Power Rangers Props Up For Auction: Is This The End?

Following the end of production of Power Rangers Cosmic Fury, showrunner Simon Bennett said that the New Zealand studios (i.e. where Power Rangers has been primarily filming since the Disney era of the franchise) were closing and all of the TV show props and costumes were being sent to the United States. What has happened in the meantime is that Hasbro has unloaded over 900 items of costumes, props, marketing material, and concept art to Heritage Auctions to put up for sale to the public. 

When I first heard the news about Hasbro letting go so many props and suits from the long history of Power Rangers, I felt like a lot of fellow fans of the franchise did and saw this as signs of the beginning of the end. There was no new live action season in sight, the Lightning Collection toyline was on "hiatus" without any new products in sight despite plans for Playmates to start producing new toys in 2025 (with fans haven't seen anything as far as concept art or any prototypes), the beloved Power Rangers run of comics by BOOM! Studios were coming to an end, and Hasbro has been radio silent about the plans for an alleged reboot. It felt like the end was near, with Hasbro ready to unload all of the assets and call this franchise a distant memory. Between their constant cash cows from licensed merchandise of Star Wars, Marvel Comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, along with the other assorted licenses and IPs that they own the rights to make toys of on top of their own IPs - Transformers and GI Joe - Hasbro could drop Power Rangers like a bad habit and not even lose any sleep. This auction news comes at a time where Hasbro is reporting record profit losses and other various money issues. So obviously, this stinks of a quick cash grab. 

If that wasn't bad enough, the actors, staff, and other crew members weren't even given first dibs at this stuff. Instead, it was all lumped altogether onto Heritage Auctions' website and shared to the public, making everyone aware that they were selling off these pieces of the franchise's 30+ year history at the same time. It comes off as a complete slap in the face to both the fans and the people who contributed to this franchise's rich history that Hasbro is willing to discard this stuff to the highest bidder when Saban was more than happy to allow this stuff to continue gathering dust in a warehouse for years on end. For Christ's sake, at least put some of this stuff in a museum if it were some of the original costumes and props instead of what was on loan from Toei. 

On the flip side, maybe Hasbro is doing this for they won't have to gut the brand completely. Auctioning off some of the older original assets might be the key to drawing up some additional funding to financially support this pending reboot to make the best product that they can create within their budget. I know it's extremely optimistic (yet very dangerous) thinking in the current landscape where Hollywood seems to be content with profiting off of nostalgia with the least amount of effort put into it while expecting maximum returns on said investment. 

Meanwhile in Japan, Super Sentai is still firing on all cylinders without any signs of ending anytime soon. I personally don't see the constant resistance to try to remove and detach Power Rangers from its tokusatsu roots when that was the genre and tropes that got the franchise to rise in popularity in the first place. Why turn your backs now on that just because the corporate bigwigs don't want to give Toei and Bandai a cut of the profit revenue? Denying that has failed in the last few seasons across both storylines not drawing in as many new fans nor maintaining existing fans while compiling and accruing increased production costs from not recycling the Sentai footage. Between both TokuSHOUTsu and the official Power Rangers channels over on YouTube, anyone can watch the older seasons for FREE at their leisure, so why is Hasbro resisting what worked and continues to bring in fans?

As a fan, I honestly don't get what in the world are they thinking. I guess on one hand if everything that they loaned out from Toei has been returned, there's really no harm done as they could either have new costumes from older seasons commissioned or rented/loaned out again as Super Sentai has a constant supply of them. Then for monsters, most of those are in rough shape to begin with when they are sent over to Power Rangers once those corresponding seasons of Super Sentai have ended filming, hence why a lot of those monsters are either scrapped completely, repurposed in some other minor capacity, or replaced altogether with an all-new original villain for the Power Rangers equivalent of that season. 

That being said, let's look at where the franchise is currently and assess whether or not it is truly dead or not. 

I covered the Once & Always special previously in a full blown review on this blog, so I won't retread my thoughts into those waters again here, but I thought it was a touching tribute and homage to the original cast and crew, while simultaneously setting the stage for Cosmic Fury to debut in the months/weeks that followed. It brought back a few lapsed fans, even just for this single special to see where the franchise has wind up after all of these years since they were children, but unfortunately, those lapsed fans didn't stick around for Cosmic Fury.

COSMIC FURY: Afterthoughts on the 30th Season of the Franchise

Power Rangers Cosmic Fury ran for a mere ten episodes, running at 22 minutes each exclusively on Netflix. Unlike many series in the franchise that proceded it, this season of Power Rangers only used the Zord battles and antagonists from Uchu Sentai Kyuranger's Sentai footage while resorting to brand new, original costumes and fight scenes filmed for this season. We saw this method was used in Once & Always as that special used absolutely no Sentai footage outside of archive footage for flashbacks. Minimal costume and prop elements were recycled from Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger and Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger.

The Dino Fury team/cast saw some changes in this season:

• Amelia was upgraded from Dino Fury Pink Ranger to become the Cosmic Fury Red Ranger and impromptu leader in this season. 

• Zayto survived his noble sacrifice from the finale of Dino Fury and returned as the Zenith Ranger, thanks to the Morphin Masters.

• Ollie became the Evil Dino Fury Blue Ranger after succumbing to Lord Zedd's influence. 

• Javi lost his arm and gained a cyborg replacement that was made by Billy. He upgrades from Dino Fury Black Ranger to become the Cosmic Fury Black Ranger.

• Izzy upgrades from Dino Fury Green Ranger to become the Cosmic Fury Green Ranger. A hot topic that continues from the previous season is her lesbian relationship with her girlfriend Fern.

• Fern debuts as the Cosmic Fury Orange Ranger after saving Solon's life.

• Billy returns in a mentor-like role in this season to the Cosmic Fury Rangers as he builds and repairs their technology on their pursuit of Lord Zedd. He maintains his status as the Mighty Morphin Blue Power Ranger as needed. 

• Heckyl returns from Dino Charge Super Charge and makes his debut as the Dino Charge Dark Ranger. 

• Mick Kanic returns from Ninja Steel as the Ninja Steel Red Ranger II. 

• Beast Morphers' Commander (now General) Shaw makes a cameo appearance.

The plot sees Lord Zedd (who returned briefly in Dino Fury) opting to team with Squidrill armada to use their vast resources (minions, monsters, connections, technology, and money) in an attempt to takeover the universe. The ten episodes follow the Dino Fury Rangers pursuing Zedd across the universe while finding and acquiring new powers and Zords to continue the fight after being stranded lost out in space. There's some compelling themes throughout this season and I'm glad the writers were wise enough to make Amelia earn her leadership after it was essentially dropped in her lap following Zayto's absence. She was always the heart and soul of this team and now more than ever she has to lift them out of their darkest hour towards a brighter tomorrow. She doubts herself early on, but by the end, I really felt that she grew into the role, despite the short episode order and so much going on in this season. If we never get another Power Rangers season in this current continuity, then I'm perfectly fine with Amelia being the last Red Ranger in franchise history in its original thirty season iteration. Trust and believe that she had a lot to live up to following in Zayto's shoes. I never felt that she outshined him nor did he just step down to hand her the position out of pity/charity. Zayto had a higher calling in this season, or rather this franchise altogether by the time it was all said and done. 

Zayto ends up becoming one of the Morphin Masters himself after coming in contact with who many having safely assumed to be the remnants of Zordon's essence in the Morphin Grid following the release of the Z wave across the universe at the end of Power Rangers In Space. Speaking of which, I thought it was a cool juxtaposition in terms of how they flipped the Z wave concept for Bajillia Naire's betrayal plans for how she planned on using Zedd all along after he acquired the Morphin Masters' powers. After becoming Master Zedd, Bajillia contained him in a similar manner as Zordon and planned to release his evil in a reverse Z wave that would destroy all good in the universe. Fortunately, Zayto convinces Zedd to reliniquish his newfound powers after informing him that he would be destroyed too in the process of this reverse Z wave. Zedd agrees only to be left to live his worst nightmare, being alone with Rita Repulsa after Zayto traps him on Planet Nibyro.

The most jarring decision to me in terms of writing Cosmic Fury and Once & Always was that they brought back David Yost's Billy as a mentor for the Dino Fury/Cosmic Fury team of rangers, but didn't even consider bringing back Minh Kwan to work with the Cosmic Fury Rangers despite all of them being around the same age group. It was such a missed opportunity to see her work with this team or any other Ranger team for that matter before the franchise's planned reboot. I wonder what was the excuse when Dino Fury nor Cosmic Fury had a Yellow Ranger so that was an open slot/spot on the team even if they wanted to use Fern regardless as the Orange Cosmic Fury Ranger. You already had Billy around full-time for this season and I doubt one more character would have done any harm to this story. 

With Zedd trapped and the Squidrill armada destroyed, the Rangers return to Earth and say their goodbyes to Zayto as he joins the Morphin Masters permanently while Billy is left to ponder the possibilities of Zordon still being out there. He already made that mistake once of digging too far into that, so I hope he has learned not to repeat the mistakes made back in Once & Always. As a result, Cosmic Fury ends with fans having more questions than answers. For a standalone season, this was fine for what it was worth in terms of one more last hurrah with the Dino Fury cast, but as a conclusion to the current iteration of the franchise, I thought it left a LOT to be desired. 

As of this posting, Netflix has bowed out in terms of being the partner of Hasbro to produce any new content for television, so Hasbro is left searching for a new partnership for any sort of future for Power Rangers on television in any capacity. 

Hasbro's Lightning Collection Toyline is Effectively Dead; Enter - Playmates

Hasbro is handing the reins over to Playmates to produce Power Rangers toys geared towards children, starting with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers going forward in 2025. This news pretty much all but confirms that Hasbro's Power Rangers Lightning Collection line of toys will cease production. You can look on Hasbro Pulse right now as of this posting and see how little of that merchandise is left, especially what isn't already up for sale on their outlet pages. 

Source: Hasbro

If you see this stuff at a reasonable price, I HIGHLY suggest picking it up, especially if it's characters that you want to add/start your collection with. Numerous people have been reliably sharing across social media that these figures have been showing up in discount stores and on clearance across numerous retailers over the past year, with Ollie's, Ross, Burlington, Big Lots (specifically Legacy Collection), and Walmart offering them at amazing discounts in-store or online. Otherwise, don't cry about it later if you missed out. Sadly, Hasbro didn't finish a lot of the teams, so we're going to have to hope and pray that Playmates are up to that task once they shove more Mighty Morphin merchandise down our throats like they have been flooding the toy aisle with TMNT toys from almost every era. 

A lot of people have pointed out online that Hasbro hasn't outright cancelled the Lightning Collection line and Playmates is making new toys focused on children, meaning that Hasbro could continuing offering Lightning Collection figures for adult collectors exclusively on Hasbro Pulse. I'm personally not holding my breath on that as there are numerous Ranger teams that are not Mighty Morphin that they haven't bothered finishing nor released all of the members for. It sucks as it's going to force fans to trash and/or discard the toy line completely for whatever Playmates cooks up whether it scales with the Lightning Collection or not. 

It wasn't until this week of this article's posting that this news came out that BOOM! Studios was working on a new comic book for the Power Rangers brand. To be fair though, they did announce that they weren't losing the license to produce Power Rangers comics anytime soon despite ending their current run of beloved stories, so that should have alleviated any fears the fandom had on that front to begin with. 

BOOM! Studios Presents a New Era of Ongoing Power Rangers Comics with POWER RANGERS PRIME

New Rangers, New Villains, New Stories

Groundbreaking Power Rangers writer, and scribe behind Darkest Hour Melissa Flores, along with acclaimed artist Michael Yg (Iron Fist) ushers in a new era into the Rangers Mythos with an unmissable first chapter in the new ongoing series POWER RANGERS PRIME! Coming this Fall from BOOM! Studios, in collaboration with leading toy and game company Hasbro–the ONLY place to get new, official POWER RANGERS stories.

“With Power Rangers Prime, we’re bringing the comics into a reimagined world! Familiar characters and settings will pop up in unexpected ways, but this is an all-new adventure – a crazy journey I can’t wait to share with you that beats with the heart of what it means to be a Power Ranger,” said long time Power Rangers scribe, Melissa Flores. “With designs by Dan Mora and art by the incredible Michael Yg, honestly I’m just blown away and so thankful to be a part of it!”

Power Rangers is BACK and better than ever!

Angel Grove University students face a difficult choice after crossing paths with a fugitive straight out of legend. The consequences for hiding her are dire…but her existence may not stay secret for long.

In the wake of Darkest Hour, prepare yourself for a bold new era and a brand new story unlike anything that’s come before! A perfect “Day One” jumping on point for new readers and old fans alike! 

Source: BOOM! Studios

Closing Thoughts

It seems like we as Power Rangers fans might not have to hit the panic button quite yet. There's some sober moments to be had, such as the realization and dawning upon us that Power Rangers as we knew it over 30+ years will never be the same again and the anniversary of death of Jason David Frank is right around the corner in November, but there's some bright spots to look forward to concerning the franchise. The power is being kept alive in both video games and comic books, while we're still getting something to look forward to in collectibles with Playmates in 2025. Hasbro isn't allowing Power Rangers to die; it's in a restructuring phase whether we believe it or not. 

The sad truth of the matter is that as much as Power Rangers fans would love to see the owners of Power Rangers treat the franchise with as much love and care that Toei treats and honors their rich history with the Super Sentai, it's not going to happen. Super Sentai is embedded heavily into their culture while Power Rangers is seen as a niche with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers being the only season that went to mainstream popularity and recognition out of all of them in thirty years. 

I'm anxious to see what Power Rangers will become in this new iteration following the reboot. We have seen glimpses of greatness with their original fight choreography and cinematography in both Once & Always and the two seasons of Dino Fury/Cosmic Fury, so they are highly capable of doing their own thing without any dependency on the original Super Sentai footage. My only concern is trying to completely distance themselves from the tropes and themes of the tokusatsu genre altogether that got them here to begin with. 

As for this auction, I hope that these items go to some nice homes, specifically to the former actors, cast members, production crew, and other individuals who will continue honoring the rich history of the franchise while simultaneously allowing the fandom to enjoy them as well at conventions and other assorted appearances. The more worn down pieces deserve to be preserved in a museum of some sort as historical pieces of television history.