A Pokemon GO player assembled a team with attitude and created a nostalgia-inspired roster based on the original Zords from the first season of Power Rangers. The player posted their Pokemon GO team on Reddit and received mostly positive responses from the comments.
The Power Rangers series begin airing in 1993 and will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2023. However, most of the action footage, including the Rangers' suits and giant mecha known as Zords, are largely taken from the Japanese Super Sentai series, which began airing almost two decades prior in 1975. The first three seasons of Power Rangers, known collectively as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, featured footage mostly taken from 1992's Zyuranger, which was released the year before Mighty Morphin Power Rangers hit the airwaves. From 1993 to 2002, Power Rangers aired on Fox in the US. Afterward, the series moved to ABC and later Nickelodeon before becoming exclusive to Netflix in 2022, starting with Power Rangers: Dino Fury.
In Pokemon GO, a player under the username JosePawz assembled a battle-ready team consisting of Dragonite, Mamoswine, Aerodactyl, Bastiodon, Raikou, and Tyrantrum. The team is based respectively on the Dragonzord, Mastodon, Pterodactyl, Triceratops, Sabertooth Tiger, and Tyrannosaurus Zords from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Four of the team members are also Shiny, with each having a color scheme based loosely on the Zords they are nicknamed after. The Reddit post received over 1,200 upvotes in the first two days, and the comments have largely praised the poster's creativity and attention to detail. The post was made just days before Pokemon GO hosts the Teddiursa Community Day event, set for November 12 during local afternoon hours.
With a balanced mix of types on JosePawz's team, both Team Rocket and even some of the most devious Power Rangers villains over the years would be hard-pressed to overcome the formidable roster. The most common Pokemon types on this particular roster are the Rock-type, the Flying-type, and the Dragon-type. In addition, only two members of the team feature none of those types. One of the outliers, and the only single-type Pokemon on the team, is Raikou. Raikou is one of Johto's legendary beasts and an Electric-type Pokemon. The other is Mamoswine, an Ice-type and Ground-type Pokemon that first appeared in Pokemon Diamond and Pearl.
With the recent reveal of Gimmighoul and Pokemon GO connectivity with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet in 2023, the Pokemon hype machine is running at full throttle. It remains to be seen if any of the members of JosePawz's Pokemon GO team will appear on their own in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. But if they do, then the power may lie on their side.
Pokemon GO is available now for Android and iOS.