Just when you think another clip show is coming from a Power Rangers Holiday Special, Power Rangers Ninja Steel stepped up their game and turned Halloween on its side! “Grave Robber,” while allowing the viewers to revisit monsters the Ninja Steel Rangers have already defeated, was not bogged down with scenes we have already seen. Instead, the footage we were treated to was new Sentai footage that had been previously unused, giving us fresh scenarios and fight footage to enjoy something new with the monster! Through the board game, Grave Robber, the Rangers were forced to face off against each monster and with such predecessors as the Dino Charge and Dino Super Charge Halloween Specials to go up against I think that this episode held its own. Let’s look back at all the spooky moments that made this episode fantastic!
The Costumes!: This is my favorite part of any review of a Halloween episode, reviewing what the Rangers wore as Halloween costumes! Let’s start with the leader of the Team Brody, who dressed up as a British Queen’s Guard complete with black puffy hat and red overcoat (clearly a reuse of Tyler’s Prince of Zandar outfit from “The Royal Rangers”). Sarah was dressed as a pretty pink unicorn, which as it was displayed on Twitter made her actress ChrystiAne Lopes very happy! Preston was dressed as a more ancient blue wizard with floppy wizard hat! Calvin came dressed as Frankenstein’s monster and even got a sassy comment from Hayley asking where his costume was! In the most disappointing costume of the episode came Hayley, dressed as a White Witch (which wasn’t, but looked like a rehash of Gia’s costume in Megaforce), but what was most disappointing is that she didn’t dress as the Bride of Frankenstein! The costume was literally staring them in the face and they didn’t go for it! Boo!
Grave Robber & Cosmo: I had my doubts about the game when the details were released as I tend to do when episode descriptions are released. However when the episode started going the idea grew on me and it felt like Jumanji in a spooky way and I began to love it. The game itself was mysteriously dropped off by an elderly woman dressed in black, perhaps a witch?
For some reason, Levi doesn’t like board games so the other 5 Rangers go off to play and are permanently stuck into playing the game until the time runs out and they are destroyed. I was enamored with Cosmo during the game-play as he finally got more time to shine outside of “Galaxy Warriors” and interact with the Rangers more. Cosmo is truly one of my favorite villains in the show. My favorite moments were when he was a stickler for the rules, gave them their Misfortune Cards or especially when he became so angry and frustrated at the end of the episode when Levi began to interfere! I demand more Cosmo outside of the Warrior Dome!
The effects used here are beautiful as well, I am a sucker for a crystal ball and the flowing purple sand in the Hour Glass was mesmerizing. It gave me Wizard of Oz feels just as “Trick or Trial” had in Dino Super Charge!
The Revived Monsters
Trapsaw: The Rangers are transported to their first fight where they meet Ripperat’s cooler brother, Trapsaw. They immediately begin fighting the Kudabots but this fight is easily won when the Rangers remember they are Ninjas. Brody uses the “Ninja Strike Steel Slash” and ends them sending the Rangers back outside the game. Pretty easy and a good use of unused Sentai Footage, but Trapsaw is still a boring ass monster.
Hacktrack & the Ninja Kite: This fight with Hacktrack was rather very interesting because Sarah had learned from her previous mistakes with him. She was prepared before they entered the level! She asked Calvin to grab a toolbox and grabbed a radio transmitter to jam Hacktrack’s signal! Unfortunately for them, Hacktrack began bouncing around the city, but unluckily for him, they had a new Ninja Kite technique that allowed them to fly around and chase him down!
I was happy that his random technique was used in this special and not in an actual episode because of its randomness. It made sense as a level enhancer and not part of an episode, so using this old/unused Sentai footage made sense here!
Slogre: The fight with Slogre was really no different from their original fight. He uses his slow mist to slow them down, there were lots of shouts of “surprise!” and some hilarious slow talking. But, we did get to see Preston take on the mist with his Elemental Fire attack! Then, Preston gets slowly thrown into his friends. Brody tries to save them, but Cosmo pulls them from the round claiming they’ve lost!
Spinferno & Calvin’s Loss: As a result of their “loss” Cosmo gave them a Misfortune Card which meant that the Rangers would have a solo round next. The Rangers roll and Spinferno is chosen as the resurrected ghost monster. Brody volunteered himself to go, but since Calvin rolled he had to go fight Spinferno alone. Spinferno basically attaches Calvin to an out of control truck that ends up going over a cliff. Calvin is able to save the drive but is unable to save himself or the truck! Uh-oh that means another misfortune card!
Another interesting use of unused Sentai footage because the original fight with Spinferno barely used any of that fight footage. Plus any focus on Calvin is good on me!
The Gigantify Round: Sadly because of another failure the Rangers got another misfortune Card sending them into a Gigantify Round! This round was pretty intense as it pitted the Rangers against an evil Robo Rider Zord and two Skullgators. It was a pretty interesting Megazord battle and it also great to see the Rangers combine into the Astro Ninja Steel Megazord again!
I’m also a big fan of Megazord battles where the Rangers get thrown from the cockpit and the Zords explode and separate, that’s good TV! Plus, it was also great to see Brody finally hand over the Ninja Master Blade and let Preston use it for a change!
Levi Joins the Fight: As I said earlier it was totally awesome to see Cosmo outside of the Warrior Dome and on the surface goading on the Rangers and whining about Levi breaking the rules! I wouldn’t mind seeing more of this in the future, or especially seeing him take on a Ranger at some time!
In his most amazing mentor fashion, Mick (dressed as a jack-o-lantern) found Levi and asked him why he wasn’t with the others. Levi basically said they were all together listening to his music but they wanted to play a board game and he didn’t. Mick call out his crap and told him that was just a little selfish to have the group do what he wanted but then ditch out on them when he didn’t like what they wanted to do. Which is totally true by the way, Levi. Luckily for the Rangers, Levi realizes he was being kind of a jerk and goes to find them and is able to get inside of the game just in time to save them from the hourglass’ doom.
With a great use of unused Sentai footage and becoming refreshingly NOT a clip show, I would say that “Grave Robber” is one of the better Halloween specials we’ve ever had. It’d sit up there along with the Dino Charge specials which I’ve always thought were great.
But, there was one thing that I’ve forgotten to mention. Something that totally made this episode pretty darn good amongst not only Halloween specials but among Ninja Steel episodes in general. Did you notice that something was missing? Yeah, Victor and Monty didn’t have a single scene in this episode. Did you notice they were gone? I have to tell you that I didn’t actually notice that they were missing until the episode was over. Could Ninja Steel benefit from lowering their appearance ratio in the episodes or clipping their appearances altogether?
Until next week readers when we return to the plot!