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How Power Rangers Failed to Deliver at SDCC 2017
I had the extreme pleasure of attending San Diego Comic Con 2017. This was my fourth year attending and covering the event for our network and every year by the time you go home you're left dizzy from everything you've just experienced. As the sole representative of TokuNation.com my primary focus is to cover all things tokusatsu related, or in the case of American entertainment, that means Power Rangers.
San Diego Comic Con is the largest pop culture convention in the entire world. The number of attendees ranges upwards of 100,000 guests and anyone who has attended the convention will tell you that is no "generous number" ... it's a reality. And this year whispers are it was the largest convention ever. Literally every major entertainment company, regardless of whether or not they have their own convention earlier or later, brings their A game because this is the one time a year that the entire world is watching in anticipation for what you have to show. This year the Power Rangers brand failed to not only to capture any of the magic or attention they might have acquired from their major motion picture release earlier this year, they failed to show up at all. Please continue reading for our in-depth analysis of why this wasn't just one of the worst years for Power Rangers at San Diego Comic Con but why it may be the worst ever. The show started off with a fizzle when approaching Bandai's booth. The items on display were items already shown off at Toy Fair 2017 or prior. The only Power Rangers Ninja Steel item on display was the Lion Fire Megazord along with a 5" Gold Ranger figure. The Zeo Legacy figures were on hand, but the Dino Thunder Legacy figures (shipping with the Zeo waves) were not on hand (meaning they will release prior to being shown in public, ever). The entire Bandai booth was created for interactive "morphing" with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, or a Dragon Ball Super interactive "power up" station. If you wanted to see the toys (on Preview Night) good luck - they wrapped the line around the display so you couldn't get a close-up look of the toys (they would remedy this come Thursday). If you had questions about the line most of the actual Bandai employees hid inside the sales portion of their booth or were not present as they hired an entire crew of local volunteers to run the interactive booth. Not that you would have any questions because everything on display was already shown at a prior show and covered in-depth (by us no less). The Power Rangers Toys & Collectibles Power Hour was fun and had the potential to save the show for Power Rangers fans but it also felt like a haphazardly put-together panel of individuals who didn't feel comfortable on stage. The Imaginext representative looked like he had stage-fright and no idea what to talk about, and more than once was guided along his own presentation by Jason Bischoff (Global Licensing for Saban Brands). Pop Culture Shock Toys had a great presentation if you enjoy statues and busts, and Legacy Wars had a fun presentation if you're still playing the game. By the time we got to Bandai's reveals, most of our live-feed (we live-streamed the panel on Twitter) was frustrated that it took 30 minutes to get to what they wanted to see, and they expressed their frustration as more Mighty Morphin Legacy toys were announced (specifically the non-combinable Legacy Zords). Notice to Bandai and Saban Brands - the fans and collectors we've spoken with do NOT want those items if they're simply large versions of the original zords. This is now dangerously close to creating an over-saturation if it's not already to that point. If not for Jason Bischoff leading the panel reveals it very well could have been a disaster. On a side-note, kudos to Jason for being one of if not the only approachable Power Rangers involved individual during this entire show. The 6.5" Legacy figures were a hit - revealing that the Psycho Rangers and some of the missing 6th Rangers from other series would be present was a fun surprise. Hopefully there will be follow up with the "??? SECRET" placards with an actual reveal unlike at the previous Power Morphicon. At that show we also received "??? SECRET" placards and they were never officially revealed - we first discovered that the Dino Thunder Rangers were included through an international website store, followed by MMPRToys video of Bandai packing up for Toy Fair. They were never announced by Bandai or by Saban Brands. Getting the Legacy Zeonizer and the Legacy Golden Power Staff were huge hits. But fans still felt underwhelmed more than anything because there was no Megazord revealed for the Legacy line. We haven't had a Legacy Megazord of any sort (unless you include the just-released black and gold Titanus) since October of 2016. Fans wanted to see a Legacy Shogun Megazord, or a Legacy Zeo Megazord, or whatever the next line of Legacy Megazord is going to be. The Legacy Golden Power staff was put on display following the panel, but it was placed next to the interactive portion of the booth - I personally had to wait until the show closed and ask permission to enter the booth to take photos because there's no opportunity to do so while the show is open and fans are working the interactive booth (the blue-screen for the morphing interaction literally was next to the Golden Power Staff, so either you morph with my elbow in the screen or I just don't take pictures). If I of all people couldn't get to the staff then neither could fans of the toys. Bandai should remember that they're a toy company first - something they obviously forgot this year. Power Rangers Ninja Steel was not supported or promoted the entire convention. Randomly dropping a trailer on Twitter doesn't count. Randomly dropping a poster at the Nickelodeon booth doesn't count. Randomly having the costumed Ninja Steel Rangers show up on the last day of the show without announcement doesn't count. What was frustrating was seeing multiple members of Saban Brands marketing team present at the show ... usually just following the costumed Power Rangers around the floor. Hasbro (a main competitor) in comparison had an enormous booth with every single brand represented. They had a panel for every single property and put out new toys every single day in their display cases. They had designers from each toy line present in their booth nearly every hour of every day to interact with fans, answer questions with fans, and even scheduled interviews with fans. They did not phone in this convention even though their own private convention is only a month and change away from now. Tamashii Nations, a part of Bandai Japan who has worked with Saban Brands and Bandai America in the past, set up their cases so their entire floor space was available (with tons of figures and new figures on display) and had representatives of both the US branch and the Japanese branch on hand to answer your questions. Individuals involved in Pacific Rim 2 showed up and caused a mad rush of attendees to the booth hoping for autographs, pictures, and free T-Shirts. Bandai treated their own booth as a carnival ride while every single one of their competitors showcased current, upcoming, and in development toys. In recap - PROS - Power Rangers Legacy War stole the show both with their reveals and their "Green Ranger" battles throughout the weekend, kudos to Jason David Frank who did his best to create excitement - Power Rangers licensees - Pop Culture Shock Toys and Weta Workshop in specific, wow'd fans - Power Rangers Toys & Collectibles Power Hour was entertaining and should be a regular stay at SDCC - Power Morphicon's announcement generated quite the buzz CONS - Bandai, the official toy manufacturer of the Power Rangers franchise, was an embarrassment of a booth for a toy company who didn't showcase any toys - The overall presence, or lack thereof, of Power Rangers from Saban Brands - Power Rangers Ninja Steel, or the extreme lack thereof - Did you know David Yost (MMPR Blue Ranger), Walter Jones (MMPR Black Ranger), Andrew Gray (Megaforce/Super Megaforce Red Ranger), and Tracy Lynn Cruz (Turbo and In Space Yellow Ranger) were here at the show and doing various autographs? If you only follow the main Power Rangers social accounts then you probably didn't know In a year where Power Rangers had it's first major motion picture released in 20 years, had it be one of the more successful home DVD sales this year, and the property itself was approaching it's 25th Anniversary ... Saban Brands and Bandai failed to show up, leaving the brand representation in the hands of its licensees. Once again, Power Rangers blends in to the mists of obscurity and it's the fault of Saban Brands and Bandai. At the largest pop culture convention in the world, Power Rangers chose to stay home leaving people to wonder if anyone involved in Power Rangers cares about the brand as much as the fans do. Kickback, or TokuChris, is the webmaster/editor in chief of TokuNation.com. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of other staff members of TokuNation.com, moderators of the TokuNation.com forums, or the other websites on the network. He has been attending conventions across the United States since 2002 as well as San Diego Comic Con for 4 of the past 5 years. Contact can be made through chris@gogopowerrangers.com ------------------------ Please check out these other "show reviews" from fans of Power Rangers who covered SDCC 2017 Power Rangers NOW article - https://www.powerrangersnow.com/san-...on-2017-round/ Neo-Saban Power Rangers on YouTube: (READ THE DESCRIPTION ON YOUTUBE) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w1NesZn8OU |
Maybe the movie is why power rangers had very little well anything at comic con.
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Movie related product was in development before the movie released. Anything that we're getting from the movie at this point was developed prior to the movie's release. There is product releasing this fall that we haven't seen yet - either at all, or at least not in person. |
Wow, what a farce. I feel bad you went all the way down there for such a lackluster showing.
Really shocking that they wouldn't even anounce those guests on any social media. |
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i could be wrong but im starting to think that they arent going to be any more pr seasons after this because of how bandai is treating ninja steel's toyline, that has to be failing, nick is treating it like it's nothing because of the 5 month hiatus, it's tuning fans out the current pr and saban and bandai only cares about legacy stuff and dvds, if that's the direction they are going, maybe that's what that they should be doing.
because the current product is failure, we are going crappy stuff from it and getting better stuff from past pr products. |
Wow, here I thought I just missed out on the news or just got too caught up in the TF and MLP reveals to notice the PR side of things. I didn't think it was really that bad of a showing...
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I think it has less to do with Bandai "failing", and has more to do with people having bloated expectations.
Just my 2 cents... |
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Bandai should be aiming to compete with that, not be overshadowed by it. |
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This year's SDCC was a joke as a whole for everyone but Hasbro. I think they are the only ones that showed up. Mattel had an abysmal display of JL movie stuff and wrestling figures, and that was it. They didn't even tell people that they were releasing new DC comic figures with updated articulation until AFTER SDCC was over with.
NECA showed nothing for Godzilla products, they had no cool Alien dioramas like they do every year, and what they revealed was lackluster. Yeah, I really need to run out and get Blade Runner 2049 figures, because that is what I have been missing in my collection. Square has yet to do anything with Final Fantasy VI as they have the DC and Marvel super ultra over stylized comic figures coming out along with their overpriced FFVII remake Cloud. Figuarts only revealed Black Goku for Dragon Ball and nothing else Toku, anime, or MonsterArts related. And then you had that joke of a booth that DC Collectibles had. None of the upcoming Icons they haven't canceled were on display, and they said little to nothing about the new Essentials line they are planning to replace Icons with. It's like they had put toys up and then left for the weekend. I guess companies forgot that this past weekend was SDCC? |
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Bandai totally dropped the ball. What was the only new thing actually revealed? The Power Staff? |
I am an optimist and held out hope and they really did nothing. Were the Metallic Rangers even there? No Lion-Oh or anything from Ninja Steel. WHat BOA should do is release 3 current figures and 3 past PR figures per wave. This would have been a great place to show them....
Sadest, they dissed the fans by showing ZERO Legacy Megazords....well they showed Legacy Zords but I', tired from MMPR. Time to move on!!!!!! |
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is this a recipe for success? if bandai even cared about this line and want these toys to sell, the aux zords would be cheaper, stars would be able to read on the morpher and not break and they would added a spin gimmick to the morpher and zord. they have done in every other series since samurai when it comes to functionality and affordable but when it comes to this series, it's a complete 180. |
I want to believe that they are saving all the good stuff for Power Morphicon but nonetheless reading Kickback's report does worry me a bit.
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And that's a problem. |
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You 100% nailed it with this article. I attended SDCC all 5 days and was at the panel and I was just incredibly disappointed with Power Ranger's presence. For starters the booth was embarrassing. The fact that I had to stand in line TWICE for the photo op just to be able to get decent photographs and video of the toys on display is terrible. The Lion Fire Fortress Zord (one of the things I was looking forward to seeing) was so high up you couldn't see any features or really get a look at it's scale. Ughh.
I didn't have too much of an issue with the panel. It seemed to cover most of the Power Rangers merch-base and saved the good stuff for the end. I felt SOO bad for Ryan Peterson (the designer from Fisher-Price / Imaginext). His love of Power Rangers is real and his design work is some of the best stuff we've gotten recently as Ranger fans. But he seemed so out of his element on stage. I wanted to approach him after the panel to quickly congratulate him, thank him for his awesome work and maybe talk comic-con for a minute but he was gone before I had the chance to make it to the stage (and I was in the front row lol) |
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Or maybe their marketing budget was small for this year since they must have spent a lot last year with a new season and a feature film in the works. Regardless it is sad to hear the overall response for this year's booth was lacking. |
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It's as if I blinked and missed them. |
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Perhaps Discovery Family?
...I only know that channel is a thing because MLP airs there :lol And perhaps Disney might be interested in reacquiring PR. Since gaining Marvel, perhaps they've lightened up to the idea of a live action hero show? |
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I also agree with Ravenxl7, was it disappointing that almost nothing new was shown? Yes it was. But this vast overreaction is embarrassing one bad Con showing and people are claiming the show's in danger of cancellation. Plus as Dr Kain said BOA's was far from the only disappointing presentation. |
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"Vast overreaction"? I'm sorry, I missed the part where you attended San Diego Comic Con this year. Or any of the previous years. I missed where you attended it in 2014 when Saban Brands brought the cast of Super Megaforce, had a huge toy display at Bandai, gave away autographed posters variously throughout the convention both inside and outside if you followed their hints, etc. Power Morphicon was great with a special Make A Wish celebration where there was a breakfast and then an event outside the convention center hosted by the Red Samurai Ranger. I missed where you went to San Diego Comic Con in 2015 and got a chance to meet the cast of Dino Charge, and the chance to talk with Chip Lynn, and went to a show panel where they debut TWO new trailers - one for the rest of Dino Charge and one for Dino Supercharge to a packed ballroom and huge reception overall from fans. San Diego Comic Con in 2016 I did not attend, but I do know that the Power Rangers Movie cast was there - in a private event set up by Nerdist and Lionsgate - and later did autograph signings in the show. I did go to Power Morphicon, where aside from the new cast reveal, Saban Brands was a no-show. Bandai, however, had a great display and their interaction was doing a quiz show where if you won you got a free exclusive Dino Charger. Don't forget how they brought the Dino Charge Megazord costume to the show. I also went to San Diego Comic Con this year (did you go? I missed that) and watched Saban Brands not show up (except for Jason). I watched Saban Brands marketing representatives at the show follow costumed MMPR Rangers walk around but that was it. I watched as Bandai sat in their booth not interacting with fans and let their volunteer staff run the booth. I watched as fans did ask questions only to be told "I'm sorry I don't know I don't actually work for Bandai I am just doing this interactive booth" in front of Bandai reps who didn't bother to speak up. I saw Bandai showcase practically nothing of their upcoming toy brand at the largest pop culture convention in the world. Vast overreaction? Embarrassing? I'm sorry - I see the potential in this brand. I've been to conventions where they were on their game, excited for what they had, and tried their best to compete with the Marvel, DC, and Hasbro of the world. I'm tired of running a fan site that does more promoting than the actual brand. I'm tired of running a fan site that gives fans more information about upcoming product than the actual toy manufacturer. This year at SDCC they didn't show up. And when another fan asked if they should take off work during NYCC (ideally for new product reveals at the booth), they were told "Yeah don't take any time off" as it's going to be the exact same booth and the exact same setup as at SDCC. If you don't see the problem in that then I don't know what to tell you. No one is saying the show is ending. No one is saying to ditch the brand and give it to someone else. No one is saying Bandai needs to dump the brand. We are telling them it's time to get their act together - Saban Brands and Bandai - because they're already trying to play catch up with the other brands and with this type of showing they've put themselves even further behind. |
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I have, I've also seen the same thing before with Hasbro, Marvel, DC and even Bandai themselves who's finally making a decent effort at marketing Gundam in the West again. So when I see people ready to completely write off a show and brand because of one disappointing convention *and there are examples of this throughout this thread* I can safely say yes you are vastly overreacting and it is embarrassing considering the show has been through much worse in the past. |
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Side Note: Seriously, what's up with the Hiatus'? Is it to draw out the episodes or something? |
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And SFV is bad yes but they also made RE7 which revitalized a brand that was on it's way to being considered a laughing stock by the greater gaming community,seem to be doing something with Megaman and are actually bringing Monster Hunter to the West.*even if people disagree with how they're doing it.* Believe it or not but almost a decade ago Street Fighter was largely considered the only worthwhile thing they put out thanks to them outsourcing almost everything else. They're slipping a bit now but I still have faith in them no matter how much I gripe about SFV's lack of Arcade Mode and Sakura. Gotta take the good with the bad. Quote:
I don't think anyone has the heart to tell them kids will just change the channel or hop on their computer if their show's not on. |
I had to read this twice. The first was to just get the general idea of how everything was layed out. The second was more to figure out if this was just a nitpicky kind of expectations issue.
I don't think it is though. It's not a bad thing to say that because a company didn't give all it could to it's marketing for a major event that they were asleep at the wheel. To be honest I think most people didn't even realize SDCC was this past week/end. A lot of folks weren't wowed with the exclusives, and some are just plain burnt the hell out. It's a great time to be a geek, but after that, it just becomes tedium. But there was a major franchise reboot with the new Power Rangers movie. And say what you will, it did NOT get the accolades people thought it would. Personally I finally came around to watching it as a rental. It was a personal choice, and I'm a fan of the franchise. It barely made back it's production budget. With total money. It didn't even break budget in the US. That's not a good sign. Personally I liked it a far far cry better than the last two Transformers movies of which I'm an even bigger fan of that franchise. So did Bandai do exactly what Hasbro did when Battleship sank like Rhianna's acting? It would appear so. They wanted that box office money. I'm sure so did Haim Saban. What I'm getting at is there's going to be changes around the corner. Hasbro is going to have their own convention. We have Powercon, as well as the other conventions annually. SDCC might be a dead horse being beaten to death with DC and Marvel properties. It might be time to change and adapt. Let's also not forget that Viacom has already prodded around changing Nickelodeon and their other Nick franchises. It's been 30 years. And even the other channels are changing (Sprout has been bought up by Universal - becoming Universal Kids, and Discovery Family might be going away soon too). Could Disney do something with the franchise? No. They have their fingers so far up the Star Wars universe they're digging for gold. Does Saban have enough properties or capital to start it's own network? No. but they could perhaps latch onto a different network. Nick/Viacom is too sketch to stick to. |
Ill take Kickbacks side over a Sabandai and Crapcom apologist.
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It's starting to remind me of how Transformers fans overreact to everything. Also Power Rangers/Fighting games isn't the only thing Bandai/Capcom does. They are doing well with their other properties and I acknowledge that. Doesn't mean they can't do better with PR/SF but I'm not going to completely write them off for one bad showing when they've righted the ship before after worse. Quote:
Criticize them for what they do wrong,hope for better and acknowledge when they do something right. |
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