Remembering This Tokusatsu Collage That Confused Me As A Child....

If you happen to be a person who grew up more with Power Rangers than Super Sentai, you might find this picture confusing. Some may have not recognized Dairanger, Liveman, Kamen Rider J, Blue SWAT, Winspector and maybe to some extent Janperson. Remembering the time me and my folks visited a now-closed down toy store - this picture still brings me memories of a poster that used to hang together with the Power Rangers toys. But like some children back then, I thought the Zyuranger toys were Mighty Morphin' toys made in Japan because I knew Bandai was from Japan and it played a big part in the toys market. I even thought that the Zyuranger NES game was just a Japanese-made game. I even thought Janperson was just a recolored Robocop instead of a Robocop-inspired hero. What's funnier I even thought, "What in the world is going on with two Tommys there?" aside from, "Who are those other Power Rangers-like heroes there?" A lot of questions filled my head concerning stuff like posters in the toys department, "Power Rangers" toys with Japanese logos and many more. I just wonder how Power Rangers fans back then felt about this collage?

Years later, the collage on top of this entry would come back to my memories. I could still remember the memory of the toy store before it closed down a couple of years ago, the time when I thought Power Rangers was an unlicensed reproduction and years later, found out that it was still under Toei's licensing, the time I took a break from Tokusatsu and would later come back to it but not as much of a viewer I used to be. Besides, I was never such a huge fan of Super Sentai either considering I only knew names like Kazuo Niibori (the legendary red ranger stuntman), Toshiki Inoue or Hirohisa Soda (the legendary Super Sentai writer) as an ADULT. Toei tried to have every other Tokusastu localized via Saban that time but only Power Rangers stood the test for the American audience. Toei and Saban tried to localize B-Fighter as Beetleborgs, B-Fighter Kabuto as Beetleborgs Metallix, created VR Troopers out of Spielban, Metalder and later Shaider but all of them weren't as successful as Power Rangers.

As I said, I never knew the term Super Sentai until I was 16 years old and discovering more post-Jetman Super Sentai series that existed during that time. I thought that Saban either stole the name Power Rangers from Toei or paid Toei to get permission to use the name when it was their joint production together. I thought Saban's Masked Rider being a localization of Kamen Rider Black RX should've given me a clue that Power Rangers was based on something else. Later, I would really think Power Rangers was not a licensed production, I thought Toei should've sued Saban until I read more of Power Rangers' history. I discovered that the attempts to market Super Sentai as it was to Americans wasn't really going to work. Plus, it was perfect timing to have Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers in 1993 - the same year that Jurassic Park became a big hit. In 2015, Dino Charge entered in freaking the same year as Jurassic World. In-between in 2003 we had Abaranger as Mighty Morphin's tenth anniversary and in 2013, we had Kyoryuger as Mighty Morphin's 20th anniversary. In-between, I'd also learn of other Japanese companies that produced Tokusatsu like Toho and Tsubaraya.

Somewhere, somehow I just thought in my mind, "Power Rangers really lasted that long making Toei succeed where other Japanese companies that made Tokusatsu failed. that is by penetrating the American market. Toei had tried other shows it had to be localized but it didn't last that long. Saban's Masked Rider is a failure. Kamen Rider Dragon Knight by Wang Brothers didn't get more Kamen Rider localized for Americans. Power Rangers may not really be my cup of tea or flavor of ice cream but it's still part of Toei's way of expanding its market share towards the Western market. Without Super Sentai, there wouldn't be Power Rangers and without Power Rangers, Toei wouldn't be able to expand to the Western market getting royalties from Saban and for some time, Disney. So really... go go Super Sentai."