Friday, February 14, 2014

Titanium Ranger Not Returning for Power Rangers Super Megaforce?

On May 4, 2013, Rhett Fisher announced on his Twitter page that he was invited to do a cameo for Power Rangers, but was later uninvited the next week due to budget reasons. Another former ranger actor, Blake Foster (Justin the Blue Turbo Ranger) was also uninvited for the same reason. This is not only a major letdown for fans, but a huge embarrassment on Saban Brands' part. Rumor has it that the company sent out several invites, picked a certain amount of actors who accepted, and rejected the rest. The company's financial planners should have carefully figured out the budget so that they know how many people to invite at a time. This way, they don't over-invite so many and then end up having to reject because they find out they don't have enough finances to bring them on board the show. The process needs to be done in proper increments.
Even though the Titanium Ranger has appeared in behind-the-scenes production photos of Super Megaforce, I don't think he will be shown very much. The stunt person inside the costume is wearing the wrong helmet. It was used in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue for when the rangers supposedly slide their visors down so they can see through the helmet better. Basically, two helmets are used for this trick: one with the visor on, the other without one. Special effects are added to create the transition animation of the visor sliding down. This was also done in Power Rangers Ninja Storm.


If you examine the behind-the-scenes photo closely, you can see that the visor-less helmet does not show the stunt person's face. Fans speculate that some dark plastic was used to hide it, but we can still see the built-in mouthpiece. Some new photos of Super Megaforce have recently been released and the Titanium Ranger is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps the production crew finally decided to take him out of the show due to the helmet situation. He would be the only ranger who looks out of place. Tommy Oliver's green ranger helmet design is slightly off with the silver streaks on top, but isn't a severe issue. That green helmet and suit was probably the same one that was used in the "Fighting Spirit" episode of Dino Thunder in which Tommy fought 3 of his past ranger forms.


It would be disappointing for Titanium fans to not get to see him again, but it would also be irritating if his appearance is not accurate. Let's face it, that modified helmet is weird. The original one is lost or damaged somewhere. I can imagine the showrunners arriving at their final decision, "If we're not going to do it right, then don't do it at all." I don't know about you ranger fans out there, but I certainly wouldn't like to see a sub-par version of the awesome Titanium Ranger!

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