Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers

Go, go power rangers!

Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers was a playground sensation when I was a kid. It was a smash hit largely because it merged all of our favorite things - big robots (like in Transformers), big monsters (like in Godzilla), dinosaurs (like in Jurassic Park), martial arts (like in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and teamwork (like in Captain Planet and the Planeteers). It also had a hyperactive theme song that was basically just electric guitars and the name of the show, and a lot of flipping around and explosions that never seemed to really hurt anybody.

Shows where kids or teenagers piloted giant robots and usually merged together into a samurai or knight-shaped robot were nothing new. Giant robots go all the way back to the '50s in Japan. Power Rangers made it special because the giant robots (known as "Zords") were dinosaurs.

Dinozords

Every episode was basically the same. Usually, the villain, Rita Repulsa, would send some kind of monster to destroy the Earth. The Rangers would morph using their Power Morphers - little plastic belt buckle things I think you could get at McDonald's for a limited time (yes, I had one). When they learned of the evil monster Rita had unleashed, they would morph into their ranger costumes (plastic helmets and spandex or nylon suits) and do battle. Often they would fight a small army of "putties" - the easily defeated gray weirdos that Rita sent - or a few of her henchmen, like Goldar. Then they'd call their Dinozords and fight the big monster, and they'd have to merge together into the Megazord to defeat it. Somewhere in there would be a few scenes of their normal high school lives, often with comic relief from the two inept bullies Bulk and Skull.

Before the Green Ranger miniseries was released, I remember that a lot of kids were wondering if there was going to be a Purple Ranger.There never was. The Green Ranger was the new ranger, and he was the coolest. Instead of a dinosaur, he had a Mechagodzilla-like robot that he would call with a flute that was also a dagger. Dragonzord even rises from the ocean like Godzilla does.  The Green Ranger started off as evil because Rita (the evil witch from outer space) had put him under a spell.

The Green Ranger even has better armor than the other rangers

I remember one of my friends pointing out how silly it was that the putties would explode when you hit them in the big Z on their chest - could their weak spot be any more obvious? But they didn't get that "improvement" until Lord Zedd took over as chief villain, and if I remember correctly, he was a much cooler bad guy than Rita.

At recess, playing Power Rangers probably got us into more trouble than anything else we did, since all you had to do to be a Power Ranger was shout out the name of a dinosaur and punch and kick each other.

Good times.