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This article is about a production company in the Super Sentai series. |
Toei Company, Ltd. (東映株式会社 Tōei Kabushiki-gaisha), also referred to as TOEI, is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution company. Toei is responsible for producing many of the most well-known Tokusatsu and Japanese Superhero franchises, including, but not limited to: Kamen Rider Series, Super Sentai, Power Rangers, and Metal Heroes Series.
Power Rangers[]
Toei's first attempt to bring Super Sentai to the west was with the assistance of Stan Lee in the late 1970's, as part of a partnership with Marvel Productions that also resulted in the creation of Toei's Spider-Man (1978) series in Japan. Stan Lee was unsuccessful in his attempts to sell Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan in America, and eventually the idea was dropped altogether.
Toei would later be approached in the 1980's by Haim Saban who had seen Chodenshi Bioman while on a trip to Japan. Saban would attempt to sell the pilot of a westernized adaptation of this series, named Bio-Man, to American television stations.
Saban eventually attained success with this concept in 1992 and began adapting Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger into what became Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Saban would use the fight scenes (footage of the Rangers in suits and the mecha/Megazord fights) from Toei's Super Sentai series and splice them with American footage for the out-of-suit sequences.
Towards the end of the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Saban's production found itself running short on Zyuranger footage and commissioned Toei to create more original footage for Mighty Moprhin Power Rangers, which did not ever appear in the original Zyuranger series. This footage has been dubbed by fans as the 'Zyu2' footage.
Saban would end up switching to using footage from different Super Sentai series from Toei as the Power Rangers franchise moved forward.