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VR Troopers

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VR Troopers

VR Troopers is a syndicated live-action superhero-adventure television series produced and distributed by Saban Entertainment from 1994 to 1996. The show tried to profit from the fascination with virtual reality in the mid-1990s as well as the success of Saban's other property, Power Rangers. VR Troopers was the first "sister series" to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Much like Power Rangers, it was an Americanization of a Japanese tokusatsu children's program series by Toei Company. The series is a co-production of Toei and Cyberprod.

The show featured early CGI and video effects mixed with Japanese stock footage from three different Metal Hero Series: Metalder, Spielban and Shaider. On May 7, 2010, the copyright for VR Troopers was transferred from BVS Entertainment to Saban Capital Group. In 2018, the rights were transferred to Hasbro, as part of the acquisition of the Power Rangers brand, which included related intellectual property and content libraries previously owned by Saban Properties.

The show was canceled after only two seasons primarily because the available Japanese footage was quickly exhausted. Its successor, Big Bad Beetleborgs, another Saban adaptation of a Metal Heroes series, was cancelled for the same reason. The show spawned a toy line and a video game for the Sega Genesis and Game Gear.

The show focused on three teenagers in their late teens, Ryan Steele, Kaitlin Star, and J.B. Reese, living in the fictional West Coast town of Cross World City, California. They regularly attended and were teachers at "Tao's Dojo", a karate studio. Ryan was the most focused martial artist; J.B. was the computer wizard; while Kaitlin was a photojournalist for the local newspaper, the Underground Voice Daily.

One day, Ryan's search for his long-missing father led him and his two friends to a strange laboratory. Inside, a digitized head of Professor Horatio Hart (who is a friend of Ryan's father Tyler) explained the truth about his life's work of having developed extremely advanced virtual reality technology in secret. "VR" is a dimension existing alongside our own; within it lie mutants, aiming at conquering both worlds. The main ruler of these is a creature known as Grimlord, who, unbeknownst to anyone on Earth, has a human identity as billionaire industrialist Karl Ziktor. As Karl Ziktor tries to overcome the barriers of the true reality to allow his armies easy passage from the virtual world, the responsibility of defending the planet on both sides of the dimensional barrier falls on Ryan, Kaitlin and J.B.. They have assistance in the form of armored bodies having incredible firepower. This includes eventual additions to their arsenal, such as a Turbo Cycle, Techno Bazooka, VR Troopertron, VR Shoulder Cannon, VR Battlecruiser/Interceptor and a flying, laser-blasting Skybase.

Among other regular characters on the show, Zeb as Jeb, Ryan's hound dog that, after an accident in Professor Hart's lab, becomes capable of human speech; Woody Stocker, Kaitlin's wacky hat-loving boss at the Underground Voice Daily; Percival "Percy" Rooney, the local mayor's nephew and Kaitlin's bumbling rival reporter; and Tao, the wise martial arts sensei who owns the dojo and a family friend of the Steele Family. Recurring villains include General Ivar, Colonel Icebot, Decimator, the Skugs and others throughout.

During the second season, Ryan's father Tyler was found and restored to normal. Then he then left to help the government research further Virtual Reality-based technology. Ryan received new V.R. armor and an upgrade to his powers. Grimlord's base of operations changed the virtual dungeon to a large spacecraft which used mostly US footage and added new Generals such as Oraclon, Despera, Doom Master and his Vixens. The Skugs now had the ability to become more powerful in the form of Ultra Skugs.

In pre-production, the series was known as Psycon and Cybertron, focusing on a single hero with a technological theme instead of a team of heroes with a virtual reality theme.

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