VR Troopers – Before Virtual Reality Television

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VR Troopers – Before Virtual Reality Television
By Hervé St-Louis
November 11, 2012 - 13:18

Studios: Saban
$19.99 US
Starring: Brad Hawkins, Michael Bacon, Sarah Brown
Running Time: 9 hours
Release Date: October 2, 2012
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Distributors: Shout! Factory

VR Troopers was a popular television show that appeared from 1994 to 1996 based on a premise much similar to sister series Power Ranger. In VR Troopers, Ryan Steele (Brad Hawkins) was a young martial artist looking for his father and supplemented with technology that allowed him and best friends J.B. Reese (Michael Bacon) and Kaitlin Star (Sarah Brown) to become powered troopers fighting against the forces of General Ivar (Mike Reynolds) and his evil army of virtual monsters trying to bridge a pathway between their world and ours.

To be honest, I had never heard of this series before I recently. Just like The Power Rangers which I totally missed back then, the series was based off Japanese footage obtained by Saban Entertainment with supplements added to make the show North American in appearance. The series of course is aimed at kids and only for kids. I can see the kids in my life watching this nonstop. And the DVD collection will allow them to do just that. If you grew up on the show, you may also want to pick it up and remind yourself of the hours of enjoyment you had watching it. However, if you just didn’t grew up with the material, it will be difficult to get immersed in it. To be fair, the plots are less repetitive in the earlier episodes s they were in Power Rangers. Also, the characters were less annoying, except for the talking dog.

Season One Volume One includes the first 26 episodes. There aren’t any commentaries, so that may be a problem for hardcore fans who want to get more behind the scenes information on the series.

Rating: 6/10