The Star Rangers
by Oliver Carlos
Before Voltez V, there was another 1970s Japanese show that took the hearts of young kids like me. My cousins and I loved to watch “The Star Rangers.” The said show was not a cartoon, but it featured real people acting as superheroes and slugging out some villains. The Star Rangers was composed of 4 men and 1 woman, like Voltez V, they were 5 in all.
Each member wore a helmet and an over-all suit of a particular color. Each one also possessed a certain weapon or superpower. Star 1 was red and had a whip and a gun for his weapons. Star 2 was blue and used a bow and arrow. Meanwhile, Star 3 was yellow, and his weapon was a fighting stick that looked like a short spear. Star 4 was the only girl, she’s pink, and her weapon was a bomb. Lastly, Star 5 was green and his weapon was a boomerang.
The Star Rangers show originated in Japan, it was known as the Gorengers there. When it was dubbed in English for Filipino viewers, it became the Star Rangers here. It aired once a week on RPN-9. The show ran from March of 1975 to April of 1977 in Japan, and was shown in the Philippines beginning 1978. I was 5 years old then.
My cousins and I would imitate the Star Rangers as we played at the old Tamolang ancestral house in Forestry UPLB. We were 4 boys who were almost of the same age- me, Vincent Lasmarias, and the Aragon brothers- Ernie and Eric. We needed one girl to complete the cast, so we pulled along my sister Joan.
We assigned a character to each one of us. Eric was the red ranger, Ernie was the blue one, Vince was yellow, Joan was pink, and I’m Star Ranger 5, the green one with the boomerang. We would mimic our respective characters and imagine that we’re fighting the evil Black Cross Army. Our play area was the “castle” in front of the ancestral house. That’s a large concrete staircase going up a hill.
By coincidence, we grew up to be similar to our characters. The yellow ranger was a math genius and so was Vince. The girl ranger was a chemical engineer, and Joan became a chemist. Meanwhile, the red ranger was the most handsome in the group, and so was Eric. The blue ranger was the oldest in the group and the one everybody looked up to, and that was Ernie. The green ranger was the adventurous type, and perhaps that could really be me because I love keeping a journal of my adventures here in Blog is Life.
This is one childhood memory that I really cherish. It was fun being unique from the others, yet you function together as one team, complimenting one another. We were not an army of clones, but each one had his own specialization. When we put together our individual powers, we become even stronger. That’s called synergy.
This is similar to the principle the apostle Paul was teaching in 1 Corinthians 12. He was talking about the church, the body of believers. Each Christian is gifted by the Holy Spirit. Not everybody has the same gift, and not one person has all the gifts.
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”(I Corinthians 12:4–6, NIV)
We need to realize that each one of us in the body of Christ’s believers has at least a gift that we must exercise to bless others in the church. As we do so, we contribute to the building up of the body of Christ. By using our gifts, we also help out in the over-all mission of the church, which is to lead others to make a decision for Christ and help them grow in Christlikeness.
What are your gifts? It’s nice if you would know them. Once you’ve discovered them, start using them for God’s glory.
