agdeeds submitted:

I want to see BABD talk about Power Rangers! I’d like to start things off by talking about the remake. 

We just got our first look at what the new Power Rangers morph suits. Without knowing the context of the movie, I’m going to get my hopes up and say it’s a good(?) example of “futuristic” armor equal representation. On the plus end it looks like the male equivalent and has full head coverage. They also nixed Pink Ranger’s mini-skirt from the original–that might be up for debate if that’s good or bad. The guys look like they’re in thongs more than the girls to me. 

On the down side suction cup boobplate and heels are involved. Will we ever get away from that?? You could possibly say there’s boob window, though at least the guys have it, too. 

I see people using the director and producer’s design concept as an excuse for why the boobs have to be that way:

“The new cast … will don translucent extraterrestrial armor that crystallizes around their bodies.”

and

“It’s tricky finding a new language for a superhero costume,” production designer Andrew Menzies (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) admits. “Ours is an alien costume that grows on them, that’s not man-made. You can’t win everyone over, but we are trying to appeal to a more mature audience and gain new fans.”

EW says they have more detailed photos in their most recent issue but I’m not a subscriber. 

I would love your input on this redesign. I’m probably being too defensive about this, considering the *only* problem I can see with the original is the mini skirt, if that’s a problem at all. To be honest I never noticed the Yellow Ranger’s gender change as a kid. If that’s not a good example of equality in faux ninja battle armor I don’t know what is. 

 First of all, big thanks to ALL the readers who sent those our way.

About the rebooted Power Ranger costumes, though… Wow, they really seem to try too hard to set them apart from the original designs. The only piece that seems like a genuine tribute to the old Ranger suits are the helmets (which do look cool and distinctly inspired by the 90s version).

And the originals worked because of their simplicity. Which remained a costume principle in the franchise throughout the years:

Those tight metal-looking alien armors are MAJORLY over-designed AND generic at the same time, an impression that is not helped by adding heels and boobplates to female versions, because if no boobs how lady?
It’s not like a footage of an obviously male yellow Sentai was dubbed over by a woman in the show and the kids in the audience didn’t notice, right?

Apparently people are comparing those movie reboot Power Ranger suits to Iron Man armor, but I’d say that’s an insult to Tony Stark. His armor has a great basic color scheme that sets contrast between its segments. 

Glowy chest piece is not yet enough to say they look the same.

New Power Rangers are drowning in the visual noise of needless details. Obviously, someone behind the movie thinks that they’re not getting their money’s worth if every minuscule line and joint wasn’t given the same amount of attention. 

Those details are not complimenting each other or properly drawing the eye to the important part of the costume (say, helmet and chest piece) – there’s no contrast or design hierarchy, so the viewer doesn’t know what to look at. Well, maybe at the half-spherical boobs that stick out so bizarrely.

~Ozzie

I’m trying to think of something witty or clever to point out, but in this case I think everyone beat me to it.  I like it.

– wincenworks