TFW2005HisstankTokuNationToyark
Tokunation › Archives for Chris › Page 59

under Power Rangers

Yesterday, fans of Power Rangers rejoiced in ways not seen in a very long time as Jason David Frank reprised his role as Tommy Oliver in a short prelude video for the upcoming BOOM! Studios Shattered Grid comic event for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Go Go Power Rangers. In the video, Jason David Frank – playing the evil Lord Drakkon – reflects on various moments in Power Rangers history before ordering his armies forward to destroy the Power Rangers. The video ends on a chilling note – “they could have been Gods”.

Fans with keen ears and sharp eyes quickly noted that this prelude was scored by none other than Ron Wasserman, known in the Power Rangers fan community as the individual who scored all of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, provided tracks through Power Rangers In Space, and last performed the theme song for Power Rangers SPD. Ron Wasserman has been very public regarding his work relationship with Haim Saban – basically, “never again” – so fans were very eager to hear the story of how he ended up working on this prelude video.

Ron Wasserman took to YouTube to record a self-interview of how he was contacted by the prelude’s director (and comic writer) Kyle Higgins, and shares a number of un-used tracks for the prelude. Check it out below and enjoy!

under Conventions, Power Morphicon, Power Rangers

This year’s Power Morphicon exclusive, a Legacy Lord Drakkon figure, has had its first images shown to the public. This figure is produced by Bandai America exclusively for the Power Rangers fan convention Power Morphicon, and is available for purchase by attendees.

Featuring an all new mold, Legacy Lord Drakkon comes with both the Dragon Dagger and Saba Sword. Lord Drakkon is the alternate reality version of Tommy Oliver, who instead of joining the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers as the Green Ranger and 6th member of their team, voluntarily chose to remain with Rita Repulsa and conquered the Earth instead. Lord Drakkon is featured prominently this year in the BOOM! Studios comics Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Go Go Power Rangers during the Shattered Grid event.

To register for Power Morphicon and to order your Legacy Lord Drakkon figure, click here.

under Power Rangers

For the 25th Anniversary of the Power Rangers, BOOM! Studios and Saban Brands have come together to release the Power Rangers Artist Tribute Book – which is exactly what it is – a book of tributes from artists to 25 years of Power Rangers. Featuring contributions from over 80 different artists this book is a Power Rangers fan’s dream come true. Set to release on April 3rd in hardcover format, a digital version is available now from Comixology and thus we’ve decided to take a look at this book.

Click “Read More” to check out our review and a select few images from inside the book! Please note – any and all images within this article have been cut and pruned – to see FULL images from this book, please purchase it digitally or physically when released!

[Read more…]

under Conventions, Power Rangers

Headed to WonderCon 2018 this weekend? Be sure to swing by the BOOM! Studios booth #1301 to pick up your exclusive Power Rangers Pins! Featuring the core five Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, as well as the iconic lightning bolt and a special shattered version for the Shattered Grid event.

These will cost $12 and are available while supplies last. Don’t forget to pick up your exclusive Go Go Power Rangers comic cover featuring the cult favorite Power Rangers HyperForce. You also have a very important panel to attend on Saturday featuring Shattered Grid news.

under Power Rangers

The Power Rangers HyperForce have suffered with their time in the Shattered Grid event for the Power Rangers comic books. Last week, our heroes arrived at New Tech City but it wasn’t the same New Tech City that they remembered – instead it was overrun with sentries bearing the look of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Our heroes found an ally in Colonel Hicks as they planned to break prisoners out of a stronghold, retrieve data on Scorpina‘s plans, and help the Coinless continue their fight.

–
–
SPOILERS FOR POWER RANGERS HYPERFORCE BELOW!!!
–
–

Unfortunately, their plans were tragically ruined as Colonel Hicks turned out to be merely a shell of human flesh for the evil Pumpkin Rapper, who grew large and immediately self-destructed, killing most of the imprisoned civilians that the Power Rangers HyperForce were attempting to rescue. As our heroes learned of the fate of those they attempted to rescue, a ship landed and a figure clad in white stepped out – “Enough!” cried this figure, slamming a sword in to the ground.

Lord Drakkon had arrived.

Tonight on Power Rangers HyperForce, Jason David Frank (the original Green Mighty Morphin Power Ranger) rejoins the cast of Power Rangers HyperForce making his debut appearance as the evil Lord Drakkon.

For those unfamiliar with Lord Drakkon, he is the future Tommy Oliver from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers who voluntarily chose to stay at the side of Rita Repulsa, helping her conquer most of the Earth and destroyed the Power Rangers. Those who remain call themselves the Coinless and their resistance battle is, at best, simply delaying the inevitable.

The Shattered Grid event in the comic books features the return of Lord Drakkon, having broken free of his prison within the Prometheus, traveling through space and time to destroy ALL the Power Rangers once and for all. This is the Power Rangers event fans have been clamoring for. This event will forever change the Power Rangers as we have all come to know them as, and not everyone is going to survive the fight.

Will the Power Rangers HyperForce be able to stop the evil Lord Drakkon? Will they be able to stop Scorpina from using Serpentara to destroy an entire coast of the United States? Will any of them make it out of this alive? Tune in to Power Rangers HyperForce on Twitch.TV via Hyper RPG at 6pm PST and find out!

under General Tokusatsu News

Millions of children (and adults) across the United States and the United Kingdom are still in the mourning phase of the realization that the biggest toy store there is will be no longer with the announcement of the end of Toys’R’Us. However, a new champion has entered the ring claiming that he will save the toy industry.

Ellia Kassoff, CEO of Strategic Marks, LLC, announced via a LinkedIn article that he and his company have been looking in to the return of KB Toys/KayBee Toys over the last six months and, with the announcement of the end of Toys’R’Us, have accelerated their plans and hope to have stores open by this Christmas.

What? How can that be? Isn’t the toy industry reeling with kids playing video games and online retailers like Amazon stealing all the business away from brick and mortar stores? If there’s anyone in the business world qualified to give it a crack shot, it’s Ellia Kassoff, and we’re going to share with you why.

How many of you enjoyed the candy Astro Pops as a kid? What about Tart’n’Tinys? (personal note: those are my favorite candies to ever exist in the history of ever). Wacky Wafers? If you answered yes then you probably know that you can’t find those items at your grocery stores anymore. Most of those brands were discontinued long ago by the major candy companies like Willy Wonka and Hershey.

Enter Ellia Kassoff and Leaf Brands. Wait – Leaf Brands was sold to Hershey Food Corporation in 1996 and left the United States, you say. Yes – this is true. But Ellia Kassoff, the nephew of Ed Leaf (the original CEO of the original Leaf Brands) restarted the company in 2011 with the idea of bringing back those classic candy treats that you can no longer find. And he’s succeeded we might add. You can order the candies we listed above from the new Leaf Brands or their specialty distributors. I’m eating some Tart’n’Tinys as we speak. And not the gel-coated junk from before – the original, powdery-like original versions like in the cardboard box you used to get in the candy aisle.

Ellia Kassoff is all about taking old brands that failed and bringing them back today with new and current ideas, strategies that make sense in this digital age, and a results-oriented business. And thus far he has been successful.

Welcome back KB Toys. We hope, this time, you’re here to stay.

under General Tokusatsu News, Power Rangers

After 70 years in business, the biggest toy store there is simply won’t be anymore. Today Toys’R’Us filed papers in court to begin the immediate process of liquidating and selling all of it’s US store operations for both Toys’R’Us and Babies’R’Us.

Toys’R’Us filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection in September of 2017 and received an influx of cash of $3.1 billion dollars to maintain business operations over the 2017 Holiday Shopping Season. Through court documents we now see just how bad this Holiday Shopping Season was for Toys’R’Us – Quarter 4 of the 2017 Fiscal Year brought in only $81 million dollars for Toys’R’Us compared to $347 million in Quarter 4 of 2016. To quote CEO David Brandon, their financial results were “worse than worst case scenario”. To remain open, Toys’R’Us would need to spend $50 million to $100 million per month which the company is incapable of doing.

The small, silver lining to this scenario is that there are potential plans for the Toys’R’Us Canada branch to outright purchase a select number of stores – possibly close to 200 – and allow them to remain open. However, until such a deal is reached, every single Toys’R’Us and Babies’R’Us store in the United States will begin the process of liquidation.

It’s a sad day for the toy industry. Toys’R’Us is estimated to make up 15% of all the total toy sales in the United States, putting huge burdens on major manufacturers like Hasbro and Mattel to find a way to make up for that change. Hasbro, in recent investor calls, has already stated plans in place currently to help minimize the overall effect and that they are confident they will come out of this mostly unscathed. Mattel on the other hand is close to filing for bankruptcy themselves, having recently suspended dividend following poor sale results in the recent quarter.

We’s sharing the following jingle by Twitter user @ChaseHolfelder in memory of the “Biggest Toy Store There Is”. Our thoughts are with the estimated 33,000 workers who will soon be out of a job. If there are any changes to the news, or Toys’R’Us Canada does end up purchasing some US stores to keep them open, we will share that with you.

The full press release is after the jump of “Read More”.

[Read more…]

under Power Rangers

We’ve been sharing Toys’R’Us news stories on our Twitter account @TokuNation a lot lately. The reason we’re doing that is because as a site that frequently promotes toys and collectibles, losing the largest toys and collectibles retailer in the world is kind of a big deal.

Toys’R’Us is expected to file liquidation papers today (Wednesday) to give to the court tomorrow (Thursday). This will officially mark the end of Toys’R’Us in the United States as we know it. A report from the Wall Street Journal states that CEO David Brandon announced to home office personnel in a conference call today (Wednesday) that the company is filing liquidation papers today for the court hearing tomorrow (Thursday).

Earlier today, Toys’R’Us UK also announced liquidation with all UK stores closing within the next 6 weeks. Toys’R’Us Canada is seemingly in a better place financially with no updates on their situation, and Toys’R’Us Asia is actually profitable and is expected to be sold to other shareholders in China turning them in to majority shareholders and giving them control of business operations.

A report from CNBC has come out stating that Toys’R’Us may also keep up to 200 US stores open after liquidation, combining those stores with the Toys’R’Us Canada operation, effectively making Toys’R’Us (in the US at least) a Canadian retailer operating in the United States. Those 200 stores would undoubtedly be profitable stores with favorable real estate deals. However, at the time of this posting, there is no concrete information available to share on that note.

As more news breaks we will share it with you. A complete liquidation of US Toys’R’Us stores will result in a 33,000 loss of employees, making it the largest retailer to shut down (in terms of employee size) since Sports Authority went out of business at the end of 2016. Our thoughts are with all the families suffering with the fate of their future paychecks.

under Kamen Rider

Great news for you Kamen Rider fans! If you haven’t yet picked up the SIC Kamen Rider Gaim Orange Arms figure now is your opportunity! Entertainment Earth (you may remember them for having the first available stock of the Legacy Golden Power Staff and Legacy Zeonizer) is having a ONE DAY SALE for this item and it’s the cheapest you can find online!

For $49.99 (normally $74.99, so 33% off) you can add this stunning figure to your collection. We cannot recommend this one enough as we are owners of it ourselves. Click the link below and purchase your figure!

Click here to order SIC Kamen Rider Gaim Orange Arms from EntertainmentEarth.com!

under Power Rangers

Attention Power Rangers fans! The voting period is now open for this year’s annual Kid’s Choice Awards on Nickelodeon! The Power Rangers are up for two awards:

– Best Television Show (Power Rangers Ninja Steel)
– Best Actor (William Shewfelt, Red Ranger)

Voting is done through Twitter and the use of hashtags. Limit one vote per category, per Twitter account, per day.

#KCA #FavTVShowPowerRangersNinjaSteel (click to send a tweet!)
#KCA #FavTVActorWilliamShewfelt (click to send a tweet!)

Start voting! Let’s celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Power Rangers by getting two major wins for Power Rangers Ninja Steel!