Hasbro’s Power Rangers Auction Upsets Actors and Fans

Last year, Power Rangers: Cosmic Fury brought a definitive end to the 30-year TV (and films, comics, etc) saga that began all the way back with Mighty Morphin in 1993. While the future of the franchise is currently up in the grid, its past is being put to bed in the worst way possible.

Just before the weekend, Hasbro (which acquired the brand in 2018) put up old Power Rangers items for sale through the auctioneering website Heritage. Ranger suits, morphers, monster masks, props, you name it–even clothes worn by human supporting characters are up for grabs. While the auction itself doesn’t begin until Friday, October 18, the news understandably rankled longtime Rangers fans. Yes, some of this stuff will be absolutely cool to snag and put somewhere in your room or house, maybe even show off at the next convention.

But the auction’s also reminded fans how Power Rangers hasn’t always been treated the best by its various owners over the years. Eventually, there’s a point where they just didn’t seem to fully get (or want) what they initially acquired, so they pass it off to someone else to make a quick buck. In this day and age, anything and its history can just go away so abruptly and unfairly, the idea of a “right way” to go out almost doesn’t exist anymore. Even so, short of just burning everything in a day-long livestream, this is a callous way to close the book on that original Rangers era.

All of this is further exacerbated by several old Power Rangers actors sharing their thoughts on the auction and revealing they never got the chance to take their old suits or props home before all this. (Or in the case of the Power Rangers RPM cast, they were explicitly told to return items once their show wrapped production.) Hunter Deno, who played Amelia in Cosmic Fury and its predecessor Dino Fury, lamented how her shows’ suits are being sold “so they can make a pretty penny” instead of giving it to the actors or stunt workers. (And if not them, auction them off for charity, at the very least.)

“[Hasbro’s] so hard up for cash that they’d rather sell off their props and costumes rather than gift them to their respective actors who would cherish the fuck out of them,” wrote Yoshi Sudarso, who played Dino Charge’s Kota. In a recent video, he recalled how he and co-star Brennan Mejia were “devastated” to learn they wouldn’t be able to keep the suits, and echoed Deno’s sentiment that Hasbro could’ve gifted individual suits to their respective actors.

Despite their heartbreak and feeling disrespected, several Power Rangers actors (like Deno and SPD’s Matt Austin-Sadowski said they plan to put bids down on things from their specific shows. Even so, David Fielding, who played Zordon in the initial Mighty Morphin era, may have put it best when he noted how the auction functions as a “closing of the door. Will another one open?”

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.