Welcome to Ranger Command Power Hour’s BOLT BITES article series! BOLT BITES is a semi-monthly to monthly summary of all the news happening for Power Rangers merchandise, fan works, entertainment and other news.
Have something Ranger news related that you found? Are you an artist looking to promote your work? Do you make Power Rangers content on YouTube or Twitch? Drop us a line at rangercommandpowerhour@gmail.com or on our social media channels.
If you’re in the United States, Happy Thanksgiving this week and be safe while traveling. See you next month.
ThreeZero and Hasbro are releasing a 1/6 scale FigZero figures of the Power Rangers Turbo team! You can purchase the rangers individually, or a 5-pack which exclusively includes 5 Team spirit pose thumbs-up hands and bonus accessories to form the Turbo R.A.M. cannon. Pre-orders are available at Big Bad Toy Store.
New Power Rangers Funko Pops are on the way. According to Gamespot, Funko will be releasing a new collection called Bitty Pop Bitty Bots. For Power Rangers fans the Target exclusive (ugh!) Megazord features a head that opens to display the Bitty Pop Red Ranger.
Also confirmed to be coming are Funko Pops for each of Tommy Oliver‘s Ranger forms. Jason Bischoff, formerly of Saban Brands and Hasbro, and now employed with Funko – tweeted out a confirmation earlier this week.
COMICS
Power Rangers Prime artist Michael YG showed off his concept art for Lauren Shiba on his Weibo account (super high res download). The ranger suit features a jacket similar to Super Samurai Mode as well as a traditional Japanese grass rain coat (mino).
In similar fashion, over on BlueSky, Power Rangers: Infinity artists Brand&Stein showed off the concept art for Power Rangers Paladin Force team. They described the concept art as follows:
“On the left is a full-body concept for one of the Paladin Force, a knight with a Power Rangers tabard. On the right are the other helmet designs for the team. They’re varying shapes of knight helmet with differing ornamentation, including horns, a wing on one side, a stylised crown-like effect, and one that’s just overall a bit more angular.”
Upcoming: BOOM! Studios February 2025 solicits are out and includes covers for Power Rangers Prime issue #4 and an advanced look for April’s MMPR: Recharged deluxe hardcover collection.
GAMES
Digital Eclipse’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind now has a release date, December 10th, according to the press release on Playstation Blog.
Digital Eclipse also announced the voice cast on Twitter. They include AJ LoCascio(Gambit, X-Men ’97) as Red Ranger, Zordon and Alpha 5, Cristina Vee(HyperForce Black Ranger) as Pink Ranger, Isaac Robinson-Smith(Adam, Voltron Legendary Defender) as Black Ranger, Holly Chou(Jubilee, X-Men ’97) as Yellow Ranger, James Willems(Funhaus) as Green Ranger, Goldar and Bones, Ally Dixon(Nikki Narwhal, Thelma the Unicorn) as Rita Repulsa, and Digital Eclipse’s own Dan Amrich as the Blue Ranger.
Atlanta News First reports that stunt woman Sophia Crawford has opened up a coffee shop in Alpharetta, Georgia called Ground and Pound Coffee. Crawford was a stunt woman for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and MMPR: The Movie and is married to MMPR Stunt Coordinator Jeff Pruitt.
HAPPY POWER RANGERS DAY! 31 years ago today, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers premiered on August 28th, 1993. And surprisingly, we have some news!
OFFICIAL MERCH
On Hasbro Pulse, you can pre-order the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Deluxe Action Figures by Super7! Inspired by the vintage Mighty Morphin Power Rangers toy line from the ‘90s, these figures are 7” scale with 19 points of articulation, and features intricate sculpt and premium metallic-and-gloss paint detailing. The packaging is reminiscent of the original triangle boxes and include the Red, Yellow, Blue, Pink, Black, Green, and White Rangers.
Super7 announced a new entry into their line of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ULTIMATES!, Lord Drakkon! The 7” scale, highly articulated Lord Drakkon Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ULTIMATES! figure is inspired by the BOOM! Studios comic books and depicts the arrogant ruler ready to conquer the Power Rangers wherever and whenever they’re hiding. Featuring intricate sculpt and premium paint detailing, this figure also comes with multiple interchangeable heads and hands, and an assortment of accessories including a damaged Red Ranger helmet, Dragon Dagger, Broken Saba, and more!
Diamond Select Toys is releasing a Legends in 3D 1:2 scale bust based on the Mighty Morphin White Ranger. Previously, Diamond Select released the Red Ranger and Green Ranger in this line as well as busts from other Hasbro properties. Currently, the MMPR White Ranger is available to pre-order through Entertainment Earth and Big Bad Toy Store. Approximately 10″ tall and made of resin, this bust is limited to 1,000 pieces.
It’s time for a Sentai version of Zord-Builder?? From Bandai Japan comes the new DX ROBO UNIVERSE line, a new way for DX Zords from previous years to make a return and be compatible to swap parts for all new combinations! The first wave includes Engine-Oh from Engine Sentai Go-Onger, GokaiOh from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger and ToQOh from Ressha Sentai ToQGer.
COMICS / BOOKS
OUT NOW: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Recharged Vol. 5 SC, which collects Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #115-118. Below is the full preview gallery (and essentially all of MMPR issue #115)
Humble Bundle has a new Power Rangers Mega Bundle that contain 30 volumes of the comics from the past 8 years of BOOM! Studios comics. Protip: You can customize your donation to give more to charity. There are three sliders for your donation, BOOM! Studios, Humble, and the Hasbro Children’s Hospital.
Amulet Books (known for their Avatar: The Last Airbender series of books) revealed a new Mighty Morphin Power Rangers novel, called “Force of Chaos”, coming in 2025. Written by Diana Ma, it’s focused on Trini and it’s made for a Young Adult audience. You can pre-order the book on Amazon (This affiliate link helps support RCPH).
GAMES
Digital Eclipse announced that the Green Ranger is an unlockable character in Rita’s Rewind. They state that Tommy’s origin story is part of the game’s narrative, and once you complete the campaign, you’ll be able to select the Green Ranger from the character selection screen. The game is also now available to wishlist on Playstation.
If you were at the Power Morphicon convention this past weekend, you may wanted to get tested for COVID-19. Several attendees have reported positive results as they return home from the convention this week. COVID is still a serious concern, with cases rising this summer and more expected in the winter as new strains of the virus emerge.
Thanks to Angel Silvio for alerting us to some of the news items in this edition of Bolt Bites! Have something Ranger news related that you found? Are you an artist looking to promote your work? Do you make Power Rangers content on YouTube or Twitch? Drop us a line at rangercommandpowerhour@gmail.com or on our social media channels.
Welcome to Ranger Command Power Hour’s new BOLT BITES article series! BOLT BITES is a semi-monthly to monthly summary of all the news happening for Power Rangers merchandise, fan works, entertainment and other news. Depending on the news cycle for a given week or month, you may see this series grow to weekly.
Have something Ranger news related that you found? Are you an artist looking to promote your work? Do you make Power Rangers content on YouTube or Twitch? Drop us a line at rangercommandpowerhour@gmail.com or on our social media channels.
And now onto August 2024’s BOLT BITES.
OFFICIAL MERCH
Last month, Licensing International reported news from San Diego Comic Con that Playmates’ Power Rangers line will launch at retail in 2025 and “will be available in children’s and collector versions and feature ‘well-constructed figures at a better price than other collectible companies, including Hasbro,’ said Jeff Trojan, VP of Marketing at Playmates.” Read more.
Morph into action with the new REWIND RED RANGER (MMPR) from Funko! Part of Funko’s REWIND line, this new collectible comes in a VHS-inspired package with matching character card! There’s a 1 in 6 chance you may find the chase of the Red Ranger wearing his helmet.
Fanhome, a collectible build-a-model subscription service, is releasing the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Dino Megazord. This is an electronic, partially die-cast, transformable Megazord standing at an impressive 24″ when complete. Be warned: the total cost of subscribing can be upwards of $2000. (From Spindash Greg on Twitter)
UNOFFICIAL MERCH
Originally posted by Twitter user Whenaiyy, third party 1/6th figure manufacturer SooSooToys is releasing 5 more Red Warriors. Will this continue Forever? Check out Whenaiyy’s thread for more images of these gorgeous replicas. And someone tell SooSooToys to make a Shadow Ranger…
NEXT WEEK: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Recharged Vol. 5 SC, which collects Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #115-118. Below is the full preview gallery (and essentially all of MMPR issue #115)
Power Rangers: Mighty Force is a new mobile game out NOW on iOS App Store and Google Play that released on August 7th. The original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are back and joined by Rangers from the future! From developers East Side Games, Mighty Kingdom and Hasbro. Download now.
During Gamescon 2024 (August 21-25), Digital Eclipse is promoting their new Power Rangers game, Rita’s Rewind, to press. They stressed in comments to their tweet that they are not working on a Power Rangers game collection and that Rita’s Rewind is a new game.
Renegade Game Studios recently released an expansion for Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid, Allies Pack #4 featuring Blue Senturion, Hunter and Blake Bradley, Levi Weston and Orion. Also available is the new It’s Morphin Time expansion for the Power Rangers Deck-Building Game which features Rocky, Adam, Aisha, Kat and introduces Matt Cook from the BOOM! Studios comics.
FAN PROJECTS
The Morphin Museum announced a Power Rangers Preservation Project challenge for Power Month. If their Morphin Museum Patreon hits 100 paid subscribers by the end of August, they will release the full pitch of DinoRangers, the original pitch for what would become MMPR. More details here.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Last month, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers VFX Artist Rick Shick launched a new behind the scenes video series on YouTube called “Behind the Power”. The series has examined morph effects, filming miniatures and interviews. View the full playlist here.
FANDOM WTF?
Who knew the term “Japanese Power Rangers” was so controversial? Twitter user @mask_bastard’s viral tweet depicting a clip from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger (Power Rangers: Dino Charge), with the comment “Japanese power rangers goes so hard” created quite the discourse the week of August 12th.
