The Power Trip: A Journey Through the Power Rangers Franchise

The Power Trip begins its Super Sentai coverage! Michael and Nathan make a U-turn and go back to Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers—sorta—with Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger, which became MMPR season one. How does it compare? These shows are the same and yet quite different, if that makes sense. It was hard for your hosts to choose one over the other. Contrary to popular belief, Super Sentai isn’t “perfect.”...

For the first Lightning Round of 2023, Michael and Nate are joined by their friend Danny DiManna of the Godzilla Novelization Project to discuss all the things surrounding the 30th Anniversary of Power Rangers, Power Rangers: Cosmic Fury, new product teases, and all things in between. The guys speculate what Hasbro has in store for "Once and Always", and try to decipher the easter eggs found in th...

Happy New Year, Listeners with Attitude! We’re kicking off Power Trip 2: Taisaku Sentai Podranger (aka season two) with some comic coverage—but not BOOM! Studios! No, it’s Going Green, the last Ranger comic produced before BOOM! acquired the license, and it’s…wacky, to say the least. If you heard our episode on The Monster Island Film Vault about “Green with Evil,” then you know this comic is a pr...

Michael (Kaiju Weekly, The Kaiju Groupie Podcast) and Nathan (The Monster Island Film Vault, Henshin Men, Power Rangers: The Audio Drama) have spent a year analyzing the nearly 1,000 episodes and three movies in the Power Rangers franchise. Michael is content to finish, but Nathan wants a season 2—and so does the great Ninjor, er, Ninjaman! He tells the “Power Nerds” what they can do to tide thems...

Merry Christmas, Listeners with Attitude! In true Power Rangers fashion, The Power Trip’s first season “ends” with a holiday special! Nathan and Michael harken back to Mighty Morphin’ season two to discuss a VHS episode that originally went out to members of the Power Rangers Fan Club: “Alpha’s Magical Christmas.” Oh boy, this (thankfully) non-canonical special is so saccharine, it’s guaranteed to...

And so Michael and Nathan come to their journey’s end…for now. After one year, 995 TV episodes, and three movies, your intrepid hosts have much to say about the Power Rangers franchise. They begin with some personal reflections on this long endeavor followed by having some fun picking their Ranger “dream teams” (and yes, they both felt obligated to include Tommy Oliver). The main event of the epis...

Looking for an independent R-rated horror-comedy tokusatsu series about a metal band fighting the men in black? If that outrageously unique premise strikes your fancy, Amano Recon is for you! Nathan sits down with Andrew Bush, the director of this upcoming series, and discusses the characters and many influences that went into this crowdfunded project—including Kamen Rider Black, Mighty Morphin’ P...

Nathan and Michael reach end of the third era of Power Rangers and the beginning of the current one. So, since the Hasbro Era only has two series (currently) to it, they’ve combined it with the previous one and calling it “Neo-Saban and Beyond.” This isn’t the shortest era, but it does have the fewest entries for them to discuss (six series and a movie). Strangely, your intrepid hosts disagreed mo...

They did it! Michael and Nathan reached the “new hotness” in Ranger Nation! That being Power Rangers: Dino Fury, which, while a typical PR series in many ways, broke new ground in others. It reintroduces Michael’s favorite PR villain, Lord Zedd (who has no time for glitter) and features the first LGBTQ+ Ranger in a mainline PR series with Izzy Garcia. But much to Michael’s chagrin, the conversatio...

On November 28, 2022, a multitude of podcasters and YouTubers—Nathan Marchand, Michael Hamilton, Travis Alexander, Jack “GMan” Hudgens (The Drift Space), J.R. Villers (The Drift Space), Rebecca Hudgens (The Drift Space), Kaiju Kim, Chris Cooke, and Jimmy from Zeo to Hero—came together to celebrate the life and work of Jason David Frank. From acting to martial arts to teaching to motivational speak...

The Hasbro Era begins! Michael and Nathan definitely don’t miss the previous season or They-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. While your intrepid hosts knew some of the spoilers going into Power Rangers: Beast Morphers, it didn’t ruin their enjoyment. Heck, this series did in five episodes what all 40+ episodes of Megaforce couldn’t do! While Nate does threaten to “whip Rito out early,” he and Michael spend...

The Neo-Saban Era comes to an end—and what a whimper it is! Nathan and Michael tackle Power Rangers Ninja Steel, whose greatest sin could’ve been being painfully mediocre—but then those two Nickelodeon-mandated characters had to ruin everything! So, for the first time ever, “Rantmaster” and “Blue Streak Ranger” join forces! Otherwise, your hosts spend this four-hour cluster of a recording (those t...

Where’s the Ninja Steel episode? That recording was a cluster, so Michael needs a little more time to edit it. In meantime, we’re sharing an abridged version of an episode of one of Nathan’s other podcasts, The Monster Island Film Vault. In this, Michael, who is a Patron of MIFV, sponsored an episode that spotlights the classic MMPR five-parter, “Green with Evil.” Here are the original show notes...

Happy Halloween, Listeners with Attitude! To celebrate the spookiest time of year, Michael and Nathan harken back to season one of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers to discuss a pair of Halloween-themed episodes. (It was a welcome break from Ninja Steel and They Who Shall Not Be Named Until the Ninja Steel Episode). Frankenstein and Pumpkin Rapper are a pair of truly monstrous foes for the OG Power Ra...

Nathan’s been waiting for this episode for a long time. He even popped popcorn for the occasion. But he doesn’t get what he wanted—he got something better! Michael changed his mind about the Power Rangers (2017) movie! They’re joined by writer, critic, and co-host of The Drift Space podcast Jack “GMan” Hudgens to discuss the most divisive and, arguably, most underrated piece of Power Rangers media...

Michael and Nathan reach the apex of the Neo Saban Era: Power Rangers Dino Charge. They bring along their friend Alex Cornett of the Monsters vs. Men podcast to discuss a series that was hyped by one of their listeners for months. Does it live up to that hype? Short answer: yes. And not just because your hosts are coming out of 80+ episodes of crap with Samurai and Megaforce. The characters are fu...

Surprise, Listeners with Attitude! Thanks to one of you (and Words with Friends), we were able to sit down with the man who composed your childhood: Ron Wasserman. He’s a rock star in every way (except the sex and drugs, he says), who’s composed music for TV, film, commercials, and his band Fisher. We talk about his musical influences (Black Sabbath, no surprise), how he got the gig at Saban Enter...

This episode was recorded as part of a crossover between us, and the Giant Sized Violence podcast where we discussed the fan film from 2015, Power Rangers Unauthorized . Thank you to Tomi, the host of GSV, for having us on and facilitating such a good discussion. Links to where you can follow and subscribe to Giant Sized Violence are found below. ----------------------------------------------- Fol...

Longest…episode…yet! On the…worst…PR series…ever! We’re as surprised you are. Strap in, Listeners with Attitude, because just when Nathan and Michael thought it couldn’t get worse than Turbo and Operation Overdrive, the Neo-Saban era breaks their brains. Mitch from the “Entertain This!” podcast joins them to discuss the emptiest Power Ranger season they’ve ever seen. Seriously, all but one of the...

There may be “no time for glitter”, but there is time for our first impressions of Power Rangers Dino Fury Season 2 Part 2! After binge-watching all 11 episodes of the last quarter of Dino Fury, Nate and Michael need another cigarette! with high production value and likable characters, and the return of a classic villain in Lord Zedd, they guys really enjoyed their time with this stretch of episod...

On this very special bonus episode of The Power Trip, we had the privilege of sitting down with the writer, story editor, and co-producer of the Power Rangers franchise from 1995-2008, the lovely Jackie Marchand. In a fantastic conversation, you'll learn some behind-the-scenes details from her time on Power Rangers, as well as hear her answer questions like what was her favorite season? What were...

To kick off the Neo-Saban and Hasbro Eras, Michael and Nathan bring on Jimmy and Billy of the Zeo to Hero podcast—which leads to some sibling squabbles between the guests! Why? Because Billy requested to guest host for Power Rangers Samurai. This series infamously adapted its Sentai counterpart, Shinkenger, exactly, going so far as to have a Caucasian red ranger with a Japanese last name. Then the...

Welcome, kaiju lovers, heroes of the internet, and listeners with attitude! This past weekend, Nathan and his Power Trip co-host, Michael Hamilton, met each other in real life for the first time (and the world somehow didn’t explode). They attended a small upstart “spin-off” convention called Days of the Dead: All Monsters Attack, which was held in Indianapolis. This bonus episode is a late-night...

We’ve come to the end of another era, and now it’s time to rank it! Michael and Nathan discuss the many peaks and valleys from when Disney owned Power Rangers as they compile their lists of those seasons from worst to best. It’s a bit less surprising than the Saban era ranking, but there is some disagreement. They also share some final thoughts from Kaiju Kim on Dino Thunder (because they forgot t...

The Disney era ends with the biggest of bangs with one of the most popular series in the franchise: Power Rangers RPM. This is so huge, Michael and Nathan had to get in gear by inviting RPM super-fan Chris Cooke (One Cross Radio, Radio Arcade) to discuss it—and the episode is as long as the series! This is the darkest Ranger show yet, and it was adapted from a silly Sentai! This shouldn’t work—but...