VOLTRON!!!!

As all of you know, I am a huge Pop Culture Geek specializing in Comics; Cartoons; Sci-Fi (mainly Doctor Who); Pro Wrestling and who knows what else. 1984, I discovered a series that I liked but loved the toys!

Of course, I can only speak of ‘Voltron Defender of the Universe’. The animated series was made up of two Japan anime shows, meant to be three, involving three different Voltrons.

One was ‘Defender of the Near Universe’. Fifteen vehicles that formed one big robot. Second, ‘Defender of the Middle Universe’. Three Gladiator robots that stacked together to become one robot. This one was never adapted and the toys were okay. Third, ‘Defender of the Far Universe’. This was the most popular as it was five lion robots that formed into one.

Each Voltron fought to defend the Planetary Alliance against the evil of the Drulls. Yeah, that was there name. Purple aliens who hated anyone different from them. Looked like eggplant.

Each team were made of space explorers; the first were a a fleet searching for new colony planets. The other two were meant to be planet defenders, Voltron One and Two looked similar but were from different shows. There was a reoccurring idea of different backgrounds and cultures. Some were aliens as others were merely from different nations of Earth. Various reason why all these characters came together mainly out of cause and other times out of need of the moment. Guided by a sense of right.

Thank you editing and dubbing of similar but different things slapping a name on it to make it one Universe. Anyway, Five Lions were the best idea in my opinion due to the toys. Why? Easy, two Lions for the legs; two Lions for arms and one as the body/head. Green and Red can interchange left or right as Yellow and Blue, but are assigned a place in the team. Feet for transportation/guidance; arms for fighting and rescuing and head/body is the heart and mind to choose to act. Also, these toys were originally made by matchbox, metal, and extremely pose able.

Together, Voltron looked humanoid with a blue humanoid face and a set of wings on the back. The head had what looked be kind of horns as the hands are lion heads as the feet are. The horns made the lion head, that opened to be the face, resemble bull of sorts.

The Blue and Yellow Lions can only be feet as Green and Red can be only arms. The Blue and Yellow are built thicker and sturdier with unique designs and weapons. Green and Red are less bulky appearing for agile while also being individual in appearance. Not a uniform look though looked right together if that makes sense. The Black Lion is the biggest as it forms the head and body. A big old tank. Black leads because body/heart and mind.

Five pilots operate each one that can work separately. Elemental powers are present in each. Black is lightning; Green is Earth; Yellow is Wind; Blue is Water and Red is Fire. As Voltron, it possesses many weapons but can not act separately without people operating each of the Lions. Even united, all five were needed to function as a whole. Are you seeing the symbolism?

Though mystic power is found in the series, mainly faith is the power, the humanity is needed to carry the technology. One alone cannot do it without the other. The science and the humanity must be joined equally. Faith, God, unites the organic and the machine still separate but one.

That is what I always like about the toys. You got a sense of each one was fun alone, but each carried a part of bigger story. Potential or soul. Each pilot carried an aspect of this soul. Keith (Black Lion) was the conscious; Sven/Princess Alura (Blue Lion), she replaced Sven later, were the faith; Pidge (Green Lion) was the intelligence; Hunk (Yellow Lion) was the kindness as Lance (Red Lion) was the will. Ironically, Keith wore red; Lance wore Blue; Sven wore black and Alura wore pink. Did not match the lions they flew at all. Okay.

As Voltron, besides being gigantic, has a chest plate which to me said more at the time then suspected. The chest plate is a cross.

When I say that I mean the Christian symbol. Jesus Christ. In the modern day the toys have replaced this with a ‘V’ on the chest but not in 1984. I like this because growing up in Church it made my idea of faith more real. More visual.

That God united these five, who represented humanity; nature and animal wrapped up in tech into one unit. . We saw that together miracles happened. The unimaginable occurred allowing Voltron to win. A trust and faith grew from the Robot.

Characters openly prayed in the original series and was shown in the American version. Evil used magic while good used a system of belief in what was given to them. Evil corrupted what exists while good is given clear vision of the path ahead.

I mean, come on. How else do you explain why the big monster of the week would just stand there patiently until all five formed Voltron and then destroyed the ugly Robeast (Robot Beast Monster)? Granted the monsters were pretty dumb but attack the Lions while in mid transformation. Take out the legs or something. You will lose anyway but make Voltron earn the win.

I was very fast at putting all the robots together including humming the theme. That was not enough. You also had to say the transformation dialogue.'Ready to form Voltron! Activate interlocks! Dyna-therms connected. Infra-cells up; mega-thrusters are go! VOLTRON!!! Form Legs and feet; arms and body. And I will form the head. VOLTRON' Yes the transformations were for the most part cut and paste in every episode but who cared.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The original Anime of Lion Voltron ('Beast King Go Lion') was very dark. A lot of death; violence and disturbing images of evil. There were a lot of edits and narrating to fix these moments turning a bleak concept into an optimistic one. You care about these characters. The concept holds better now then the final product, but still is fun.

The show’s characters came to rely on Voltron but I wonder. Was that symbol on his chest what really brought everyone together? Could this be seen as not Voltron as a savior but a tool of a Messiah that could even talk to us through a cartoon? Kindness; mercy; love; forgiveness was all there in the show and perhaps in the battles that we all had with the toys. Or maybe I am seeing more in it then there was. Either way, it’s all good.