If you were a kid in the early-’90s there’s absolutely no way you missed a single episode of, what was arguably, the best show on TV at the time - The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Airing during the Fox Kids programming block in 1993, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers television show was created by Haim Saban and based on the wildly popular and long-running Japanese program Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. In fact, most of the action scenes involving the Rangers wearing their helmets is taken from the Japanese-made Super Sentai series.
It took only a few months for the show to develop a huge fanbase in the States - though no one could have predicted it would kick off a franchise legacy that would include 23 years-worth of television, 3 feature-length theatrical releases and a toy empire that, at its peak, was bringing in over $1 billion in annual sales (rivaled only by Barbie at the time). The Power Rangers became such a desired commodity that in 1993 it started a Christmas toy craze which saw desperate parents sleeping outside of toy stores or driving hundreds of miles just to purchase one. That craze was, in part, the inspiration for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s comedy movie Jingle All the Way.
Over the last 23 years, there have been well over one hundred individual Rangers, each piloting a different Zord and wearing various, unique suits. We’ve done a bit of legwork and compiled all those suits into one place for you to enjoy. If at any point during this post you feel a tingle running throughout your body, its ok, that just nostalgia sweeping over you.
Take a look through this article and you can find Every Power Rangers Suit Ever Created for Movies and Television.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993-1996)
The first season of the show is probably the most iconic because it introduces a slew of recognizable characters and lays out the story for much of the series. After a centuries-long battle, the wizard Zordon and the witch Rita Repulsa are both trapped - Zordon in a time warp by Repulsa and Rita on the moon by Zordon.
Rita still manages to release several deadly monsters upon on the earth to wreak havoc, so Zordon creates five Power Coins and, with the help of his robot assistant Alpha 5, recruits five teenagers, upon whom he bestows the powers of several prehistoric animals - which include both weapons and the powerful Zords.
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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie (1995)
With the show’s popularity steadily climbing throughout its first two seasons and merchandise sales jumping from a 4% share to 40% share of the toy market, it’s not surprising that Saban Entertainment and Fox Studios would turn it into a major movie.
The movie was financially successful at the box office, bringing in over $66 million on a $15 million budget, but didn’t follow the continuity setup by the show. Villains Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd took a backseat to Ivan Ooze who became the main, one-off protagonist of the movie - he hasn’t shown up in any Power Rangers media since. However, the movie received mostly negative reviews from both fans and critics.
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Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers (1996)
This short-lived series only ran for 10 episodes during the middle of the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Not only did it introduce a new totally new group of Rangers and villains but, it also used the same Ranger suits as the Japanese show it used as the source for its stunt footage - the Super Sentai series, Ninja Sentai Kakuranger.
Power Rangers Zeo (1996)
The overall quality of the Power Rangers show has always debatable, but even while the show’s ratings remained high, they were steadily declining and toy sales leveling off. Power Rangers Zeo was created specifically by Saban to deal with the underwhelming fan response generated by the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie.
This would be the first, but certainly not the last, time the show received a major overhaul and began following its Japanese counterpart, Chōriki Sentai Ohranger, a bit closer.
Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie (1997)
There’s no sugar-coating it, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie is a truly awful movie. From the dialog, to the story, to the action scenes and cheesy special effects, everything about the movie was a box office stinker both financially and critically. However, it did manage to keep with the continuity of the show quite nicely - making it easy to segue from the big screen to the small one later that year.
Power Rangers Turbo (1997)
Set in the same universe as its movie predecessor, Power Rangers Turbo once again kept the franchise fresh by developing all new characters and powers based on its Japanese sister show, Gekisou Sentai Carranger. The actors from Zeo and the Turbo movie would all return, with most continuing their roles for several seasons.
Power Rangers in Space (1998)
After six seasons and close to 100 episodes, Power Rangers in Space set out to tie up every storyline ever introduced throughout the show’s history - something very few shows have ever accomplished well. This season would mark the moment when the serial-style storytelling incorporated by the show would come to an end.
Several side characters would be removed from the franchise altogether and the famous Youth Center, where the Rangers hung out, was replaced with The Surf Spot.
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Power Rangers Lost Galaxy (1999)
Power Rangers Lost Galaxy was never supposed to exist. There were no storylines left to explore thanks to the way Power Rangers in Space ended, but when the previous finale saw a big ratings spike, Saban took the show’s storytelling technique in a decidedly different direction. A brand new group of characters, based on the Seijuu Sentai Gingaman television series, took up the mantle of Power Ranger.
While there were nods to the Power Rangers Universe in general, the stories themselves were self-contained from episode-to-episode. This would also mark the beginning of “team-up” episodes where Legendary Characters from previous seasons would assist in bringing down a baddie.
Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue (2000)
There are a few things worth noting about Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue: It was the first season where all the characters were adults instead of teens, none of the Rangers’ identities were kept secret from the public, all of the weapons and Zords were man-made, instead of mystical-borne, and it was the first time an American Ranger didn’t have a Japanese counterpart (Titanium Ranger).
This season was based on the Super Sentai series Kyukyu Sentai GoGoFive, which featured five Rangers instead of six like it’s American counterpart.
Power Rangers Time Force (2001)
As the show entered its ninth season, it went through some major changes. First, Fox Kids and Saban Entertainment were both purchased by The Walt Disney Company. Second, the show took a more serious tone in regards to show topics - death and racism were covered - and it marked the moment when the show started recreating its Super Sentai counterpart, Mirai Sentai Timeranger, virtually scene-for-scene.
This was the first season were two red rangers appear simultaneously, while Power Rangers Time Force was the last season produced by Saban Entertainment.
Power Rangers Wild Force (2002)
Power Rangers Wild Force marked the 10 year anniversary for the Power Rangers franchise, while Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger, marked the 25th anniversary of its Super Sentai cousin. Like Time Force, Wild Force followed the Sentai storyline closely, with very few deviations.
Power Rangers Ninja Storm (2003)
Disney almost cancelled the show entirely after acquiring the franchise two years prior. If it hadn’t been for the low production costs associated with filming New Zealand, the show may have never come back on air. The practice of bringing in old Rangers to team up with new Rangers was stopped after Disney made it a non-union show, making the unique team-ups cost prohibitive.
The tone of Power Rangers Ninja Storm was lightened considerably, which turned out to be a solid decision as new fans began tuning in, resulting in higher ratings and an increase in merchandise sales.
Power Rangers Dino Thunder (2004)
One of the original members from Season 1, Tommy Oliver (Jason David Frank), returns in Power Rangers Dino Thunder as a paleontology professor. After he and a group of students stumble on the Dino Gems, they use dinosaur-themed Zords to protect Earth from a group of mutant dinosaurs bent on destroying every living being on the planet.
Power Rangers S.P.D. (2005)
The Power Rangers S.P.D. season was one rollercoaster ride in terms of fan acceptance and production quality. A new set of writers, Greg Aronowitz and Bruce Kalish, joined show veteran Jackie Marchand and together they turned in, what many fans consider to be, the best string of episodes of the entire series. However, the fan love fest was short lived as the writers were unable to maintain fans expectations at such a high level - especially for a children’s show.
Near the end of the season, the show would reclaim some of the glory it enjoyed early on, but it would never again reach the lofty heights the writers set in the first 10 episodes of the franchise’s thirteenth season.
Power Rangers Mystic Force (2006)
After a few seasons featuring stories with a more-grounded approach, Power Rangers Mystic Force once again took the franchise into the realm of magic. The show was based on based on the Super Sentai series, Mahou Sentai Magiranger, and would be the first, and only, season to feature Rangers wearing capes. It was also the first season that presented stories with a supernatural aspect.
Power Rangers Operation Overdrive (2007)
Originally, writer Jackie Marchand pitched Power Rangers Operation Overdrive as an “Indiana Jones-style” show, which would feature a “new exotic location every episode” - which explains the almost-used title Power Rangers Relic Hunters. However, Disney once again tightened the purse strings, requiring the showrunners to use more stock footage - making Marchand’s pitch nearly impossible to pull off.
Power Rangers Jungle Fury (2008)
Like everything else in Hollywood, Power Rangers Jungle Fury was drastically affected by the Writers Guild Strike of 2007. Non-union writers were brought in to continue the season but once the strike was over the original writers struggled to pick up the storylines from where the replacements left them. As a result, the season only featured 32 episodes (instead of the normal 45) and the quality suffered as well.
Power Rangers RPM (2009)
Power Rangers RPM was the seventeenth season, and almost the last (again), for the franchise. One of the long term writers who had been with the show for years, Jackie Marchand, was let go and a new producer with grand vision, Eddie Guzelian, was brought in to liven things up. Unfortunately, no one else believed in his “Road Warrior” take on the property and he was fired halfway through the season.
Disney returned (read: sold) the property back to Saban Brands, and after one season of “reversioned” Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (essentially they just re-aired the first season), Saban proceeded to move the franchise in (another) new direction.
Power Rangers Samurai (2011)
With the Power Rangers property now back under Saban’s control, the show found a new home on the Nickelodeon Network - specifically during the Nicktoons programming block. The show brought back the lighter, less serious tone present in earlier seasons, which had been lost during RPM and Jungle Fury.
Power Rangers Samurai marked the first time the show was broadcast in High Definition and while the show enjoyed a solid viewership (the finale brought in over 3.7 million viewers), it wasn’t able to fully recapture its former ratings glory. The show was also broken into two 20-episode blocks - a tradition the show continues to this day. The remaining 20 episodes aired as Power Rangers Super Samurai, which modified the powers of the Rangers but left their suits the same.
Power Rangers Megaforce (2013)
The twentieth season of the franchise, Power Rangers Megaforce, was based on the Japanese Super Sentai, Tensou Sentai Goseiger. Fans of the original Japanese series were excited for this season because it meant the show was going “old school” with the characters.
The Rangers’ new mentor Gosei, a protégé of Zordon (who hadn’t been seen or mentioned on the show since season six), his robotic ally Tensou (a stand in for Alpha 5) and Robo Knight would make their first of many appearances on the show. Like Samurai and Super Samurai before it, Megaforce was split into two 20-episodes series.
