Power Rangers: 19 Weirdest Monsters In The Original Mighty Morphin' TV Series

The Power Rangers had it rough. Every week on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the "teenagers with attitudes" recruited by the big floating head Zordon had to face down a giant monster that threatened to destroy their relatively nondescript California town of Angel Grove.

In just about every episode, the formula was the same. The teenagers found themselves attacked by some monster sent from the moon by the constantly screaming Rita Repulsa and her goons, in her continuing attempt to conquer Earth. They'd use their dinosaur-based Mighty Morphin powers to become the Power Rangers and wail on the monster, and then Rita would use her magic scepter to make the monster get Godzilla-huge. The Rangers met giant monsters with giant robots, calling out their prehistoric creature-themed Zords, and then eventually combined them together to create the Megazord robot and finally make the monster explode.

Doing all that karate and robot-driving was a tough job, but one person might have had a tougher one at the start of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Finster. Though he wasn't a fighter himself, his role in service of Rita Repulsa was to create those all various monsters in hopes of finally getting the Power Rangers out of the way. Finster's monsters ran the gamut of themes and powers--he was constantly anthropomorphizing stuff, drawing on things like scary animals, plants, and objects, and turning them into Ranger-fighting villains with tons of goofy gimmicks.

It didn't take long for Finster (as well as other monster-making henchmen, and later, Lord Zedd) to start scraping the bottom of the idea barrel, though. The show might have started out with cool monsters like a minotaur, a sphinx, a skeleton, and "what if a lizard man made of snakes," but it quickly devolved to the level of "what if Kimberly's purse, but with legs." Clearly, it's difficult to come up with endless creative creatures you can send to murder superpowered teenagers and fight their mechanical dinosaurs.

The fact that Power Rangers was made by adding American actors to footage from Japanese TV shows didn't help in the realm of "things making sense." There are some pretty out there explanations for a lot of these monsters--sometimes thanks to American writers making up scenarios to stick them into, and sometimes because the show didn't bother and just completely adapted the source material for its American audience.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the series that started the Power Ranger phenomenon that continues to this day, we're taking a look back at the strangest, most ridiculous, and most awkward creatures the original three seasons of the show dreamed up. And don't miss our gallery of every Megazord in the show's history.

Appearance: Season 2, Episode 48--Storybook Rangers, Part 1

A Thanksgiving-themed episode needs a Thanksgiving-themed monster. It's not like the Power Rangers could have fought sentient cranberry sauce or something.

Actually, we should check that they never fought sentient cranberry sauce.

Appearance: Season 1, Episode 9--For Whom The Bell Trolls

This little guy is just weird. He was a toy that belonged to Trini that the bad guys brought to life, but despite looking frightening and weird, he was actually a pretty nice guy. At the end of an episode about him stealing life-sized stuff like planes and cars and shrinking it down to keep in bottles, he even gave everything back. And then he turned out to be just Trini's dream and not a monster at all.

Appearance: Season 1, Episode 25--Life's a Masquerade

Frankenstein’s Monster is a legit monster in pop culture, so having him fight the Power Rangers is only a slightly weird idea (after all, Scooby Doo and his gang faced him once). What’s strange is this monster’s getup. He’s basically just a guy with a pair of shoulder pads and a hat painted gray on his head. That's surprisingly low effort even for Power Rangers.

Appearance: Season 1, Episode 6--Food Fight

OK, pig-themed monster who eats stuff--the logic follows. Except Pudgy Pig is just the head of a pig, with no body, but legs, and feet sticking out of his mouth. Plus he wears a huge Roman centurion helmet, for no apparent reason.

Appearance: Season 1, Episode 43--Something Fishy

Exactly what it sounds like: giant spiky creature. Spits sticky goo. You know, like a fish.

Appearance: Season 3, Episode 22--Follow That Cab

Lord Zedd turned an actual taxi cab into a monster, which, okay--we have Transformers movies. But who's that weird little worm guy driving?

Appearance: Season 3, Episode 8--A Brush With Destiny

No fun pun here, just a straight-up description of a weird idea for a creature. The artist part comes from Kimberly's dreams about becoming an artist. No idea why the mole, though.

Appearance: Season 2, Episode 19--Two for One

We weren't kidding when we said one monster was literally a purse brought to life. Pursehead didn't look anything like Kimberly's purse that was transformed to make this creature, but hey, if children cared about continuity errors, they would definitely not be watching Power Rangers.

Appearance: Season 2, Episode 21--Zedd's Monster Mash

Just a giant key, like, come on, guys.

Appearance: Season 2, Episode 19--Two for One

It's a lipstick, but it's a monster. The upshot here is that Lipsyncher's creature design is actually pretty solid, giving it something of a Hellraiser vibe.

Appearance: Season 1, Episode 32--A Star is Born

You know that scene in 30 Rock where Jack Donaghy tries to write sketches by coming up with catch phrases and working backwards? That scenario is our theory on how Babe Ruthless came to exist. It's a baseball-themed, uh... Bigfoot? Werewolf? Anyway it makes no sense.

Appearance: Season 3, Episode 27--Another Brick in the Wall

Literally just a brick wall that Rita Repulsa accidentally brought to life. Its reward for gaining sentience was being forced to dedicate its existence to--what else--murdering superpowered children.

Appearance: Season 2, Episode 52--Blue Ranger Gone Bad

The bad guys turn the clay vase Tommy made in art class into a guy. "Agh, my art project!" Tommy exclaims.

Appearance: Season 2, Episode 14--Missing Green

A trophy that looks like pipes that came to life and became a monster. One might accuse this monster of being phoned-in, but Zedd probably would have gone with an actual phone, so maybe this was just an off day.

Appearance: Season 2, Episode 38--A Reel Fish Story

It's just Pipebrain again, but painted a different color. Maybe this was an episode that had to be made while the writers were on strike.

Appearance: Season 1, Episode 60--An Oyster Stew

A lot of things that became monsters on Power Rangers aren't intimidating. Oysterizer holds a special place on the show for being born from the least intimidating thing possible, while simultaneously turning into what might be the grossest creature. It is very, uh, fleshy.

Appearance: Season 1, Episode 54--Trick or Treat

The name says it all, really. Creatures that rapped but were otherwise completely unrelated to rap came up a few times in Power Rangers episodes, actually--though that's not especially surprising, given that it was the mid '90s. Zack, the Black Ranger, also did a lot of breakdancing.

Appearance: Season 1, Episode 11--No Clowning Around

The logic here is really hard to follow. Pineoctopus adopts a human form to try to take down the Power Rangers at a carnival, posing as Pineapple the Clown, who is a regular clown. His plan: Use magic to turn the Rangers into cardboard cutouts, a thing he utterly fails to do (only Trini's younger cousin gets transformed). That part's confusing on its own, but later, he reveals his true form, which is a man-sized pineapple, apparently. Since no one is menaced by a pineapple, even an abnormally large one, he also gets octopus arms. So to recap: He's a big pineapple; with octopus arms; who chose a completely unrelated clown disguise; to turn the Power Rangers into cardboard, of all things. Also, he was defeated by water.

Appearance: Season 3, Episode 21--Changing of the Zords

Things with lots of eyes or that are made up of disembodied eyes are legitimately unsettling to a lot of people. What's more unsettling, though, is that this guy is definitely a sex criminal--he's a flasher, but what he flashes you with is his gross skinless body and many eyes. This thing is legitimately not appropriate for children.