Voltron = Latest 80s Property To Get Mattel Toys...And A Cartoon.

[MegaGearMax]

You say you are from the "opposite direction"(you like cartoons for kids but good enough for adults), and yet you are enjoying Voltron. Am I missing something here?

LOL! I'll explain. Voltron Force is more kiddie than I'd like (the "Flash-like animation" and the wrist thingee gimmicks aren't my cup of tea), but it is still enjoyable. Besides, I really like the new lion designs. I think they are the best part of the show.

[sportsandstuff777]

the new show is growing on me still like the OG better

[markatisu]

I really like the new lion designs. I think they are the best part of the show.

I agree, I can understand complaints about the animation and story but the Lion designs and the sleak design if Voltron is kick ass

[JonWes]

Thought I'd share some of the production art being posted on the Voltron.com message boards for people who don't go there.

The King Alfor design, which I think is actually very cool:



And some of EJ Su's concept art for the yellow lion:

Originally posted by Jeremy - Admin/Producer - Voltron Force:
I spotted EJ Su in the credits for Voltron in the character design area.

What did He do in the show?

-EJ is a master artist and one of the modern day fathers of the new look of Voltron. He initially came up with some lion designs that were VERY cool but in the end would be tough to animate with all that detail in them. Here is an exclusive peek below:



As you can see very cool stuff but very intricate to animate all of those gears and details. It was then that our great designers at Mattel like Brandon Sopinsky really came in and helped streamline and 'toon tweak the look a bit with EJ and together we came up with the look we have now.

We also experimented with the idea of giving the Lions visible cockpits to emphasize the idea that "you're in control" of these awesome robot lions which EJ did some sketches of as well:



And then of course EJ also helped us bring it all together and form Voltron. I believe he did a couple Robeasts designs as well including the one for episode 8 which is incredible!

I'll keep posting some more "making of" pics if you're interested.

[markatisu]

Yup that is what I figured, animation was streamlined to make the toyline work which is A-Ok with me!

[Firefly]

I saw very little of Voltron as a kid (I don't think it even aired in my town) and had just a few of the toys, so I didn't have much for biases going into watching the opening 3 parter. It was decent. I'm not sure if I'll watch it over the long haul, but I'll probably at least check out a few more episodes.

So according to wiki, the original series was released over 5 DVD sets? How is the dubbing of the voices for the original series? Does the voice acting match their mouths or was it basically done for Japanese audiences first so it doesn't match?

[gbagok]

So according to wiki, the original series was released over 5 DVD sets? How is the dubbing of the voices for the original series? Does the voice acting match their mouths or was it basically done for Japanese audiences first so it doesn't match?

The original was an anime dubbed into English. I honestly do not notice the mouth thing in animation. They usually try to match the lips when they make their English dubs and end up with weird dialog or deliveries most times. It's just lip flapping anyway. They dubbed voices after the animation in Japan a lot too. Akira was kind of a game changer in that the animation was done to match the voices (in Japanese).

[JonWes]

The funny thing is I was watching the Transformers (the original animated series, just got the complete box set) and half the time... in the early episodes at least... people will be talking and there mouths aren't moving! So I guess sometimes it doesn't matter if it's dubbed or not!

[markatisu]

So according to wiki, the original series was released over 5 DVD sets? How is the dubbing of the voices for the original series? Does the voice acting match their mouths or was it basically done for Japanese audiences first so it doesn't match?

The dubbing is fine, I mean if you have ever watched any series like Tranzor Z, Robotech, etc you know what to expect. They do a good enough job synching

The original series is over 8 sets, 5 for Lion (one for each color Lion) and 3 for Vehicle (1 for each team Land, Sea, Air)

Voltron is a 2 robot series, people split them up into Lion and Vehicle but the complete show is about 2 robots. You can watch either series by itself and not get confused or watch them together. Originally when it aired they aired one after another and there was no separation.

They are based on 2 series (Lion is based on GoLion and Vehicle is based on Dairugger XV) which are also available in subtitled format.

[Mr. Shokoti]

None of the 3 toons that make up Voltron were connected in Japan were they?

[markatisu]

None of the 3 toons that make up Voltron were connected in Japan were they?

Nope

Also to note is that the 2nd season of Voltron Lion is a US production, it was made for the US to continue it after the Japanese story ended

[JonWes]

Oh, that's interesting. I had no idea! I put the old series in my Netflix queue. I never saw it as a kid. I might give it a try.

[Captain Marvel]

None of the 3 toons that make up Voltron were connected in Japan were they?

Not story-wise. All the shows were created by Toei though, and are actually part of a collection of animated Super Robot shows that Toei was making in the late 70s to early 80s.

These shows began with a trio of series collectively called the Robot Romance Trilogy" (not sure exactly why though)

The first series is Super Electromagnetic Robot Combattler V (letter" V") which ran from April of 1976 to May of 1977.

Toei followed it up with Super Electromagnetic Robot Voltes V (Roman numeral 5) which ran from June 1977 to March 1978.

The trilogy was rounded out with Brave Leader Daimos and ran from April of 1978 to January 1979.

Toei continued making more combining Super Robot series after the first three thanks to genre's popularity and continued on with...

From March of 1979 to March of 1980 Toei ran Future Robo Daltanious -- I understand that the dub of this particular series was very popular in Italy in the 80s.

Toei produced Space Emperor God Sigma from March 1980 to March 1981.

And from March of 1981 to February of 1982 came Beast King GoLion -- this series was adapted by World Events Productions into Lion Voltron.

Armored Fleet Dairugger XV quickly followed from March, 1982 to March, 1983 -- this one became Vehicle Voltron.

Lightspeed Electroid Albegas which ran from March of 1983 to February of 1984 was the last of Toei's quasi-series of combining super robot shows.


Nowadays, the trio of shows cited that were to become WEP's 3 Voltron series are GoLion, Dairugger XV, and Albegas. Certainly there was an Albegas toy released as Voltron II by Matchbox.

But if you watch the extras on the Blue Lion set about the creation of the Voltron series, in WEP's original pitch to T.V. stations they offered a trio of Voltron shows. The pilot for Lion Voltron is on the Blue Lion set and I presume the Vehicle Voltron pilot is on one of the VV sets.

The original pitch video featured a third pilot which never made it to the extras among the LV or VV sets, but if I remember correctly you can see a second or two mixed in with the other clips on the Blue Lion collection extras. I believe it was a shot of a super robot sword, but this sword wasn't GoLion's or Dairugger XV's but rather Daltanious' sword.

I suppose it was sometime in 2007 that I did some internet searching to find out more about the undetailed third Voltron pilot and how Daltanious and Albegas figured into it. I turned up the following webpage from a Voltorn fan site that had been on the Internet for several years. It provides a decent chunk of information about Daltanious and Albegas and how they seem to fit into the overall creation of Voltron

http://www.duelingmodems.com/~shan/TRILOGY.HTM

Long story short, circa 1984 WEP may very well have aired a Voltron pilot based on Daltanious in a few test markets; the web page names San Francisco. For unknown reasons WEP dropped further development of Daltanious as a third Voltron series. Sometime later, it seems that WEP also did some development work adapting Albegas as a third Voltron series and stopped production on it as well.

The whole story might be shrouded in the mists of time, though it'd be great if the details could be sorted out and shared with Voltron fans one of these days.


Fun Fact time!

The super robots from the first three series all made it into Mattel's Shogun Warriors line in the late 70s. Toei was involved in producing many other super robot series over the same time frame as the 8 shows I name here and many of the super robots from those other shows also ended up in the SW toyline.

The 8 shows I named above all featured a large super robot formed by combining multiple smaller robots or vehicles, whereas the other series used a single large robot. I believe that these 8 shows were also all creations of Toei, in contrast to several other shows which were adaptations of various manga series.

[Mr. Shokoti]

Not story-wise. All the shows were created by Toei though, and are actually part of a collection of animated Super Robot shows that Toei was making in the late 70s to early 80s.

These shows began with a trio of series collectively called the Robot Romance Trilogy" (not sure exactly why though)

The first series is Super Electromagnetic Robot Combattler V (letter" V") which ran from April of 1976 to May of 1977.

Toei followed it up with Super Electromagnetic Robot Voltes V (Roman numeral 5) which ran from June 1977 to March 1978.

The trilogy was rounded out with Brave Leader Daimos and ran from April of 1978 to January 1979.

Toei continued making more combining Super Robot series after the first three thanks to genre's popularity and continued on with...

From March of 1979 to March of 1980 Toei ran Future Robo Daltanious -- I understand that the dub of this particular series was very popular in Italy in the 80s.

Toei produced Space Emperor God Sigma from March 1980 to March 1981.

And from March of 1981 to February of 1982 came Beast King GoLion -- this series was adapted by World Events Productions into Lion Voltron.

Armored Fleet Dairugger XV quickly followed from March, 1982 to March, 1983 -- this one became Vehicle Voltron.

Lightspeed Electroid Albegas which ran from March of 1983 to February of 1984 was the last of Toei's quasi-series of combining super robot shows.


Nowadays, the trio of shows cited that were to become WEP's 3 Voltron series are GoLion, Dairugger XV, and Albegas. Certainly there was an Albegas toy released as Voltron II by Matchbox.

But if you watch the extras on the Blue Lion set about the creation of the Voltron series, in WEP's original pitch to T.V. stations they offered a trio of Voltron shows. The pilot for Lion Voltron is on the Blue Lion set and I presume the Vehicle Voltron pilot is on one of the VV sets.

The original pitch video featured a third pilot which never made it to the extras among the LV or VV sets, but if I remember correctly you can see a second or two mixed in with the other clips on the Blue Lion collection extras. I believe it was a shot of a super robot sword, but this sword wasn't GoLion's or Dairugger XV's but rather Daltanious' sword.

I suppose it was sometime in 2007 that I did some internet searching to find out more about the undetailed third Voltron pilot and how Daltanious and Albegas figured into it. I turned up the following webpage from a Voltorn fan site that had been on the Internet for several years. It provides a decent chunk of information about Daltanious and Albegas and how they seem to fit into the overall creation of Voltron

http://www.duelingmodems.com/~shan/TRILOGY.HTM

Long story short, circa 1984 WEP may very well have aired a Voltron pilot based on Daltanious in a few test markets; the web page names San Francisco. For unknown reasons WEP dropped further development of Daltanious as a third Voltron series. Sometime later, it seems that WEP also did some development work adapting Albegas as a third Voltron series and stopped production on it as well.

The whole story might be shrouded in the mists of time, though it'd be great if the details could be sorted out and shared with Voltron fans one of these days.


Fun Fact time!

The super robots from the first three series all made it into Mattel's Shogun Warriors line in the late 70s. Toei was involved in producing many other super robot series over the same time frame as the 8 shows I name here and many of the super robots from those other shows also ended up in the SW toyline.

The 8 shows I named above all featured a large super robot formed by combining multiple smaller robots or vehicles, whereas the other series used a single large robot. I believe that these 8 shows were also all creations of Toei, in contrast to several other shows which were adaptations of various manga series.

It's too bad no one on this forum knows anything about Japanese cartoons.

In all seriousness, thanks for all the info. It was very interesting.

[markatisu]

Thought this was neat...what could have been

[EldestSon]

tried watching. hated it.

[JonWes]

tried watching. hated it.

Thanks for that thoughtful addition to the thread.

[EldestSon]

Thanks for that thoughtful addition to the thread.

you're welcome.

[Mr. Shokoti]

Thought this was neat...what could have been

Thanks Mark, that was cool! I've never seen the 3rd Voltron other than the Matchbox toys.

If you had told me a month ago that I was not only going to like this new Voltron cartoon but that it was going to have me really jonesing for more giant robot cartoons, I would have told you you were nuts.

Is the Voltron theme music the same in Japan or was that made for the American version?

[markatisu]

Thanks Mark, that was cool! I've never seen the 3rd Voltron other than the Matchbox toys.

If you had told me a month ago that I was not only going to like this new Voltron cartoon but that it was going to have me really jonesing for more giant robot cartoons, I would have told you you were nuts.

Is the Voltron theme music the same in Japan or was that made for the American version?

The Voltron theme music is produced for America by John Petersen

A new interview is up

They promise the 5th episode is going to be a "game-changer" and that the story is much deeper than the old standby of killing a new robeast every week

The preview they show basically has Lotor destroying Voltron, so wonder if we will see a enhanced Voltron after this episode

[Captain Marvel]

If you had told me a month ago that I was not only going to like this new Voltron cartoon but that it was going to have me really jonesing for more giant robot cartoons, I would have told you you were nuts.

I'm glad to see Voltron return -- this new series seems to be shaping up well. In my humble opinion, it's been far too long since super robot shows ran regularly on American television.

Sadly, there's has already been a casualty -- Genndy Tartakovsky (you know, the guy responsible for Dexter's Laboratory and Samurai Jack) brought a brand new super robot series to Cartoon Network last year -- Sym-Bionic Titan.

It was a great show -- a wonderful homage to series like Voltron, Tranzor Z (Mazinger Z), and the other mecha series that graced American airwaves in the 80s. Sadly, Cartoon Network cancelled the show this year even though it did well in the ratings -- and that was with unannounced schedule changes and long breaks in between new episodes (very much like what Cartoon Network did with MYP MOTU). Too bad we can't have super robot series on both major cartoon networks...

[gbagok]

It was a great show -- a wonderful homage to series like Voltron, Tranzor Z (Mazinger Z), and the other mecha series that graced American airwaves in the 80s. Sadly, Cartoon Network cancelled the show this year even though it did well in the ratings -- and that was with unannounced schedule changes and long breaks in between new episodes (very much like what Cartoon Network did with MYP MOTU). Too bad we can't have super robot series on both major cartoon networks...

I still don't know what happened there, but if ratings were not behind the cancellation, money certainly was. I read somewhere that it was because they couldn't get a toy deal, but I don't get that because there are shows on CN that don't have toys and Titan was a show that would have sold mega toys anyhow!

[JonWes]

I read it was because of them not securing a toy deal too. I can see that. Even if CN shows don't have action figures, it seems like they want them to be merchandisable. So if they couldn't get that to happen at all then maybe that did spell the end of it. I never saw the show but it looks very cool. Did the season end on a cliffhanger?

As for Voltron, here's a clip from "Joyride To Doom" - which they are saying will change the way we think of Voltron forever. The clip is pretty crazy...

[gbagok]

I read it was because of them not securing a toy deal too. I can see that. Even if CN shows don't have action figures, it seems like they want them to be merchandisable. So if they couldn't get that to happen at all then maybe that did spell the end of it. I never saw the show but it looks very cool. Did the season end on a cliffhanger?

Thank God no, but they never resolved their big battle with the main villain, who was still free to send more monsters. Also we never learned the who the mysterious leader of G3 was (most likely Lance's father--oh yeah, forgot to say the guy in the trio of Titan's pilots was named Lance).

I just cannot see how they could not merchandise it. There was plenty they could have made from it. If Venture brothers can get toys, Titan could have. It just doesn't sound like we got the whole story there.

[JonWes]

Yeah, here's where the original quote came from about it being lack-of-toy-related:

And Sym-Bionic Titan, Genndy Tartakovsky's adventure show that premiered last Fall, is wrapping up its last episodes. As a Cartoon Networker told me:

"Genddy's moved on to Sony Pictures Animation. Titan got competitive ratings with other action shows, but what shut it down was it didn't have enough toys connected to it. If you don't have the, the studios don't want to renew for another season."

I wonder if Tartakovsky's move happened because of the cancellation or it was the other way around? I guess it's all conjecture at this point. One thing that might have worked against toys from SBT (as cool as the look is) is that that a lot of Cartoon Network toy lines have failed miserably recently. Just for Mattel alone both Secret Saturdays and Generator Rex have tanked. I half wonder if that's why they're taking their time with the Young Justice and Voltron toys, just to make sure the cartoon captures the public's imagination before they fully invest in a toy line.