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It's More Fun Time!
11 Plays19 days ago
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was one of the biggest kids shows and toy lines of all time! Josh tells the tales of his 10 year journey as a fan and collector while Tyler tries to guess how many seasons had Green Rangers! It's a story of a boy and his plastic and the lockers he rented to store them all in.
It's definitely more fun time!
Share you morphin memory at speakpipe.com/genx4lifepodcast
Or send a message with a question to instagram.com/genx4life_podcast
And we'll see YOU next Saturday morning!
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Transcript
Introduction & Announcements
00:00:01
Speaker
So welcome back. Good morning. Good Saturday morning. Uh, welcome back zonkers. Yeah, the zonkers zoinkers. Wow. I am tired too early for me. Uh, this is Josh. I'm your host and I'm here today with Tyler. Hello, Josh.
00:00:15
Speaker
That was your cue to say hello and thank you and welcome. I really appreciate Tyler gives up so much of his time for this and I really super appreciate it. Um, it would just, it's not as fun for me to just kind of sit and talk and about these things all by myself.
00:00:29
Speaker
Well, let me take this moment to tell you this is the last time i will be appearing on your podcast. What? No, it's under and It's going to explode. that was very, very sweet. Very kind. Thank you. It's my pleasure to be here and to help you out.
00:00:48
Speaker
No, it's great. ah I'm having a lot of fun. And, you know, we do have some listeners, a couple. and Are they a couple? ah They might be, but I think one of them lives in America and one lives in Canada. Oh, that's rough. It's been there none it's it's really split. We've both been there and done that. Totally.
00:01:07
Speaker
Yeah. So um I think that um it's showing up in other parts of the world as well right now. So we can say we're we're international, which is pretty darn cool. Well, not that early for them.
00:01:18
Speaker
No, that's true. It's actually Wednesday night yeah instead of Saturday morning. Okay,
Trivia: Original Blue Power Ranger
00:01:24
Speaker
you know what? I'm going to kick this off with just a ah random trivia question, which is not so random because I i handpicked this out of my trivia box.
00:01:35
Speaker
um What is the first name of the original Blue Power Ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1?
00:01:44
Speaker
Billy? Yes, Billy. Yes, Billy. Absolutely. when was second-guessing myself. I know, right? It's been a while. Yeah. Billy.
00:01:56
Speaker
Billy. Okay. So I know it's not technically gen X and it's not technically our generation, but I can't not have an episode where we talk about Power Rangers. Right?
00:02:12
Speaker
Because it was my thing. i was so well known for my Power Ranger stuff. Spending five decades now. Yeah, it's it's been a long time.
00:02:22
Speaker
But um I know that the the Power Rangers themselves didn't happen until, i like, 93. So some of the Gen Xers might have still been kind of going around, like, you know, karate chopping people at school.
00:02:35
Speaker
um I was obviously already in my 30s at that point. So very old. To be in school. It was Tyler. That asked me that that faded question back in the 90s.
00:02:49
Speaker
Why don't you own everything? Exactly. And I'm like, what are you talking about? What did I ask? You asked me if I was watching Power Rangers. Oh. I'm like, no, I hadn't heard of it.
00:03:02
Speaker
And I'm like, what is it? And you're like, it's it's Japanese robot fighting. And I'm like, oh, my God, I dropped everything to find this on TV so I could watch it.
00:03:14
Speaker
Fox Network. It was the best. It was so freaking exciting. it was just mind-blowing for me because it was my thing. It was Japanese robots.
00:03:25
Speaker
And I don't know how I missed it. But I mean, I guess I was just doing adult things like, you know, drinking and and going nightclubbing. i only knew about it because of the hype of the toys. That's how I knew about it.
00:03:39
Speaker
Otherwise, i wouldn't have known. but But that was the big, you know, everything sold out everywhere yeah phenomenon that happens every now and then when you're really lucky.
00:03:52
Speaker
And I remember the day before I moved to Vancouver, the What were the Ranger figures? They were the 8-inch. They came in the boxes and they kicked.
00:04:05
Speaker
ah That was... ah I think they were called karate action. Yeah. There weren't the ones in the, in the triangle boxes, but it was those ones. Yeah. They were the boxed ones.
00:04:16
Speaker
Yeah. They can be a sort of a flat window box. Walmart had just arrived and, and they were on the shelf the day before I moved. And I remember thinking like, oh my gosh, the product is starting to finally come back now, you know? Yeah.
00:04:31
Speaker
And you can get power Rangers on CD-ROM. o and Right. Right. All right. So we're going to
Our Power Rangers Journey
00:04:39
Speaker
kick this off. We're going to talk a little bit about um but my journey with the Power Rangers.
00:04:43
Speaker
And as you can see, if you're watching any of my clips, you can see some of my Power Ranger stuff in the background. We're going to kick it off with a bit of a ah a thing. It's Morphin Time.
00:04:56
Speaker
Hey,
00:05:00
Speaker
don't turn that channel. You've reached Yabba Zucka Zoinks, the Saturday morning podcast where your host, Josh Downing, that's me, will take you on a trip through a Gen X Saturday morning of cereal, toys, cartoons, and so much more.
00:05:13
Speaker
So grab your honeycombs and your favorite Micronaut and sit back and enjoy.
00:05:19
Speaker
So I can safely say we can talk about Power Rangers because it is one of the iconic, massive TV shows, licensing toy, you know, monsters in the world. It's one of the biggest in the world. Well, it started in 75, right? So, you know,
00:05:41
Speaker
Right. Which is right when we were. Yeah, totally. If you want to really look at it that way. Yeah. Yeah. the The Super Sentai shows. Yeah. Right up my alley. Like I was watching that kind of stuff and and loved it so much that I couldn't believe that somebody would like Saban came along and said, hey, you know what? This stuff is still huge in Japan.
00:06:02
Speaker
Let's see we can do and turn it into a show. I think what's interesting is how he lucked out on making Juranger the one that launched. Yeah. Because if he was a year earlier or a year later, i don't think it would have caught on just based on the look of that year's Sentai show, right? So like he you know I don't know if I'm right, but like I think he lucked out by going with that one first.
00:06:27
Speaker
Yeah, he totally did because, i mean, even though he was lucky and he was able to use the Dairanger footage, that wouldn't have been the show that would have launched this. Yeah, no, because the Dairanger probably would have been too strange. Yeah, you know yeah it was very, very you know specific. And it was even specific to its own timeline. It wasn't even Japanese.
00:06:50
Speaker
It was you know Chinese of origin. And that was very different. And that probably wouldn't have kicked off. I think that the Dairanger, the diamond suits, all of that,
00:07:03
Speaker
With dinosaurs? Like, how could you go wrong? Right. You had Jurassic Park and kids love dinosaurs. And and I don't think of it as a dinosaur show. I don't think about it as as their dinosaur mecca, but it is, obviously.
00:07:17
Speaker
in Jurainger, it's really about dinosaurs, right? Yeah. But yeah, i think I think he really lucked out by going with that one first. Yeah, totally. So if if you don't know who the Power Rangers are, um i what do I even say? Like, don't listen to this podcast or spoiler alert, right?
00:07:37
Speaker
But the Power Rangers came about because Japan was running a regular TV show um called Super Sentai about ah suited heroes that saved the world with giant robots.
00:07:49
Speaker
And it had already been on on Japanese TV for decades. um And it it's tied into things like Ultraman and, you know, the giant monsters of Godzilla.
00:08:01
Speaker
um There was offshoots of the of the heroes. um the common rider series, which were the, of course, yeah the, the bug suited guys with motorcycles. And that's still a huge thing in Japan as well.
00:08:14
Speaker
And the Japanese show is still on, even though ours finally left TV
Power Rangers: History & Origins
00:08:21
Speaker
probably for good last year. Um, it, uh, it's still going strong in, in Japan.
00:08:27
Speaker
What do you think of the current one? You know what? I haven't actually taken a look and I can't remember which is the most current series. They're kind like bird-like, kind of. It's a bit of a departure.
00:08:39
Speaker
Yeah, I have not stopped and taken a look. yeah i There was a couple that I liked in the past couple of years that didn't get used for Power Ranger footage. um I really like that Galaxy series.
00:08:51
Speaker
Which one was there was like 15 Rangers and they were like purple and orange and they they all had to different suits and and spaceships. Yeah.
00:09:01
Speaker
Yeah, it was pretty cool. Cool. Yeah, it was it was an awesome series. And I was really hoping but this was around that transition time where they're like, ah we're not really sure what we're going to do. um You know, the the the franchise had changed hands again a couple of times and its whole future was kind of, you know, up up in the air at the time. So and that would have been a big show to produce.
00:09:23
Speaker
Yeah, it's too bad because, you know, the footage is already there for you. The hard part's done, yeah you know. But it's also trying to tell those into, like turn those into stories that you can, yeah you know, show, uh, North American kids. Yeah. I'd like to think it would be easier now because your audience is a bit more mature.
00:09:42
Speaker
Like yeah mean the children are the more im mature now, you know? Well, and also there's, there's been a much longer exposure to anime and Japanese, you know, art forms. There's been a lot of shows that are very similar.
00:09:55
Speaker
um And, you know, kids that all grew up on Sailor Moon, like they get it because Sailor Moon is based on the same kind of five hero structure. yeah Right. With suits. So the toy line was really what kicked it off for me.
00:10:10
Speaker
um And back then, ah Bandai had the the master license because that they're the master license in Japan as well. And they needed a North American distributor. So we had a Canadian North American distributor called Irwin Toys. who ah whereas my Where's my sad cartoon? Yeah, there we go. um Well done, Irwin family. Well Right.
00:10:39
Speaker
and We've probably mentioned before, we are not happy with what happened to Irwin Toys. um Although we we did capitalize on quite a few of their yeah deals in their warehouse store before they finally turned into a condominium.
00:10:53
Speaker
That was a blessing. It certainly was. But the staff store was wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. we ah we We lucked out. Lots of prototypes, lots of Japanese goods. Yeah.
00:11:03
Speaker
Yeah. One of my one of my prize possessions that I got from their warehouse was the O-Ranger Pure Mitre. Oh, yeah. King Pyramider. He was beautiful Japanese.
00:11:16
Speaker
And he was just sitting there with just a partial box. They had purchased him from from Banda Japan so they could take a look and see if they wanted to make it. And they did. And it was a different color. And it was it was kind of pale pale yellowish color instead of gold. Yeah, interesting how different. Like normally everything's the exact same.
00:11:32
Speaker
But yeah yeah, the Japanese one was much lighter in color. Yeah, it was and way nicer looking. It almost had a texture to the plastic, like the look of it. It was really cool. So there was that faded day where Tyler said, hey, ah you know, why aren't you watching this Japanese japanese show?
00:11:48
Speaker
And ah so I don't know how, like how many minutes it took before we got up and ran to a toy store. Up until that point, I don't even think I'd really been in a Toys R Us.
00:12:01
Speaker
But we went to the toy store and looked at all the empty shelves. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, well, what's the deal here? Am I going to get Power Ranger robots? First of all, this is Canada. Second of all, Erwin.
00:12:16
Speaker
Yes. Well, and that that was that, that first year where nobody could produce anything fast enough. Like nobody had any idea that yeah it was going to explode.
00:12:27
Speaker
That that first kid walking up to another kid and karate chopping him was going to turn this into a juggernaut. Right. Right. And then they would all have to play those little things like don't beat up your friends at school. Yeah. Don't do any drugs while you're beating up your friends at school. It's all about teamwork.
00:12:48
Speaker
Yes. Make sure you share your drugs with the rest of your team. Yeah. I mean, not dread. Don't, don't do that. um Yeah. So that, that kicked off for me.
Collecting Power Rangers Toys
00:13:01
Speaker
a big change because I was already a toy collector. I had what I had aliens and I had visionaries. I had Thunderbirds. You had Star Trek next generation. I had Star Trek next generation. I had a lot of that. Cause I was, I was collecting that from way before, like when that first started from a playmates.
00:13:22
Speaker
So I had a lot of stuff already on the go. so I'm like, okay, got to make some room. remember when I first moved to Toronto, I was living in a studio apartment?
00:13:33
Speaker
We're talking, it's not even a studio apartment. Like there was nothing separate. The hallway was the kitchen and the bathroom. And then the room was everything. That was my living room, bedroom, everything. It was the size of my bed. And it was freezing cold.
00:13:46
Speaker
It was freezing cold because the heater broke and I was too scared to talk to the landlord. so I went for two years with no air conditioning and no, and no, uh, heating. But I started stacking up Power Ranger toys in this little tiny room.
00:14:02
Speaker
I think it's funny, sorry, to to go back a step. You had that that the main floor of that house in Vancouver. You had that fireplace that had a mantle.
00:14:13
Speaker
Yes. And slowly, maybe not slowly, little Power Ranger toys started being added to your mantle. And it's kind of like, okay, never dreaming of the explosion that was to come.
00:14:28
Speaker
Never dreaming this would tap into my ADHD in the absolute worst way ever. You had the phone. You had ball machine. started with the phone. Yeah. It's the the Red Ranger phone. And it was a great big modular sculpture of the Red Ranger in his licensed pose. Just a little touchstone phone at the bottom.
00:14:48
Speaker
Yeah. I don't remember what else was on that mantle. just remember that's where you started putting stuff. I started getting some of the licensed things because that's the only thing that I could find. It was never any of the figures. There was no Zords at the beginning. yeah um I think I had things like the light plate and I had a mug.
00:15:06
Speaker
um I had had a wall light. Whatever was the chopper's drug mart. Yeah, it it was whatever I could find kicking around. It just said Power Rangers on it.
00:15:19
Speaker
And it wasn't until the following year. i think it was probably not until... we moved to Toronto, then I was able to start finding stuff. Did we buy stuff in the States living in Vancouver?
00:15:32
Speaker
No, I don't think I did. That's where i got the phone, I think, actually. Now that I think about it, yeah. Because we didn't have anything like that in Canada yet. That's so funny. like I don't really remember when you...
00:15:45
Speaker
not now that I don't remember when you started I just remember what you had to start and where it came from I certainly remember everything after that but the initial part is a bit faded yeah it was it was just licensed goods it wasn't actually I don't think I had anything from Bandai yet I certainly didn't have any action figures or zords or play sets I remember when the shark cycles showed up at Eaton's absolutely Yeah.
00:16:14
Speaker
Because that's probably where I bought them. Yeah. I think I have pictures. We were so excited that day we walked into Eaton's and they finally had all of the Thunder Megazord stuff out.
00:16:25
Speaker
Yeah, because I guess by that point, you know, they just knew whatever it is, buy it. Yeah. And then you'd have to luck into going backwards to find stuff. Yeah, totally.
00:16:35
Speaker
Like the Rita monsters and... Yeah, like everything was already they were already working on that sort of second season. Yeah. um But they certainly went back and filled in because all that stuff eventually showed up. Like there was no there was more triangle box and there was more of the um what were they called? the The triangle box ones where they had an action.
00:17:00
Speaker
And I can't remember and all the flip heads, all those. were Yeah, flip heads were weird. They're weird looking, but they were pretty cool because- And everybody remembers them.
00:17:10
Speaker
yes Because- Because- Everybody had something, right? Yeah. You'd flip it and it like, you know there's Kimberly and there's Jason and you there's Tommy. Yeah. The girls were very unflattering in that line. Totally.
00:17:21
Speaker
Because they didn't they were just bulky with no hair, right? Right. Right. Flat hair. Same for everybody. Yeah. So it was really weird. But who cared? I bought it. i bought everything. It was by the time things like, like the, the shuttle zords and stuff, like the serious pieces, it was like, Oh, this is getting really cool.
00:17:40
Speaker
You know? Yeah. Yeah. And that was around the time that I actually started working at toys for us. So now I had, i had the inside.
00:17:52
Speaker
Cause remember I got in so much trouble. So here's a, here's a scary toys for us story. I, um, I was finding all this stuff and there was all this clearance stuff in the store that had been packed away in boxes and everybody had forgotten about.
00:18:07
Speaker
And I'm like, I don't care. i want to buy it. I didn't have the money. So I would just put it in a box and keep it in the storeroom. And so I had this big box and it just said, you know, Josh's toys.
00:18:19
Speaker
And we had a presidential visit. All the ah the the ah senior leaders from the US were on a walk around tour in Canada. And of course they stopped in the storeroom to chat for a while. And then somebody looked up and said, what is Josh's toys?
00:18:37
Speaker
And I got in so much trouble. Like my manager basically took me into the office and said, you can never, ever put anything on hold ever again.
00:18:49
Speaker
What was his name? ah Martin. Yes. Yeah. is yeah Martin. Martin. ah Yeah. so that that just about cost me my job.
00:19:02
Speaker
But then there was a whole bunch more things that happened after that that just about cost me my job again. But that was a whole other story. But yeah, so I did. That's when I really started to go a little crazy. And I remember I had, I think in there I had a white tiger zord and I had a bunch of other zords, just things that, you know, were kind of,
00:19:22
Speaker
already beaten up boxes and everything but i'm like i didn't care because just going to open them anyways well the line was so extensive you know what i mean and and like it would be heartbreaking to be a kid and want everything just couldn't you know and even the team of five you know what i mean five figures right there is going to cost mom and dad a lot of money let alone their zords or their vehicles 50 bucks you know whatever yeah that that's a little that's pretty tough right yeah yeah and i remember when the zords first started hitting the shelves they were like 89 bucks not wild right like that's so expensive yeah that that's a crazy amount of money but people were buying them up like crazy right i remember the big sets were 150 bucks i'm like what and they weren't
00:20:12
Speaker
hoarding them or anything like they would today. They were just literally being bought for kids and buying off the shelves. The cool thing is, too, that there was so much stuff on the shelves by the time it started to you know sort of ramp up that there wasn't really a shortage. right Parents could still get something. It's like, well...
00:20:30
Speaker
He wanted the flip head, but you know, this karate kicking red guy will do, right? Right. There was enough stuff on the shelves that, you know, people could still get stuff for Christmas and and kids were still happy.
00:20:43
Speaker
But we were still going down to the States to to get the majority of things. The real good stuff. Yeah. And our, our stuff was so short packed. Like we never got girl figures.
00:20:54
Speaker
So there was no pink and yellow. Yeah. I had to go to the States for that. um We didn't get a lot of the accessories. yeah So that that first couple of years, like um I think Turbo was the first year that we, Canada, got full lines of things.
00:21:14
Speaker
And I think that's that's when Bandai opened in Canada. Oh, maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah So that might have changed things too. Yeah. So when Bandai opened up a small office with some distribution in Canada, they were better able to make sure that stuff was getting in.
00:21:30
Speaker
And at this point, you know, companies like Toys R Us were more willing to spend the money because it was it was a sure thing. You know, it's funny, on it like I love Car Ranger, right?
00:21:40
Speaker
But the Turbo Ranger packaging was really dull. yeah it was just that sort of blue sort of a blue wave kind of this package yeah just when i'm thinking of the shelves it's just like it doesn't wasn't very exciting anyway but i was there i i remember unpacking the very first turbo shipments And I was very excited.
00:22:01
Speaker
Was it the role-playing weapon vehicle? Yes. You know what I'm talking about? Yes. course you don't want to talk about it. That's what I picture as the first thing. It's like, this is what should do. It's one of them, yeah. I just remember I loaded up a flat cart with all the Power Ranger turbo boxes. Because Band-Aid was really easy to find in the storeroom, too, because had a big Band-Aid logo across all the boxes.
00:22:22
Speaker
And so I'd load up the cart, and I was like cracking it open. And I'm like, oh, this one's for me, and this one's for you. And nobody else, everybody knew in the store, even though I was a store manager, they were all like, no, no, no. The Power Rangers Josh's stuff. You're not allowed merchandise Yeah. Yeah. Because, you know, he has gloves for this.
00:22:41
Speaker
ah
00:22:43
Speaker
So, yeah. So that was, that was the beginning of the madness. And I didn't stop collecting everything until, my God, I don't remember.
00:22:54
Speaker
I think I stopped around Mystic Force. That sounds right. Right. Was Mystic after Storm? Yes. Ninja Storm was was a big one. um And Ninja Storm was when Disney actually owned the franchise.
00:23:10
Speaker
Yeah. um And it was it was it was an okay series. I liked the series. I thought it was was well done. I loved the toys from Ninja Storm. um And then and when did they go to and the next? Yeah, the look at Mystic was kind of Yeah.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it was it was an odd one. I'm trying to think now here if it it was actually earlier. But yeah, I think I stopped around Mystic. I i had the Zord and I had some figures and then I was kind of like, you know what?
00:23:40
Speaker
I've got lockers of stuff and I've got no room to to move in my house anymore. yeah So yeah, it was time to to kind of pull back on that. So I stopped because I was getting everything, every color, every bike, every weapon, every you know every color of every weapon.
00:23:56
Speaker
And then the Japanese equivalent. Yes, I started getting into the Japanese stuff because we had our little Japanese toy company at that time. ye And so we we found people that could get us stuff and it was really cool. Yeah.
00:24:10
Speaker
Right. So I had that stuff that I got from Irwin and then we were getting some stuff brought over, um you know, through various sources and we were kind of handpicking. And then there was that trip. We went to Vancouver.
00:24:24
Speaker
And all of found a bunch of stores in Richmond that had Japanese Power Rangers. That was like a dream trip. Yes. Like, I swear that didn't happen.
00:24:35
Speaker
Like, it was just store after store after store of all this Japanese Bandai toy. Yes. You know, and i don't mean the candy toys or, you know, or the writing tablets. These are proper toys. And it's like, what are all these stores? There's tons of them.
00:24:52
Speaker
Yeah. and yet when i went back in in years later not not a single piece of evidence that even those stores existed yeah go yeah i went back once to do some christmas shopping and it was all still there and then you know that that was the last time i was out there but but yeah i get that it was just taken over and gone yeah yeah that's that went really quickly so yeah that was uh that was pretty cool um And we were still traveling to
Organizing and Attending Power Rangers Events
00:25:20
Speaker
the US. So any stuff that I was still you know trying to get, we were getting down from the US. s yeah But by that point, by the time Turbo hit, we were pretty much getting everything anyways.
00:25:29
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. It would be like unless Target had an exclusive or something. Yes. You know, we pretty much did have everything. and you Yeah, the only the only exclusives ever really found were things like those little intermediate zords.
00:25:43
Speaker
Yep. And they were actually like right on the box, only at Target. And of course, I had all those. Yes. Because they weren't anywhere else. Right. They were they were just there.
00:25:55
Speaker
They were so cool, though. Oh, totally. I had those for a long time as well. Yeah. And then, and then do you remember when we went to see the live Power Ranger show?
00:26:07
Speaker
I sure do. Yeah. I sure do. I swear we were like the second row or something. Yeah. Yeah. We were, we were really close to the stage. Yeah. That was the Budweiser stage. Was it Budweiser? Yeah. Okay.
00:26:20
Speaker
So, yeah. So we went to Power Rangers Live. And, of course, it was just this crazy stage show of everybody jumping around with lots of smoke and ah special effects and things. But it supposed fun.
00:26:33
Speaker
Was it supposed to be based a little bit on the first movie? I don't even think they went that detailed. I think it was just a really basic... um just as a basic you know Rita's up to so no good again and here's Lord Zedd and it almost seemed like it was improv you know what I mean yeah it was very loose although there was not a lot of story and depth and character for sure I just remember my boss at the time, who I had no respect for, my boss the time was taking her kid. I'm like, that's so funny. You're going with your kid.
00:27:06
Speaker
I'm going with my friend. Yeah, exactly. And we're almost 40 and your kid's four. Yeah, that was pretty funny. and was it was a great time, though.
00:27:17
Speaker
But those are the cool things that were happening. That's when they were like shutting down malls, you know what I mean? and and Yeah. And shutting down highways because of all these events happening with the Rangers, and it's just massive.
00:27:30
Speaker
So that that reminded me of something really cool that I got to do was um Bandai, because they were in Canada, ah I reached out to them and said, Hey, we're doing kid's day at Toys R Us.
00:27:44
Speaker
Would you guys want to do something? And they were like, absolutely. So they, they brought stunt actors up from California to, to do kids day a, at a Toys R Us in Canada.
00:27:59
Speaker
And it was really freaking awesome. So there was like, I can't remember which I think was like a red and yellow or something. You must have pictures. I do. I have pictures. Isn't that when they did Dragon Ball 2?
00:28:13
Speaker
Or was that a different event? ah No. The Dragon Ball was when we opened up the Queen Street Toys Us store. i just I do remember the yeah the Rangers, but i'd I had actually forgotten that.
00:28:27
Speaker
Yeah, I brought them up a few times um working with Bandai Canada. um And they actually started doing events really big on their own outside that.
00:28:40
Speaker
So I did some things that were directly related to Toys R Us. And then they brought up, I don't even if you remember, there was the truck where they had that great big truck. And I can't remember what series that was. You're talking about like a convoy, not a convoy truck, but you're talking about like a...
00:28:57
Speaker
An 18-wheeler. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great big, massive truck. And you could there was actually ah an event inside the truck. I think there were there was a video game or something. And then they had the the sort of bouncy bouncing planet one that was Lost Galaxy.
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah, that's funny. It was a big inflatable thing, and they put it in the parking lot. I think it's Square One in Mississauga. Yeah, Square One got everything. yeah and Yeah, because that's where everybody was. And they also brought the the stunt actors to come up, and they were know doing flips and cartwheels and everything in the parking lot.
00:29:28
Speaker
I just remember how they weren't tall. None of them were tall. No, they weren't tall people. Yeah, they were all the Japanese. But they were very fit. not Yeah. Yeah, they were.
00:29:41
Speaker
And friendly. Very friendly. Super nice. and Yeah, so that was pretty cool. like i was I was really you know proud of that work I did with Bandai and Toys R Us. Some really cool events.
00:29:54
Speaker
If you want to see pictures, you can go to my website. It's thepyrodome.com. I think I've got some of the live event pictures still posted there. Very cool. Yeah. Yeah. So I had I had a really good relationship with with Bandai and right up until they left.
00:30:12
Speaker
um Because they also did the the really cool event where they you could win a life-size Power Ranger. Do you remember that? Yep. They had one for every Canadian R Us store.
00:30:25
Speaker
And you just had to you know, fill out a form and drop it in a box. And then they were doing a draw. And I remember the kid that won his dad was like, oh, yeah, no that's that's crazy.
00:30:37
Speaker
It was a six foot tall. Yes, it was Fiberglass Ranger molded right from one of the stunt actors. Yeah. Um, and, uh, with a proper suit on. Yeah. He had a fabric suit on The helmet was flawless. Like these things were just incredible.
00:30:53
Speaker
And they were standing in the stores for months. I think they had them on display for most of the summer and then they gave them away at the end of the summer. um And I just remember this poor dad. He's like, i don't even know how going to get this thing home. He thought was his kid had won an action figure.
00:31:07
Speaker
He didn't know it was going to be like, you know, his his new babysitter. That's so funny. But then I think I said this before that when I went into the Bandai Canada office, I was talking to the general manager and she had one sitting in her office and she goes, get it out of here. So that's how I ended up with one.
00:31:25
Speaker
you had two didn't you i had three had three have three yeah i think i had three all together i had a ninja storm horse right wild force an original was there an original one no it was no maybe only had two there's pictures of me with two maybe it is just two Yeah, it could just be too. I know I ordered the the Ninja Storm one of eBay and that was crazy because they just all sudden somebody delivered a body wrapped in cardboard and it looked like a body.
00:32:00
Speaker
They just basically wrapped cardboard around this six foot tall fiberglass thing. I just was really surprised it didn't, it wasn't like chipped and destroyed. It got there safely. Yeah.
00:32:11
Speaker
And then I eventually sold them to a dad who was having a birthday party for his kid. And he's like, oh, my God, my kid's head's going explode when he walks into the basement. Yeah, that's so cool. Right. So that was pretty cool.
00:32:22
Speaker
I remember when you had them and people would say, like, doesn't that scare you? And like, no, it doesn't scare me at all. It's like, but they're like real people. Like, no, they're not They're just big figures.
00:32:34
Speaker
Yeah. They're gigantic action figures. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were super cool. they That was so cool. That was one of the coolest things I think I put in my collection.
00:32:45
Speaker
my My current collection is very trimmed down. You can see most of it behind me. it's I still have my two-foot-tall Rangers just because they're just so cool. like They're the the the Zords, and they're 24 inches tall. the one that's kind of up here and the ah above my head, he has like ah almost a two-foot wingspan. He's from Wild Force.
00:33:07
Speaker
And they were just, they were, ah they were a good find because they only shipped in Canada one, one time and that was it. Yeah. They were a gift. They were very cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, totally.
00:33:19
Speaker
So they were just, they were such a treasure to get. Like, I'm like, oh so amazing. And I just love them. Shogun warriors almost. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. they They were cool because they had big handles on the back so you could, you know, play with them.
00:33:33
Speaker
Not that I do that. Are you missing any? Or did you? um I don't think so. i think I got. No. and when they when they did the Power Engine Space one, he wasn't a two-foot.
00:33:47
Speaker
He was only like, I think he was like maybe 18 inches and he was, he was morphing. Like you could actually morph him into the the space shuttle. So he was cool, but he didn't fit with the rest of them. Cause these guys were just, they're just big and hard plastic and they have movable arms things. But yeah, so cool.
00:34:06
Speaker
What, um, if, if I were to ask you, what was, what was probably the favorite toy that I had in my Power Ranger collection oh for you? Oh,
00:34:21
Speaker
Probably any, oh, you know what's really funny? You know what comes to mind? no Is the Capu Ranger kite. Isn't that funny? Seriously? Isn't that? That so hilarious. That's the first thing I thought of.
00:34:32
Speaker
Like I was- remember how we got that? I was excited how, I was excited for you that all that stuff existed. Yeah. um And by the time they started bringing the Car Ranger stuff over, it was like, oh, now you're talking my language, right? Yeah.
00:34:48
Speaker
So it might've been a little envious of that. But i I think there was a time when I could have told you what I thought was the coolest and now I don't remember. It might have been anything you had that was Japanese probably would have come first for me. yeah you know You know I loved Tor.
00:35:05
Speaker
Yeah, Tor was cool. um
00:35:10
Speaker
Who else? Sorry, I don't want to drag this on. No, no it's cool. what was it What was one of the other shuttles? I loved the shuttles. Yeah, the shuttle zords are cool, like Pyramidus. Yeah, yeah. they He was my favorite of the sort of giant ultra zords.
00:35:28
Speaker
Well, it's like, what yeah, once once you can, you know, put them into what they can actually be, like the final version, it's like, wow, this is incredible. Yeah. know, so...
Favorite Power Rangers Toys
00:35:40
Speaker
Because the season would always start out with, here's your basic Zord, and then you would get a secondary powered up Zord, and then by the end of the season, you would get like an Ultra Zord or a Carrier Zord that would combine everybody all together. Yeah, yeah.
00:35:56
Speaker
I like the question, but you know, I really don't remember... I think one of the things that I loved the most was the Kaku Ranger bus. You know, the little cat bus? Oh, right. Of course, I do. yeah But again, a Japanese piece, right? you know.
00:36:09
Speaker
I know. It was something that didn't translate, so they didn't use any of that footage here. Right. Yeah, that was a cool thing. All they used from Kaku Ranger was the the Alien Ranger storyline, and that was pretty short.
00:36:21
Speaker
Right. That is my that is my favorite Sentai series as well. kaku guessing yours would be would be a car ranger it kind of is yeah yeah and then followed by um uh another road one not not spd um there was another car one
00:36:46
Speaker
you know what what i really liked though was the pirates Yeah. Yeah. That was cool. The first pirates though, right? didn't the mirate Didn't the pirates get a six foot figure?
00:36:57
Speaker
Why do I think that the six foot figure was also a pirate? No, no. Okay. All right. No, i don't remember what the American version of that was called. The, the, that was, um, diva talks season. That was, that was turbo.
00:37:13
Speaker
And then the movie, No, then I'm saying the wrong thing. The ones where they actually look like pirates. The Rangers look like pirates. Oh, that's a much more recent one. Yes, yes.
00:37:25
Speaker
and And of course, now that you've said it, i my brain's like... that's fine. But the look of that one was really cool. Yes, that was a really cool season because that's when they started sort of combining seasons because that was the year that they made the keys.
00:37:39
Speaker
Yeah. Right? So that then they had those keys and the keys could be used to bring Rangers from different series. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. So that was a pretty cool thing. Like in terms of the toys, the keys were probably one of the, the biggest of the later toys that came out that really like supercharged everything.
00:37:58
Speaker
I thought it was funny when the morphers started becoming their phones and like phones, why are the phones, the morphers, you know, never dreaming that, you know our cell phones would become, yeah totally you know, but I'm like in those early years, I'm like, why is it their phone?
00:38:12
Speaker
Yeah. Good phones. Yeah, that was weird, but it was super cool. So the it was ah the pirate ones. Was it Samurai?
00:38:25
Speaker
No. Yeah. I swear I can see the lettering. Jungle Fury. And then.
00:38:36
Speaker
Yeah, I can't remember what they were called. They were super sentai.
00:38:42
Speaker
Is it Shin Kenger? but that was a look yeah it was very cool and they in terms of of what the japanese did for their storylines was really cool and then what they did with the american storylines was was even better because they really tied things you know back together and and gave us all of those sort of old ranger series and brought all these rangers back and it was just really cool very cool and then they were able to do that with the toys you could get you know mighty morph and toys again yeah that's right i remember all of a sudden it was like here's all these carded figures yeah yeah so everything started coming back and then it was a big um sort of a forever forever red kind of thing that was going on yeah but uh yeah you're right those uh those pirate guys were really cool because that was the beginning of that yeah subana couldn't remember everything properly oh here it is
00:39:36
Speaker
They were called, so Ninja Storm I also loved. I liked it. i liked when they did that sort of three, three heroes and then added five. yeah Yeah, that was really cool. I loved s SPD, the vehicles in SPD, like Space, Space Patrol Delta, really cool.
00:39:54
Speaker
ah Mystic Force was when I kind of stopped. I did buy some Operation Overdrive stuff, but I i started to sell it off. I had some Jungle Fury stuff. RPM, I bought figures and then that was, that was it.
00:40:06
Speaker
Megaforce, that's what they called them. The dinosaur, or sorry, the ah pirate guys. Megaforce. Yeah. Yeah. After Samurai came Megaforce and then Dino Charge, the Ninja Steel, and then Beast Morphers, and then Dino Fury. And then they did Cosmic Fury, but it wasn't really the Cosmic Fury I was hoping for.
00:40:26
Speaker
Well, it certainly had a good run. Yeah, it sure did. that was ah That was an amazing part of of my toy collecting Your second use. Yeah.
00:40:38
Speaker
And what's really cool is is the new playmate Playmates toys that have just come out. Really cool. Like they're really nice looking. And I'm still not seeing them in person. No, I don't know. Like is anything going to come to Canada? I don't know. Yeah, please.
00:40:52
Speaker
Do they have distribution? The pterodactyl is walmart.ca. Oh, yeah, yeah, you were saying that. That's really cool. Yeah, that's really cool.
Closing Thoughts & Listener Engagement
00:41:00
Speaker
So I guess that's it for Power Rangers.
00:41:03
Speaker
their Their hopes of getting a new movie, not so good. um I did take advantage and got some of the Boom Studio comic collections um because that that was a really cool way to sort of collect some of those stories and some of that art.
00:41:17
Speaker
But yeah, i haven't really I haven't really added any Ranger stuff to my collection for quite some time. And I'm good with that. I'm good. i had I had my fun. Each time King Sphinx gets reissued, try to get you to buy it.
00:41:31
Speaker
He's up there somewhere. Seriously? i don't have the reissue. I just have the original. Yeah, I still have my original one. He's still kicking around. Is Pudgy Pig up there? ah No, Pudgy Pig is long gone. Aw, poor Piggy. Yeah, I've got a couple of the bad guys still.
00:41:46
Speaker
Do have Goldars? Yeah, i still have a Goldar. Cool. He's love a Goldar. Yeah, yeah, he's cool. He was fun. Yeah. Yeah. And they still have I still have to the Kekka Ranger guy.
00:41:59
Speaker
I can't remember his name is right now. Ninjor? No, I have Ninjor too. Yeah, I have Ninjor.
00:42:07
Speaker
I still have my my original Megazord. So it's it's from 90, want to say 94. So yeah, it's it's just had a big birthday. Pretty cool. Yeah, it's pretty darn cool.
00:42:21
Speaker
Well, that's, I'm just wrapped it up. I thought that was a pretty cool, cool journey. Uh, I was my, my big toy collection. Um, and then I, I trimmed that back and started collecting star Wars and then went, what the heck am I doing? what am i first So I'm really not, I started model kit building again so I can build star Trek and star Warships.
00:42:43
Speaker
And that's already kind of made its way because of my ADHD and also because there's just nothing else for me to build. I think I got all the main ships that I want. so So, yeah, but that's been a fun hobby.
00:42:56
Speaker
So, all right, we're going to wrap it up with one more Power Ranger trivia questions. All right. And then I'll let you go. I already asked you that one. Is it the name of the little creature from Turbo?
00:43:09
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, what is his name? Do you remember? Furbis? I don't know. Yeah, you're that's right. You got that right. Is that right? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, Furbis. Oh, my gosh.
00:43:20
Speaker
Totally. Okay, this is going to be a tough one, but um it's an interesting one. All right. How many seasons have a Green Ranger? Oh, gosh, I have no idea. It's probably not very many.
00:43:32
Speaker
What would be Eight. Eight.
00:43:38
Speaker
a No, it's 11. There are 11 seasons with Green Rangers. Now you have to name them all. ah Green. Green one. Green two.
00:43:49
Speaker
No, that's not it. What is the name? oh that' and that's too hard. What is the name of the Angel Grove hangout in Power Rangers in space? Oh, yeah, you lost me there.
00:44:03
Speaker
Surf Spot Cafe. They're drinking coffee by that point. Hmm. Because they weren't teenagers anymore. They weren't teenagers with attitude. No attitude.
00:44:15
Speaker
Now they want double-double. Yeah. All right. That's it. That's enough for Power Rangers for tonight. Hey, you know what listeners, you got a Power Ranger memory. Do you have a toy collection memory?
00:44:27
Speaker
You know what, you know where to go, go check out the social media. You can leave me a message on speak pipe. We've got a link off my Instagram page and I'd love to hear from you. You can even just type something in. If you've got a question, you got a comment, you had some kind of Gen X thing that's just kind of bugging you you want to know the answer to, we we'll, we'll answer it for you. Even if we have to make up an answer, we can do that.
00:44:48
Speaker
So, Great to have you here today. ah Don't forget to check us out. um Stay subscribed and check out social media. And we will see you again next Saturday.
00:45:01
Speaker
morphan time You've been listening to Yabba Zonker Zoinks, a Gen X for Life podcast. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any exciting episodes. You can reach out on Instagram at Gen X for Life podcast. That's Gen X number four life underscore podcast or send an email at Gen X for Life podcast, all one word, at gmail.com.
00:45:24
Speaker
I'd love to hear about your favorite Gen X Saturday morning memory, maybe a favorite toy or the cereal you just couldn't wait to tear into. Until then, have a Yabba Zonker Zonk's Day, and I'll be back bright and early next Saturday morning.