^ I did a search for the Mighty Orbots toy and that came up.
What’s up with the fascination about Voltron?
- Thread starter Skipper
- Start date
Yeah, you and the GodMars license-holders, which is what killed Orbots. The producers of the show got sued, and instead of settling or fighting they just shut the show down. That also killed a bunch of potential merchandising, which is why it's impossible to get the series on DVD. (Though most of the episodes can be found on youtube in varying degrees of quality.)
There was a toy designed and promoted but not put into production, again because of the lawsuit:
As for the size change...
Hey, I was a Transformers fan. That show had a two-story robot that transformed into a Walkman. Stuff like that didn't bother me.
Well, you can always buy the Soul of Chogokin GodMarsThere was a toy designed and promoted but not put into production, again because of the lawsuit:
Spot the difference!
Just one problem: after I found out about the lawsuit I hunted down and watched a couple of God Mars episodes...and realized I hate it as much as I hate Voltron. [heavy sigh...]Well, you can always buy the Soul of Chogokin GodMars
Spot the difference!
So what was Power Rangers based on. If it wasn't Voltron, was it one of the other giant robots?
Does anyone remember the Shogun Warriors? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogun_Warriors_(toys)
Does anyone remember the Shogun Warriors? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogun_Warriors_(toys)
Power Rangers is based on the long-running Super Sentai franchise, which began in 1975 and is from Toei, the same studio that made GoLion in 1981-2. But while the Sentai shows predated GoLion, they didn't begin to use combining robots until the same year that GoLion came out, and didn't begin using five-component combining robots until Hikari Sentai Maskman in 1987. (Before then, they did have giant robots and mecha, but they didn't combine from other robots. The first Toei show with a giant robot was actually their Spider-Man show in 1978. Yes, they gave Spider-Man a giant robot. It was named Leopardon and was one of the toys released in the Shogun Warriors line you mentioned.)
So yes, in a sense, what we know as Power Rangers was influenced by what we know as Voltron.
I can't speak for anyone else, but Voltron was a vital and fondly remembered piece of my childhood. I was super young when it hit (3 or 4). I got caught up in all the giant robot crazes of the period. Transformers, GoBots, but especially Voltron. Well, Lion Voltron. As a kid I thought the vehicle version was super lame, and would turn off the reruns unless they were Lion Voltron. The theme song, the combining commands, the incredibly weird sound of Pidge's voice, these are all things I can remember vividly even some 30 years later.
At the time, the show was everywhere. Every kid I knew watched, everyone wanted the toys. It was huge. My friends and I used to play Voltron when we were outside (I was always Pidge, because of my glasses), or hurl our toys around inside. Hell, I can still remember, in crazy detail, the day I got the Blue Lion toy from my dad, which was the last piece I needed to create the full Voltron robot.
I was so young, I couldn't tell you why I gravitated to that franchise in particular. Though it was the only combining robot anime that I ever saw here in the US as a kid, so maybe that helped?
At the time, the show was everywhere. Every kid I knew watched, everyone wanted the toys. It was huge. My friends and I used to play Voltron when we were outside (I was always Pidge, because of my glasses), or hurl our toys around inside. Hell, I can still remember, in crazy detail, the day I got the Blue Lion toy from my dad, which was the last piece I needed to create the full Voltron robot.
I was so young, I couldn't tell you why I gravitated to that franchise in particular. Though it was the only combining robot anime that I ever saw here in the US as a kid, so maybe that helped?
Again so did Mighty Orbots.
So what confuses me about Voltron's popularity is that here was a more exciting cartoon with better animation and yet Voltron's what gets remembered and remade and people look at you funny if you mention the Orbots.
Wow. I mean, nothing about that video appealed to me, at all. Yes, it had better animation, but the visuals were not as good. I'll take the poorer Voltron animation, because I think it's beautiful to behold. If I faced Voltron, I'd quake in my boots. If I faced Orbot, I'd laugh.
Then there's the music, which reminds me a lot of Transformers: The Movie.
As for more exciting, I'll take your word for it. Voltron was plenty exciting for me. I loved the concept and the characters. Plus it had Peter Cullen narrate its opening. "From days of long ago..." It always sends a shiver up my spine.
But, that's all I have and you may not want to hear it, but I think even putting aside the lawsuit, all of these things ultimately made Voltron more memorable (especially because of the toys). You may disagree, but it seems time bears me out on this. Poor animation and "less excitement," maybe, but more memorable, definitely.
Never even heard of Voltron until a show with its name popped up on Netflix earlier this year.
I would have brazenly passed it by if I didn't half read somewhere that this show was a revamp of an old cartoon by writers from the Last Airbender 'toon (Specifically the brilliant Tim Hedrick)
Now it sits on my watch list (with 100 other things) and once I have finished up with Steven Universe (I like a short animated viewing just before bed to settle me in) I think I'll give it a gander.
Hopefully there will be no need for knowledge of any previous incarnations to understand it, cos if there is then out the airlock it goes.
Hugo - ruthless with his TV these days
I would have brazenly passed it by if I didn't half read somewhere that this show was a revamp of an old cartoon by writers from the Last Airbender 'toon (Specifically the brilliant Tim Hedrick)
Now it sits on my watch list (with 100 other things) and once I have finished up with Steven Universe (I like a short animated viewing just before bed to settle me in) I think I'll give it a gander.
Hopefully there will be no need for knowledge of any previous incarnations to understand it, cos if there is then out the airlock it goes.
Hugo - ruthless with his TV these days
The new series is a remake. Having some knowledge of the original might be good for comparison but there is no need to watch it or any of the previous remakes to enjoy this one. Personally, I'm curious about how they'll handle certain story developments from the original.
Definitely not. It's a complete continuity reboot and reinvention, completely accessible to new viewers. I have very little memory of the original show, and I was able to follow Legendary Defender with no problem. It largely reinvents the characters and the universe and the backstory, drawing on elements from both Voltron and GoLion and adding new elements of its own. There are a few in-jokes that new viewers would probably miss, but nothing intrusive.
You can laugh, but a cursory watch of Orbots will demonstrate that the girl Orbots by themselves are more powerful than Voltron. The Orbots together would beat Voltron's ass into the dirt.
It was the eighties and it was transforming robots.
I'll see your Peter Cullen and raise you Gary Owens doing continuing narration.
And I'll match your shivering spine with the nausea I felt every time I had to listen to "Form feet and legs! Form arms and Body! And I'll form...THE HEAD!" Do you know how many times you have to hear that before you want to shoot Keith through the screen? Take a guess. It's not a large number.
I'm not going to argue with you about that. Voltron got a chance to reach more eyes longer and hit toy shelves. I only contend that if Orbots had the same chances it would have given Voltron a run for popularity, even if Voltron always remained the more memorable.
Voltron was a very passing familiarity for me. I never watched the show, and really only knew about it through pop culture osmosis. 5 lion mechs, one piloted by a princess, combined to form Voltron.
But, as a lover of giant robots (Battletech/Mechwarrior foreva!!!) I've always liked them in concept. Didn't know there was a Netflix remake, hmm....
But, as a lover of giant robots (Battletech/Mechwarrior foreva!!!) I've always liked them in concept. Didn't know there was a Netflix remake, hmm....
Power doesn't factor into it. Voltron's got the looks!
It was the eighties and it was transforming robots.
Good point.
Keep your Gary Owens. I'll take Peter Cullen's voice any day!
And that's entirely possible. Sadly, we'll never know one way or the other. I still say the visual of Voltron is a large reason why it's so popular and on that point, the Orbots cannot contend.
I tend to agree that hearing the same "And I'll form the head!" lines every single time got pretty tiresome. Did he really have to remind the rest of the team what their jobs were every single time?
Activate interlock, Dynotherms connected! Infracells are up! Mega thrusters are go!
Those stock transformation sequences like Voltron, He-Man and Sailor Moon just get in my head after a while and eventually look forward to them but I see how people could get annoyed.
Never knew so many people detested Voltron, y'all no fun.
Those stock transformation sequences like Voltron, He-Man and Sailor Moon just get in my head after a while and eventually look forward to them but I see how people could get annoyed.
Never knew so many people detested Voltron, y'all no fun.
Yes. It's part of the shows charm. Hell, even rewatching the series a few years ago, and it largely hasn't held up all that well to the ravages of time, I still find myself a) humming along with the theme tune, and b) silently reciting Keith's litany every time they combined to form Voltron. Rather than being in any way sick of it, or turned off by it, it brings back all the memories of my youth, playing with my friends and goofing off with our toys.
Maybe you just had to be a young enough kid at the time. growing up with the show, to not be bothered by it. But I could recite the entire combining narration, off the top of my head, after 30+ years. In the Netflix remake, when they used it the one time for the Castle of Lions launch sequence, I felt giddy as a school kid.
You know, when I was a child/early teen, I watched a lot of giant robot anime. A lot. (probably more than would be healthy 
)
This page keeps track of all the series broadcast in Italy.
Probably I watched 90% of them. Someone was incredible good. A lot were average. And of course someone was rubbish. But they all had one thing in common. When a giant monster attacks a city, a lot of people die. And often in a horrible way.
So, after years of violence and carnage
I saw an americanized anime where no one gets hurt, I thought "WTF?!? These people believe that war is just a game???".
So, in my opinion, in their efforts to "save the children", they got the opposite effect: they made them believe that violence has no consequences.
) This page keeps track of all the series broadcast in Italy.
Probably I watched 90% of them. Someone was incredible good. A lot were average. And of course someone was rubbish. But they all had one thing in common. When a giant monster attacks a city, a lot of people die. And often in a horrible way.
So, after years of violence and carnage
I saw an americanized anime where no one gets hurt, I thought "WTF?!? These people believe that war is just a game???".So, in my opinion, in their efforts to "save the children", they got the opposite effect: they made them believe that violence has no consequences.
I don't know about the better animation. In the video there is the classical transformation sequence and in every anime this is something made with higher quality than the rest (because it is a stock sequence that you have to re-use every time).
