In related news, Samuel Benta – who played Will on Operation Overdrive – has finally given his account of what happened with the stolen banner at Power Morphicon 13 years ago. I had mentioned in the Overdrive videos that he had stolen it. This was backed up by Toku news sites reporting that he had done so. In a video, he has given his side and stated that he had not intended to steal it, but take it to the Green Room to get other Power Rangers cast members to sign it, he turned his back for a moment, and it was gone, stolen by someone else. He has explained his reasoning why he has been silent on it for so long and you can view the full video yourself
HERE if you’d like to see for yourselves.
Some have asked if I intend to make an addendum or update to the Overdrive video now that he denies the claim. After much consideration, I have decided not to. The thing is, by his own admission… he still took it without permission. Power Morphicon staffers have spoken up and stated that he was not asked to do so, some even saying that the banner already had signatures on it so they don’t know what he intended to do with it, but even then once he took it and lost it, he is still culpable in losing something that was intended for charity because he took it without permission. Regardless of intention (whether malicious, like originally believed [apparently over supposedly feeling he was not compensated sufficiently for his appearance at Morphicon]) or through good intentions, he still took something he should not have and through that action losing money for charity.
The same Morphicon staffers do not believe him, in turn pointing out that on Rangerboard, a popular fan forum for many years (and full disclosure, I am on), he outright stated that he stole it at the time and had no intention of returning it. I have not had enough time in my life to dig through EVERY archived forum post related to Power Morphicon in an attempt to find that, but so far I haven’t seen anyone else locate those posts, either, so it’s entirely possible that people are misremembering or lying, in turn. 13 years is a long time and memories can change, information can be lost, etc. I should also note that waiting 13 years to finally address it is not necessarily evidence of wrongdoing. Bad advice from a public relations person, thinking the incident was not as big as believed, or just worry about being publicly tarred and feathered over the mistake and wanting to put the show behind them are all valid reasons why someone might not decide to speak up. Some have said they have attempted to get his side of it before and received no response on the subject, which could also be concern about perception even for his position.
You are free to believe what you wish, hence why I shared the video, but I do not personally believe this version of events and, by his own admission, he is still guilty of taking it without permission. I may upload a new version of the videos mentioning it in the future excising it, but mostly because as time has gone on I have felt less of a desire to bring the personal lives of the actors into the videos – either because of mistakes I have made or because it’s not actually relevant to the material at hand (for instance, my joke about Cole’s actor not being present in Megaforce was NOT a reference to him stabbing his roommate [look it up if you don’t know what I’m referring to], but rather how the actor had been in the previous season) and because ContentID has forced some of the videos to be blocked, anyway, so they already require re-editing.
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