Power Rangers

Power Rangers is a long-running tokusatsu or martial-arts-based series that adapts Sentai footage from Japan into a new series for American audiences. Filmed in various locations around the Confederacy, Power Rangers lasted for over 50 years in its first run.

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers
When Rita Repulsa escapes her emprisonment and attacks Earth, Zordon teleports five teenagers to the command center to become power rangers to fight her monsters. Jason, Zack, Kimberly, Trini, and Billy are given a power coin to become power rangers, and use the Dinozords when Rita makes her monsters grow. Rita then used her green power coin to send an evil green ranger to defeat the Power Rangers, but the rangers broke the spell Rita had over him. With the Dragonzord, the rangers were able to defeat a number of Rita's monsters, so she used the green candle to try to destroy Tommy himself and his green power coin. Jason was able to stop the green candle in time to save the green power coin and Tommy, but the coin needed time to recharge, and Tommy had to stop being a power ranger for a time.

Morpher
Called the 'dino buckler' in Zyuranger, this allowed the six rangers to morph into power rangers. They then used their coins to create power crystals to activate their zords. When Tommy left the series temporarily, he gave his green power coin to Jason, whose morpher would turn gold when he used the green dragon shield. Over the course of three episodes, each ranger would use the dragon shield against one of Rita's monsters.

Zords
The first megazord was the Dino Megazord, made of the Mastadon, Pteradactyl, Triceratops, Sabre-toothed Tiger, and Tyrannosaurus zords. The green ranger used the Dragonzord.

When the Dragonzord combined with Mastodon, Triceratops, and Sabre-toothed Tiger, it formed the MegaDragonzord. Finally, all six could combine into one form, the Dragon Megazord.

Power Rangers Mythic Thunder
During the second season, the Power Rangers faced the evil Lord Zedd, and needed new zords and powers to defeat him. Zordon and Alpha 5 had the rangers engage on a difficult quest to find the Thunder Power Coins, which would enable the rangers to morph into stronger forms and access the newer Thunder Zords, which were designed to battle Zedd's monsters.

The American series filmed new battle scenes using the first season's suits and morphers with Dairanger helmets and weapons, and new power coins to represent the new zords they controlled. Zack became the green Thunder Ranger in this series, with the other rangers retaining their colors from the last season. Tommy returned as the White Ranger, and Jason remained as the red ranger.

This was the first series to have a team-up from the prior series' team. Using Clock Striker, Zedd fractured time, bringing the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers ahead a year, trying to overwhelm the rangers with one of Rita's old monsters. Unfortunately the rangers came too, and after some initial misunderstandings resulting in the two teams fighting each other, the Power Rangers teamed up with their younger selves to fight Rita and Zedd's monster, using the MegaDragonzord and the Thunder Megazord and White Tigerzord together. The time fissure began healing itself, and the younger rangers returned to their own time without knowing who Zedd was, avoiding messing with the timestream.

This battle featured one of the most cosplayed moments in the series, when Green and White Rangers swapped coins, creating a White Dragon Ranger and Green Tiger Ranger.

Morpher
The second series continued the use of the same morphers as the first season, changing only the coin and morphing call for each ranger. Instead of black decoration, each morpher had a coloration corresponding to that ranger's suit color.

Mid-way through the series, Zordon gave the rangers 'Thunder Chargers' to help fight Zedd's newer Red putty patrollers and newer monsters. When the rangers used the Thunder Chargers, they gained new suits, utilizing footage from Dairanger for the fight scenes. Jason would call out "Power Rangers! Thunder Charge!" when they utilized the device.

Power Rangers: Ninja Strike
For the third season, the Power Rangers' command center was destroyed by Rita's brother, Master Vile, a new big-bad, in an adaptation of Ninja Sentai Kakuranger. The Power Rangers needed to find the only remaining power coins by finding Ninjor, the creator of the power coins. The opening three-part story had the rangers prove their worth to Ninjor not through brute strength, but through honor and doing the right thing, not the expedient thing. Jason, for example, had a choice between saving a girl who twisted her ankle or grabbing a power coin, and in saving the girl, he was rewarded with the red ninja power coin.

The rangers gained new coins and suits, based on those of Kakuranger, but instead of the helmets, new American-made helmets were made similar to the first series helmets, but based on the ape, wolf, crane, falcon, frog, and bear zords. The suits themselves had a power-coin-like badge instead of a lightning bolt on the left chest, and had their morphers on their belt buckles as in the prior two seasons. This meant the American series had to film new fight scenes for the rangers and new zord scenes for the rangers controlling the zords.

Mid-season, the rangers were given the samurai morpher (Doron changer) to access the new samurai zords; the backs of their coins gained new shapes on them to represent the new samurai zord power they could access.

Near the end of the series, the Power Rangers teamed up with their Thunder Ranger counterparts, through Master Vile's Time Monster, which used the hands of his clock face as swords. The Thunder Rangers and the Ninja Power Rangers, all being the same actors, played both sets of teams, and had a number of twin moments, playing on their 'friends' Bulk and Skull, and their teachers' reactions.

Morphers
Using the same morphers but with new coins, the power rangers used the same call ("It's morphin' time!") as before, but called out their new zords to morph, such as "Red ninja ape power!" or "Blue ninja wolf power!"

Zords
Using Kakuranger zords, the power rangers were given animal zords at first, but upgraded to the samurai zords mid-season.

Power Rangers Zeo
Jason, Zack, and Trini left Angel Grove, leaving Tommy, Katherine, and Billy as the only rangers until they found Rocky, Adam, and Aisha to join the team and help fight against the Machine Empire. The first episode involves the team coming to grips with their friends leaving town, but also facing off against the new Cogs, the army bots used by the Machine Empire. While morphed, still using their Ninja Ranger powers, the rangers find Rocky, Adam, and Aisha helping civilians and helping them fight the Cogs. Unfortunately, their ninja powers were not enough to defeat the first monster sent by Emperor Mondo, Drill Master, and they de-morphed in front of them.

Zordon brought all six of them to the new command center and tasked them with finding the Zeo Crystal, the only source of power that could help stop the Machine Empire. Once they had the crystal, the rangers got new morphers, the Zeo Morphers, and were able to defeat the Drill Master. With new Zeo Zords, the rangers were able to continue the fight against Emperor Mondo.

After a while, Zordon realized the Machine Empire's monsters were getting tougher, and asked for help, bringing Trey of Triforia to Earth with the golden power staff, hoping to channel its powers through the Zeo crystal to create a new ranger, the Gold Ranger. While battling one of Mondo's monsters, the Gold Ranger showed up and helped beat the monster, and disappeared mysteriously. Everyone thought it was Trey, but it was soon revealed to be Jason, who had returned to Angel Grove when his parents moved back for work. Jason resumed leadership of the team until the end of the series, when Tommy became the lead power ranger again.

Morphers
The Zeo Morpher used by the five power rangers each has a colored crystal that accesses the full power of the Zeo Crystal. The gold ranger, Jason, also has his own gold zeo morpher which he used to morph into the gold ranger.

Zords
The Power Rangers used the Zeo Megazord, which was created by the Zeo Crystal program Billy and Alpha wrote to use spare zord components, creating a whole new Zord system. It was soon joined by the red Battlezord, and Gold Ranger's Pyramidus. Later, the Super Zeo Megazord was used in the series.

Power Rangers Turbo
Following from the movie, this series features the power rangers from the last series facing off against Divatox, a space pirate who came to Angel Grove to take the power of the morphin grid for herself. Using the new Turbo powers, the five rangers faced off against a number of her monsters over the course of the series. Midway through the series, Tommy, Kimberly, and Aisha left the team, replaced with TJ, Cassie, and Ashley, with TJ becoming the leader of the Turbo Rangers. Rocky and Adam stayed, being the two veteran rangers until Carlos replaced Adam, and Justin Stewart replaced Rocky.

This series featured a team up of five series' worth of Power Rangers, to celebrate five years of Power Rangers.

Morphers
The turbo morpher appears when needed, usually a flick of the wrist, and the user calls out "Shift into turbo!" before inserting the key and turning it in the morpher.

Zords
The first megazord is the Turbo Megazord, soon followed by the Turbo Rescue Megazord.

Power Rangers in Space
The sixth series featured four of the turbo rangers (TJ, Ashley, Cassie, Carlos), after the destruction of the Command Center, journeying into space to follow a distress signal sent by Zordon, and they encounter an alien named Andros, who is wary of them at first, but soon gives them morphers to become the Space Rangers. Andros is looking for his sister Karone, who (unknown to him) was kidnapped and turned into Astronema. Midway through the series the Silver Ranger joins the team, and Astronema discovers her own identity, and briefly joins the rangers, but is kidnapped again and given cybernetic implants to return her to evil. The series ends with Andros destroying Zordon's energy tube, which would destroy him, but would also destroy all active evil in the resulting power wave.

Corresponding Series
Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger (2013–2014); later adapted into Power Rangers Dino Charge and Power Rangers Super Dino Charge. Ressha Sentai ToQger (2014–2015) Shuriken Sentai Ninninger (2015–2016); later adapted into Power Rangers Ninja Steel and Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel. Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger (2016–2017) Uchu Sentai Kyuranger (2017–2018) Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger (2018–2019); first series to follow two distinct Sentai teams at the same time; last series to air in the Heisei period. Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger (2019–2020); last series to be produced during the Heisei period and the first series to air in the Reiwa period. Mashin Sentai Kiramager (2020–2021); first series to be produced during the Reiwa period.[3]