[Enchilada645]

I have no real opinions on the toys.

That said, the AI Upscales? Someone, anyone, needs to start grabbing the episodes that are already on Youtube and at least store them somewhere. There's no telling what will happen to those once the "enhanced" versions start popping up.

Because if we're not careful then we'll lose the original versions forever and be stuck with stupid corporate versions.

[TokuKnight89]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

I have no real opinions on the toys.

That said, the AI Upscales? Someone, anyone, needs to start grabbing the episodes that are already on Youtube and at least store them somewhere. There's no telling what will happen to those once the "enhanced" versions start popping up.

Because if we're not careful then we'll lose the original versions forever and be stuck with stupid corporate versions.

The Saban-Disney Era is also streaming on Pluto TV's "Forever Kids" channel (as well as on-demand). Tubi now appears to have nearly everything from Mighty Morphin' - Beast Morphers (I'm betting Netflix has an exclusive toehold on Dino Fury and Cosmic Fury). Those who said that Power Rangers wouldn't be in same place as Sentai have lost the argument. In addition, Mighty Morphin' Seasons 1-3 Boxsets are still clogging Walmart shelves.

As for the fear that newer upscales will be as bad as Disney's controversial 2010 Mighty Morphin' reimagining, I'm on the fence. You can't know if it'll be truly abysmal until you see a sampling of it. If we are being objectively honest for a moment, the old Mighty Morphin' show isn't great in terms of picture quality. There are times when streaming reveals how dated things actually look. Even Netflix's copies have some pretty blurry and grainy quality. Saban was a notorious cheapskate, so it wouldn't surprise me if he opted for cheap-even-by-'90s-TV-standards equipment (and "Yes!", I already know that Mighty Morphin' was filmed on tape while Zyuranger was recorded on film).

[Enchilada645]

And as we've seen many times in this age of digital only media, companies can easily take shows and series down suddenly without warning. Not to mention, not all Wal-Marts are equal, it could be a case of luck as I haven't really seen any kind of PR video merchandise in years (best I got was a couple years back seeing the Shout DVDs for other seasons at Big Lots). Not to mention a lot of stores have scaled down their video selections entirely.

My main concern is media preservation and it's kind of eyebrow raising that you'd simply brush it off like that.

Well media preservation and also trying to make sure cheap uses of AI should be pushed back entirely. I've seen AI Upscaling done on a whim before, and it can be done very, very badly. And I do not believe Hasbro as a company, has the time and care to actually make sure it's used efficiently.

[TokuKnight89]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

And as we've seen many times in this age of digital only media, companies can easily take shows and series down suddenly without warning. Not to mention, not all Wal-Marts are equal, it could be a case of luck as I haven't really seen any kind of PR video merchandise in years (best I got was a couple years back seeing the Shout DVDs for other seasons at Big Lots). Not to mention a lot of stores have scaled down their video selections entirely.

My main concern is media preservation and it's kind of eyebrow raising that you'd simply brush it off like that.

Well media preservation and also trying to make sure cheap uses of AI should be pushed back entirely. I've seen AI Upscaling done on a whim before, and it can be done very, very badly. And I do not believe Hasbro as a company, has the time and care to actually make sure it's used efficiently.

My Walmart's must have radically different levels of distribution and stock control, cause I've also seen the random sets for Lightspeed Rescue, Ninja Storm, and Dino Thunder sets.

I'm less concerned about Power Rangers being buried and more concerned about Ultraman. SHOUT doesn't stream it anymore on their resource anymore, so I'm wondering if Mill Creek sets will be the best option in the future. It's also obvious that companies don't care about consumer opinions. They'll do what they want when they want. Old DVD sets may simply become the most ideal, and some analysts have already speculated that streaming without a physical contingency is inherently flawed for those aforementioned media preservation reasons.

There's a rumor that Hasbro wants to be an IP Holding company rather than a toy manufacturer. Again, just a rumor, but it MIGHT be an indication that the Hasbro of the future will put more care into such things than the Hasbro of the past would have. In all likelihood, they'll farm it out to someone who can do some appropriate editing (hopefully). I doubt it'll be as bad as some of the Buffy edits where you saw too much due to cheap and forced widescreen "upscales".

[RodimusZX]

Idk, I know the corporate strategy is that these are for a "new generation of kids to learn about the IP", but I think one of PR's biggest failings is how hard they hammer the Zyuranger/first PR designs like it's the ONLY generation/source of material to mine from. Even with Transformers, when they make a new series of kids toys, they tend to tweak the designs a bit, kind of modernize them etc.

I just think they need to start trying new things if they don't want the brand to just flat out die. And on the off chance that they're hoping these will trigger a nostalgia buy for the around 40-somethings out there (like myself)... uhh... pass.
Not quite good enough on any metric for me to be interested. Plus these are like the 4th or 5th bout of "first PR" toys in about what, 10-15 years? Any serious collector out there likely already has a complete set of whatever they might've wanted from the original series.

[leogemini03]

Playmates is revealing the full line-up of toys on June 1, which is probably the day Walmart will start the pre-orders.

https://playmatestoys.com/mmpr-coming/

The release window will be Walmart.com from June to September, it'll be in stores after that, and Amazon & Target near the end of the year.

[EpsilonX]

Just saw the AI announcement.

Hopefully this will accompany the original versions and not flat-out replace them.

But also, AI doesn't exclusively mean generative AI like we've seen the past 2-3 years. If you use something like Shutter Encoder to make a 4k version of a 1080p file, that's AI. So hopefully it turns out alright.

Still, the fact that they're saying it's AI-powered definitely raises eyebrows. If they truly cared about the product, they could go through and do a proper remaster. But maybe, as TokuKnight said, the source is just too low-budget?

I guess we'll see...

[leogemini03]

Pre-orders are open in France for Power Morpher, Combinable Dinozords, Ultimate Megazord and the Tyrannosaurus Battle Bike, through webstore Toys Legacy Collection.

https://www.toyslegacycollection.com...-power-rangers

[leogemini03]

Australian pre-orders for Re-Ignition wave one are now open in some retailers.

1. https://www.angelgrovecollectables.c...rs-re-ignition
2. https://www.cultureshockcollectables...action-figures

[DreamSword]

https://toynewsi.com/216-57846

These look worse than the old Legacy toys.