Profile Preview: zPutties

No, not a complete profile by any means. Just random things I'm noticing as I do my little research. I should probably change my profile picture, else people picture a zPutty in a lab coat and glasses diligently taking notes while watching episodes of MMPR. Meh.

I haven't gone back through every episode yet—it's proving to be quite the task so far. But there are some observations I've made, if not about the characters of the zPutties, then about the production of the show.

Sometimes the Rangers will appear to have hit a zPutty in the 'Z' (sometimes very clearly so), but nothing happens. I also think that, by the end of Season 2, the zPutties pretty much know they're fcuked, but don't do much in terms of trying to avoid their destruction. In "Rangers Back in Time" (part 1), after the kids discover their weak spot, you'd think they'd turn tail and run. But I suppose I give them too much credit as they also weren't bright enough to swat the ball away as the kids threw it (with amazing accuracy) at their chestplates—though one of them was coordinated enough to flip through the air and snatch the ball away from the kids before. I dunno.

At one point, I assumed Saban only owned 6 costumes for the zPutties, though in "The Beetle Invasion" up to 10 could be seen on-screen at once. Also happened in "Best Man For the Job".

There are a few times when I think scenes were filmed in which zPutties were supposed to shatter, but it never happened. The first time I found this out was from that behind-the-scenes home-made video made by Ed Neil (? Was that the guy who did it?) where they were filming "Putty On the Brain". After one zPutty is knocked off a cliff and lands in the sand, in the home-made video, he stands back up, they freeze the action, cut, he walks out of view, action, unfreeze, things continue. That's a definite instance, I think, though the footage they actually filmed never made it into the episode, and I'd bet there are other instances too. In "White Light" (part 1), right at the beginning, Jason appears to hit all the zPutties pretty square in the chest. Just before the camera cuts to the next shot, they all seem to freeze. In "The Power Transfer" (part 2), Rocky, newly christened as the Red Ranger, also hits a zPutty square in the chest, and you can even kind of hear that powering-up sort of sound effect that happens as they prepare to explode. But the zPutty is just seen stumbling backwards, then cut to Rocky looking all cool posing as the Red Ranger.

Good Lord, I'm just geeking out here. I should probably stop before I hurt myself.