PRCF Wrap-up: Master Class (+ Season Rankings!)

When it comes to season ending cliffIhangers PR had over the years I'd put Dino/Cosmic Fury third after Alien Rangers/Zeo and Turbo/In Space. Kicking things off, it was great seeing things play out after the big opening scene that came out in advance. I really got to like how they did Squid Ink Inc, utilizing footage/monsters from KyuRanger and tossing in some from other sentai. I just wish their had been more time for the zords than just throwing them all in at the get go. Nice throwback to Zordnia plus gotta note how modern PR, without civilian fights, had Billy use the Lunar Lance in one episode more than basically all of MMPR. >_> Not to mention, how quickly Zedd was now willing to get his hands dirty and do things himself. Pretty awesome how the Dinohenge statues were destroyed.

With a lot happening offscreen , I thought they handled the bigger picture pretty well with cameos from Commander Shaw, in addition to Billy around and Mick recurring. Loved how Heckyl returned. Also liked how they utilized the Dino Fury cast including Slyther and Mucus being human once more. It felt like they were checking everything off a board, from Billy's classic dialogue to the girl power zord battle, and squeezing in the Cosmic Fury Blaster. 

"A countdown... to destruction?!"

Throughout the duration of watching this over several weeks, I was pretty glad I avoided spoilers mostly staying off X/Twitter. I did know about Morphin Master Zayto but it was kind of obvious they were building up to it. For a minute there, I thought Zedd's master plan was gonna be turning into Don Armage. Definitely didn't see becoming a Master coming, or Bajillia using him as a pawn. Plus using the Master Captivator to force a reverse Z-Wave, some great surprises to the storyarc which I loved in the old days (see rankings below). As soon as "Zayto" appeared to Aiyon in the void with blue eyes I knew it had to be Zordon, a great bookend for the show, while leaving the door open (but as all we know, it's not looking good). If there had been more time, would we have gotten an identities reveal a la In Space or perhaps Izzy and Javie telling their parents?

The returning Megazords was a great way of having other teams come to help - I was prepared we weren't gonna see much of on screen - if at all. Of course you have MMPR and recent teams, still very much around, while it's fun to imagine the Space Rangers still defending Angel Grove. Bringing back Galaxy Megazord was a bit of a surprise but it's pretty cool this follows being part of the captured Rangers in "ONCE & ALWAYS." The others in the cockpit besides Minh and Billy would've been nice but to end 30 years on this note was pretty awesome. And having another evil Ranger storyarc... Kai Moya was AWESOME and while I wasn't too bothered by the design of the CF suits, Ollie's corrupted DF suit was miles better. Fern becoming a Ranger (with a hand from Solon) was also nicely done.

So I'd say they covered every era of the show here, intentional or not. In addition to the SPD shoutout, Zayto suggesting Zedd could be redeemed someday was kind of  Disney-ish, while "nightmare Rita" felt like something outta Mystic Force/Overdrive. I mean, they  could've tried harder with that. Trapped in the nightmare, I felt like Zedd reverted to post-Wedding but they were apparently still not married. Doing this to rid of him once and for all was pretty good I thought, especially how much more of a force Zedd had become. There wasn't really a way for him to power up and not flat out kill the CF team without some Super Mega crossover.

In the end, aside from the lackluster handling of the zords, there's not much else I can be critical about, but I was kind of surprised at how bad some of the voice acting was. I wish the Zentinals had sounded more like Cogs, while the MOTDs especially in "ROCK OUT" were awful. Billy's instamorph with Heckyl was cool plus updating the morph again, but they pretty much had him off the side during group morphs. And with how long Scrozzle was around, I wish there had been a bit of closure than to leave it up to the viewer.

4/5 "BEYOND REPAIR" thru "ROCK OUT" and 5/5 for the rest.

SEASON RANKINGS

(1) RPM 

(2) DinoThunder 

(3) In Space 

(4) Lost Galaxy 

(5) Time Force 

(6) Season 3/Alien Rangers

(7) Lightspeed Rescue 

(8) Wild Force 

(9) Dino Fury

(10) Ninja Storm 

(11) Zeo 

(12) Cosmic Fury 

(13) Season 2  

(14) Beast Morphers 

(15) Dino Charge

(16) Season 1 

(17) Mystic Force 

(18) SPD 

(19) Jungle Fury 

(20) Turbo

(21) Operation Overdrive

(22) Megaforce

(23) Samurai

(24) Ninja Steel

 

Few thoughts on alternate MMPR DOTD

After seeing Adrian Carr's recent uploaded version of "DAY OF THE DUMPSTER" I couldn't help but wish it had been the one that aired. Between the first PMC way back in 2007, and around 11 years since I last watched the entire first season, I had forgotten Tony Oliver screened the chili scene, and the beginning of it ended up as the ending in "BIG SISTERS." But finally seeing the full episode, I thought it worked much better than the karate lesson we got instead, which was basically taken from "DARK WARRIOR."

I also really liked that there was a bit more ZyuRanger footage of Rita establishing her return before starting the attack on Earth. The first Putty fight wasn't all that different but originally was longer I thought was cool. We also get a completely different shot of the teens being teleported out of the Juice Bar for the first time and a third version of the original morphing sequence! Also one of the biggest surprises, this version used the Goatan zord fight from "LIONS AND BLIZZARDS" (called "Two-Headed Terror" here). I'm assuming that was changed to a fight with Goldar to raise the stakes a bit more for the premiere than to just use a standard monster. Even after 30 years, it's great to still be surprised by the show.

Looking Back: Power Rangers RPM

Awhile back I finished an RPM rewatch and I gotta say unlike some of the other Disney seasons, the experience watching it again 13+ years later wasn't much different. Coming off of Jungle Fury, I thought for sure RPM would continue on the Toon Disney/Disney XD network, but with ABC Kids ultimately airing the episodes (which many affiliates didn't do, including my own), 2009 would become the only year I'd rely entirely on weekly uploads. I still remember when we knew hardly anything about the season other than the name, the sentai... and then a trailer suddenly appeared one day in February in place of any official promotion. This was up right there with DinoThunder & SPD in excitement level, and pretty much the last time it would ever be like this going into a new season. It paid off with an awesome 3 part premiere, which was kind of surprising with only 32 episodes.

The ball got rolling with mostly great focus episodes. It's funny looking back on a time when the cast was entirely unknown, especially Rose McIver and Adelaide Kane. "RANGER YELLOW" wasn't well liked but I enjoyed Summer's 2 part backstory. "RANGER RED" I could never get that into with a minuscule budget gone into the CGI aircraft footage - one of the few times in RPM I gave an episode a 3/5. Needless to say, I gave a lot of 5's and have pretty much always considered "RANGER BLUE" and "DOCTOR K" my favorite episodes. I still love how they made the Go-Onger van into "Project GO-ONGER" (the vans death notwithstanding >_>). Venjix getting physical bodies was also great to watch play out. Gem and Gemma started out annoying but soon got some good focus episodes splitting them up with others.

Part of the buildup to RPM and watching it unfold was of course the behind the scenes drama. "BELLY OF THE BEAST" always felt like a big midseason finale which marked Eddie Guzelian's last episode. Before the season began, I wondered how things would go with the EP switchover & Jackie Marchand leaving, but it wasn't all that different after Chip Lynn took over, especially with John Tellegen still around, who I assumed was free to carry on some of the stuff that was planned like the introduction of the PaleoMax and the conclusion of Ziggy/Scorpion Cartel. Dillon reuniting with Tenaya and losing her again was done pretty well, similar to Andros/Astronema. Doing a behind the scenes but in character mashup episode was odd but something was gonna happen to save money quickly. I was a little more annoyed with "IF VENJIX WON," which aisde from the Ziggy/K focus I enjoyed throughout the season, had a rather lame clip show plot. Not much else I can be critical about but they kind of forced the General Shifter betrayal to use more Go-Onger footage.

"DANGER AND DESTINY" was obviously much different than what we know about Eddie's "RANGER BLACK" which it seems would've had something like Venjix fulfilling his master plan in taking Dillon's body and the Rangers forced with having to kill him. I always liked how Chip split the Rangers up and we got a nice bookend to Scott, Summer and Flynn. I was never that into "deleting" Gem and Gemma only to have them come back but the way they returned and dropped the command center on Venjix  was one of the best finale moments of the Disney era. It was just too bad I pretty much knew about it by the time I watched the encode a few days later.

RPM was quite unprecedented delivering morphinominal storylines, cast, focus episodes and humor. Forever at the top with DinoThunder for the best of the best. Sure, it's not really a season you'd show to someone who has never watched PR but for longtime fans, it was awesome. Plus, the Evox/Venjix reveal and using the same voice is still one of my favorite things in 30 years especially in that long decade of the show many would probably rather pretend didn't exist.

 

Week of RangerBar 5: Action Boy Now

It was time for RangerBar to turn things up a notch, celebrating the 15th anniversary of the original conception as an online toolbar, the first WORB since before Covid and what would be the final one at RangerBar HQ in downtown Tacoma, WA. 

SUNDAY ⚡ I metup with Batz and Tron in Federal Way around 4:00 on Day 2 in the midst of "Shop til You Drop." We drove around stopping in Retro Emporium in Kent, Al's Music and then headed to Waterland Arcade in Des Moines Batz had reserved a few hours. As he picked up several hotdogs next door, the first to arrive was Cora, making her first RangerBar event in about 5 years. Me0w, her kiddo & Lil Sorbo soon came, as well as Joose with some of her kids. After it was time for Waterland to close, we headed to #The80sTimeCapsule airbnb in Kent - a great basement apartment nostalgic trip through time. Batz put on Hunter for the "Fred Dryer Dinner" and then a Vernon Wells flick for the "Unsung Heros of Action Tribute" as we enjoyed the hot dogs, drinks and hungout.

MONDAY ⚡ Batz, Tron and myself left the airbnb and headed to basically Chinese Costco and a few other stops like WinCo Foods so Tron could get ready for a big night of cooking. Also got lunch at Burger Express in Federal Way. Later that afternoon, we settled in a Tacoma airbnb and Batz put on Christmas music for "Cosmic Fury 1/2 Christmas." As he ran errands and Tron began setting up, Team RangerBar started to trickle in, including Austin, Cora, Batz' stepdad and Me0w & co. It was a great feast as Tron served up 8 courses in his culinary tour through RangerBar history. I also showed off the "SlutRanger Action Figure" (custom figures through the Hasbro Selfie Series). That night Batz put on a WORB staple, the Tom Hanks flick Mazes and Monsters.

4TH OF JULY ⚡ We got back to RangerBar and Batz immediately went to work beginning to set things up for RangerBar's big "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome!" wresting event and BBQ. Meanwhile, Tron and I grabbed lunch next door at Red Star Taco Bar and I killed time on YouTube. As the afternoon rolled on, an entire wresting ring was setup in the building and 7 wrestlers in all would gradually arrive. As it got closer to 6:00 most of the RangerBar crew came out as well as some of Batz' family members in addition to people from the building who helped put it all together. The show lasted about an hour and consisted of 3 matches. Batz had me (as SlutRanger) create the wrestlers by having figures/toys placed into my invention - a "monster-matic hybrid," with Lil Sorbo handling machine lights & wrestlers walk-on music and MC Smith bringing over the toy for each wrestler. He kept things interesting even adding a surprise twist in a middle of a match after a wrestler was created from a DinoThunder Ranger figure.

Afterwards, mostly everyone branched off to mingle, hangout and local band Just Like My Wife performed a few songs as the grill got going. It's always fun to reminisce, as Me0w and I chatted about Mutant Chat and Lexcon for a bit, and Shock Top Steve & Austin handed out wedding invites earlier. Someone from the building had fireworks  but I don't care much for them. At the end of the night, Batz, Tron, MC and myself tried to get some sleep in RangerBar.

WEDNESDAY ⚡ Tron grabbed lunch for us at Red Star and it was a lowkey afternoon until we headed out to a lake house airbnb in Olympia. Batz put on the  "Cajun Country & Music Festival" and set out several flavors of Zapps "New Orleans style" kettle chips I dived into but soon Tron got us Red Robin pizza. The airbnb had an Xbox and the 4 of us just took it easy and got in a few rounds of Fortnite.

THURSDAY ⚡ While Batz was out, I pretty much spent the afternoon on Switch Animal Crossing. Later, he did the "Michael Pare Ice Cream Parlay" and served me up a massive sundae. Cora, Shock Top & Austin, Mag-Num & her friend and Batz' dad soon all arrived for the "My Two Dads Murder Mystery in Montesano" with the airbnb taking place for the town. Definitely another fun evening. Then it was just us 4 guys & Cora, and Batz brought out a box full of toy weapons for the "Power Rangers Live Action Roleplay." With this being Cora's first WORB since 2017, it was nice getting to visit one more time before she took off the next morning. Batz and Tron went hot tub skinny dipping but I wasn't feeling it.

FRIDAY/WRAP-UP ⚡ The airbnb had a 10:00 checkout so we hustled to clean up and get going, literally being told we gotta go. Back at RangerBar, Batz put on Big Bad Beetleborgs for what was supposed to be the "Beetleborgs Bahama Brunch" but quickly turned into a chance to sleep. Later that afternoon, we headed to The Home Depot so Batz could get some stuff for "The Tower 4D Experience" we had at Me0w & Lil Sorbo's place in Sumner. Me0w fixed us all a BBQ dinner and Batz put on The Tower with real effects. As Tron was scheduled to flyout that night, we said our goodbyes and headed out to the airport. We grabbed tacos once more and Batz let us pull from the prize bag. I caught the light rail and got home just before midnight.

This week definitely lived up to expectations. While 2019 and 2017 had actual Power Ranger actors, this was by far the biggest 4th of July ever focusing on getting the wrestlers instead for a great show. And since RangerBar will absolutely not be at the building next July it was great going all out one last time. And besides most of the WORB staples, this was the first time the "SlutRanger Smokedown Experience" was skipped. Also for the first time I missed the Day 1 gaming and "Monster Ball" which worked out fine I thought.

How will RangerBar be looking in 2 years for the next WORB? Will a Power Rangers reboot be on by then as 30 years (and the entire New Zealand production) comes to an epic conclusion in Cosmic Fury? Gonna be interesting to say the least. Thanks to the team - Batz, Tron, Me0w, Lil Sorbo, Cora, Austin, Shock Top, MC, and everyone else who came out during the week.

Check out the highlights video here!

⚡ ONCE & ALWAYS: A Morphinominal Hour ⚡

What a way to start. I suspected we might see Billy in battle get a solo morph. The rest of the team coming in and Ron Wasserman's Redux theme playing was pretty awesome. Also awesome, MMPR finally gets its own big explosion. The suits had never looked better and Green Ranger gets another upgrade - oh how far we've come from Silver Stripe. They did a great job with the old audio but it was a little odd that wasn't Austin, at least it sure didn't sound like him. Also liked how they got creative like Zack and Minh looking on as the others morphed just off screen.

We knew it was coming, but Rita unleashing and killing Trini was still pretty shocking, with Barbara Goodson doing the voice on top of it. Just wow. First we had Lord Zedd revived in Dino Fury and now this - Rita in her purest form of evil without a human body. Can't help but imagine what it would be like if Zedd and Rita had reunited - probably a major power struggle with both wanting to be in charge. To have Robo Rita be Billy's fault hoping to revive Zordon was pretty surprising and I liked how she took over Alpha 8. Couldn't have imagined we'd get this kind of tie in to the Z-Wave. And since evil particles are out there, I would love to see something with Divatox coming back. Zeo/Turbo special next time? 🙂

The Bandora Protocol sequence was pretty cool. Alpha felt like just as he did years ago. Finally, Kat gets to do something to do in a reunion episode while it felt like Cardenas played Rocky kind of goofy, even phoning it in a bit. I liked the scope of Rangers answering Alpha's summoning call off screen. Ashley, Carlos, Leo, Kai, Damon, Conner, Trent, Devon, Ravi, Nate...  I didn't quite catch Phantom Ranger at first and it was nice they had Tanya out there especially as she's the only Ranger of that era to never return unmorphed. Merrick felt kind of random but they probably just wanted to include Turtle Cove or certain Lighting Collection figures for the set. Also liked the new figure props made exclusively for Jason, Kim and Tommy.

The drama was well done with Minh finding out the truth, wanting to get revenge and trying to morph. Minotaur was kind of an odd choice to come back but I liked Snizzard being the one to capture Rangers. Didn't really care for modifying the Putties from when they last appeared in Beast Morphers, making them look like the ZyuRanger dark gray with more obvious hoodies. Nice nod to Bulk and Skull but with the Juice Bar back, I really hoped for a surprise cameo. Plus nice continuity with Annie at Buzzblast Angel Grove which Jane was starting to plan for last year.

Bringing back the Moon Palace and the final battle there was excellent. Couldn't have asked for a better final morph and Trini's spirit passing on the power to Minh. I appreciate the effort put into the Megazord fight (movie Ninja Megazord is still the worst 👀) but would've loooved a sequence with Toei's Megazord suit. The updated cockpit with Billy leading was pretty cool and it was definitely better than how the zords returned in "GRID CONNECTION" which I'm sure was more Master Green's doing.

Robo Rita nearly going through the portal was awesome  Loved the recreation. I just assumed the dumpster was carefully edited old footage not that they reshot it.

Would've liked more from Adam and Aisha, but I liked how they mentioned being involved with the battle on Sirius fighting the Troobians. Billy owning Cranston Technologies with a beachside Command Center was great. Wasn't that surprised he's still with Cestria and had been away from Aquitar while Rita was out there. I don't personally get emotional easily but I see why a lot of people brokedown with the ending tribute. Also it was great Wasserman returned but I missed that old hard rock. Besides the closing intro using the Redux theme a final time I did like the zords summoning taking a cue from the original Dinozords theme.

We know Billy is expected to appear again this year and could this setup for something else down the line?  Could a future special/anniversary episode have JJ become Green Ranger? I'm not too optimistic as we approach when SPD takes place but we'll have to wait and see! And with the Dino/Cosmic Fury team heading to space to take on Zedd and new villains I kind of hope this isn't the only time Rita's balcony is used.

5/5. A morphinominal time with the MMPR feel updated for the 2020s.

Chase Into Space: Dino Fury

Dino Fury improved on the first half a bit easily making it the best year of the show since RPM. 2021-22 wasn't just a new era for the show...  We'd come to find out from Simon Bennett spilling the tea just how bad things were behind the scenes in Ninja Steel and into Beast Morphers with executive meddling. Quite interesting hearing it straight from him.

I felt like it could have been 1994 up in here with Lord Zedd returning for his Sporix Master Plan. General Shaw's cameo was a nice nod to Beast Morphers with an appearance from the team and the beginning of the storyarc, with Zedd getting his staff and breaking out Scrozzle from GB offscreen, along with Loki's nephew Lothorn becoming the MoTD. Ayion going on about being the one who must stop Zedd got annoying, but otherwise this was a great plot and taking the fight to Rafkon was pretty cool. Even using teamup footage was executed well with Master Green being responsible for everything making "LEGENDARY BATTLE" suddenly make a lot more sense - more than "GRID CONNECTION" I gotta say.

Between Zedd getting captured and the 3 part finale we got my favorite filler in a fun episode featuring Torum Heng as Human Mucus. The finale had a very creative and nicely executed mashup of Ryusoulger combined with original footage making Void Queen fit seamlessly with the Nemesis Beast. The reveal/resolution of Amelia being the Void's daughter was well done and I liked Tarrick getting his old armor one last time. I liked the flash forward and Mucus & Slyther becoming human circus performers was cute. Of course Zedd escaped in a rare season ending cliffhanger and now the chase is on. I can't wait to see how Comic Fury plays out with hopefully more nostalgia and throwbacks as we celebrate PR30.

3/5 for "NEW LEAF"

5/5 for "LOVE HATE," "MORPHIN MASTER," "WISHFUL THINKING," "THE INVASION," "THE TRUTH," "THE NEMESIS"

4/5 for the rest

Power Morphicon 2022: Unleashing the Beast (+ PMCs Ranked!)

I flew into Orange County Wednesday evening (8/26) and made my way to the airbnb in Long Beach that Batz, Mag-Num, her dad and friend had been staying at. Thursday I joined Batz for a day at Disneyland officially dubbed Ranger Bar Does Disney and then Friday was all Universal Studios. Can't wait for Super Nintendo World! Saturday we all left Long Beach and Batz & I headed to Pasadena - oh how nice it was to be back after 6 years. It was just after 12:30 by the time I got in a small line for my badge and Red Ranger membership level perks, WAY quicker than in 2018, thats for sure. On the lookout for anyone I know from the fandom, I observed a staff member run up to another fuming at how Jason David Frank was taking ALL the staff. I then headed to the villains panel, which I had been looking forward to with Colby Strong & Liana Ramirez (Beast Morphers) making their first ever panel, and the only panel appearance of Adelaide Kane (RPM) who was Saturday only - always great to see. Afterwards, I explored the floor for the first time, but unsure what to do, soon hopped next door to Starbucks and chilled off to the side of the floor with my frappuccino taking in all the action. JDF had a huge crowd in line as expected (also Saturday only), plus it was nice catching a nearby glimpse of the PMC7 Guest of Honor - GokaiRed from Gokaiger who I heard was charging like $300.

I rendezvous with Batz at the hotel to check in our room and back on the floor started to meet Beast Morphers cast - Rorrie Travis (Red) and Jazz Baduwalia (Blue). It was then time for the Mighty Morphin 29 Years Later panel and in the last hour of the day, I met Davi Santos (Dino Charge) and John Tui (SPD & Mystic Force) making his first PMC. Always ready to play paparazzi, I grabbed a pic of former longtime showrunner/EP Chip Lynn chatting with part of the Dino Fury cast as I slowly worked my way out.

Past PMCs had an official Saturday night event or concert happening but nothing was scheduled this year. So with the evening wide open after 6:00, I retreated back to our room and eventually met up with Batz who was hanging out in the hotel lobby bar. Soon we headed to Ralph's to get food & drinks for the Ranger Bar Pink Dolphin Party, grabbed dinner and begun setting up the hotel room. Tyler Waldman of Rangercast came by early and teased some info about season 30. Then the party got underway after 11:00 with a few rounds of Power Ranger fans coming by including our pal Eric Francisco, one of last from the old Mutant Chat who still goes to the con. I thought it was great seeing the younger generation in awe over VHS tapes of original episodes as one of the Ranger Bar TVs had In Space from Fox Kids and then Ninja Storm from ABC Kids/ABC Family playing.

Sunday got underway with the Dino Fury panel at 11:00 which included a message from showrunner/EP Simon Bennett officially announcing season 30 as Power Rangers Cosmic Fury - a 3rd season for Dino Fury with the same cast, something that hasn't happened since Mighty Morphin. It was supposed to be a bit of a surprise at the panel but Hasbro tweeted it out the night before around when Waldman was leaving our party, instead of Sunday at 8 am which PMC staff thought was happening. Whoops! It was also a bit awkward devoting 20 minutes of the panel to Cosmic Fury when the cast couldn't talk about it and very little was even known. But now that its all been revealed, I'm excited for this seemingly 10 episode 30th anniversary celebration with old faces returning and a new big bad likely joining Lord Zedd. I don't mind the upgraded Ryusoulger suits and get some fans wanting KyuRanger suits instead.

Anyway, up next was the Beast Morphers panel and soon after I met Jackie Scislowski (Yellow) and completed the quartet with Abraham Rodriguez (Gold) making sure to tell them how nice it was to see them after 4 years. I knew going into this weekend I wasn't really gonna see anyone from the Zordon era of the show but I did swing by Selwyn Ward ("The First Black Leader of the Power Rangers!") I had never met so he could sign an unopened Blue Space Ranger. Another thing different than past years was having the current cast at booths all weekend rather than the limited signings the casts of Samurai, Megaforce and Dino Charge had. So with part of the Dino Fury cast on the floor I met Hunter Deno (Pink), went to the voice actors panel at 3:00 and finished off PMC7 meeting Tessa Rao (Green).

This year definitely had other changes and differences from past PMCs. As always, the floor was packed with cast, all the PR toys you can ever imagine, even a good amount of non-PR stuff - but still felt a bit more lowkey without any presence from Hasbro, while past cons had Bandai, and 2018 in Oakland had full suits on display & a huge helmet display. It sounds like a lot of fans really enjoyed the interactions with cast and the intimate feel this year, obviously nice after what the world has gone through. I was unsure going in how this exactly would go but didn't feel like the pandemic impacted things at all in the end. This was also the first time I skipped Friday which worked out well since the panel schedule was rather light and I was confident I'd still have plenty of time to see a lot of recent cast. I was glad I didn't get the Gold Ranger membership this time (which I had done pretty much every year before), instead going for the cheaper Red Ranger with less perks/swag, especially as my collection of PR related clothing dating back to 2010 grows. Plus the PMC7 convention coin actually has the wrong date on it, all the more reason to cutback on these perks. 2024 I imagine will be a lot like this one, going just 2 days. There's a lot of Rangers, villains and voice cast I've met now and several I don't really care to. If there's no new cast, I'd hopefully be able to fill a few holes in recent & Disney era cast I missed when they were there before and whoever makes the con for the first time.

Check out my Instagram for photos/snaps!

PMCs Least Favorite to Favorite 

⚡ 2010: Easily my least favorite. At the time it was awesome PMC was moving to Pasadena under new ownership and I was ready to improve on 2007. But the trip got off to a rocky start after a falling out with puperazzi/Spy a few months prior came to a head in an encounter on Thursday. This was the only time PMC was in the convention center "basement" with a layout having the guests boxed in, so I'm not a big fan of how some of the pics turned out with the fan and guest on either side of the table. I got tons of autographs but lost a LOT of photos after the camera crashed Saturday evening. Jason Faunt and Erin Cahill (Time Force) are the only ones I for sure got new photos with. Some of the cast I definitely could've held off on seeing until later PMCs. I also have to just shake my head with how much I pushed to be included in the group on Night Zero in the long era of Chris Funaro as head of Mutant Chat.

⚡ 2007: This was a VERY intimate experience for us all, literally being able to walk up to & meet cast, and getting autographs/pics with the entire cast of Operation Overdrive, what pretty much started it all. One of the first unexpected fanboy moments has to be meeting Paul Schrier in the hall. But I have to cringe at how way too awestruck I was at everything and not really talking to anyone besides Spy. Plus I was figuring out as I went along how quickly the camera (which was new then) used up non-rechargeable batteries and the whole insistence of sticking with the group even if it meant shleping my luggage around. 😬

⚡ 2016: The big highlight was meeting all the Megaforce Rangers, one of the best groups of the 2010s. The Dino Charge panel with the Ninja Steel cast reveal and "Sudarso Bros" moment was awesome at the time, but aside from probably Zoe Robins (White), I don't care if I ever meet anyone from that cast in what would become one of the worst seasons of PR.

⚡ 2022: I'd give this year the edge over 2016 but it's hard to top the next 3...

⚡ 2012: This weekend was mega to say the least, getting a lot of photos, having no issues with the camera or anything and the Megaforce cast reveal in the Samurai panel which was a total shocker. Aside from how Power Rangers Samurai was going on TV, I loved meeting some of the team and still fondly look back on how open they were with posing for photos without the restrictions from before.

⚡ 2018: Didn't care much for the Ninja Steel panel but of course the reveal of Beast Morphers with Rorrie, Jazz and Jackie during it was awesome. Other big highlights have to be David Fielding doing Zordon thanks to rigged mic no one knew was happening and Christopher Khaymen Lee (In Space) & posse stopping by the Pink Dolphin Party.

⚡ 2014: If I had to pick an absolute favorite this would be it. Hector David Jr (Samurai) made for one interesting night during that years Pink Dolphin Party. Great moments in meeting more of that cast and the expected Dino Charge cast reveal with Brennan Mejia who would become one of my favorite Reds of the 2010s and a pretty cool dude.