Parts 2 and 3 are finished, they need to be edited to match the style of Part 1. At this point I plan to release them a week apart. But I might get jittery and decide to push the post button early with Megaforce premiering this weekend.

To view Part 1, Look under Entertainment > Legend Untold. Or follow the link Here

(After the Jump)

Right Click and select “Save As”

Shout! Factory officially announced their plans to release a Power Rangers DVD Box set. Last week, the release date and price for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season One, Volume One was released. However, Shout! had something better in store. Starting July 30, 2012, fans will be able to purchase the Box Set including all of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Seasons 1-3), Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo, Power Rangers in Space, and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. That is the first seven seasons! It’s also what many fans consider the “Zordon Era.” Zordon, of course, was the mentor for the Rangers during the first several seasons, and while his part was minimal or reduced, his name still carried weight and several characters continued to cross over season after season. For instance, Season 7 is the last time we have an Alpha as a regular character, as well as Bulk, portrayed by Paul Schier. Paul did resume the role in Power Rangers Samurai, but that season is being released through Lionsgate and isn’t included in Shout! Factory’s deal with Saban Brands.

Now this box set is said to be 40 discs and includes bonus features including new interviews with members of the cast and crew. There was no mention of price in the release other than the Season One, Volume One being $19.93 (Get it?). So if we just gauge that they’ll charge $20 per 3 discs, than 40 discs would likely cost somewhere in the $260 range. That is unless they make an introductory price offer, or drop the price to move more box sets as opposed to individual seasons. Since Shout! Factory is partnering with Time Life for this box set release, they appear to be planning so sort of Television Infomercial. I actually think that’s a great idea because they could place it around kids blocks on numerous channels and spike interest in the product overall. I mean, there IS an Anniversary season approaching.

It will be interesting to see what they plan to do with the rest of the library. Shout! Factory has a deal in place for the first 17 seasons of the franchise. So that’s everything up to the last Disney season Power Rangers RPM. I’ve seen some people suggest that they might do two more box sets of 5 seasons a piece, but I wonder if they’re considering a 10 season box set for the remaining season. You have to remember in later Seasons the episode count is somewhere around 32 on average. Whereas MMPR has 155 if you include the Alien Rangers Mini Series. Let’s consider how many episodes we will get on the first box set.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers – 155

Power Rangers Zeo – 50

Power Rangers Turbo – 45

Power Rangers in Space – 43

Power Rangers Lost Galaxy – 45

That’s 338 episodes on 40 discs. Let’s say 340 is our total they’ll allow for a box set.

Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue – 40 (300 left)

Power Rangers Time Force – 40 ( 260 left)

Power Rangers Wild Force – 40 (220 left)

Power Rangers Ninja Storm – 38 (182 left)

Power Rangers Dino Thunder – 38 (144 left)

Power Rangers SPD – 38 (106 left)

Power Rangers Mystic Force – 32 (74 left)

Power Rangers Operation Overdrive – 32 (42 left)

Power Rangers Jungle Fury – 32 (10 left)

Power Rangers RPM – 32 (22 OVER)

So as you can see, it’s close, but still over what the first box set has set as a benchmark. However, they could arguably throw in a few more discs and claim this is say a 45 disc set for the “Post Zordon Era.” If they split it into a 5 and 5 season box sets. There would be 196 episodes in Lightspeed Rescue through Dino Thunder and 166 episodes in SPD through RPM. The reason I think a “Post Zordon Era” box set is the better way to go is due to the fact that the latter seasons didn’t get very good promotion with Disney, and thus are not nearly as popular. Popularity and nostalgia is what’s going to drive these sales. With all of these episodes on Netflix, you have to package them in a way that’s going to sell the most. If you put the last 5 seasons with the popular seasons like Time Force, Ninja Storm, and Dino Thunder, you’ll sell more of them. Considering how close the episode count is for the first 7 seasons and the later 10 seasons, I think it just works out better from a marketing standpoint.

So what do you think of all this? Do you plan to buy the box sets? Single Seasons? Any other ideas for future box sets? Let me know what you think in the comments section or reach out on Facebook and Twitter!

-Jason Spencer

Source: http://tvshowsondvd.com/n/16925

Right Click and select “Save As”

Since I spent so much time either working on my Power Rangers fan fiction project: Legend Untold (Look in the Entertainment Section), as well as researching and re-watching the beginnings of the franchise. I decided I would make a concerted effort to watch Power Rangers Samurai and see what Haim Saban had in store for the franchise he had created. Additionally, I decided I would watch the new Sentai Series TOEI was producing, the 35th installment, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. After watching both for about 7 weeks I can see very clear differences in how Saban and TOEI approach the series.

From the very beginning Power Rangers has been a kid’s show and has featured a certain level of cheesiness to it. However, Samurai seems to have cranked up the amount of cheese they’re adding. If I hadn’t watched the first six seasons of the series, I may have just brushed it off as me being older. I suppose some might say it’s because I have nostalgic feelings for the early years. I can honestly say I don’t think that’s the case. Watching the older episodes, I would have moments where I would laugh at something that wasn’t supposed to be funny or cringe at a stupid plot point, but it didn’t seem to detract from the show’s “enjoyability” factor. Samurai feels very different, as it should as a separate entity in the series, but it’s not a good different. With the exception of one or two characters, most of them seem very rigid. Think about your class mates in high school when reading aloud in class, or performing nervously in a school play. That’s about the same performing ability some of the actors appear to have. Now, I’ve read online a couple of times that it’s believed the producers and directors have asked the cast to talk like they would to children, which I guess could be seen as an excuse. If that is the case, and people want to use that excuse, I would like to direct their attention to Hector David, Jr. who portrays Mike, the Green Ranger. Even if his lines are corny or written for a child, he still delivers it like a pro and it makes his character seem more human than the others. Aside from acting chops, which the show arguably has had issues with before; the whole story dynamic seems off to me. This might just be caused by one essential problem, the fact that we never got an introduction episode. The only thing I know is that the bad guys were gone, and somehow they came back, and that the power the Rangers possess is passed down from family members. Oh, and they’re apparently not allowed to do anything but be Rangers unless they get permission from their Mentor guy, who they ironically call “Mentor.” I don’t exactly get why there are missing Zords, or why they need special Kanji symbols, or why there are numerous discs floating around that anyone can seemingly use. I might be a tad bit on the nit-picky side, but I want the plot to flow and tell a story, not be convenient based on Sentai footage. Perhaps if that was better the dialogue between characters wouldn’t matter because one could just focus on the story. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers didn’t offer many arching plot points, but the ones they did were better than this. Even filler episodes (I know this term is debatable) either allowed for some character growth or didn’t distract you from the overall story. I guess time will tell if Samurai will get any better, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly disappointed with it so far.

I have never watched a season of Super Sentai start to finish. Likewise, I have never watched an episode of Super Sentai before I saw the adapted season of Power Rangers. I must say though, I am really enjoying Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger. I haven’t even watched an episode with sub titles and I enjoy it! The characters are very well portrayed by their actors, and I think it makes the show very unique. For those unaware of the show, Gokaiger has a pirate theme, as well as an anniversary theme. The main characters are space pirates who have I guess captured or were given access to powers of past Sentai teams. Their morpher, is of course a phone, but it has a key slot where they can insert different keys that represent different Ranger powers. In addition to this fan-boy friendly theme and story, the fight scenes are absolutely incredible. Even if you can’t find sub titled episodes you can appreciate the stunt choreography they’re pulling out for this show. Having not seen past Sentai and only 6 full Power Ranger seasons, I wasn’t fully aware of this, but the show’s producers are going out of their way to make sure they accurately portray each past team when the Gokaigers change into them, even down to their specific fighting styles. Go stunt people! I can’t comment on the dialogue since I have not seen sub titled episodes, and frankly there is probably a culture difference between Japan and the United States that would probably muck up a comparison. One thing I will comment on is the seemingly lack of dialogue in fight scenes. People have been a bit annoyed by the cheesy one-liners during fight scenes in Samurai that just seem unnecessary. I would agree, and I would point to how Gokaiger seems to stick with the basic “Hi-ya!” jargon we probably all imitated from Season 1 of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. However, one characteristic that Gokaiger has that benefits them in this case is their fighting attitude. Sometimes they may have an “I don’t really care” mentality others they have a sense of showmanship so their physical actions and body language do more for the show than any one-liner could.

These are just some of my initial thoughts on both shows. My opinions may change moving forward, there are still lots of episodes left for both shows. If it were a competition, though, Gokaiger would be winning!