“MASTODON! PTERODACTYL! TRICERATOPS! SABER-TOOTHED TIGER! TYRANNOSAURUS!”
You never know when you’re going to find something that’s going to bring back memories… here’s a classic example, as I found this drawing that I did of one of the Power Rangers, specifically the Red Ranger in two of its incarnations – Mighty Morphin and Zeo. I must have done this back in 1996, back when this Web site was just starting out, when Power Rangers Zeo had just started coming on, and I was nuts about the Power Rangers. I watched every episode, and I taped every episode. I still have the tapes, for that matter, but it’s been ages since I’ve watched them. I watched Power Rangers back in its early “prime” days, really watching it around the third season, and watching through the end of Power Rangers Turbo. More than anything, I loved the antics of all the “bad guys” – Rita Repulsa, Lord Zedd, Rito Revolto (Rita’s brother), Goldar, and Finster in the original set of bad guys – but with Rita and Zedd, only AFTER they got married. Before that, Rita was kinda dull (always with her headaches), and Lord Zedd was kinda scary. I never really liked the Machine Empire in Power Rangers Zeo – after all, they ousted the bad guys that I liked, and actually found myself rooting for on a few occasions. Needless to say, I was so glad when Rita and Zedd finally did the Machine Empire in after numerous attempts, by giving little Prince Sprocket a loaded present, blowing the machines up. To quote King Mondo, “Hey, what kind of present was that? You haven’t seen the last of King Mondo and the Machine Empire!” Still, the whole Power Rangers thing was great, and it also created a few other drawings… one was of Lord Zedd in the evil moon palace, and then another was of a “Purple Ranger” (everyone always makes a purple ranger) that my sister came up with. Drew her in Mighty Morphin regalia on one side of the picture, and then on the other side in Zeo 
regalia, following the trend to make her Zeo Ranger 6. Zeo Ranger 1 had a single oval, Zeo Ranger 2 had two narrow ovals, Zeo Ranger 3 had a triangle, Zeo Ranger 4 had a rectangle, and then Zeo Ranger 5 had a star. So continuing the number-of-points thing, my Zeo Ranger 6 had a hexagon on the helmet. Six points. Ta-da! Of course, I always had an issue with the Zeo Rangers’ costumes. I thought that the helmets were WAY too small. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had the nice big helmets with the dinosaur patterns on them. Then the Alien Rangers that came on in the third season had simple-looking big helmets. Then Zeo came along, and the helmets were too small. In fact, if you look at them in the picture at left, the Power Rangers Zeo helmets look like bald heads. I used to always complain that they looked bald… go figure. It’s also kind of interesting what you learn from TV. I first learned what Taquitos were from Power Rangers, on their Christmas special. I thought they looked like cigars at first, but they’re actually little tiny burritos. Lord Zedd was having his favorite snack, “Taquitos and dry ice!” Whenever I would get those “Go-Go Taquitos” at the 7-Eleven, I always thought about that combination, Taquitos and dry ice. Of course, a more basic question is, how is Lord Zedd going to eat said Taquitos and dry ice when his “mouth” is a metal grille? Go figure. But regardless of how Zedd eats his Taquitos, you’ve just got to love remembering those golden days of watching five teenagers with “attitude” save downtown Tokyo… er, Angel Grove… from nasty monsters.
Date posted: October 14, 2002