Here Lies the Putty Patrol

Alleigance: Rita Repulsa
Abilities: teleportation, shape-shifting
Language: "putty babble", English (understood and spoken)

Clay footsoldiers, light grey in color. Their hands/forearms are grey, larger in proportion, and rocky—perhaps to make for a better weapon. Their faces are often a lighter grey than their bodies, with dark [sometimes human] eyes, a rough, bumpy complection, usually depicting a twisted sort of smile, but sometimes with nothing more than a hole for a mouth [usually from using the older masks that have lost their shape; a faint reminder of the twisted smile could still be seen]. On their bodies appear various black tiger-esque stripes, numbering anywhere from 2 to 5 [or more in the case of ZyuRanger footage]. They are often heard making a babbling noise that could be assumed to be a language only they understand. While they have the ability to stand upright, as humans do, they are most often seen hunched down, prepared to fight. Their gait, like their fighting stance, is awkard and clumsy, sometimes seeming to not so much run into battle as much as stumble.

Entrance: teleportation through yellow/orange flash, flipping into view out of nowhere
Exit: teleportation through yellow/orange flash, running away
Weaknesses: While fairly weak in general, no apparent weaknesses.

First Appearance: Day of the Dumpster, MMPR Season 1
Final Appearance: An Oyster Stew, MMPR Season 1
[Putties appear in the video game Power Rangers Super Legends]
Ultimate Fate: stopped being produced with the advent of Lord Zedd's Putties

Notes and Oddities:
Sometimes putties went without belts, often earlier in the season. They first wore them when Rita sent them down to fight Tommy in "Green With Evil (part 1)". On occasion, later in the season, putties could be seen fighting without belts. [Whatever reason they lacked them early on, they probably needed to add them, sooner than later, to better match the Sentai footage].

The tiger-esque stripes that appear on their bodies are never mentioned or explained, though it could be assume they are meant to resemble the cracks or fissures that appear in a clay figure. Another theory is that they might signify rank, though this is unlikely as putties were produced quickly and few likely fought multiple battles.

Putties, when disguised as a human, had the ability to speak fluent English. One did so when disguised as an old woman in "A Pig Surprise", and another sold cursed jewelry to Zack in "An Oyster Stew".

Unlike their successors, putties never had a death sequence. They always only vanished into a yellow flash. It is unknown what happens to them after this. It could be assumed that they cease to exist (at least in that form) since Finster makes the comment early on that they "can always make more". But they are also known to vanish without being defeated, in which case there is no reason a putty could not fight again in a later battle.

The Putty Bowl Restaurant, a restaurant where putties serve guests while wearing yellow vests, is never mentioned again outside of the episode "Calamity Kimberly".

Profile Preview: Putty Patrol

Goodness, I have a follower now! I guess I should continue then...

The Putty Patrol, unlike the zPutties, don't have any inherent weak spot—maybe mercifully so, though it sure makes things a lot less interesting from this writer's point of view.

Discinction between American footage of Putties and the Japanese footage of the Golem Hei is fairly obvious. Honestly, and many may agree with me here, the Golem Hei costumes are just that much better. They just looked that much more like clay than do the Putties. Their masks, however, made them look more like rock monsters than clay monsters. In that regard, maybe the Putties had them beat.

Unfortunately, there's nothing to tally, like the zPutties' shattering. I don't know if I should look for a correlation between the number of stripes a Putty has and how well/poorly they do by comparison. The fewest seen on a costume (in the American footage) was 2. The most is 5.

I love the pumpkin-head Putties in "Trick or Treat". They win. And they remind me of how I overlooked the western zPutties in my zPutty Profile... d'oh! I also liked the clown Putties in "No Clowning Around".

Unlike the zPutties, where I could find only one or two instances of this happening, there may have been three or four (or more, if I count wrong) instances in which the Putties actually looked physically stronger/better than the Rangers: "Gung Ho!", "Crystal of Nightmares", "Return of an Old Friend (part 2)", and "Two Heads Are Better Than One". That doesn't include "Day of the Dumpster", but I didn't include "The Mutiny" in counting the zPutties victories either.

One thing I am going to start incorporating into these profiles is including some of the ridiculous ways minions are defeated. I'm trying to think off-hand of one for the Putties... well, in one episode, Kim and Trini toss a couple into garbage cans, which doesn't hurt them, but they can't figure out how the heck to get out of them. In another episode, Trini throws one up a slide, because she's apparently that strong... or maybe Putties are just light. I hope there are a fair amount of these. It's a kids show, surely there's some comic relief to be had at the minons' expense. In light of this, I think the zPutties' profile will require an addendum.

It's Been a While...

Indeed it has.

We're just going to take one step back and profile Rita's Putties, then take two steps forward to the Tenga Warriors, then go chronologically (though I suppose the Oozemen might come before that... did I even put them on the list?).

Unlike the zPutties and Season 2, the episodes and fights of which I've seen so many times to the point where I had simply memorized most of them, I'll have to actually go through and watch Season 1 in its entirety to try to catch every little appearance.

I may be retroactively updating these profiles down the road if I think of some quirky thing to add. For example, one thing that will be added is a list of the minions' most embarrasing defeats. Why? Because they happened in every season. It is a kids show, after all. These poor guys were bound to be on the wrong end of cruel writers looking to make them look silly. And they were. So, all one of my readers (is there one?) will have a Top 5 list of sorts to look for in that category.

In the mean time, anyone who sees this blog post should go watch the Super Freakin' Parody Rangers. Right now. Here are episodes one, two, and three, then the first parts of the movie parody (part 1-1, part 1-2, part 1-3, and part 2; don't ask me why it was broken up like that). WARNING: it is not for children. At all. F-bombs and sexual references. You've been warned. I even made it bold and red.