It has been over month since the reveal of Power Rangers season 18, Power Rangers Samurai, a season that wants to get back to basics on a brand new network. And we are just twenty-four hours from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in which the Power Rangers Samurai will be revealing themselves to the world.  Late this evening, this promo appeared on the Power Rangers Official Website.  Its just a little taste what’s to come in less than 75 days on the networks of Nickelodeon.  What do you guys think?

I know haven’t blogged here in a while, but I do want to hear your responses.  When installing this new theme that over the past couple days, I kept finding massive number of spam comments that my spam blocker plugin was suppose to block.  So I installed Disqus to moderate my comments from now on.

So what questions will be answered tomorrow on Thanksgiving Day?  Will Power Rangers Samurai go on for two years as Uncle Eli said it would?  Are the rumors of Paul Schrier and Ricardo Medina’s involvement true.  What are the extra three episodes for Power Rangers Samurai for?  And will Bandai please revise those butt ugly Power Rangers Saumrai toys.

Find out next time on Valencia Road!!

Last Wednesday, a new version of PowerRangers.com bowed on the web, now ran by Saban and I got to say, it is miles better than the flash site created by Disney a couple years. Not to mention, they have updated it to RPM now.  There are still a couple of mistakes that many fans have pointed out, like some of the Rangers are not mentioned, episode descriptions are awkwardly worded and most of the online games are imported from the old Disney sites. But, this is a step in the right direction to establish a web home for PR in the time of social networking, with an iTunes store and Twitter and Facebook links in the works. The site also teases Season 18.

Also, the new site is showing all 145 episodes of the original broadcast versions of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers one by one until February 1st, with the newest episode as of this writing “A Different Drum”, featuring the battle with Gnarly Gnome with some temporarily renamed Power Weapons.

Also, there is some casting news as filming for season 18 got underway on Tuesday with the return of an old enemy as a new friend.  Rene Naufahu, who played the power-hungry Emperor Gruumm in Power Rangers S.P.D., is back in a mentor role playing a character named Takeru.  Its great to see Rene back in the saddle after a while, especially since did a great job as Gruumm in S.P.D.  Nafuahu, born in 1970, is known for his work in his native New Zealand in Shortland Street with appearances in The Matrix, The Beastmaster and Hercules: the Incredible Journeys.  This little piece of news came from the Facebook page of Ludus Magnus, a gym owned by Joe Nafuahu.

Bandai has posted a short blog post answering some questions about the current Mighty Morphin Reversioned toyline as well as when the theme and name of the new toyline will be revealed.  The fall line of the MMPR 2010 toys have been released to Walmart, Meijer and Toys ‘R’ Us locations across the US.  The post also goes into detail describing how the toyline gets planned, designed and produced.

The “bonus” question about the theme of the new season and toyline gives the date as “late 2010″ with the toys on shelves in conjunction with the new season’s premiere on Nickelodeon in 2011.

And now, the waiting game begins.  Bandai also announced itself as the main sponsor for Power Morphicon next weekend in Pasadena, CA.  Possible reveal on August 27?  August is a late 2010.

Another recent bit of production news involves where in Auckland will season 18 be filmed.  Correspondence from Rangerboard member RangerWisdom has revealed that this season will be filmed at Studio West, twenty minutes from downtown Auckland.  The studio was also the previous home for Disney-owned Ranger Productions from Power Rangers Ninja Storm until Operation Overdrive.

News concerning the production of season 18 has been revealed through Twitter messaging and contacts to New Zealand.  First, the Stunt Guild of New Zealand revealed through email to Rangerboard member RangerWisdom that filming will start next month.  Mark Harris Stunt Productions LTD will be doing the stunts for this season.

A second bit of production news has bigger effects on this season and others to come.  One of the cameramen in New Zealand has revealed that this season of Power Rangers will be shot with the famous RED digital cameras used for such TV shows and as TNT’s The Cleaner, Southland and Leverage, the later seasons NBC’s ER and movies such as Gamer, Angels and Demons, and the Academy Award nominated District 9.  This is important to know for two reasons.

1. The RED series of cameras are known capturing footage at resolutions of 4,096 x 2,304 pixels, four times the resolution of 1080p HDTV (1920 x 1080).   The raw footage produced by the cameras would then be scaled down to HD.   That’s right, you heard me correctly.  Power Rangers in HD. The Blu-ray disc buzz words used by Saban and Marvista in the past couple of months will soon be come reality.   After three years of the horrid cropping, squashing and other general neglect during the Disney years, Power Rangers will air on Nickelodeon’s HD feed in widescreen format.  And…

2. Super Sentai has also started using RED cameras, starting last year with Shinkenger.  For the first time, PR and Sentai will be using the same equipment to film.  The footage switch, barring directorial and special effects differences, will be a little bit more seamless thanks to the new technology.  Not to mention each of the RED cameras alone (without viewfinders, mounts or lenses) cost $17,500.  Kinda makes you shudder wondering what would have happened if Disney had continued with the SD video tape used for Dino Thunder through R.P.M.  And the old days back when Saban had to use retail VHS copies of Zyuranger for Mighty Morphin.

Next years’ PR is set to be a groundbreaking one with a new cast, a new network, a new resources and  a whole new look.  Now if we only had a name.

It is with a sad heart that I report that Peta Rutter, who played the role Udonna, the White Mystic Ranger of Power Rangers Mystic Force died last month after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.  Rutter was a veteran of stage, television and film that was said to be dedicated in supporting New Zealand’s theater troupes.

Rutter began her theatre career playing Iseult in “Tristan and Iseult” in 1980 and later began her television career with the sketch comedy show “Away Laughing”.  In 1998, she played a recurring role in the Fox Kids “Young Hercules”.  In 2006 Rutter played the role of Udonna, the White Mystic Ranger and mentor to the Mystic Force team.

Ms. Rutter, thank you for memories you gave us Power Rangers fans.  I send my deep condolences to your friends, peers and family.  Rest in piece and farewell.

After two and a half months of speculation and Twitter stalking, the cast of the 2011 edition of Power Rangers is here. The rise of social media has made this session the most translucent casting in Power Rangers history. From collecting hints from prospective cast members to the drama about the pay contracts, this casting session has been extremely exciting. Alas, all things must come to an end and with that, I am happy to present to you the six people that will join 98 others (I’m counting Daggeron and Leanbow) as the newest members of the Power Rangers. Credits to RangerWisdom of Rangerboard.

To those that have been selected, we all wish you to break many legs. Especially those of the big bad. We’re looking forward to see you guys in action.

EDIT: According to Rangerboard user Rangerwisdom, the cast will heading out to New Zealand for training and filming on August 16.

And for one more piece of news I’ve learned at Henshin Justice, Tony Oliver aka. Rick Hunter of Robotech fame and writer of early Power Rangers episodes is back back for the new season. For those who want to check out Tony’s work, watch “Day of the Dumpster” from MMPR season 1, “The Power Stealer” from season 2, “Rock-A-Bye Power Rangers” from Zeo in season 4 and “Transmission Impossible” from Turbo in season 5.

He’ll be appearing this weekend at Anime Festival Orlando August 6-8 and will be at Power Morphicon on August 27-29.

Even with no sign of name for this season, a lot has happened in the past few weeks and I’m sorry I haven’t been around for it all.  Now that the Comic-con over with, we now know a lot more information of what go down with PR on Nick.  First, after coming to the Comic-con with suit actors posing as the classic Mighty Morphin team, Nickelodeon passed out DVDs with Day of the Dumpster, non-reversioned, revealing it will be October that the classic episodes will arrive on Nicktoons. (more…)

Small update about the trademarks to PR since they are now owned by SCG Power Rangers, the new division of Saban Brands overseeing PR.

Also the grapevine’s telling us that casting may be soon in its final stages.

Originally Posted by RangerWisdom

To confirm even more what they said, here is what my source gave me yesterday:

A producer from New Zealand (I assume it might be the Executive Producer, Jonathon Tzachor) is in LA, and will be there for the next set of callbacks (which is confirmed to be final callbacks). After they decide who may go further, they’ll do screen tests and what not, and see which people look and work good together. It is said that Iris has a wall full of possible cast members (which is totally natural for most cast directors to do).

As for right now, it looks like only a few of the Power Rangers are being called in so far, so girls (including Princess Megan) and other cast members will probably be the following week. In other words, we’re coming to an end.

I was also contacted by an auditioner, and he was called back for final callbacks for Red, and another was called back for Green. And finally, someone I kind of know said that they know a couple of girls who got called back for Princess Megan and Pink, and one of them apparently showed sword presentation for the Megan role, and was blown away! So, that’s where things are as of right now.

Things have gotten interesting on the casting of the upcoming PR Season 18.  Two casting sides have appeared for two roles named Skinny Mack and Big Jack.  PR Historian Joe Rovang grabbed for all to see on Henshin Justice Unlimited.  Here are the sides as printed.  (more…)

While the cast is still in the process of put together, some indirect news came from a report talking about the delays of Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit”.  Many workers in New Zealand are leaving Wellington for Auckland with PR being one reason.

Movie production workers, such as costume designers and set painters, had headed to Auckland where there was more work, Baldock said. “They’re being offered three-year contracts on [TV show] Power Rangers. It is a lower rate than The Hobbit would offer, but they’re looking for that continuity. Our movie reputation is drifting north.”

The three-year contracts show that Saban has a long term plan regarding Power Rangers and I am glad for this as well as a lot of workers getting jobs.