Power Rangers News Galore: The Big 2-0, DVDs to kill for, and the Greatest Megazord Toy EVER! XD *UPDATED*

Hey, look whose actually posting news for a change? But enough with me ragging on myself, we’ve got more important matters to attend to. We have confirmation for Season 20, newly released DVD sets, (one of which will blow your mind), and some new official pics for Super Robot Chogokin Daizyujin (okay, that’s really Sentai news, but it’s still cool anyway). IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME!

First, and newest, we’ve got official, confirmed info about the 20th Anniversary Season of Power Rangers. According to a new report, the next season of Power Rangers will be entitled “Power Rangers MEGAFORCE”, and while no details about the next season were revealed, some tantalizing clues would seem to suggest a number of future event meant to act on the “cross-generational appeal” of the show:

Next year will mark the landmark 20th Anniversary of the Power Rangers brand, an occasion for which Saban Brands is already deep in preparation. Plans for the anniversary include a new series, “Power Rangers MEGAFORCE.”

Saban Brands plans to embrace the series’ cross-generational appeal during the anniversary by celebrating its past as well as its present and future.

Older fans will be able to participate in special events and online activities, while new products and the new show will attract younger fans.

“We’re in an exciting place as a brand. We look at the 20th anniversary not just as a celebration of the past, but as our entry into a third decade,” Dekel says.

With new series launching every two years that reinvent the brand and change its theme, Power Rangers looks to remain a force in children’s entertainment. “Just like our audience, we’re constantly reinventing ourselves,” Dekel adds. “We can honestly say that after 20 years, this isn’t a fluke – kids really do identify with and engage with this show.”

The article also talks about how Saban Brands was able to revive the Power Rangers Brand, the Brand’s new Worldwide Reach, the growth of the Paul Frank Brand (also owned by Saban), and just Saban Brand’s amazing new-found success.

Moving on to DVD news, in addition to Lionsgate Entertainment releasing episodes of Power Rangers old and new DVD, TimeLife.com is currently taking pre-orders for the soon-to-be-released Power Rangers DVD Box Set, entitled Power Rangers: From Mighty Morphin to Lost Galaxy Complete First Seven Seasons. This set includes 40 discs, with 338 episodes from the first seven season, tons of bonus material including 2 DVDs featuring rarely seen archival material; exclusive new featurettes; and interviews with the cast, creators, and fans of Power Rangers. And with each of these sets you’ll get this cool (and somewhat familiar) Mighty Morphin Red Ranger figure wearing the Dragon Shield w/ Power Sword and blaster (a rare Bandai-made figure according to the site description). And all of this can be your’s for $219.95! (Expected to ship August 6th)

Yeah, talk about sweetening the deal…

UPDATE: Official Box Art for the DVD Collection has just been released! Check it out below:

And finally, while not being completely related with Power Rangers, there is this:

Yep, it’s an official image of the Super Robot Chogokin Daizyujin, and it looks amazing. Check out these other pics below:

Known to Power Rangers fans fondly as the Megazord from MMPR, this figure stands at 140mm tall, comes with signature sword and shield, and a couple of effects parts. Note that it cannot transform into the “tank mode”, as the main priority with the Super Robot Chogokin toy line is articulation (and a very thorough level of detail). It costs 5040 yen and is expected to come out in September. While normally I avoid covering stuff like this (due to my own inability to afford stuff like this), it was worth mentioning. I mean just look at it…. not even out yet and it’s probably one of the best figure versions of Daizyujin I’ve seen yet.

UPDATE: This figure will be available from retailers in the US and Canada on October, for the price of $60.99, just in time for the start of the Power Rangers 20th Anniversary celebrations. This according to Tamashii Nations USA Facebook page.

Well, that’s it for pertinent Power Rangers news. Just a friendly reminder to those of you asking about the latest round of auditions, they’re not accepting any new applicants, better luck getting those in next time. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to talk to a web server about a DVD pre-order. 😛

-M.C., the Quantum Twin

New Power Rangers Season 20 Casting Breakdowns COMFIRMED!: I’m back! And I brought you a present. :)

Hey, how’s it going everybody? Sorry I’ve been gone so long, but sometimes life gets in the way of things you really like to do. Anyway, we now have new official casting info that I hope will make up for it!

That’s right, we’ve got new breakdowns from Actor’s Access (note: you’ll need an account with them to view it, which is totally free), and it seems to be almost exactly the same as the last set. Check it out below:

Tuesday, May. 1, 2012, 6:21 PM PacificPOWER RANGERS (AA) Non-Union Episodic		Casting Director: Iris Hampton Interview Dates: April 24th – June 1st.  Callback Dates: TBD  Shoot/Start Date: Shoot-October/Required to relocate in early SEPT. Pay Rate: There is pay. Pay to be determined.  Location: New Zealand
SUBMIT HARDCOPY SUBMIT ELECTRONICALLY PLEASE SUBMIT BY TUESDAY, MAY 1ST.		POWER RANGERS 1950 SAWTELLE SUITE 360 LOS ANGELES, CA  90025
IF POSSIBLE, PLEASE SUBMIT ACTOR’S ONLINE DEMO CLIPS ALONG WITH EACH ACTOR SUBMISSION. ALL TALENT must be willing to relocate to New Zealand for approx. 6-8 months. Must have valid or current passport with at least one (1) year left before renewal or able to get one. Please note the names noted in the character breakdown are temporary names for the Rangers needed for this season. PLEASE NO PHONE CALLS AT THIS TIME. Casting phone is not up and running until Tuesday, April 24th. ALL OF THE FOLLOWING POWER RANGER ROLES are a group of five teens 18-23 years to play 15-19 years. They are all nice looking, charismatic, energetic, outgoing and confident. They must have SUPER HERO LOOKS with average height and in great physical condition. Martial arts or gymnastics is a plus, but not mandatory. We are hoping for a very young looking cast this season.

[RED RANGER – REESE] Any ethnicity male, 18 – 23 to play 17-19 years. Reese is an attractive young man with super hero looks and a nice athletic build. He is a natural leader with honorable intentions. He is a much disciplined young man.[BLACK RANGER – BARON] All ethnicity Male, 18 to 23 to play 17-19. He has good looks with a slim build. He is fearless, fun and athletic. He wears his heart on his sleeve.[BLUE RANGER – PARRY] Any ethnicity Male, 18 to early twenties to play 16-19 years. He is a bit on the nerdy side. He is a studious and highly intelligent. [PINK RANGER – SADIE] Any ethnicity, 18 to 23 to play 16 to 19 years. Average height. Sadie is a beautiful, sophisticated, intelligent and confident. She is very intuitive and genuinely cares about others. [YELLOW RANGER – AVA] Any ethnicity, 18 to early twenties to play 16 to 18 years of age. Average height. Ava is STUNNING and athletic. She is generally unflappable and tough, but has a heart of gold. A young Angelina Jolie type.

Yep, everything you’ll need for said auditions. And for my fellow toku fans, I can now hereby confirm that the 20th season of Power Rangers will be based off of Tensou Sentai Goseiger and not any later Super Sentai series like many had predicted. And because they haven’t formally announced the series yet, the show still doesn’t have an official title, though the name “Power Rangers Megaforce” was trademarked last year by Saban Brands last year, so that may still possibly be the title. Anyway, here’s a little sneak preview of what the next team of Rangers will look like:

A fitting bunch to represent the 20th Anniversary celebration of the Power Rangers franchise, don’t you think?

Anyway, some possible spoilers: This group will use card-based attacks, which will include special cards for morphing and summoning their zords. And a new twist on the zords: instead of constantly summoning new zords to create some massive thrown-together eyesore, the will summon attachable zord heads which will unlock new combinations and special moves. In the original Goseiger, they went up against three different enemy organizations, with one enemy constantly reappeaing, but they might not include all three if they don’t run it for two seasons. And yes, there is a sixth ranger, but it won’t be another teenager, or human for that matter!

Aright, enough spoilers for today. Just get out there and start sending in you resumes! That goes for all of you that have been asking about this new updated info since last June.

-M.C., the Quantum Twin

UPDATE: As of Friday, May 25th, they have stopped accepting new auditions for this next season of Power Rangers, and are now moving onto the next stage of the process, whittling down the number of applicants. Currently, they have about 50 people per role, so it will probably be awhile before we hear anything about an official cast. And yes, there has been unofficial confirmation from people auditioning that one of the roles is for a Black Ranger, confirming a Goseiger adaption. Yes, I know that some of the casting sides were straight out of Go-Kaiger episodes, but that doesn’t mean diddly squat at the moment.

Long Overdue UPDATE: To anyone still interested, I posted this story months ago, and the audition process for this future season of Power Rangers (a.k.a. Power Rangers Megaforce) has been over. The new cast has been picked and revealed already, so please, DO NOT POST ANY MORE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW! This is NOT a casting agency website, this is just an informational fan blog. I have no influence over the casting process whatsoever, I’m just a fan like the rest of you. So unless you want to get spammed like crazy, please stop leaving you personal information. And just to be clear, I have no idea when they will be auditioning for future Ranger series, so don’t ask about that either.

Power Rangers Ultrapost: Samurai are Super!

Hey, there’s been a lot of Power Ranger news that’s come out over the last month, and for some reason I keep missing it! So, I’m just going to take some of the biggest headlines from the past month or so and thow them all into one Gigantor post! And coming up first we have this new poster for the the new season of PRS, Power Rangers Super Samurai!:

Yep, next season, the “Super” mode will be officially incorporated into the series, including this new Super Mega Mode. And if I’m not mistaken, I can see a new enemy in the corner. No info yet on when the next season will start.

And this poster actually came from the Power Morphicon Facebook page, who also announced the official date for Power Morphicon 2012! This year, it will take place from August 17th-19th 2012 at the Pasadena Convention Center (same location as the last), and Registration is open for anyone interested.

Speaking of Pasadena, anyone who saw this year’s Tournament of Roses Parade (and not on ABC) might have caught a glimpse of the Power Rangers Samurai Video Game float. If not, you can check out this video from the HGTV coverage of the parade:

And here’s a nice gallery of pics:

And here’s a couple of behind-the-scenes videos, one of which includes Andre from BlackNerdComedy:

Now this next part, I don’t have a decent segway for, but it was still awesome.

Yep, this happened, for 48 hours on Nicktoons back on the 6th (January 2012), and I’m assuming it was awesome since I couldn’t watch it because we had downgrade our cable package literally the week of. My life sucks sometimes…

BTW they have been playing that on there regularly as well, so go check it out if you can! Because I can’t. 😦

Now let’s move onto some newer news thst came out while I was working on this ultra-post!

Mainly, Kimberly Crossman has been 100% CONFIRMED to play a future Red Ranger Role! YAY!! This confirmation via a recent video post on Carlos Pena’s YouTube Channel (Carlos Pena from Nickelodeon’s Big Time Rush) where she comes on and outright says it, though she does keep us in the dark about the details. You can check out the whole video below (though I can’t guarantee you’ll be that impressed):

So yeah, there’s that. And then there’s this:

Yep, this is the cover of the latest issue of Hyper Hobby Magazine, which your going to see a lot of as I do more of these ultra-posts, and the portion of it that I want to cover here is this: while full translations of this are STILL not available, we can confirm that Toei did discuss the 20th Anniversary of Power Rangers, and those discussions included possibly re-shooting the Legend War scene from the opening of Go-Kaiger with teams from MMPR onward. Whether the 20th season of Power Rangers will be the Go-Kaiger adaption is anyone’s guess. But that’s still big news, though I wouldn’t expect any adaptions of the movies to be quite as spectacular as the Go-Kaiger movies have been so far.

And that should be about everything, barring nothing comes out in the next five minutes. If anything else pops up, I make no guarantees, but I’ll try to let you know.

-M.C., the Quantum Twin

NOTICE: To anyone looking for info on the next round of Power Rangers auditions.

I know that there are a lot of you out there with questions about the next Power Rangers series, including audition info and advise. In fact, most of the comments I’ve been getting since the initial announcement for the 2012 (now 2013) auditions have been mainly focused on audition advise and/or info. I’d just like to say a few things here and now in regard to these questions:

1. I would like to point out here and now that I am NOT a casting agent, nor am I involved in any way with the casting process. I’m just a fan like everybody else, and I’ve happened to look into doing this before myself. I get my info on this the same way I get any other piece of news for my blog; I search around various other websites/blogs to find out what’s going on, just like you guys. I’m as far from an insider as you can get.
2. Part of the reason I haven’t been responding to comments related to this lately is because the auditions have currently been postponed until late March/early April, and a billion rumors have come out of the woodwork about what they might end up doing. I don’t want to tell you guys anything yet until I know for sure what’s going on, and it looks like we might not hear anything about it for months. So settle in, because we’re going to be stuck here waiting until the whole thing comes out of limbo.
3. I’m sorry, I know almost anyone that’s asked wants me to personally email them any info I can get, but I just can’t do that. I’m sorry, but I’m just not going to sift through (what will be about) eight months worth of comments in April to tell everyone that’s asked about it. If you want to know more about these auditions when I do, then either subscribe to the blog via email (just click the “Sign Me Up!” button on the right, between the Meta and Top Rated sections) or follow me on Twitter. I promise, those will be the fastest ways to receive any updates.
4. I don’t want to give out any advise yet, but if you really need to know, here’s what they’re usually looking for from people auditioning:
   a. People usually between the ages of 18-23.
   b. People who are physically fit or at least in shape (so not fair to the chubby fans).
   c. Would prefer some previous acting experience.
   d. Would prefer some experience with anything requiring choreographed stunt work (not solely limited to Martial Arts, but that’s a plus).
   e. Must have a legal, up-to-date passport.
   f. Must be willing to move to New Zealand for the duration of the filming (about 6-8 months).
   g. Must be willing to work 13 hour days, up to nine days at a time (usually filming three episodes within that period).
5. For those of you wondering what to include on your audition tape, just remember to introduce yourself, whatever casting agency you’re with (I highly recommend signing with a legitimate one), and the part your going for. If there are sides or scripts available for the role (depending on where you look, there will usually be some available for download), then try to do a reading for that part. Then, because the part is for an action series, include a short collection of action shots showing off your best work. Overall, the video should be between 5-10 minutes, with the video only as long as it needs to be. Again, I’m not a casting agent, but I am getting this advise from legitimate sources, and anything said here can be found online.

These are the only real answers I have for everyone’s questions. If you questions are general, I’m most likely going to send you to this post. For more specific questions, I’ll try to answer those on a case-by-case basis. Keep in mind, though, that I don’t have all the answers. Who they eventually pick, and how they pick them, is solely up to Casting team. Good luck to anyone who tries out. And seriously, can we go easy on the questions for the next couple of months? Thank you.

-M.C., the Quantum Twin

UPDATE: (5/2/12) Good news everyone! The casting calls are back on!! Check out the new breakdowns here.

Gobuster Story Revealed!: Are we still talking about Super Sentai, because this sounds a lot more like a Power Rangers story line…

Alright, first we got the leaked catalogue images, and now we have the official story for the 36th Super Sentai series, Tokumei Sentai Gobuster! And when you read it, you’ll get why the title is what it is. Read the story below (translation courtesy of kakeru1986 of HJU):

“A long time ago, among moutains far from any civilization, there was a center researching on human innovation. One day, the main computer of the research became malicious and went berserk. Humanity managed to stop this, and peace came back…or so it seemed.

Humans, now in peace, predicting that their enemy could go berserk and attack another time, decided to build giant robots and machine, and trained chosen warriors to fight against it. Finally, this day has come.

The name of the team formed to fight against the enemy is Tokumei Sentai Gobuster! Now their battle begins.”

Wow, really convinced now that they’re starting to pull stuff from Power Rangers. Not that they haven’t before, but it’s just much more obvious this time around. Either that, or they’re really letting Koichi Sakamoto take the reigns on this one. Either way, let us reserve judgement until we’ve seen more.

-M.C., the Quantum Twin

Jungle Fury tops Internet Toy searches: The King of the Jungle is reclaiming his crown! Too bad he’s got nothing to show for it.

So, did any of you catch the Power Rangers Jungle Fury marathon on Nicktoons over the weekend. I know I certainly did (in fact, it took up most of my Saturday). Well, probably one of the most interesting things to come out of the marathon had nothing to do with the show, but with a major boom in toy searches.

Over the weekend, toy searches for Power Rangers Jungle Fury skyrocketed, and top search on Saturday (11/19) was for the Bandai.com Power Rangers Jungle Fury website (which is still up, btw). This was according to newstaar.com, who, while also mentioning the current series Power Rangers Samurai, was apparently unaware of the fact that toys and general merchandise for Jungle Fury were no longer in production (you can still find stuff online, but nothing available in stores). But this is still a major victory for Saban Brands an their partnership with Nick. Why? Because within the three days that marathon ran for, they made one of the lowest rated Ranger series produced under Disney into an actual overnight sensation (it actually happened overnight, can you believe it?). I wouldn’t be surprised to find out later that they were going to do something like this again, only this time coinciding with the release of a new toy line like the Power Rangers Super Legends. I smell big money on the horizon. 😛

-M.C., the Quantum Twin

Toku is our path to the future: Soldiers build a Robot with Robots to create the perfect machine.

One of the most popular themes in sci-fi, and one of the most prominent in Japanese sci-fi, is the idea of creating a robot by combining other robots together. It’s a theme followers of this blog should be very familiar with, since we’re dedicated to particular TV series that has heavily featured robots and combining robots since ’78 (or ’93 for those of you not in the know). However, the idea up until this point has been just science fiction, just something entertaining to watch while transitioning to the giant robot fight scene. But now, US soldiers at Fort Benning are starting to make that a reality.

Members of the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment at Fort Benning have bypassed the robotics firms all together and have been using that army sense of improvisation to make their own robots, and their doing it by combining the capabilities of different robots and combining them into one. How you ask? By physically combining the robots to each other to create the ultimate machine!

In particular, they mounted a TiaLinx Cougar 10 (a surveilance robot that uses radio frequency sensors to detect eve the tiniest sounds from behind a wall) onto the back of a faster and stronger Lockheed Martin Squad Mission Support System, or SMSS (a load-bearing unmanned ground vehicle capable of carrying up to 600 pounds) to create a surveilance vehichle that was fast enough to clear through an urban area while sensitive enough to pick up on any possible threats. And for that intended purpose, this combination worked perfectly.

And this success does mean a lot. While this combination might not be perfect in all situations (the SMSS’s engines make it too loud for stealth missions), this does say a lot about that army DIY ingenuitey, and has implications for the future of modular robotics.

If this continues, we could see something like this someday:

Okay, it’ll probably look more like this (at first):

One step at a time, right?

I’d like to give a hand to James Pailly over at Pailly Planet for bringing this article to light.

-M.C., the Quantum Twin

The next scientific innovation I want to see: Real-life morphers/henshin devices. Make it happen scientists!

Power Rangers Online Gameplay Video: 3 Enemies, 3 Rangers, and 10 minutes of awesome.

Mahou!

As you may have known, Korean game developer NtreeV has been working with Toei to create a new Power Rangers/Super Sentai MMORPG simply entitled Power Rangers Online. The game, which is based off of Power Rangers Magic Force (the Korean title for the dubbed Magiranger series), is currently within beta testing, which is where this new gameplay video comes from. Speaking of which, you can check out that video below:

Players will be able to access special costumes, combat skills, combination skills, and have a chance to fight monsters from the series!

Currently the game is in closed beta testing (aww, man) with only MagiRed, MagiYellow, and MagiPink available as playable characters. The game will be released later this year.

-M.C., the Quantum Twin

P.S., I’ve already seen some very mean-spirited comments no the original YouTube video, and would just like to say this: THE GAME IS STILL IN BETA TESTING. Before anyone complains about the quality of the video, just remember that the game is still in development, and will most likely improve alot by the time the game is officially released. So no mean/offensive comments here!

Power Rangers Jungle Fury Coming to Nicktoons: This November, Unleash the Beast!

Well, it looks like someone’s finally making good on their promise. 😛

Nickelodeon announced on Twitter yesterday that their would be a Power Rangers 48-hour marathon, but it’s not for the one you think it is. It’s for Power Rangers Jungle Fury! Check out the original Tweet:

Hey Power Rangers fans, wanna see some of the previous Ranger series? JungleFury joins #Nicktoons on 11/18 at 7pm ET w/ a 48 hr marathon!

For something that hasn’t gotten a lot of attention, this is actually HUGE news! While Jungle Fury might not be everyone’s favorite season (btw it is one of my personal favorites), they are actually running an older season of Power Rangers on Nicktoons, like they said they would, and this could lead to other older seasons seeing new life on this new network. And besides, it’ll be fun to re-watch Jungle Fury, relive all your favorite moments. I plan on trying to catch at least part of it, and you should too! 😉 And remember, that’s November 18th at 7 p.m. EST on Nicktoons.

Jungle Beast, Spirit Unleashed!

-M.C., the Quantum Twin

Power Ranger Super Samurai in 2012: See, I told you they would use it next season!

Can I call it, or can I call it?

It looks like they’ve been saving this for season two. Starting next year, Power Rangers Samurai will resume under the new title of “Power Rangers Super Samurai”. It was comfirmed in an interview with Saban Brand’s Kirk Bloomington in the October 2011 Issue of The Licsensing Book Online (page 17).

Most likely, this is an indication that they’ve been saving the Super Shinkenger footage for season two, or should I say Super Samurai, and that they’ve been trying to avoid using the vests and the new Megazords/Megazord formations for then. If that is the case, then I’m definitely looking forward to the new Power Rangers Super Samurai!

Wasshoi! (Wait, wrong show.)

-M.C., the Quantum Twin