Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series Review: A Welcomed Flashback

For the past 20 years, “Power Rangers” have been a huge part of American pop culture. Though not as big as it was in the ’90s during the “Mighty Morphin” era, you can still see plenty of “Power Rangers” merchandise on store shelves. Shout! Factory has graced fans with a gigantic collector’s edition DVD set of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” that will spoil fans.

For those who are new to the series, “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” is an American version of the Japanese Super Sentai shows that are still popular today. The story is about the exploits of five teenagers who are given the power to transform into a fighting team called the Power Rangers by a wizard called Zordon. Their job is to fight a witch, Rita Repulsa. Every so often Rita sends down clay creatures called putties and monsters to try to take over earth. Usually Rita makes these monsters grow as tall as buildings and the Power Rangers call upon these giant robot zords to fight them.

It’s teenagers who know martial arts and fight monsters using giant robots. No wonder it’s been a hit for so long.

Of course, the story starts out pretty slow, but gets interesting when Tommy, The Green Ranger shows up. He’s the most beloved ranger because he was the most relatable. He has personal problems in every episode- he starts off as a bad guy and then becomes a good guy. He’s even the Jason, the Red Ranger’s, rival.

The series then goes into overdrive when Lord Zedd comes onto the scene. He looks and sounds awesome, he takes no prisoners, he makes his monsters grow by throwing a bomb and has his own zord that was more than a match for the Power Rangers. He was just that cool.

This set contains all episodes from the first series, even the Alien Rangers saga, across seventeen DVDs. Every episode is accounted for from when Rita first came along, the Green Ranger’s first appearance, Lord Zedd, the White Ranger and the replacement rangers. Best of all, Shout! Factory was nice enough to keep the episodes in their original low quality TV formats for nostalgia sake.

To spoil fans even further there’s a booklet that features character bios, an episode guide and photos from the show. The bios are written with the same cheesy humor from the show which any fan will get a kick out of.The photos are top notch, poster quality shots that some fans had (or still have) hanging on their walls. The paper it’s printed on is very high quality which means that Shout! Factory spared no expense in making this booklet.

On top of that, there’s a two-disc bonus features DVD which has over five hours of content on it. Lots of backstage stuff like “Morphin Time!” and “A Morphenomenal Cast,” which feature the entire cast and crew talking about how the show came about came about and their experiences. “The Fans Power Up” talks about the fans and how big the show got. Anyone watching this will say “that was (is) me.

Some other highlights are episode length features like “Lord Zedd’s Monster Heads,” “Alpha’s Magical Christmas” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Stupid: The Misadventures of Bulk and Skul.” “Lord Zedd” is about Lord Zedd thinking about throwing a Halloween party and is reminiscing about all the great monsters he’s had. This showcases some of Zedd’s more interesting monsters and even Zedd’s zord Serpentera. Worth watching to see all of Zedd’s best monsters in one thirty minutes timeframe.

“Bulk And Skul” has the two idiots trapped in a cave and they remember all of their little misadventures. If you’re a fan of Bulk of Skul you’ll enjoy this one. If not, skip it.

Skip the Alpha short. It’s the generic Christmas special with no redeeming qualities.

The final noteworthy content is “Power Rangers Live: The World Tour.” It was a live stage show that played exactly like the TV show. It is much cheesier than the TV show with audience participation, dancing putties, TV screens showing show footage and a corny zord battle of the monster on stage wailing at a screen. It’s dumb fun for what it is and a blast for those who didn’t get a chance to see it live when they were kids.

If you’re a “Power Rangers fan, then “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series” is already in your possession because it’s everything that a fan of the original series would ever want. If you started out with one of the newer series, then this one still worth getting to see where it all started in the US. You’ll become a Green Ranger fan in no time flat.