Ranger Reboot : Nostalgia, Transmediality and the Power Rangers Franchise

Examining Power Rangers, the long-running but frequently-maligned intellectual property, by treating it seriously and on its own terms, Ranger Reboot considers how forms of mediated nostalgia respond to, and are shaped by, such production-located issues as public service and/or commercial outlooks, scheduling decisions and target audience. The study argues in favor of rejecting a primarily sociological understanding of mediated forms of nostalgia, which would account for these by linking them to perceived periods of anxiety and crisis, by instead foregrounding how production-based concerns impact upon individual constructions of nostalgia. By addressing these issues, the chapters highlight how forms of nostalgia address multiple overlapping, and frequently contradictory, audience profiles. This introduces the neologism ‘glacial transmedia’, arguing that greater attention should be paid towards the temporality of industrial strategies for transmedia development by analysing the relationship between the Power Rangers on television and its main licensee (and later owner), the toy manufacturer Hasbro.

Examining Power Rangers, the long-running but frequently-maligned intellectual property, by treating it seriously and on its own terms, Ranger Reboot considers how forms of mediated nostalgia respond to, and are shaped by, such production-located issues as public service and/or commercial outlooks, scheduling decisions and target audience. The study argues in favor of rejecting a primarily sociological understanding of mediated forms of nostalgia, which would account for these by linking them to perceived periods of anxiety and crisis, by instead foregrounding how production-based concerns impact upon individual constructions of nostalgia. By addressing these issues, the chapters highlight how forms of nostalgia address multiple overlapping, and frequently contradictory, audience profiles. This introduces the neologism ‘glacial transmedia’, arguing that greater attention should be paid towards the temporality of industrial strategies for transmedia development by analysing the relationship between the Power Rangers on television and its main licensee (and later owner), the toy manufacturer Hasbro.