Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad

Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad was originally created by Tsuburaya Productions, Ultracom Inc. and DIC Productions, L.P. and was originally going to be named PowerBoy, but was renamed during production to avoid confusion with Saban Entertainment's American tokusatsu series Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. The series was made to capitalize on the upsurge in popularity of imported Japanese monster-robot shows which could be adapted with new, regionalized live-action footage. The series' development mirrored the creative construct established earlier with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The master toy licensee, Playmates Toys, funded the series, interpolated American development via toy licensing rights, and did a commercial buy-in on the Fox network, where Haim Saban had established a kids block, with programs such as Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and the 1992 X-Men cartoon. Playmates called upon the development team at DIC—which, coincidentally, was working with Pangea Corporation, which assisted in the development of DIC's New Kids on the Block and Playmates's earlier hit, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. DIC, Pangea, and Playmates's marketing group created an ensemble of character names, traits and profiles, which were spun into a series offering. Under a product placement deal, Compaq computers were prominently featured in the series and were used to generate the show's computer-generated graphics.