RangerWiki
Register
Advertisement
RangerWiki
Icon-ohrangerThis article is about an episode in Power Rangers Zeo .

A Small Problem is the twenty-eighth episode of Power Rangers Zeo. It is the second episode of the Gold Ranger arc, featuring the debut of the Zeo Ultrazord.

Synopsis[]

Prince Sprocket has tried to create a device to allow the Machine Empire to grow monsters without the use of Orbus. However, his attempt backfires and instead he creates a device that shrinks things. At first he thinks it's a failure, but his father, King Mondo, realizes that it could be used to turn the Rangers into a much smaller problem.

Plot[]

Katherine and Tommy are working on their ecosystem project, a terrarium. They decide to go collect some specimens in the desert as Tanya and Raymond drop by to help. As they go, Tanya tells Kat to be careful, but she's unworried, saying "what could go wrong in the desert?"

Meanwhile, Orbus and Klank are arguing with Prince Sprocket over his claim that he can grow monsters even bigger than they can. When he tries to demonstrate it on a rock, it shrinks instead, to Orbus and Klank's amusement. Mondo drops in to see how things are going, and is very pleased by the results, saying they can shrink the Rangers with Sprocket's device.

Back at the Juice Bar, Bulk and Skull show up in mining gear. They've been hired by the granddaughter of a gold hunter to look through his old notes, and they believe they've discovered the legendary Mother Load. In spite of Ernie's skepticism, they gather their tools and head out.

Tommy, Kat, and Raymond arrive in the desert, and Raymond gives out assignments; Kat will look for plants, Tommy for lizards, and maybe spiders, and he'll investigate an old mine in the area. Kat and Tommy soon see a lizard, which they chase. Mondo and Sprocket are watching, and decide to try out the new device on the pair. Along with a posse of Cogs, they confront the Rangers, who duck the shrink ray and it hits their jeep. They morph and fight back, but are overpowered and shrunk. Calling them cute, Sprocket asks if he can keep them, and Mondo agrees. Sprocket puts them in the terrarium despite their protests, and leaves to collect more "pets".

As Tanya is painting the backdrop for the terrarium, Raymond comes in, saying that Kat and Tommy left him in the desert. Tanya's surprised and calls the two on her communicator watch. When they don't answer, she calls Zordon, telling him to send the other Rangers to meet her at the mine. The three of them discover the shrunk jeep, which they decide to take to Zordon.

Ignoring the Rangers' continued demands to be let out, Sprocket leaves. Tommy tries with no success to call Zordon and deduces that their powers have been shrunk as well. Kat points out a hole in the wire mesh on top of the terrarium, and they get to work on trying to escape.

In the Power Chamber, Billy confirms that the miniature vehicle is Tommy's car. The Rangers head out to look for their missing teammates.

Before Tommy and Kat can escape, Sprocket returns with a new "playmate"--a tarantula he names Harry. Tommy suggests Kat distract the arachnid and he start's a rock slide that creates a wall between them and Harry. Sprocket's disappointment is interrupted by the arrival of Bulk and Skull. The two enter the mine and encounter a glittering wall full of gold. Excited, they start hacking out chunks until Sprocket interrupts and scares the pair away.

Harry starts to climb the barricade. Out of ideas, Tommy says their only chance is an escape. Bulk makes it out of the mine, yelling for Skull, only to encounter the Gold Ranger and leave. The Gold Ranger then finds the terrarium and carefully takes the pair of rangers out. Sprocket returns and throws a fit, summoning more Cogs. Putting Tommy and Kat down in a safe spot, the Gold Ranger fights the Cogs, attracting the attention of the other three Rangers. Naturally they join in, and seeing that they have everything under control now, the Gold Ranger slips away. Sprocket and his goons flee, and the Rangers find their shrunken teammates who ask them to take them back to the base.

Sprocket whines about his defeat to King Mondo, who cheers him up with Orbus and Klank's newest creation--the Tarantabot.

Back in the Power Chamber, Tommy and Kat explain what happened, and Billy describes the ray's effect as a reduction of the space between molecules. He tests out his newest device, a Molecular Respacer, on the jeep, which works. At that point, the alarms go off; the Tarantabot has arrived on Earth. Zordon says that this monster will require the entire team to defeat it, and instructs Billy to try and regrow Tommy and Kat, but warns him to be careful as the jeep is a non-living machine, while Tommy and Kat are living creatures. The ray works perfectly on Tommy and Kat, to everyone's relief.

The fight with Tarantabot is hard, drawing the attention of the Gold Ranger once again. The team calls upon the Zeo Power Cannon, blasting the monster, but then Orbus and Klank have to revive it at giant size. Both the Zeo Megazord and Red Battlezord are tangled in the monster's webbing, but Pyramidas is able to help out. The Gold Ranger transmits instructions to the other Rangers to combine all of their Zords into the Zeo Ultrazord, and Tarantabot is destroyed.

Later, a dehydrated Bulk wanders through the desert. He sees the Gold Ranger, but when he rubs his eyes, the superhero is gone and Skull is wandering down the ridge towards him. When Bulk asks where he's been, he just says he needed some fresh air.

The Rangers finish the terrarium and are confronted by Raymond. Tommy and Kat say that they got lost in the desert and apologize. Raymond accepts it and pulls out one last addition to the terrarium: a tarantula. Tommy and Kat look at it slightly nervously, but manage to stay calm.

During the credits, Detective Stone asks Bulk and Skull where they were. They show him all the gold that they dug up in the mine. After taking a look at it, Stone reveals to them that it's actually worthless iron pyrite -- Fool's Gold.

Cast[]

Songs[]

Errors[]

  • The container Tommy uses to try and catch a lizard looks too small for it.
  • When the Gold Ranger picks up Tommy and Kat in their shrunken state, he does so with his right hand, however, when the Cogs appear, both of his hands star opening, then when he lets them down again, they are in his right hand again.
  • The Schematics for Zeo Ultrazord Battle mode shows Zeo Zord 2 on the left, while the hidden Zeo Zord 1 would be on the right. When the footage of them going inside is shown, the two are switched.
  • As Pyramidas stands up into Warrior Mode, it is suddenly covered in dirt when it was clean as the transformation began.
  • It is not explained why Pyramidas is apparently tailor-made to fit the Zeo Zords inside, when it originated on another planet (presumably Triforia) and was constructed independently of the Zeo Zords on Earth by Billy.
    • While similarly in Ohranger Pyramidas' counterpart King Pyramidder was not built by U.A.O.H. like the other mecha, one slight difference is the schematics for this formation first appeared due to the mark of KingRanger (Gold Ranger's counterpart) resonating with all three mecha as they run on the same energy source Superpower. The power resonance footage was not adapted for Zeo since it originally used kanji.

Notes[]

  • This episode aired the same day as Big Bad BeetleborgsIcon-crosswiki episode 12, Drew and Flabber's Less Than Fabulous AdventureIcon-crosswiki.
  • This episode uses Skull as a red herring for the not-yet-known identity of the Gold Ranger, in that Bulk and Skull are separated after fleeing from Prince Sprocket. When Bulk goes looking for Skull, he finds the Gold Ranger twice, first when outside of the mine, the second when he is severely dehydrated and saw the Gold Ranger on a ridge. After rubbing his eyes twice and seeing the Gold Ranger both times, he rubs his eyes a third time to see the Gold Ranger gone and Skull at the bottom of the ridge running towards him. When Bulk asked where Skull had been, he answered "I needed a little fresh air."
  • First appearance of Klank and Orbus in original footage.
  • The resolution of the Bulk & Skull subplot is featured during the credits in place of the usual episode bloopers.
  • First appearance of the Zeo Ultrazord.
  • Tommy is now shown to drive a black colored Jeep. As shown in Power Rangers Dino Thunder, he would go on to own one in his adulthood as well.

See Also[]

External Links[]

Power nav icon List of Power Rangers Zeo episodes Icon-ohranger

1 & 2: A Zeo Beginning • 3: The Shooting Star • 4: Target Rangers • 5: For Cryin' Out Loud • 6: Rangers in the Outfield • 7: Every Dog Has His Day • 8: The Puppet Blaster • 9: Invasion of the Ranger Snatchers • 10: Graduation Blues • 11: A Few Bad Seeds • 12: Instrument of Destruction • 13: Mean Screen • 14: Mr. Billy's Wild Ride • 15-17: There's No Business Like Snow Business • 18: Inner Spirit • 19: Challenges • 20: Found and Lost • 21: Brother, Can You Spare an Arrowhead? • 22: Trust in Me • 23: It Came From Angel Grove • 24: Bulk Fiction • 25: Song Sung Yellow • 26: Game of Honor • 27: The Power of Gold • 28: A Small Problem • 29: A Season to Remember • 30: Oily to Bed, Oily to Rise • 31: Rock-A-Bye Power Rangers • 32: Do I Know You? • 33: Revelations of Gold • 34: A Golden Homecoming • 35: Mondo's Last Stand • 36: Bomber in the Summer • 37: Scent of a Weasel • 38: The Lore of Auric • 39: The Ranger Who Came in from the Gold • 40: The Joke's on Blue • 41: Where in the World is Zeo Ranger 5? • 42 & 43: King for a Day • 44: A Brief Mystery of Time • 45: A Mystery to Me • 46: Another Song and Dance • 47 & 48: Rangers of Two Worlds • 49: Hawaii Zeo • 50: Good as Gold

ViewEdit
Advertisement