Friday at Paris Comic Con we interviewed Mona Ahm, Brand Managers for Power Rangers at Hasbro.
FulguroPop – Hi Mona, thanks for meeting us. Power Rangers is a very brand in Hasbro’s porfolio. You bought it like one year ago and you decided to launch lines for both kids and collectors. Is it some kind of new policy for Hasbro ? Can we expect to see something like that for the different properties Hasbro regularly acquires ? Maybe not for Peppa Pigs, though…
Mona Ahn – We definitely know there’s a huge opportunity with fans and we want to excite the young generation. We know that people will grow up with the brand. With Power Rangers, people have grown up in the ’90s with the original TV show so have older collector fans thats are still very excited about the brand.
Is the Lightning Collection going to offer older Super Sentai costumes, the ones seen in the Super Mega Force season ? It would give collectors the opportunity to buy toys from series that less known in Europe and in the US.
We have so much history, so much content with this brand and we’ve just scratched the surface. There’s so much we can do. We’re very excited and just being given the opportunity to go after every single season…
Since there are so many costumes, so many characters, how do you choose which ones you’re going to make ?
We definitely listen to the fans and see what they’re talking about the most. That’s something we take very seriously and then we research which character to develop.
So you do marketing research and you’re looking at what ? Websites ?
Websites, social media, comments. We have our own social media channels. We go through all of that to see which characters people want most. We want to keep the excitement going so we maybe hold back some characters but we have a lot to work with. We definitely hear the fans.
Are there going to be more bad guys like Goldar. Fans are going to expect them, I think.
Yes. Power Rangers is all about the crazy, whacky monsters. Goldar is a very iconic character which is out now. We have Lord Z which is also iconic but you can expect to see more stuff like that.
Each wave consists of characters from different timelines and seasons. Are you going to make waves more coherent waves with characters from the same season together in one wave ?
We definitely want to keep fans guessing. We will do characters from different seasons. Our second wave has two characters from the Beast Morphers. So I guess you can expect characters from the same season or one from every different season.
Will you offer updated Megazords from the different Power Rangers seasons ?
Potentially, but I can’t comment on that.
I see. You know Haslab has been an successful way for both Transformers and Star Wars to make bigger vehicles or playsets. Coud the Power Rangers brand benefit from this crowdfunding platform in order to make a Lightning collection Megazord ?
It’s definitely a thought but we can’t confirm anything.
Does your team at Hasbro a liberty to choose more exotic characters ? Probably not obscure characters but secondary ones like Skull and Bulk or Alpha Five from the first seasons.
Like I said we have a lot of characters to choose from and we want to keep the fans excited and deliver new concepts… So we keep looking for new ways to bring that. I think you’ll be excited to see what comes out for our super villains next year.
Bandai used to make toys that weren’t in the show. They invented bikes thatt could combine with the Megazords. Is Hasbro going to do something similar ?
Now that Hasbro has taken not only the toyline but also the TV Show, Hasbro produces the entire season of Beast Morphers so we have a very close relationship where toys and TV are all under the same roof … So we can develop some products that we put into the show. For example, in Beast Morphers we have the Cheetah Claw that we partenered with the studio to develop as well as the Cheetah Blaster. More stuff like like to come.
How do you interact with the team working on the show, do you meet with them on a daily basis ?
Absolutely we have the opportunity to be more integrated and we are constantly talking to the studio to see what products we can make. It’s definitely a very good partnership on both sides.
Hasbro was willing to build its own multiverse with Transformers, G.I.Joe, Micronauts, Visionaries… Will the Power Rangers be a part of it ?
We want the Hasbro property to build and prosper on their own. We are treating Power Rangers as their own brand. There’s a lot of work. We only had the brand for 18 monthes so we are stil building our reputation…
Your Lightning Collection is on par with what you do with Star Wars or Marvel Legends. We know that some of the 2-packs are difficult to get at retail in Europe. Is it something you are willing to address ?
Our goal is to make sure Power Rangers are available worldly. France is a key market for us so we are prioritizing the markets here. That’s something fans can tell their local retailers, that they want Power Rangers !
Retail is a difficult business nowadays.
It’s not for lack of us wanting to push our products.
You know Ninja Turtles are big these days. Every toymaker seems to make Ninja Turtles : NECA, Super7, DC Collectibles… Since they share scree time with Power Rangers in Space would it be possible to see Ninja Turtles figures made by Hasbro ?
Since we are still new to the brand we kind of want to build Power Rangers on its own first but we are open to other properties. however there is a comic book from Boom Studios where we did a collaboration with Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles. So…
You never know… It may happen
Yeah. Absolutely.
Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. See you at the panel this afternoon.
Thank you.
TasmanT
•4 years ago
Merci pour cette interview!
Ayant acquis Lord Z, Goldar et le White Ranger, Hasbro avec la Lightning Collection fait du très bon boulot en terme de sculpt et d’articulations. Mieux d’ailleurs que la gamme de Bandai Legacy Collection. C’est juste dommage que les putty ne soient disponibles qu’en import…
Bon à savoir au sujet des tortues 😉
Cédric
•4 years ago
Allez, une fois n’est pas coutume, je fais mon vieux grincheux 🙂 Les Power Rangers n’existent pas ! Ils ne sont qu’une pâle copie des séries originales. A cause de ce truc américanisé, les VRAIES séries sentai sont restées au Japon pendant que nous devions nous farcir des armoires à glace devenus tout minces en se transformant, ce qui m’a toujours fait rire au passage. Le sentai est japonais. Rien d’autre.
Voila, mode vieux grincheux off 🙂