The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and all its sequels were highly successful. Inevitably, when something is popular and making money, there will be copycats.

Whilst some of these knock-off shows became popular in their own right, others were so bad they never even made it out of their native Japan. However, one can actually claim that the Power Rangers themselves are rip-offs from the Japanese Super Sentai and Voltron.

The series largely derive from the Japanese Super Sentai franchise. Power Rangers would take footage from those shows, splice in some additional scenes featuring American actors as the unmasked Rangers, and presto - a '90s kids’ television phenomenon was born. Here's a list of shows featuring groups of teenagers pitted against evil aliens and mutated animal hybrids while wearing colorful costumes and occasionally piloting either giant robots or a giant vehicle of some sort.

20 Big Bad Beetleborgs

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Aside from having the catchiest theme song this side of “Go Go Power Rangers”, Big Bad Beetleborgs was actually a success when it aired. The story took plenty of liberties with its source material B-Fighter - which was about a secret organization of superheroes - and turned three nerdy kids into superheroes after stumbling into a haunted house. This show was never actually canceled - they just ran out of source material.

19 Mystic Knights Of Tir Na Nog

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What sets Mystic Knights apart from most of these shows is it actually has no Japanese counterpart. Set in the distant past, the show leaned into the potential to use European mythology, featuring more fantasy monsters than a D&D bestiary. As usual, the main heroes are a group of kids who are given special weapons and armor to help protect their homelands from the evil Queen Maeve.

18 TMNT: Next Mutation

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While the Ninja Turtles as an idea pre-date Power Rangers by nearly a decade - Ninja Turtles: Next Mutation definitely felt like an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of live-action kids’ action series. It even had a crossover with the Power Rangers in Space series, featuring an infamous scene of the Turtles flying on the Rangers’ space surfboards in the vacuum of space with no spacesuits.

17 Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad

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Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad is the result of mixing everything that’s popular in a single era. It was a rip-off of Power Rangers because it was 1994 and everyone wanted their own. The kids were in a band because garage bands were popular. And the teens fought monsters inside of cyberspace because the internet was just starting to experience its first boom.

16 Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills

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Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters is most definitely a Power Rangers rip-off. Coming out just a year into the first Power Rangers season, a group of teenagers with attitudes were granted special powers by an amorphous alien creature and transformed into Galactic Sentinels. Oh, and they can combine their powers to form Knightron, similar to how the Rangers create a Megazord.

15 Ultraman Tiga

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Though Ultraman has been around even longer than Power Rangers’ source material, Super Sentai, the series never really caught on Stateside as Power Rangers did - but that didn’t stop Fox from airing a dubbed version of the 1996 Ultraman on their children’s block Fox Box in 2002. Ultraman Tiga feels very close to the Power Rangers in both style and tone, particularly during climactic battles.

14 Voicelugger

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Created by legendary manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori, the Voiceluggers are a group of aliens from another planet who use the powers of their secret weapons, the Voistones, to stop the evil Muon Empire and its Emperor, Genbah, from taking over Earth. The show was initially meant to be serious, but like many spin-off Sentai series, wound up descending into an affectionate Super Sentai parody.

13 Tomica Hero Rescue Force

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Power Rangers was criticized for being a glorified toy commercial, but Tomica Hero: Rescue Force took it to the next level. It was based on a pre-existing set of toy vehicles of the same name made by the Takara Tomy company, and as such, the characters were often seen utilizing a variety of rescue vehicles in order to defeat evil and save the day.

12 WMAC Masters

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WMAC Masters was only available in certain areas. Nonetheless, it premiered in 1995 and was like a combination of Power Rangers and a kid-friendly version of Mortal Kombat and American Gladiators. The cast featured legitimate martial artists who would compete in a variety of athletic competitions to show off their form. One of the show members later played the Blue Ranger on Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue.

11 Mummies Alive

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One of the few animated entries, Mummies Alive bears quite a bit in common with Power Rangers. Both shows feature an evil sorcerer as their main villain and heroes that are able to summon special armor and weapons. Though in Mummies Alive’s case, the heroes are mummies and their weapons and armor are courtesy of their connections with their patron Egyptian gods.

10 Masked Rider

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Three years into the massive success that was the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Saban decided to expand the Power Rangers universe. To do so, they looked to the Super Sentai source material, finding Kamen Rider. Unfortunately, Kamen Rider had been on hiatus since 1988, but that didn’t stop them from taking the last series to air, Kamen Rider Black RX, and bringing it over to America as Masked Rider.

9 Kamen Rider Dragon Knight

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Regardless of how Masked Rider was received Stateside, the series never had much hope of continuation given that Kamen Rider Black RX was the last television Kamen Rider series for over 12 years. But by 2008, Kamen Rider had long experienced a renaissance in Japan, and with it came a desire to revive it Stateside. It probably didn't hurt to make the franchise resemble Power Rangers as much as possible.

8 Akibaranger

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The series is meant to be a parody of Super Sentai, featuring adults who are all obsessed with different areas of geek subculture and defend Japanese prefecture Akihabara from their own delusions which eventually start coming to life. In a weird moment of Power Ranger inception, an episode of this series’ second season features the team going up against the “Powerful Rangers.”

7 Squadron Sport Ranger

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In Thailand, they loved Super Sentai enough to create their own version. Sport Rangers starts when an alien race comes to Earth in an attempt to conquer it, when they get shot down thanks to an ongoing war, losing their two major power sources. Eventually, one of them is found shattered into five pieces and used as a means to create a group of heroes to protect the Earth.

6 VR Troopers

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Saban was forced to combine three different Japanese series -- Metalder, Spielban, and Shaider -- to create their next series, VR Troopers. It was the story of three teenagers who were granted special powers to fight the forces of Grimlord, a malevolent being from the world of virtual reality. Unfortunately, the series only lasted two years before they ran out of Japanese footage to continue to adapt.

5 Van Pires

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The Van Pires was part live-action, part CGI. For some reason, the show is actually named after the villains -- the Van Pires is a mash-up of Power Rangers and Transformers. They are a collection of anthropomorphic vans that feed off gasoline in other “helpless” vehicles. The only thing standing in their way? Four ordinary teens who're accidentally given the ability to transform into fighting vehicles called Motor-Vaters.

4 After V

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After V shows what heroes who save the world on a weekly basis get up to in their time off. The series follows the Golden Warriors Treasure V, a group responsible for fighting threats too powerful for the military or police. But instead of showing them saving the world, After V shows their late-night drinking parties and talking about how their job is just as draining as any other.

3 LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu

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LEGO Ninjago is a Lego theme accompanied by the TV series Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu, which has some similarities to the Power Rangers: We have the 4 main ninjas who wear red, white, blue, and black - 3 of the Power Ranger colors. Lloyd Garmadon, villainous, turned into the good green/gold member of the group. Just like Tommy, who starts evil then joins the group as the Green ranger.

2 Ginyu Force (Dragon Ball Z)

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The Ginyu Force was a “loving homage” to the multi-colored heroes. In Dragon Ball Z’s Namek Saga, after Vegeta had torn through nearly all of Freeza’s army, Frieza was forced to send for the Ginyu Force; his most powerful and elite set of warriors. As aliens from different planets, their skin was curiously primary-colored, they had different abilities and traits they specialized in... and they loved posing.

1 Mighty Moshin Emo Rangers

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A parody of the original Power Rangers, Mighty Moshin Emo Rangers began as a simple fan film before it was into a mini-series by MTV. Featuring characters with names like Chaos Mohawk Red Emo Ranger or Introspective White Emo Ranger, the show was poking fun at the emo subculture of the mid-2000s as well as having fun with the absurdity that was the Power Rangers of Power Ranger tropes.

Sources: Tv Tropes, Cracked, Imdb, Reddit