TV: VR Troopers

I often write about children's TV shows that still hold up when I watch them today. This entry is a bit different, however, because "VR Troopers" is a decidedly corny "Power Rangers" clone. Like its more famous sister show, it used stock footage from old Japanese tokusatsu kid's shows and wedded that to a cheaply shot American live action veneer. If you've never seen it, think of the "Power Rangers" minus the obvious color coding:



One part of "VR Troopers" was better than most of the "Super Sentai"-derived shows: the hapless mooks that often confronted the heroes midway through the episode. In this show, they're called "skugs," and most of the time they're disguised as shapely young women in black dresses. They even have a theme song: