THEY were supposed to be a force for good, but one Friday afternoon in 1995 young superheroes caused havoc in West Swindon.

We reported: “Furious parents branded action by security staff at the West Swindon Centre as ‘dangerous’ after chaos broke out during a visit by TV heroes the Power Rangers.”

The Power Rangers were to mid-1990s children what the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had been to their older brothers and sisters in the late 1980s.

The TV series initially consisted of action sequences of masked heroes from a Japanese show interspersed with plots, actors and dialogue filmed in the West.

Like the Turtles before them, the Power Rangers worried some parents whose children were tempted to emulate the martial arts moves – often on an unfortunate younger sibling.

In 1995 the franchise was at the peak of its popularity thanks to a recent blockbuster involving a new villain.

For most adults at the time, Ivan Ooze was merely something they hoped never to have to tell their doctor, but for children of the era he was a misery-spreading foe of the clean-cut teenage righters of wrongs.

In addition to their fighting prowess, the Power Rangers had the remarkable ability to make simultaneous public appearances before adoring fans at countless locations across the globe.

This may have been connected to the fact that they were masked on such occasions.

When they came to the shopping centre in West Swindon they seem to have become victims of their own success.

Hundreds of children were brought by parents to see their heroes.

We said: “Parents with young children had formed a long queue along the mall within minutes, as instructed by a Power Rangers representative.”

Unfortunately, the excitement when the Power Rangers appeared seems to have hampered efforts to keep things orderly.

Do any Rewind readers recognise themselves in the photos or have memories to share?