   This article is about a supporting character in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo, Turbo, In Space, Lost Galaxy, Samurai, and Super Samurai.
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Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier is a fictional character in the Power Rangers universe. He appeared as a permanent cast member from the original series of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers until Power Rangers: In Space, and has also appeared several times after this. This makes him one of the longest-serving permanent cast members in Power Rangers.
Bulk and Skull, from the very beginning, provided much of the comic relief in the series, usually through over-the-top slapstick (often accompanied by a suitable soundtrack). This was no doubt highlighted by their physical appearances: Bulk was obese and Skull lean.
Biographies
Pre-Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Bulk and Skull probably attended the same elementary school as the kids who would later become Power Rangers. Before the events that happened in the first season, it was revealed that they became best friends after the incident where Bulk decided to not beat up Skull for shoving a popsicle down his shirt.
The UK tie-in magazines of the early 90s claimed that the two met as infants; whenever Bulk cried, Skull cried too.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Bulk and Skull at the Juice Bar.
Bulk and Skull started out as bullies at Angel Grove High School and often hung out at the Youth Center and Juice Bar. Their actions are motivated by greed and ego in the first seasons. Wacky schemes abound, and ocassionally flirting with Trini and Kimberly, always ending with their failure and humiliation.
In the episode Green With Evil Part IV: "Eclipsing Megazord", Bulk and Skull are trying to escape in an abandoned bus when they are captured by a giant-sized Goldar. However, just as the Putty Patrollers are about to push the bus with Bulk and Skull in it off a cliff, the Power Rangers form the Megazord and help Bulk and Skull to safety before engaging in a fierce battle against Goldar, Scorpina, and a giant-sized Green Ranger.
During the second season they attempted to discover the secret identities of the Power Rangers and repeatedly failed. Ironically enough, they did discover the Rangers' identities twice: once they saved the Rangers when the Ranger team lost their memories and were de-morphed in front of them; Bulk and Skull tricked the monster to fire his amnesia beam through a prism, distorting the beam and restoring the Rangers' memories. Unfortunately, Bulk and Skull lost their short-term memories in the process due to being flung back by the amnesia beam and landing on their heads. The second time a psychic pointed the Ranger teens out to Bulk, but he didn't believe her as they were holding a picture of the morphed Ranger team at the time just given to them by Ernie.
A popular change of direction for the duo occurred in the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, when they joined the Angel Grove Junior Police Force (in an attempt to impress women, due to their belief that women love men in uniforms) and first met Lieutenant Stone. Lt. Stone became a permanent character himself, frequently giving Bulk and Skull orders that they failed to perform, leading eventually to his anger (rather than their humiliation). Despite this, Bulk and Skull were close to Lt. Stone.
Power Rangers: Zeo
Bulk and Skull on the police force.
During Power Rangers: Zeo, Bulk and Skull remained members of the Junior Police Force until they accidentally caused Lt Stone to be fired by the police chief. They quit the force and joined Stone when he opened his own detective agency, but walked out on the agency to take an undercover mission in France, the details of which have never been disclosed.
During this time, Bulk and Skull secretly hosted Rito and Goldar, characters who lost their memories after the attack at the end of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
Power Rangers: Turbo
Bulk and Skull when they were chimps.
At the start of Power Rangers: Turbo, the gap between Good as Gold and Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie revealed that Bulk and Skull had returned from France and reconciled with Stone. All three eventually got a chance to rejoin the Police Force (which, like many of the holes in the season, was never fully explained) before Lt. Stone went to replace Ernie as owner of the Gym and Juice Bar. Unfortunately before they could get back to work, they were transformed into chimpanzees by Elgar.
Bulk and Skull remain chimpanzees for several episodes. They are voiced by the actors who play Bulk and Skull; however, only the audience can understand them. Lt. Stone takes the chimpanzees into his care (claiming that they seem 'familiar'), and they make several attempts to inform him of their true identities.
They are eventually transformed back into humans, but a temporary side-affect renders them invisible. This state only lasted for a few episodes before they finally returned to normal and attempted to take on proper jobs (Jerome Stone arranged for them to get a new one most episodes).
Power Rangers: In Space
Bulk and Skull while working with the Professor.
During Power Rangers: In Space, Jerome Stone left the series and Bulk and Skull spent their time helping the rather loony Professor Phenomenus locate and capture extraterrestrial life.
The best transformation and growth of Bulk and Skull's characters is shown in the climax finale, Countdown to Destruction. Towards the end of that episode, Astronema's forces have conquered Earth. She asks rounded-up citizens of Angel Grove where the Rangers are - getting no response, she prepares to attack the citizens. Before she is able to do so, Bulk, Skull and Professor Phenomenous pretend to be Rangers to buy the real team some time. A minute or so later, when Astronema doesn't buy the ruse, the real Rangers teens show up, and breaking with tradition, morph in front of everyone, showing their identities to the world. They begin to fight the hundreds of Quantrons and Piranhatrons in the area.
Bulk and Skull leading the charge against Astronema's forces
At this point, Bulk can't stand to see the Rangers he adores against these odds, so leads the citizens of Angel Grove in a fight for their city, and everyone joins in fighting the monsters alongside the Rangers. The cry for everyone to "get in there" to fight alongside the Rangers is widely seen as the finest hour for Bulk and Skull's characters.
Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy
Bulk boards Terra Venture with the Professor.
Bulk and Professor Phenomenus board the space station bio-dome Terra Venture for its interstellar journey to a new world, in order to finally get away from all of the monster and alien attacks. Skull, however, did not wake up in time and was left behind. Though not as prominent as they were in the previous seasons, Bulk and Professor Phenomenus ran the Comet Cafe on Terra Venture. At the end of the series, Terra Venture arrived on Mirinoi along with Bulk and Phenomenus.
Power Rangers: Wild Force
Bulk and Skull give Tommy the phone for a call.
During the Power Rangers: Wild Force episode Forever Red, Bulk and Skull made a special cameo appearance. It is not explained how Bulk returned from Mirinoi.
Bulk and Skull were shown as servers and managers of a tropical-themed bar called "Bulkmeiers". Tommy Oliver, the former Power Ranger, is also present. In this episode, Bulk and Skull were shown playing Psycho Ranger chess while having a conversation about the early days of Power Rangers - in particular, Bulk is bragging to Skull about how he once saw Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa despite the fact that Skull saw them also. This seems to contradict the fact that the Earth's rotation was apparently reversed in two separate instances, turning them into kids and making them lose their memories of those villains, with no explanation as to how they regained their memories.
Power Rangers Samurai/Super Samurai
Many years after Wild Force, Bulk (without Skull) returned, with his nephew, Spike (who is Skull's son), in order to teach him the way of the Samurai. Once again it isn't explained how Bulk returned from Mirinoi, but like with Forever Red, he is likely there for the fans' enjoyment.
During the episode "Origins" Bulk watched as his nephew Spike arrived from the bus. After that both of them moved to a house. Bulk stated that he will teach him the way of the Samurai. Both of them went to many adventures such as watching the Power Rangers do their job to save the world as well as trying to copy their moves. In some occasions they helped the rangers. At one time (In the episode "Day Off"), Bulk and Spike went to a carnival to have fun (without knowing the Samurai Rangers were there as well) and won a bear (which they named Sam, short for Samurai).
During "Test of the Leader", Bulk and Spike got into a battle between the Nighloks and Power Rangers. When Spike saw the Pink Ranger, he immediately started to have a crush on her. After that, they left the battlefield.
In "He Ain't Heavy Metal, He's My Brother", both Bulk and Spike passed by a concert poster and gets the idea to make their own band. They even rehearsed and made attempts to hire poeple. At the end of the episode, both of them went to the concert (without the people they hired) to perform their rap.
In "Runaway Spike", both Spike and Bulk had to pay the money they owe for their house, making Spike apply for many jobs, only to get fired from them. During the end of that episode, they helped Antonio just so they can make enough money to pay their debts.
In "The Strange Case of the Munchies", Bulk and Spike went to the Shiba House to return Mia's wallet. Instead, both of them trained as Samurai until the end of the episode, when they returned the wallet.
Later in "Samurai Forever", Skull arrived to pick up his son Spike. Before that, they talked about how the Power Rangers saved the world from the Nighloks.
Notes
- During the filming of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, the actors (Schrier and Narvy) felt underused. To make up for this, they were given the position of assistant director for the Power Rangers TV episodes that were being filmed at the time.
- Paul Schrier even directed a Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers episode, "Attack of the 60' Bulk", in which he also performed the voice of Bratboy (young Bulk's transformed self), despite his regular character at the time being reduced to the age of a child.
- Bulk is the longest-running character, spanning for 7 consecutive seasons: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Seasons 1-3); Power Rangers: Zeo, Power Rangers: Turbo, Power Rangers: in Space, and Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy. Including Wild Force, Samurai, and Super Samurai, he has been in ten seasons.
- Bulk is the only one of three guest characters in "Forever Red", the others being Tommy and Skull, to reappear after "Forever Red", with himself reappearing in Samurai, while Tommy came out of retirement in Dino Thunder, plus a morphed-only appearance in the SPD episode "Wormhole". Skull makes a cameo appearance in the Super Samurai finale.
- In Power Rangers: Samurai, Bulk considers himself a true Samurai warrior.
- Around the time of Zeo, Saban planned to make a Bulk and Skull comedy spinoff show, where they would run a hotel (Jason Narvy has said that he thinks it was "their grandmothers' hotel"). A Mexican Elvis impersonator was going to be a supporting character. Narvy claims that the video release The Good, The Bad, and the Stupid was put out as a "test market" and when "no one out there bought it", Saban cancelled the plans.[1]
References
- ↑ Power Morphicon 2010 (Part 3) : Dark Side of the Power Coin : Black Nerd (1.17 to 1.31 and 2.41 to 3.00)
See also
- Skull, Bulk's best friend, whom he had spent much time with throughout the show.
- Richard Brown, a character from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger that played a similar role to Bulk.