Among the classics cartoons of my childhood, a special place belongs to Voltron. For any of you who somehow aren't already familiar with this show, basically there were some evil space bad guys trying to take over the universe, and Voltron was a robot designed to defend the universe against these kinds of threats. Then, somehow this robot was broken up into 5 pieces (lion-shaped robots) that required someone to drive them and put them together to form Voltron.
5 space explorers were sent to the planet where the lion robots were to be the ones who would put Voltron together in time of need. The explorers were:
Keith (Red suit, black lion). He was the leader of the Voltron force and also the pilot of the black lion that formed the head and torso of Voltron.
Lance (Blue suit, red lion). He's the wiseguy of group, cracking jokes and what not. He pilots the red lion that forms the arm of Voltron that holds his Blazing Sword.
Pidge (Green suit, green lion). Pidge is the little kid of the group. I personally, was never sure whether Pidge was a boy or a girl. The clothes Pidge wears often feature some kind of fringy trim, and Pidge is often shown with some kind of headband or barrette holding his (her?) hair in place. The green lion forms one of Voltron's arms.
I'm supposed to believe this is a boy?
Hunk (Yellow suit, yellow lion). Hunk is the strongest member of Voltron force and pilot of the yellow lion that forms one of Voltron's legs. Spends a lot of time hanging out with Pidge.
Princess Allura (pink suit, blue lion). Princess Allura is the reigning royalty on the planet where the Voltron robot is. Originally, I'm not sure for how long, the blue lion was piloted by a guy in a black suit named Swen who was injured in an attack which forced Allura to take over piloting the blue lion, and also resulted her being the token female (we're still not sure about Pidge) on Voltron force. She often talks to some mice who live in her castle. Oh, the blue lion is one of Voltron's legs.
Note: You can see Swen in this picture. He's in the black suit.
Pretty much each episode consisted of the evil space people coming up with a plan to stop the Voltron force from forming Voltron, then sending a giant space monster down to the surface of the planet in a large coffin shaped landing pod. This giant would then get ready to wreak havoc, which would spur the Voltron force to enter their lion robots -- each of which came from a special color-themed location on the planet. The blue lion was under water, the red lion was in a lava cave, the green lion was in the woods, the yellow lion was in the desert, and the black lion was disguised as a statue in front of the castle.
Then, in their separate lion robots the Voltron force would attempt to defeat the monster, unsuccessfully of course. Then they would, wisely, decide to join together as Voltron, which resulted in this impressive checklist of technical jargon:
"Ready to form Voltron! Activate interlock! Dynatherms connected! Infracells up! Megathrusters are go!"
Then the lion robots all came together to form Voltron, who then proceeded to use a variety of again unsuccessful attack methods (shooting lasers, launching limbs at the monster, etc.) before finally deciding to "Form the Blazing Sword!" which was the ultimate weapon in the universe and always successful in dispatching anything that dared to defy it.
Some thoughts about Voltron:
-Why didn't they just always go straight to the full-on Voltron with Blazing Sword attached mode? Seems like it would have saved them some time.
-Why would the people who wanted to control the universe always attack the planet Voltron was on? He didn't seem to be capable of space travel (maybe I'm wrong) so why not just move on and leave him alone?
-The "live action" children's show Power Rangers was such a blatant Voltron rip-off that the first time I watched it I predicted the appearance of a blazing sword and was shocked to be right. The only real difference between these two shows was that the Power Rangers had different kinds of animal robots that went together to form the big robot.
Here's the updated countdown:
#10: Underdog
#9: Thundercats
#8: G.I. Joe
#7: Superfriends
#6: Scooby's All Star Laff-a-lympics
#5: Voltron
2 comments:
Well, I'm disappointed because i remember Voltron as THE cartoon of my childhood. The fact that it was resurrected as Power Rangers and again wildly successful cements it as a valuable idea. I loved that you dug up the technical jargon of forming Voltron. It was interesting in that each episode was so similar to all the other plot lines yet that didn't affect popularity. Also interesting that a show with no thought put into the plot lines could come up with the Sven Princess Allura switch - do you think it was PC/corporate mandated?
Anyway, my curiosity is now peaked as to what could beat Voltron - perhaps HE-MAN is #1. What is your criteria for the rank list?
Voltron was originally a mash-up of two separate shows - Beast King GoLion (1981-2) and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV (1982-3). Both shows were part of a wave of shows in Japan featuring combining giant robots. This was after Mobile Suit Gundam (1979-80), but the Real Robots genre wouldn't really get off the ground until The Superdimension Fortress Macross in 1982-83, which itself would be combined with The Superdimension Cavalry Southern Cross (1984) and Genesis Climber Mospeada (1983-4) to create Robotech (1985-6).
Golion and Dairugger XV struggled to find an audience among a market saturated with similar product (the all-important toys sold extremely poorly). Golion's success as Voltron: Defender of the Universe was entirely by chance - in development, Peter Keefe asked for "the one with the lion," meaning a different series: Mirai Robo Daltonious, which had a lion, a jet and a humanoid robot that combined. Instead, Toei sent him footage from Golion, and he ended up liking Golion better.
The relationship of Voltron to Power Rangers is complicated. While the popularity of Power Rangers is likely related to that of Voltron, the series is in fact anything but a ripoff - Power Rangers is a translation and localization of series in a continuing Japanese metaseries, "Super Power Task Force" (or "Super Sentai") wherein spandex-clad superheroes fight alien invaders. Giant robots were introduced to Super Sentai in 1979's Battlefever J (a co-production with Marvel Comics). The following year's Denshi Sentai Denziman introduced transforming robots, and in 1981, combining robots were introduced to Super Sentai in Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan. Combining robots have been a staple of Super Sentai for 30 years (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, if you're interested, was translated from Dinosaur Taskforce Zyuranger, with footage from Five Saints Taskforce Dairanger and Ninja Taskforce Kakuranger, before the series changed branding and translated Super Power Taskforce Ohranger as Power Rangers Zeo).
Where am I going with this? I have no idea. Other than I have never laughed at my TV as hard as when Hunk shouted "FORM BLAZING SOMETHING!"
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