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