[acdcguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CJMErl

Boy howdy, I remeber when just doubleposting in a forum was considered a Cardinal Sin! ...oh, he finally got banned.

...what were we talking about again? OH RIGHT, the potential end of Super Sentai. It's certainly a bummer and I feel for the fans. I'd be surprised if it had any major impact in the West (at least from my perspective), if only because Hasbro seems content on letting the whole franchise wither away until all that's left is the occasional token licensed MMPR merch or comic book crossover tie-in.

...no I'm NOT bitter about how poorly/premturely the Lightning Collection Power Weapons and ZAP lines were treated and ended, shut up. (I'm never going to get a new proper combined Power Blaster, am I)

Long overdue ban imo. That person got on my nerves and never contributed anything of value. Only to complain or add a 1-2 word response barely related to a thread or a response.

The end of Super Sentai is incredibly sad. But nothing lasts forever and 50 years of consistent programing is a hell of an achievement. It's crazy to think that the series that eventually gave us Power Rangers is far older than The Simpsons and many other long running American TV shows. Thanks to the show's longevity and popularity in of itself and through it's American adaptation it got a major Hollywood motion picture released before the likes of any Marvel superhero pre or post MCU. Sentai certainly peaked around Gokaiger with a massive celebration of 35 years on television. But there is only so many theme ideas and stories before you start to retread on themes and ideas. Hell even before Gokaiger Sentai was retreading on themes such as animals, dinosaurs (and other prehistoric creatures), ninjas, and cars. Popularity wanes and its time in the sun has now passed.

Hasbro certainly has not helped things. They continuously pivot to MMPR even though Power Rangers has had many popular post-MMPR seasons. The problem with Hasbro is they make crappy toys then consider the brand a failure for not selling. Though they produced well enough lines of various seasons to suggest that some figures were selling well enough to continue the line for several years. So I don't really buy the whole "poor sales" argument at face value. Most likely Hasbro is acting like a petty teenager. The previous leadership enthusiastically acquired Power Rangers with the desire to exploit the brand to its full potential. But the current leadership obviously hates the acquisition and has nerfed the line and licensed it out to Playmates because they rather focus on their Transformers line. Which is the problem whenever you have a major competitor buy out its competition. The buy out was a massive mistake on the behalf of Saban, who has arguably treated his brand worse than Disney ever had. Neglecting a capable adult is far better than handing it over to an abuser. Though Disney also pivoted to MMPR in the end of their first run with the franchise so it's not much better.

I wasn't the biggest fan of Bandai America during the 2010s, especially with the zordbuilder line and how worse the quality got towards the end. But I'd rather have Bandai back if Bandai Japan could ban Bandai America from using zordbuilder for DX intended lines. Which would be difficult to do since they're technically two different companies, but perhaps B-Japan could refuse to license the DX toys in any way if B-A made any changes outside of American toy manufacturing laws. Plus aside from some gaudy zordbuilder ports the Legacy line megazords were sold well and were largely well received. I'm still hoping for a release of the Legacy Shogun Megazord even if I have to wait until I'm 50 for that to happen.

The Toei-Hasbro divorce seems to have negatively affected both Sentai and Power Rangers. If the rumors are true that Toei intends to do a re-brand and market it as a Power Rangers competitor in North America well then good luck to them. Not sure how they will go about addressing past PR adapted Sentai and unadapted Sentai in the continuity going forward. I could see them pushing Jetman aesthetics and other older teams (and newer unadapted teams). But it becomes a problem with shows like Fiveman and Dairanger that have a complicated relationship with Power Rangers.