Tuesday – 17 October 2020
Just so you know, the irony is not lost on me.

That moment when you realize that the thing you joked about and maybe even mocked a bit becomes something you own.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself…

Back in the 90s, my friend, Christine, was a pretty big fan of Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. As any good friend would, I gave her a fair bit of good-natured grief about it, over the years. But, I also got it: MMPR was one of her warm, fuzzy, happy places, much like some comics were – and still are – for me.

So, you can imagine how stupidly and ironically funny it is to me that I would be able to take this picture. At home. Thirty-odd years later.

Yep, that’s right… I have added all five of the Quick-Change Color Kids to my tiny plastic friends.

It started with the Pink Ranger, as a figure to use with Gwenpool and Ghost-Spider for my Wednesday #CapesAndCoffee posts. (Because “On Wednesdays, we wear pink.” Duh.) Then, I wound up getting the Blue Ranger, because I have a horrible song-related pun in my head that’s eventually going to work its way out. Next up, the Yellow Ranger. She was fiendishly hard to find when released – and I also still had no interest in getting her when originally released – but word got out that a local clearance center wound up with a dozen or so, and I thought, “Why not,” and picked up two. That turned out to be a fortuitous move, as a friend who collects figures had a Yellow Ranger with a bad paint job. I offered up my extra Ranger… for which he traded me the Black Ranger.

Damn. Now I had four-fifths of the team, I couldn’t let that go. So I wound up ordering the Red Ranger last week.

Yeah, I know.

Fast forward to this past Saturday: I’m up early with Evie and, after a trip outside to let her use the loo and run around a bit, we were hanging out on the sofa. I was surfing channels and wound up hitting Shout Factory TV. And there it was: Super Sentai Zyuranger – the show from which Saban’s Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was… derived, if not born. (If you’re not familiar with the “how” and “why,” check out the MMPR episode of The Toys That Made Us.) And I watched about half of an episode. It was the introduction of the Green Ranger. In SSZ, the Green Ranger turns out to be the brother of the Red Ranger, as opposed to a relatively random kid chosen to foil the Rangers’ efforts.

So, here we are. I will also freely admit that I’m debating whether or not to add the Green Ranger to the Color Guard, at this point.

But, as I said above: The irony is not lost on me.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s Morphin time.