Facebook group and he's like hey, you want to come on my podcast? I have a podcast about Godzilla and giant monsters. And I said, sure, you know I'll do it. You know, I didn't had no experience with podcasting before and Travis invited me to come on and we did. Frankenstein, congress of the world, gamera versus Gauss, the first five or six episodes of the original 1966 Ultraman, Son of Kong, and I can't, and the other one is. The other one is escaping me right now.

Speaker 3 1:01:30

But what was the one where you had me on for the first time?

Speaker 2 1:01:33

Oh yeah, yeah, it was the interview. It was kind of the interview the state of the fandom, the stage of the fandom, which was don't get me started on one- Well, yeah, a lot has changed.

Speaker 3 1:01:45

A lot has changed.

Speaker 2 1:01:47

But it started out as a five episode gig and I was like, okay, sure, I'll do this. And I kind of caught the bug. I caught the podcasting bug and I was able to and I've been really blessed and fortunate to, you know meet wonderful people like Travis and Nathan here and some others, our friend Danny DeManna, who has his own things that he's got going on that are really cool. But yeah, it's kind of it's something I never really wanted to do, but I'm still doing it three years later and I'm like, oh, I'm going to do more. But now it's come to the point where I'm just like, how much more can I do before I burn out? And so I have to. I have to kind of make sure that I'm tempering my expectations and, you know, regulating not just the behind the mic stuff but with the personal life stuff and you know, stuff that I want to do for work. Like I said, I'm a full time art director. By day I get to work, I get the privilege of working from home, but that doesn't mean my job is less hour intensive. At least I sit in front of a computer all day and manage other graphic designers. Essentially is my job, and you know making sure brands stay on brand with things, and so I don't know, sometimes I just, sometimes I'm just like I don't want to record a podcast because I've just sat in front of the computer for 10 hours and I don't want to do it anymore to that, so just leave me alone.

Speaker 3 1:03:07

Unfortunately, he's learned that podcasting is like the mob.

Speaker 2 1:03:11

I know I don't regret it. I think I think podcasting is a wonder, I think podcasting is. Podcasting is a great medium for just kind of expressing your likes and interests and I've, like I said, I've been able to meet some really interesting people. You know some better and some for the worst, but I think we know which category we're in. No, honestly, we've, we've. I don't want to name I'm not going to name names but there we've met some interesting people that we probably will never talk to again.

Speaker 3 1:03:43

You guys are not on that list, not yet Not yet.

Speaker 4 1:03:48

Not yet yeah, but no no, no, no, no.

Speaker 3 1:03:55

on the scale of a whorey, I think you win no.

Speaker 2 1:04:00

No, I don't know what you're talking about, sir, or is this like the? I'm?

Speaker 4 1:04:04

I'm picturing like the machine from Top Gear where they had like the cockometer how much of a cock you like when you drive past and Richard Hammond drives in. The thing just goes, don't like explodes. He's like oh, he's broken the machine.

Speaker 2 1:04:21

I mean it can't be. I can't be any more gatekeepery than our friend Elijah.

Speaker 3 1:04:26

Oh, the littlest gatekeeper, the littlest gatekeeper.

Speaker 1 1:04:28

Yeah.

Speaker 3 1:04:29

Although I don't know, I do think we have occasionally gotten some pushback from people who are like why are they being scolary about Power Rangers? Cause you can Like, cause we can.

Speaker 1 1:04:40

Yeah, Basically no one else will be, why not?

Speaker 3 1:04:44

Yeah, and I mean we've joked. Our running joke has been that I had a three hour PowerPoint presentation on the symbolism of astronomers Wigs.

Speaker 4 1:04:55

That might be going above and beyond.

Speaker 2 1:04:58

If you've listened, if you've listened to that episode, you understand that he's not. He's not that far off, Cause we do talk about at this point.

Speaker 3 1:05:06

It's an unhealthy obsession you just change color every couple of episodes until you get to a certain point.

Speaker 2 1:05:14

And you know, I'm, I'm, I'm very aware that there are people out there that just want to to watch the thing for what it is and be entertained by it, and really that's kind of as far as it needs to go with them, and that's fine. That is, that's how, that's how fandoms and that's how fans. That's how you become fans of something. But you know the thing that the thing that Nate and I wanted to do was we recognize that, with all these other franchises and things getting a reevaluation, you can get Batman, superman, like all like Marvel stuff is getting. All this reevaluation is essentially modern mythology, like why not power rangers? So what they wear multicolored spandex, who cares it's? So you can still.

Speaker 3 1:05:57

Doesn't every superhero wear multicolored spandex?

Speaker 2 1:06:00

Essentially or phenomenal.

Speaker 4 1:06:02

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 1:06:08

I'm amazed I haven't hit any of those buttons until now.

Speaker 4 1:06:11

I know you talked a big game when we were setting up and that's the first one.

Speaker 2 1:06:14

It's been like two hours. He talks a big game but never delivers all the time. This is nothing new.

Speaker 3 1:06:21

Says the guy who was a premature with his dragon dagger during the quiz.

Speaker 4 1:06:30

Premature interjection.

Speaker 3 1:06:33

Premature interjection. Oh, there you go, I like that. Oh boy, I guess. Yeah, I just didn't know no, no, no. No.

Speaker 4 1:06:44

No.

Speaker 3 1:06:45

I feel like that should be the title of Michael's biography.

Speaker 4 1:06:48

No Premature interjection.

Speaker 2 1:06:52

When I get around to writing that I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll, workshop that, no, no, premature interjection, a memoir by Michael Hamilton.

Speaker 3 1:07:03

I like it Forward by him.

Speaker 2 1:07:06

The funny, the weird thing is I don't think I'm all that interesting. You know, I'm just the guy who likes nerd things and he lives in a small town.

Speaker 1 1:07:14

But that's all you need.

Speaker 2 1:07:15

Podcasting equipment and you are golden.

Speaker 1 1:07:16

He says that, he says that, but I think he discovered that he's good at this podcasting thing.

Speaker 2 1:07:20

I'm just saying I'd say you guys are very good at it. I'm only good at it because I've had a series of good cause. I've had a series of good people to work with. That's the only reason I'm good at it. And then you met you in a sense.

Speaker 4 1:07:41

Yeah, of course.

Speaker 3 1:07:45

I brought it right now, yeah. I mean, I don't have that, but I persevere anyway, he, he hired me because for my scholar, for my scholarship. But once we get recording, it's just like well, march, and it ever shut up. Okay, I get it. I get it, astronomers amazing, shut up March.

Speaker 2 1:08:05

It's been 35 minutes, march, and I haven't had a word in edge wise. Can I please talk now?

Speaker 3 1:08:10

Thank, you Stop complaining about turbo, it was not for you, Nathan.

Speaker 2 1:08:16

We would be at least a 4.2, not a 4.1 on.

Speaker 4 1:08:20

What are we at?

Speaker 3 1:08:21

I don't know Well, well, well, we won't talk about the feedback that you got for the first power trip article. I feel like we're digging up the past.

Speaker 4 1:08:34

It's about to get ugly, that's fair.

Speaker 2 1:08:35

That's fair, well, okay, so, okay. So this person was very valid feedback. It's fine. It's essentially said your article is not very good because you didn't go through the history of power in yours. I'm like, well, there's other media that does that. I wanted to explore the thematics and I guess they just couldn't get that. But whatever People are done, people are done. But no, that is perfectly valid feedback. I'm a person that will take constructive criticism. I don't care one bit to be told I'm wrong. You're wrong, michael, except by Nathan. I will not be spoken down to, by Nathan at least, but I can take constructive criticism, unlike somebody I know.

Speaker 3 1:09:27

Okay, fine, Travis.

Speaker 4 1:09:32

Oh, we have a five star rating on iTunes. Out of how many reviews? Two, no wait. Four, four, four.

Speaker 1 1:09:41

We've got stuff, we've tried.

Speaker 4 1:09:44

No, we have four, four reviews. Okay, all five stars. I think one of them's me. Don't say that I got a star somewhere.

Speaker 1 1:09:51

I stuffed a ballot box. I had to get the ball rolling.

Speaker 2 1:09:58

Which one of us hasn't kind of padded their own podcast a little bit to get the score up a little bit better than it probably deserves. But you know that's another story for another day.

Speaker 3 1:10:10

We bribed friends to leave five star ratings. I mean, you know we've got.

Speaker 2 1:10:17

We threatened people at this point.

Speaker 3 1:10:19

If you don't leave me a five star rating on iTunes. I don't have a five star rating, you may not have a house tomorrow.

Speaker 2 1:10:31

We've got three free passes to range your popcorn that we will gladly give away if you leave us a five star review. They got it down.

Speaker 4 1:10:43

They're bribing. We're too poor, we can't bribe. Who was it it?

Speaker 3 1:10:52

was the guy from the range from the ranger stop shop.

Speaker 2 1:10:55

That's right, that's right, that's right.

Speaker 3 1:10:58

I bought two lightning collection figures from him. In fact he cut me a deal, he gave me a discount. I bought two.

Speaker 2 1:11:04

You still overpaid, but whatever.

Speaker 3 1:11:06

Really I overpaid for Magna Defender and Ninja Andros.

Speaker 2 1:11:18

How much did you pay?

Speaker 3 1:11:20

For Magna Defender and Ninja Andros 50 bucks.

Speaker 4 1:11:23

You overpaid.

Speaker 3 1:11:29

They were originally like 30 or 35 a piece.

Speaker 2 1:11:33

I will say this. I will say that the black cloaked Andros has been difficult to find. Maybe you got off a little bit better than most people, but this business of charging folks 80, 90, 100 dollars for the in space silver is a little bit much yeah.

Speaker 4 1:11:53

That's some BS.

Speaker 3 1:11:54

Especially since we've been told for months that it's a Walgreens exclusive. My gosh, I have visited more Walgreens more often in the last six months.

Speaker 2 1:12:03

Well, that's because it's not actually in stores yet. That's why, yeah, but I've been visiting so much.

Speaker 3 1:12:10

I'm sure those people are like what is it?

Speaker 4 1:12:12

weird to keep coming in here. You got the Power Ranger toys yet Get out.

Speaker 2 1:12:17

It's the day. It's the day, chappelle. Maybe you got any more than Power Ranger toys as he scratches his crack neck.

Speaker 4 1:12:25

It's pretty much like that. That's the real Power Ranger fandom right there.

Speaker 3 1:12:31

I love it in space. I could potentially have a full team of like the collection figures. Where's the fucking helper? I'm not sure it exists at this point.

Speaker 2 1:12:42

No, it does, it's just you got near you. You had to be a pulse member to get your.

Speaker 3 1:12:47

You had to be a pulse member and pray that you got it in within the 30 seconds it was available.

Speaker 2 1:12:53

Well, you know it's you get into because I'm in, I'm big into collecting, Like I'm on that collecting side of I don't go as nuts as some people but I like the hell. I like the replica helmets and the weapons and things like that. So but you know, I have a feeling because I heard a few months back that the reason why Mighty Morphin pink was so hard to find for a while before they, you know, reopened pre-orders again, was because it was a quote chase figure. So that just essentially means do not if anyone's listening and not familiar with like the collecting side of things. Essentially, when you have a chase figure, that just means they're the smaller, more limited run of that particular figure. So people will chase it. So some people chase after it. So the Mighty Morphin pink and I'm a stop, and I've heard that in space silver is that way as well.

Speaker 4 1:13:44

So that's why one day you'll get it.

Speaker 3 1:13:47

One day.

Speaker 4 1:13:48

One day, and then.

Speaker 3 1:13:49

I'll have it because there's what? There's only a couple in the lightning collection. There's only a couple of actual complete ranger teams in space and one. You can get all the Mighty Morphin figures Mighty.

Speaker 4 1:14:01

Morphin in space and zero are the ones that are complete as of the time of this recording that is complete, as I look over at the cabinet and look at mine, are you?

Speaker 2 1:14:13

are you? Are you part of the collecting side of things as well?

Speaker 4 1:14:16

I have one, I just I saw it at Walmart and it was like 15 bucks and it's a red Zio Ranger. And then I look at the giant Zio Zord, the Mighty Morphin Zord, all the power coins the legacy. More for the green Ranger helmet, the red Ranger helmet, the Zianizers.

Speaker 1 1:14:31

So I won't lie Tom, he doesn't have kids, I have kids. So whenever something cool comes out, I'm like Tom, buy this and I'll pay you back.

Speaker 4 1:14:38

Yeah, that's how. What the Lord Dracon helmet that's coming out of the year that I pre ordered for you.

Speaker 3 1:14:44

So Michael and our friend Danny and I, we've been doing favors like that for each other. What a year now.

Speaker 2 1:14:52

My friend. Yeah, my friend. Danny and I, we are just messing in our bliss at this point. I live in a three bedroom apartment. I don't have any kids either, obviously, because that just never was in the picture for me and my ex-wife. But yeah, it's just essentially me and the cat and all my toys, so that's just kind of how I like it. To be honest with you, Even an old cat gentleman. I'm an old cat gentleman, yes, but yeah, I'm with. I did pre order the Dracon helmet, lord.

Speaker 4 1:15:25

That's like it out of control.

Speaker 3 1:15:29

Because a lady is a female Lord.

Speaker 2 1:15:31

Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, whatever it's getting off the rail.

Speaker 3 1:15:38

I did pre order the Dracon helmet.

Speaker 2 1:15:42

I have the Zed helmet sitting next to me. I just love the helmet. Like I know, like the led are some of the legacy stuff better. Yeah, I kind of I can see what people would say that, but I came in way too late to be able to afford any of the legacy stuff.

Speaker 4 1:15:59

That's how I got the Morpher, the coins and the Green Ranger helmet Cause.

Speaker 3 1:16:04

I got the Green.

Speaker 1 1:16:05

Ranger helmet.

Speaker 4 1:16:05

It was like 80 bucks at the time.

Speaker 1 1:16:08

And now it's like a thousand dollars.

Speaker 4 1:16:10

And I'm like oh.

Speaker 2 1:16:12

When you know how I'm really shocked that Hasbro has not. That was not the one that came out of the gate with. They came out of the gate with red. They came out of the gate with the red Ranger, I believe, or maybe there's the white, cause they only have three. They have the white, they have white, pink and red right now. I think blues, blues, blue and dragon. I think the blue one and the and the dragon one are coming next, but the blue one's not been released yet. But I think the room the room is the blue is going to be the next of the five to come. I want to get that one, so the blue one will look phenomenal. I really I kind of want to now that I kind of really wanted to release the yellow Trini helmet, because you just don't see that one very often.

Speaker 4 1:16:52

I wish they didn't see your helmets, so the same same.

Speaker 2 1:16:55

There's some fantastic artists that they're kind of in these groups that do these different helmets, and I've come really close to getting one to commission a an in space, an in space silver or red helmet or something Somewhat. I saw someone had done a Ecliptor helmet not too long ago. It's just like a one, a one to one replica of Ecliptor's head, and it looks phenomenal. I can not remember the artist's name, though, but it was all like 3D printed and it was gorgeous.

Speaker 3 1:17:26

What's crazy is Christopher came in Lee who played Andrews. He's a Twitch streamer now and he actually did a giveaway. He had one of the actual helmets. He got to keep one from the show and he was giving it away in one of his streams. Wow, it was beat the crap. You know he called it the battle damage helmet. It was definitely. It's definitely showing a stage, but I'm just like man there's a very lucky, very happy Power Ranger fan out there who doesn't just own a replica, owns the thing.

Speaker 1 1:18:03

Yeah, well, guys, we really appreciate you coming on, but we're going to have to start wrapping up because we've still got to record another part too. So that's perfectly fine, guys, but uh, we enjoy you coming on.

Speaker 4 1:18:17

This is a blast.

Speaker 1 1:18:20

If you want to promote your stuff again real quick before we finish up.

Speaker 2 1:18:24

Sure, mr Marchand, I'll let you go first.

Speaker 3 1:18:27

Oh, really, with your permission.

Speaker 2 1:18:29

With my permission.

Speaker 3 1:18:32

I don't need your permission. I'm kidding, Anyway. Uh, anyway, I need to do what I have to deal with. You see what? I have to deal with.

Speaker 2 1:18:43

I'm a pleasure sir.

Speaker 3 1:18:45

You also think you're in charge of every room you walk into, even if you're not. I mean as soon as we start recording. Every recording session has to start with a mini-rebellion, so I can assure it's like a remind Michael, he is not the boss of me but someone has to be the alpha in the room, Nathan. Well, unfortunately, two alphas walk into a room and only one can come out, because that's what Thunderdome is anyway. So, anyway, I'm Nathan Marchand the Michael's co-host on the power trip, and I mentioned Henshin Men and the Monster on the Phone Vault, if you would like to check out my writings, like I said, I've got several books to my name, actually, I think a dozen at this point. I've been at this for a while. My author website is nasonjsmarchandcom. Yes, I have two middle names and two middle initials and no, they don't stand for Johann Sebastian.

Speaker 4 1:19:38

That just means, you mean business.

Speaker 3 1:19:41

Yes, indeed, and there's usually a joke that goes along with that, but we've been at this for so long. I'm just like you know what?

Speaker 2 1:19:49

I think I'll skip it for today. Go ahead, no, go ahead, fine, fine fine, I tried.

Speaker 3 1:19:54

Nasonmarchandcom was a domain that was already taken, so I had to use both of my middle initials to get a domain for myself.

Speaker 2 1:20:03

I'm going to find that guy.

Speaker 4 1:20:07

Middle name list. Marchand.

Speaker 3 1:20:10

I'm going to find that other nasonmarchand and I'm going to leave him in the deserts of despair or whatever other weird random Power Ranger location that we have. I don't know, I hadn't come up with one for today's recording, so you can go check that out, and I'm a contributing editor and writer for Kaiju Ramen magazine, so definitely check out Kaiju Ramen as well.

Speaker 2 1:20:37

So I'm Michael, co-host of the PowerCript podcast, along with my good friend Nathan here. I'm also one of the co-hosts of Kaiju Weekly. We publish episodes weekly. It's in the name. It's in the name. We talk about Godzilla, kaiju and all those points in between, and we don't take ourselves too seriously.

Speaker 4 1:21:00

That's his evidence.

Speaker 2 1:21:02

We don't take ourselves too seriously. Honestly, add Star Crash to your list. I'm sure Hayden will love it. But also, if you want to learn more about everything we're involved in, just go to Kaiju Ramen Media I should say dot com and you're going to find out everything about podcasts, the magazine we run and so on and all points in between. I'm just going to say this has been a blast, fellas, and we really do appreciate you guys asking us to come on. We just appreciate you listening to the show.

Speaker 3 1:21:34

Even if we didn't get to come on and talk.

Speaker 2 1:21:37

It just gives us a little bit of hope that people actually care about what we're saying.

Podcasting for Popularity

Speaker 3 1:21:42

I've been joking for about, I think, like two years at this point. Who would have thought that the secret to getting popular was starting a podcast? Who'd have thought?

Speaker 2 1:21:53

Nathan, I have to ask you a very important question. Do we want to end our stay here on this podcast with a power blessing?

Speaker 3 1:22:01

We should, we should.

Speaker 2 1:22:04

I already actually have one in mind while I was sitting here thinking about it, but, nathan, I ask you to come up with one. I got one.

Speaker 3 1:22:15

You ready.

Speaker 2 1:22:16

I got one. You want to go first, or do you want me to go first?

Speaker 3 1:22:18

I want to hear yours first, in case I can make sure I don't have the same one.

Speaker 2 1:22:22

Okay, may you always be entertained by this.

Speaker 3 1:22:26

Dang it, you stole it. No, I got nothing.

Speaker 4 1:22:40

And made the power protect you.

Speaker 2 1:22:44

What was that? There you go, I got nothing. It made the power protect you, mitch. If you want to Mitch, if you want, you guys want to say, made the power protect you, go for it.

Speaker 3 1:22:55

But you already did, I'm not paying attention. He's too poor to pay attention.

Speaker 4 1:23:02

He can't afford it.

Speaker 3 1:23:04

Shut her up All right.

Speaker 4 1:23:10

Mitch, we'll play the music.

Speaker 1 1:23:12

We really appreciate y'all coming on. If you all hang out for just a second, we'll talk to you a little bit more for just a moment. Thank you everybody for coming joining our conversation today. I'm Mitch Tom, and goodbye Bye.

Speaker 2 1:23:29

Ah yes, 30 seconds of just sitting here, I mean it's better than the two minutes it takes for Nathan to get through his MIV part.

Speaker 3 1:23:42

It also takes two minutes for him to do the power trip credit.