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| - In the spirit of, on the heels of, and by the makers of Power Rangers, the Metal Heroes Toku series was adapted by Saban into a new show known as VR Troopers in 1994. The premise is basically that via Applied Phlebotinum created by Tyler Steele, Karl Ziktor, and Professor Horatio Hart, anything created in virtual reality actually exists in Another Dimension, and can be brought forth into the real world. Tyler Steele goes missing, but left behind the means for his son and friends to defend the real world from Ziktor, now a Corrupt Corporate Executive with a virtual army ready to conquer the world. Crossworld City is a weak point between dimensions and as such, the front lines in the battle with Ziktor, aka Grimlord (Ziktor's super-powered virtual world avatar), and his forces. Professor Har
- VR Troopers (Virtual Reality Troopers) was a syndicated live action show produced by Saban (creators of the similar Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series) from 1994 to 1996. The show tried to profit from the fascination with virtual reality in the early 1990s as well as the success of Power Rangers. The show featured early CGI and video effects mixed with Japanese stock footage from three different Metal Hero Series: Superhuman Machine Metalder, Dimensional Warrior Spielban, and Space Sheriff Shaider. This kind of adaptation technique, turning multiple shows into one show, was originally used in anime with shows like Robotech and Voltron. This was the first and only time this was used for a tokusatsu adaptation. On May 7, 2010 the copyright for VR Troopers was transferred from BVS Internatio
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| abstract
| - In the spirit of, on the heels of, and by the makers of Power Rangers, the Metal Heroes Toku series was adapted by Saban into a new show known as VR Troopers in 1994. The premise is basically that via Applied Phlebotinum created by Tyler Steele, Karl Ziktor, and Professor Horatio Hart, anything created in virtual reality actually exists in Another Dimension, and can be brought forth into the real world. Tyler Steele goes missing, but left behind the means for his son and friends to defend the real world from Ziktor, now a Corrupt Corporate Executive with a virtual army ready to conquer the world. Crossworld City is a weak point between dimensions and as such, the front lines in the battle with Ziktor, aka Grimlord (Ziktor's super-powered virtual world avatar), and his forces. Professor Hart, his body mortally wounded by Grimlord, exists inside the base's computers and acts as The Obi-Wan. The second season sees the complete overhaul of the villains' setup and one character's gear in a series where Status Quo Is God... or was. Like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, three Metal Heroes series were used as source materials to make one. Ryan's armor, Grimlord, and any villain ever seen in Grimlord's lair came from Choujinki Metalder. Another show, Jikuu Senshi Spielban, provided armored Kaitlin and JB, General Icebot and Ivar, the Skugs, many of the team's vehicles, and most of the villains of the week (such as Red Python and Desponda). The second season, in which Ryan's armor and Grimlord's tech are switched out, takes footage from still another show, Space Sheriff Shaider. Somehow, with that many sources of footage, costumes, and plots, the vast majority of second season episodes revolved around something dangerous being made in an underground lab that had eventually to be taken out with the same drill vehicle going through the same Stock Footage. VRT's suits were a vast departure from those of Power Rangers and the like: instead of suiting up a human, the Troopers were actually transformed into robot forms that were created from scratch in virtual reality. If damaged in Trooper form, they had to be repaired as machines before they could return to human form. The show has a rather interesting production history, to say the least: originally a vehicle for Jason David Frank, an unaired pilot was both shot and sold to several stations, who proceeded to buy it due to the popularity of Power Rangers , but at the last minute Saban decided to bring JDF back to PR, which meant that the starring role had to be recast with Brad Hawkins (who was originally set to play the White Ranger in the second season of Mighty Morphin), although the show by that point was deemed highly unsalvageable and was filmed only for contractual obligations with the TV stations who had already bought the series. To the surprise of many, the first season was actually quite successful and a second season was soon green-lighted by Saban. However, during the second season all the Metalder action footage ran out and Saban was forced to use footage from a third and drastically different (and much older) show for the Ryan Steele segments. Eventually all the remaining Spielban footage, as well most of the Shaider footage, were used up too. Saban picked up the rights to a fourth Metal Hero series Juukou B-Fighter, but rather than risk alienating the show's fan-base by changing the entire team's costumes and motifs like they did with Power Rangers Zeo, they decided to start fresh with a new Americanized version, Beetleborgs, resulting in the cancellation of VR Troopers. As of June 2011, the entire series (along with Big Bad Beetleborgs and Power Rangers) is available for streaming on Netflix.
- VR Troopers (Virtual Reality Troopers) was a syndicated live action show produced by Saban (creators of the similar Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series) from 1994 to 1996. The show tried to profit from the fascination with virtual reality in the early 1990s as well as the success of Power Rangers. The show featured early CGI and video effects mixed with Japanese stock footage from three different Metal Hero Series: Superhuman Machine Metalder, Dimensional Warrior Spielban, and Space Sheriff Shaider. This kind of adaptation technique, turning multiple shows into one show, was originally used in anime with shows like Robotech and Voltron. This was the first and only time this was used for a tokusatsu adaptation. On May 7, 2010 the copyright for VR Troopers was transferred from BVS International to SCG Power Rangers. The series was deemed successful, but not as successful as the Power Rangers franchise. Unfortunately, for the series, the Japanese footage was quickly exhausted due to extreme cases where multiple tokusatsu scenes were put together in a single episode to the point stock footage had to be reused multiple times throughout the series. Similarly, another Saban program, Big Bad Beetleborgs, would do well but ultimately end quickly due to a lack of stock footage. Both series were adapted from the Japanese Metal Hero genre, which ended in Japan around the same time. The show spawned a toy line and a video game for the Sega Genesis (Mega Drive).
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