Once in the early 2000s I was hosting a game night and decided I wanted some background entertainment between rousing multiplayer games of 60-card Magic (before the dark times, before Commander). So I went to Blockbuster to rent some movies. I picked up a couple of staples (Evil Dead II and Mallrats) but they also had a tape of several random VR Troopers episodes, so I threw that in. I put in the tape between Ash and Brodie and somehow I totally forgot about the talking dog who speaks in a bad Jack Nicholson impression, and as soon as that dog started flapping his chops everybody was too focused on laughing at the cheap production values and Frankensteined action sequences to care what my Bloodshot Cyclops was flinging at them. This is a very old-fashioned paragraph.
Power Rangers was the hottest thing going in 1994, and soon Saban was looking for other Toei-produced tokusatsu shows that they could license cheaply to repeat the formula. But there weren't really any other current team shows like Super Sentai, so for the first round they would cobble together two older Metal Heroes series, Jikuu Senshi Spielban (1986) and Chojinki Metalder (1987) and wrap it in a coating of martial arts and hi-tech rigamarole. Originally titled "Cybertron" of all things and set to star outgoing Green Ranger Jason David Frank in the lead role, Saban made a late decision to keep JDF as a Power Ranger and instead offered the role of Ryan Steele to the actor who had been cast to play the White Ranger, Brad Hawkins. This decision radically altered the course of both actors' careers, and one has to imagine of Power Rangers as a franchise. (No shade to Brad, who is a cool guy, but Tommymania was running wild at the time.)
Instead of sticking with their established toy partner Bandai America, Saban instead awarded the VR Troopers license to Kenner, by then functioning as Hasbro's male action division out of the old Cincinnati office. The figures are just a smidge larger in scale than similar Kenner toy lines from the time like Batman or Jurassic Park, closer to Power Rangers, but the construction is the same--five points of swivel articulation at the head, shoulders, and hips. As was the style at the time, he's sculpted in a "dynamic" pose, although it looks less like he's stepping forward and more like he's just standing with one leg in front of the other. His right arm is too relaxed to be interpreted as a karate chop, so instead he's got one of the later examples of the signature Kenner paw so familiar to Star Wars and Super Powers collectors.
Ryan Steele's costume (in the first season, before they ran out of footage) is that of the hero character from Chojinki Metalder, who was himself an homage to 1972's Jinzou Ningen Kikaider. Thus he greatly favors Kikaider's look: red and blue, split down the middle, with silver accents and a face only Dennis DeYoung could love. It's an eye-catching design and Kenner did a great job capturing it, using yellow to pick out the lights and buttons on his chest and his orblike eyes. This is clearly meant to be a robot, not a Power Rangers-esque battle suit, but Saban was working with what they had. The figure's two accessories aren't anything directly inspired by the show, but weapons a VR Trooper might use, cast in bright yellow translucent plastic--a curved blade that slips over his right arm, and a sci-fi blaster for his left.
Toys for the first season were produced in massive numbers and while VR Troopers was successful for a syndicated kids' show, it did not do Power Rangers numbers. As such, you can still get the first series Troopers and their adversaries for very cheap on card. The second series is so obscure as to be almost mythical. You wanna buy a carded Yak Face? You can do that provided you can pony up the dough. You wanna buy a carded VR Troopers General Ivar? Good frickin' luck. But at least the main heroes remain accessible, because I wouldn't count on them getting new domestic merchandise for the foreseeable future. So far the 90s nostalgia movement has not touched low budget live action kids' shows besides the mothership of MMPR, which is a shame because I would be totally down for some Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters from Beverly Hills Classics. Maybe someday.
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