The news that the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers could be getting a reboot with a new movie was met with both excitement from lifelong fans of the franchise and questions about its relevance in a new day and age. Would fan favorite villains be replaced? What will the tone of the film be? Most importantly, what’s going to happen with those seriously low-budget special effects and corny monsters who got beat up every week?
At the time – and through the eyes of a child – the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers wasn’t really that bad. You got to learn valuable life lessons about things like bullying and appreciating what you have. But have you looked back at some of those early episodes? Some of those monsters who got cooked up by Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd – even one or two from Squatt and Baboo – needed some serious work, and my guess is that they probably won’t make it to the reboot (at least in any identifiable form). They did, however, make it onto this list. So, they’ve got that going for them.
Pudgy Pig
Pudgy Pig was meant to teach kids a lesson about the dangers of gluttony. Long story short: If you eat too much at once, you’ll risk deflating like a balloon. Oh, and in case you forgot, he eventually made his way to a farm where he tried to court a real life pig with hopes that they could “make such beautiful bacon together.” Not only is Pudgy too ridiculous to keep modern-day kids’ attention, but he’s pretty hard to look at in the first place. He has feet coming out of his mouth.
Brick Bully
You know, Rita Repulsa’s long distance accuracy with that magical staff of hers is pretty underrated. That giant tower she lived in had to be pretty far away, and she was still able to make her monsters grow almost whenever she pleased. But her aim wasn’t always 100 percent. One time, she missed her target and hit a wall resulting in Brick Bully, a walking, talking piece of brick wall that could turn people into – you guessed it – bricks.
See Monster
See Monster is one of those things that you look back on and wonder what adult let it pop up on a kids’ show. His power is that he basically opens his trench coat – which is made of loose flaps of skin – and flashes his opponents. But, instead of getting a look at his unmentionables like an ordinary flasher, he reveals dozens of eyeballs that could emit thought waves.
Chunky Chicken
Sometimes it looked like the writers just picked a bunch of nouns and adjectives, threw them in a bucket, and made whatever they pulled out happen. In one episode of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, the rangers had to face off against the oversized Chunky Chicken – who looked more like a turkey – that had full control over the realms of time and space with a giant hedge cutter. No one fowl should have all that power.
Nimrod the Scarlet Sentinel, AC and DC
These three actually have pretty good powers (control of lightning) and put up a pretty good fight. But what kid around this decade is going to understand an AC/DC reference? Yeah, you could argue that the initials stand for “alternative current” and “direct current,” but that’s also where the heavy metal band got its name.
Robogoat
Come on now. They could’ve tried a little bit harder here. Robogoat’s name is dead on the nose. He’s a cyborg that’s part robot and part goat. His one bonus is that he’s pretty handy with a sword, but that doesn’t make up for the deformed face that his legs appear to make when they’re close together. Yet, this guy was somehow able to hold his own against Tommy? In your dreams.
Pumpkin Rapper
Pumpkin Rapper is exactly what you think he is. A humanoid monster with a pumpkin for a head who can’t help but make everyone around him sit through his cornier-than-usual early 1990s raps. The only way he should be around in a reboot is if the studio goes all in and hires Drake’s “alleged” ghostwriter to make these lines bearable.
