In my experience the people who talk down Gaoranger have never seen Wild Force, whereas those who've seen Wild Force like Gaoranger just fine.

(Wild Force is great by the way)

I think in a way I'm the opposite, even though Wild Force is a close adaptation on paper, in practice I mostly just like the teamups and the Merrick stuff whereas some of the things that annoyed me in Wild Force seemed somehow less obnoxious in Gaoranger e.g. you don't have characters like Cole or Max! Plus GaoSilver's debut scene was just so epically executed, I remember the first time I saw it on youtube in like late 05 or something lol! I'm not saying Gaoranger is like the best ever or anything, Timeranger was hard to live up to for me and maybe 3 years without a pink warrior was a bit long but it's surprisingly enjoyable for what it is and as always the soundtrack is on point.

Another notable thing is that it’s the first series where the sixth Ranger got his face in the title sequence. Zyuranger through Gingaman never treated the role as anything more than a glorified guest star, while Timeranger added their’s at too short a notice to modify the titles beyond adding the suit.

Ahh yes, Gaoranger. The first time where a pool cue was deadly and also could change into a gun. :lolol
Really the show is a milestone show at its core. Keep in mind this is 2001, the new millenium. And they did a lot of new things we take for granted or are fed up with at this point. The auxiliary mecha concept especially, that was quite the game changer compared to the 20th century. No longer did people need to play with the same set of vehicles or animals till the tsuika senshi or bangai senshi debuted at least months later, cause they constantly fed the consumers toy after toy in small doses. And it definitely boosted the play value I think. Made use of existing products too as demonstrated with Gao Muscle.
Also the Jetman palette was back after 7 years and was the first time the Jetman palette had a traditional hue for the blue ranger unlike Blue Swallow or Ninja Blue suits that used a lighter blue.

Just finished episode 32 of Ryusoulger and for some reason, I'm already feel like I need a break from watching this series and it's honestly a shame too since it did start off somewhat promising thanks to the appearances of Gaisorg and Ryusouls Black and Green during the events of the Super Sentai Strongest Battle mini-series. The latter two in particular have since ended up becoming my favorite rangers of this series.

I replaced my Blu Ray player yesterday so now I can get caught up to Kira Mage.

Right now having finished Go Busters I'm watching

Kyo Ryu
To Quger

as they're the next 2 series.

I'm on #25 of Ryu Soul as well actually.

I've actually liked the series dating back to Hurri.

I'll see Zen Kai Ranger in 2022 after they air the last week.

To Qu

I'm on #18 and Orange Ranger has joined the team but is kind of a lone wolf who fights and then is gone. Orange Ranger isn't the 1st one to change sides.

In Ninja Storm Blake and Hunter had become good. Did this happen in Hurri? I haven't gotten to that point quite yet.

Short answer: Yes.

Well then I'm happy to keep that trend going!

The thing is... auxiliary mecha are basically just form changes for Sentai robots? It worked for Tiga, and it worked for Kuuga, so it's not too surprising it worked for Gaoranger. Of course, it also helps that Gaoranger did it so well; people still hold its designs in such high esteem for a reason.

Oh, speaking of the colors! I learned from the usual Wikipedia reading I like to do now that in Gaoranger's case, the color line-up was pulled from colors that I guess are associated with the Five Phases, thus emphasizing the whole connection to nature the team has? I thought that was super neat, to find out this team I've been seeing for nearly two decades now can have some secret hidden in plain sight like that. Stuff like this is part of why I love toku so much.

Yes, for sure. But we gotta remember, this was 2001. And prior to Gaoranger interaction amongst DX robots would mostly be just more combining, but no interchangability really, at least not intentionally. That was the game changer right there. The DX power animals being form changes pretty much like you said for the robots elevated the play value at the time cause it also meant people can try out other combinations not shown on TV as well. Now people were able to try out things such as a Gao Muscle instead of the two bears it is tiger and shark, or a Gao Icarus which instead of giraffe and deers would be wolf and sawshark, etc.

I had gotten the Shout Factory sets then got the Malaysian releases to catch up to Kira Mage.

I'm almost half finished with To Qu at present. Half finished with Ryu Soul.