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Archives for December 2013

under Kamen Rider

While Kamen Rider Gaim does not air this week (the programming block is on hiatus for the New Year holiday) TOEI has released an early preview of the new Energy Rider characters joining the show in 2014!

This is our first official look at the Energy Riders- before today we have only seen brief behind-the-scenes snapshots & magazine preview images. But now we can really see what kind of power the Genesis Driver can bring out!

Stay tuned next year for the introduction of Energy Riders Marika, Shin Zangetsu, Duke and Sigurd!

under Power Rangers

And we’re back with another gallery from Bandai of America’s Power Rangers Super Megaforce toy line!

Todays offering is the Mystic Dragon Zord, a tribute to Power Rangers Mystic Force. The basis for this figure is the DX Gokai Machine Magi Dragon[/URL] from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, itself an homage to Mahou Sentai Magiranger. Check out both galleries to see the similarities and differences between these two figures,

The Mystic Dragon Zord and the other auxiliary zord builder compatible vehicles/sets have literally just begun to hit regular retail. So be sure to keep your eyes peeled for them in the coming weeks! The Mystic Dragon used for this gallery was purchased at a local Walmart in Lexington KY.

Click “Discuss on the TokuNation Fourms”  to access our full image gallery of this figure.

under Super Sentai

Tokumei Sentai Gobusters finally steps into the lime light with the latest magazine coverage from their up coming team up movie with Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger. These new scans reveal that the two teams will be joining powers creating a new mecha combination: Tategami Raiden Kyoryuzin!

Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger VS Gobusters: Dinosaur Great Battle! Farewell, Eternal Friends will be making the samba jump into theaters January 28th 2014

under General Tokusatsu News, Metal Heroes

Photo & Content contributor conundrum is back yet again with a new gallery from Big Bad Beetleborgs! Today he takes a look at the 6″ Blue Stinger Beetleborg!

The figure is an import of the Blue Beet figure from Bandai of Japan’s Juukou B-Fighter toy line, released by Bandai of America in 1998.All in all, it is still a solid figure, even by today’s standards. The articulation for the most part is decent, but the fantastic metallic blue and chrome paint job the figure has more than makes up for it. The paint is a double-edged sword though as it is almost impossible to find a used Beetleborgs figure without any wear to the metallic paint or chrome.

No one knows if the B-Fighters/Beetleborgs will ever get the S.H. Figuarts treatment, but in the meantime, the figures from Bandai of America’s 6 inch line are an excellent placeholder in any collection.

Check out the full gallery by clicking “Discuss on the TokuNation Forums” to see theentire gallery for this figure. And why not have a look at conundrum’s previous gallery of the 12″ Special Edition Blue Stinger Beetleborg as well to get your fix for the Big Bad Beetleborgs!

under Power Rangers, TokuNation, TokuNation Spotlights

In continuing the celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Power Rangers, we had our users nominate their Top 10 Power Rangers of All Time, and from that, we created a Top 20 Power Rangers of All Time list. These updates are the results of what TokuNation users submitted. To start this entry off right – yes, we’re aware that it has been reported that Austin St. John’s real name is actually Jason Geiger. And we’ll touch on that later. But for now – TokuNation users have voted that Austin St. John/Jason Geiger is the 4th Best Power Ranger of All Time!

Jason Lee Scott was your ordinary teenager – great in school, totally ripped, martial artist, probably the head-everything in every sport – and to top off his normal teenage life, he was selected by intergalactic being Zordon to be the Red Ranger for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers once it was discovered that the evil Rita Repulsa has escaped her prison. He controlled the mighty Tyrannosaurus Dino Zord and led his friends and teammates, the other Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, in to battle anytime the forces of evil attacked.

Jason’s greatest challenge came when Rita Repulsa revealed that she had the Green Dragon Coin, and used it to create her own evil Power Ranger … the Green Ranger. She selected a new kid in town named Tommy Oliver, and he was nearly a match physically and martial arts ability against Jason. Jason and his friends would prevail and save Tommy from Rita’s evil spell allowing him to join the team. His greatest failure in his own eyes was when Rita used the Green Candle to drain the powers away from the Green Ranger. Jason was within grasp of the candle but his friends were on the brink of being destroyed, so he left. To save the Green Ranger powers from being lost back to Rita, Tommy gave his coin to Jason, and Jason gained the ability to summon the armor and weapon of the Green Ranger.

Time passed – Jason received the new Red Dragon Thunderzord – but at the cost of having to fight new villains under the evil of Lord Zedd. When push came to shove, the Power Rangers agreed they needed another Ranger to help. It was then that the White Ranger was revealed – created by Zordon and Alpha 5 – and Jason was stripped of his leadership of the team as it was given to the White Ranger. Soon after, Jason – along with Zack and Trini – would be selected to be part of a peace conference, and would leave the team.

It would be a couple of years until we saw Jason again. During Power Rangers Zeo, the Gold Ranger was in a dire straight – he had lost his focus, and thus, was unable to use the powers and needed to pass them to a pure of heart individual. When the power transfer failed with Billy, Tommy knew just who to call – and Jason became the Gold Ranger, helping the team fight King Mondo and the Machine Empire, even leading the team when Tommy went missing. In time, Jason’s body was unable to continue to hold the powers of the Gold Ranger, and it became a life and death situation – Jason’s life force was now connected to the powers, and if the powers left, so would his life force. With the help of the other Power Rangers Zeo, Jason was able to pass the powers back to Trey of Triforia.

Jason would have a guest role in the Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie film, and would not return again to the show until Power Rangers Wild Force, taking part in the Forever Red anniversary episode. It was never explained on or off screen just how exactly he got back the original Mighty Morphin Red Ranger powers.

Austin St. John is the screen-name for Jason Geiger. The reason for this is not officially known, although co-star Jason David Frank has stated that Jason Geiger was unhappy that so many “Jason”s were working on the show (Jason David Frank, Jason Narvy) … so wanting to stand out from his co-stars, he had his name switched to Austin St. John. Geiger states he left the show to take care of his mother, while other reports have stated it was over money. Geiger also states he returned to the show during Power Rangers Zeo because he received a phone call that ratings were down and they needed a boost. His appearance in the Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie was part of the contract he signed. His acting career never took off after Power Rangers, and it is now reported that he works as an EMT somewhere in the Baltimore/Washington DC area. There is apparently a feud between Jason Geiger and Jason David Frank, and while Geiger has been relatively quiet and a non-participant in anything Power Rangers related, Frank talks about it anytime someone asks a question about their work relationship.

We are now down to the final three results! What do you think of this result? Are you surprised the original Red Ranger ranked 4th and not 1st or 2nd, or even 3rd? Chime in! And stay tuned for tomorrow when we reveal your choice for third best Power Ranger of all time!

under Power Rangers, TokuNation, TokuNation Spotlights

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Power Rangers, we asked our users earlier this year to rank their top 10 Power Rangers of all time. We took a hundred or so nomination lists, compiled them, and created from it a Top 20 Power Rangers of All Time to correspond with the 20th Anniversary. And as we wind down to our Top 5 list, we’re happy to state that TokuNation users have voted Daniel Southworth, who played Eric Myers the Quantum Ranger on Power Rangers Time Force as the 5th Best Power Ranger of All Time!

Eric Myers came from a “dirt poor” family, struggling and working incredibly hard to barely make ends meet. Attending the same private school as Wes Collins, Eric grew to despise Wes, who “had everything handed to him on a silver platter”. Eventually leaving the school to find bigger and better things, Eric would join the Silver Guardians, a private police force created by Wes’ father. Upon learning that Wes was the Red Time Force Power Ranger, it became Eric’s mission to somehow gain such a power like that for himself. He learned that the Power Rangers were searching for a device of incredible power, the Quantum powers. Eric found it first and became the Quantum Ranger. With his new power, he quickly convinced Mr. Collins to give him leadership of the Silver Guardians. Soon after, Eric was able to gain control of the Q-Rex Zord, the most powerful zord of the futuristic Time Force civilization, and his quest for “bigger and better” things had finally come to fruition.

Eric did not ally himself with the Power Rangers Time Force. He would assist them from time to time when they battled the same enemy, but Eric defended Mr. Collins and his questionable ethics and frequently butted heads with the other Power Rangers. It wasn’t until the final battle that Wes and Eric finally had a moment to speak their minds, declaring that while they grew up differently, they had both worked hard to change their destinies and became Power Rangers. The bitterness finally put to rest, Eric and Wes teamed together only for Eric to jump in front of a blast meant for Wes and his father, sacrificing himself to save them both. Eric would recover, but Wes would finish the fight without him.

Mr. Collins would offer the leadership of the new Silver Guardians to Wes, who would accept only if Eric would be his partner. Eric (along with Wes) would make multiple appearances in the next series, Power Rangers Wild Force, both for the annual team-up episode and for the special Forever Red 10th anniversary episode. The Quantum Ranger was the first (and only) 6th Ranger to achieve a “battleizer” power-up mode. Daniel Southworth, who played Eric Myers, was an accomplished stuntman who performed a majority of all the stunts for his character.

Daniel Southworth is an accomplished stuntman, actor, and is beloved among the Power Rangers fan community. Many have listed him as their favorite Power Ranger, and he consistently gives Jason David Frank a run for his money as peoples’ favorite 6th Ranger. He has attended numerous conventions over the years and has always treated his adoring fans with kindness, respect, and gratitude. Daniel has never stopped acting since his role in Power Rangers Time Force, having been in movies, television shows, short films, and voice work in video games like Marvel vs. Capcom and Devil May Cry. The list is long, almost too long to post, so head over to his IMDB profile and take a look at some of his credentials.

We’re winding down to our final 4 positions in the Top 20 Power Rangers of All Time list! Is Daniel Southworth in the correct spot? Should he have been higher? Lower? Talk about it! And see if you can figure out who the remaining 4 entrants are and, more importantly, what position they ranked in our polls!

under TokuNation, TokuNation Site Updates

We’re just about to finish the holiday season for the year 2013 and your friends at Talkin Toku at the Nation are bringing you some end-of-the-year Holiday cheer! Please join Kickback, Den-O, and Sentai Tamashii in the last episode of 2013! Taking the show away from where we’ve been, this show primarily focuses on TOYS. Find out what the guys think the Best Toy of 2013 is, what the Worst Toy of 2013 is, the most anticipated toys of 2014, and what our, as well as your favorite toku companies, New Year’s Resolutions are and should be.

And of course, the mystery of why this episode is featuring an image of White Castle. Please take a listen and participate – post in the discussion thread, or send us an email at podcast@tokunation.com to ask us questions and we’ll read them live on the air!

LibSyn Link:
Our LibSyn page for the show!

iTunes Link:
A link to our iTunes page (or just search “Tokunation” on iTunes)

Direct download link:
Click here to download the .MP3 of the show!
Size – 71.0MB
Length – 1:17:37 (one hour, seventeen minutes, thirty-seven seconds)

Please take part in the discussion thread. Look for Episode 004 to release in January, 2014! Thank you for your support and we’ll see you soon!

under Godzilla

Met with heavy speculation at first it appears this first official image of Godzilla 2014 Film toy merchandise might actually be real. Newsouth Books has listed a 2″ Light-Up Godzilla figure kit which includes a 60 year mini-history book of the character. Produced by Running Press, this release is very similar to the type of merchandise the company has often made for book stores and comic & specialty shops relating to such properties as Batman and Doctor Who.

Release date is set for April 2014 at a retail price of $19.99.

So what do you think of this first official piece of Godzilla Movie merchandise? Sound off by clicking “Discuss on the Tokunation Forums” at the bottom of this post. We’ll continue to bring you every piece of Godzilla 2014 news we possibly can as we get closer to the films May 16th, 2014 release date!

NOTE!: There is a LOT of back and forth going on across the Godzilla fandom on whether or not this image is real, partly because of the embargo that Bandai has on revealing the image(s) of the new Godzilla. The product listing is most likely real – a book with a 2″ figure is something specialty retailers love to do and it’s nothing out of the ordinary. The image is what is being called in to question. Until we receive concrete “yes” or concrete “no” on this, we’ll leave the story up and let YOU decide.

UPDATE!: The image attached to the story was taken down by order of Warner Bros. We apologize for the inconvenience.

under Power Rangers, Super Sentai

For the Power Rangers fans who have looked at, dissected, analyzed, and maybe even obsessed over the era that is known as “the final episodes of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 1 and the first handful from season 2″, this is, honestly, akin to finding the Holy Grail. For those of you who do not follow Power Rangers that closely, you’re probably wondering what the heck “zyu2” means. Well, let’s get in to that real quick.

When Mighty Morphin Power Rangers first hit the airwaves, no one expected it to become the huge pop-culture phenomenon – not Fox, not Saban, and not TOEI. The thing was it DID become the huge major success that has lasted 20 years now. Now for a bit of a history lesson.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was an adaption of Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. The Sentai show lasted 50 some episodes, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers took just about every usable piece of footage they could from its Sentai counterpart. And that’s when the unthinkable happened – there was no more Zyuranger footage to use – and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had become the biggest toy line and kids show of the 1990’s. Frankly, Saban couldn’t afford to let the show end. It was at that time that Saban reached out to TOEI (the creators of the Super Sentai franchise) and they struck a deal – new footage would be filmed by TOEI for use in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Saban then negotiated the rights for use of Gosei Sentai Dairanger, which result in both the Thunderzords and the White Ranger, as well as all the monsters.

That footage that TOEI created became known to the fandom as Zyu2 – short for Zyuranger 2 – and for years fans have speculated on a literal frame-by-frame analysis. See, there’s a number of monsters from the Zyu2 period that were filmed fighting the original Megazord and Dragonzord, but Saban introduced the Thunderzords early (yay toy sales!), meaning a handful of monsters at the tail-end of the Zyu2 footage had cut/paste battles (ie: you see the Thunder Megazord throw a punch, then cut to the monster who sparks and falls back). The editing was sloppy and at times you can easily make out the original Megazord in the battle when the Thunder Megazord is what the show is intending you to think is fighting the monster. Or in some cases, the monster didn’t grow to super-size to fight the Megazords, which was almost a 100% certainty in the show.

And an announcement came from GrnRngr of GrnRngr.com that he has come in to possession of never-before-seen Zyu2 footage and will release it via his website soon. To prove his point, he released a short video clip show-casing the Bloom of Doom and Invenusable Flytrap growing for a Megazord battle – something they didn’t do in the actual episodes. The footage is in forms of episode blocks, and he states that for each block, there is anywhere from 20% to 50% brand new footage that has never been seen. This could be anything from fight scenes with the Power Rangers to Megazord battles with the Dino Zords and Dragonzord that was cut out in favor of copy/pasting Thunder Megazord footage.

It’s kind of a big deal for the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers fans. You have to see it to believe it – click here to check out the GrnRngr.com teaser! So what do you think? Are you excited about this never before seen footage? Do you care? As GrnRngr.com updates the fandom on the Zyu2 footage, we will feature his updates. Until then, check out his site – it is an excellent resource for toys and Zyu2 and Zyu 1.5 footage.

under Power Rangers, TokuNation, TokuNation Spotlights

The celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Power Rangers continues! The users of the TokuNation forums listed their Top 10 Power Rangers and we compiled all their nominations in to a giant list and picked the Top 20, and now, we present to you the TokuNation Users’ Top 20 Power Rangers of All Time! And as we get closer to #1, it shouldn’t be surprising to see more of the original cast make their presence felt. With that, TokuNation users have voted David Yost, who played Billy Cranston the Blue Ranger in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, as the 6th Best Power Ranger of All Time!

Billy started off as, honestly, a really big nerd. He had the super thick glasses, the rather cowardice persona (especially in battle), and spoke using really big, giant words. As the show and his character progressed, he would lose the glasses, lose the suspenders, and become quite an accomplished martial artist in the show (he even had more love interests than Zack, Jason, Rocky, or Adam). He created the communicators, allowing the Power Rangers to stay in touch with Zordon. He created the Rad Bug as a means to travel great distances when teleportation wasn’t available (whatever happened to that anyway?).

During the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the evil Master Vile turned back time causing our heroes to become children. No longer able to morph in to battle, Billy figures out a way to use the Ninja Power Coins to revert the Rangers back to their adult selves. But before he can use the technique on anyone other than himself, the villains manage to destroy the coins, leaving the Power Rangers without any power (and they were still children). The only other way to save the world was to go back through time and recollect the pieces of the Zeo Crystal, which was shattered and sent through time and space to keep Lord Zedd from using the power for his own purposes. With the help of Billy and the Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers of Aquatar, the Zeo Crystal was reunited and the Power Rangers Zeo were born.

However, Billy chose to take on a mentor role, giving his crystal (that’s the quote!) to Tanya, who became Zeo Ranger II, Yellow. When the mysterious Gold Ranger appeared, the others suspected that Billy may actually be him. Much to the disdain of kids everywhere, despite all the obvious hints that it was, the Gold Ranger turned out to be an alien, and eventually the powers went to Jason, the original Mighty Morphin Red Ranger. The after-effects of the “turn you back in to an adult” experiment that Billy did ended up backfiring, as he began to age uncontrollably. Special water was brought from Aquatar to try and stop the process, but it wasn’t enough … he would have to go back to Aquatar for treatment. After he got there, he announced he had fallen in love, and was not returning. And thus, the Age of Billy came to an end.

David Yost is the actor who played Billy Cranston. He was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa (Iowa natives represent!) and landed his first major role in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. For many years fans speculated why David Yost left Power Rangers Zeo as the final two episodes with him had his character played by an old man and a horrible voice dub with static, previously-recorded footage in the final scene. In 2012, David Yost broke his silence with an interview stating that he was gay and that he left the show because of the constant harassment from the production staff nearly drove him to be suicidal. A former production member of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers/Power Rangers Zeo chimed in very briefly that David was selfish and left the show after not being offered “Power Ranger money” for a non-Power Ranger role, which his character had developed in to. Whatever the case may be, the Power Rangers franchise lost a great piece the day David Yost left the show. David has gotten in to production, with his last big project being a segment producer on the show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

David Yost was offered a chance to return for the anniversary episode of Power Rangers Super Megaforce, but declined citing the non-personal invitation (the letter started “Dear Power Ranger”) as well as horrible grammar throughout. A later statement hinted that a number of individuals involved with the show when he left were back with the show again, leading to the assumption that he had no desire to reunite with those that tormented him in his youth.

For those wanting to see David Yost in 2014, there’s good news – he’s on the convention road! You can see him, as well as the entire cast of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (exceptions being Thuy Trang -RIP-, and Jason Geiger/Austin St. John) at the next Lexington Comic Con. You can also see him at this summer’s Denver Comic Con, appearing with Walter Jones and Jason David Frank. TokuNation will be at both those shows – so we’ll see you there!

What are your thoughts on David Yost’s placement in our Top 20 Power Rangers of All Time? Should he be higher? Lower? Or is he right where he should be? Post your thoughts! And stay tuned for the next announcement on our placement, coming sooner than you think!!