Special Features

Many longtime Voltron fans know that the original concept for 1980s animated television series VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE was to have been a trilogy, produced by adapting, and loosely connecting, three unrelated, anime programs that had been created by Toei Animation. The programs were to have been: ARMORED FLEET DAIRUGGER XV (1982-1983) LIGHTSPEED ELECTROID […]

VOLTRON FORCE (2011-2012) was a fun show. Unfortunately, the show had little tie-in merchandise. One of the show’s licensed merchandisers was costume-making company Rubie’s. The company produced a child-size costume of the Voltron robot, and a separately sold Blazing Sword costume accessory. For several years I have had the costume and sword accessory. Recently I […]

I just created this guide to the pilots and vehicles of Vehicle Team Voltron from VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE. Enjoy! (Click the image to view it at full size.) This image can be thought of as a “2.0” version of an image that I made and posted to another website in 2012.

SHANNON MUIR: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS SINCE THE DENUBIAN GALAXY STARMAP WAS FIRST RELEASED ONLINE Shannon Muir (also known by her married name Shannon Muir Broden) has been a Voltron fan since the premiere of Voltron: Defender of the Universe in 1984. She strongly believes that her experiences as a fan of the show, and ultimately finding […]

At VoltCon 2019, I had the privilege of photographing physical models of the Lions from Voltron Force, the enjoyable but short-lived television program that premiered on NickToons in 2011-2012. The models were the property of World Events Productions (WEP), the company that owns the Voltron intellectual property. The Voltron Force Lion models were seemingly 3D-printed. […]

This article is a conjectural early history of Vehicle Team Voltron, as well as a conjectural “technical primer” to the power systems of Vehicle Team Voltron and its constituent Rugger vehicles, based on sometimes conflicting evidence from the Voltron: Defender of the Universe television program. Many years before Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk, and Sven reached […]

Although Vehicle Team Voltron is far less well remembered than Lion Force Voltron, one fact about the vehicle-based ‘bot that people seem to remember most is that it can operate for only five minutes. What do actual episodes of Voltron: Defender of the Universe say — and show — about Voltron’s time limit, if there […]

Commander Kala was created specifically for VOLTRON FORCE. Over the course of the program’s first and only season, she evolved from mysterious and evil to really, really creepy. Ignoring the montage of images at the end of the teaser in “New School Defenders” (Episode 1), Kala is first “properly” seen and mentioned later in the […]

The Voltron Store has opened pre-orders for an exclusive “Go Together” T-shirt. Proceeds from sales of the shirt will benefit Heart to Heart International, a 501(c)3 organization founded in 1992. Here is Heart to Heart International’s mission statement, from the group’s website: Heart to Heart International strengthens communities through improving health access, providing humanitarian development […]

One of many elements that distinguish Voltron Force from other iterations of our favorite Defender of the Universe is the Nexus. It’s kind of cool, but it’a also kind of confusing. What Is the Nexus? We first see the Nexus at the end of the feature-length premiere, “The New Defenders Trilogy.” In other markets, this feature […]

That moment when…

In the Voltron: Legendary Defender seventh-season episode “The Feud,” Keith, Lance, Pidge, Allura, and Hunk become unwilling contestants in a game show called Garfle Warfle Snick, hosted by a charismatic captor of an alien called Bob. The Paladins win the game and are returned to their Lions to continue their journey to Earth. In the […]

As I described in “It’s as “Easy” as I, II, III: Being a Voltron Fan in the 1980s,” keeping up with Voltron: Defender of the Universe was a bit difficult. I wish I could say it has gotten easier over the years, but it hasn’t. Even numbering the program’s seasons and episodes has been a […]

On October 19-20, 2019, I had the privilege of being a guest at VoltCon, the first-ever Voltron-focused convention. It was a lot of fun, and one reason why was an amazing 1980s Lion Force Voltron cosplay by Eric Stocker. The costume is a great-looking rendition of Lion Force Voltron from Voltron: Defender of the Universe, […]

Playmates Toys’ “Voltron 84″ Classic Legendary Lions, which were originally released at mass retail in late 2017, are being re-released as a GameStop exclusive. The five lions combine into a 16” Voltron. Black Lion features electronic lights and sounds. Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow Lion each include a variety of accessories. Here’s how to pre-order […]

I knew that Voltron: Legendary Defender’s Robeast Prorok looked familiar…

This site has already examined, in excruciating detail… In Voltron: Legendary Defender, how the Paladins get from the bridge of the Castle of Lions to the Lions’ hangars In Voltron: Defender of the Universe, how the Voltron Force gets from the control room of the Castle of Lions to the Lions’ dens Now it’s time […]

One of the surprisingly few links between the Lion Force and Vehicle Team episodes of Voltron: Defender of the Universe is the familial link between Pidge, a member of the Voltron Lion Force and the pilot of Green Lion, and Chip, a member of the Voltron Vehicle Team’s Air Team, and the pilot of Rugger […]

By the end of “Lions’ Pride Part 2,” the final episode of Voltron Legendary Defender’s seventh season, Voltron and the Galaxy Garrison have defeated Galra commander Sendak and his occupation of Earth, and they have destroyed an unusually powerful Robeast of mysterious origin. The planet has been devastated, but its people remain strong, and they […]

In the Voltron Legendary Defender fourth-season episode “Begin the Blitz,” when Matt Holt joins Captain Olia in a rebel fighter that attacks a Zaiforge Cannon of the Galra Empire, Matt and Olia aren’t the only beings in the cockpit. It’s unclear who or what this being is. Is it a humanoid in armor, perhaps like […]

During a recent re-watch of the Voltron: Defender of the Universe episode “Letters from Home,” which was adapted from the Armored Fleet Dairugger XV episode “Get Yourself Together, Mutsu,” I noticed a funny Easter egg. In this single shot, Ginger’s Voltron vehicle or “Rugger” bears the name “USS Enterprise,” presumably from Star Trek! Some old-school […]

The prize booth in the Voltron Legendary Defender episode “Clear Day” features some fun Robotech Easter eggs! In the middle of the image is a toy mecha that is inspired by a Destroid from Robotech and Super Dimension Fortress Macross. Just above and to the right of the Destroid toy is a plush toy that […]

VoltCon! — a fan-run, Voltron-themed convention, is coming to Indianapolis, Indiana, on October 19-20, 2019. More information will be revealed during the next Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast, but registration has already started. Check out the VoltCon website (voltcon.org) for the latest information and to register. Among the guests announced so far are The […]

The Voltron Legendary Defender episode “Launch Date” introduces Allura and the viewer to Lance’s family. Here they are! Lance – Alias “Lancey Lance,” alias “Loverboy Lance” — Paladin of Blue Lion and later Red Lion. Last name unrevealed. Mom – Mother of Lance, Veronica, Luis, and Marco. First name unrevealed. Pop-Pop – Grandfather of Lance, […]

In Voltron Legendary Defender, where on Earth is the Galaxy Garrison? The seventh-season episode “Trial By Fire” shows us the location of the base! It happens during this scene, starting at about 3 minutes, 51 seconds into the episode: VERONICA: I’m detecting movement from the Zaiforge cannons. IVERSON: Where are they headed? VERONICA: Based on our projections…The cannons […]

The Voltron Legendary Defender seventh-season episodes “The Last Stand Part 1” and “The Last Stand Part 2” tell an entertaining tale of what happens on Earth between the departure of Shiro and his comrades, and their return as Paladins of Voltron, to defend their home from a Galra occupation. These episodes also suggest an alarming […]

This site already examined, in Voltron: Legendary Defender, how the Paladins of Voltron travel from the bridge of the Castle of Lions to the Lion hangars. Now it’s time to see how, in Voltron: Defender of the Universe, the Voltron Force travels from the control room of the Castle of Lions to the Lions’ dens […]

In the seventh-season Voltron Legendary Defender episode “The Road Home,” Coran and Romelle sing the Altean equivalent of the English “alphabet song” — the “ABCs.” The lryics are: ♪ Exus, plexis, ceedus, flee, jaydus, nacto, pledum, ree ♪ ♪ Joodum, ruu, and leeum too That puts us just halfway through ♪ ♪ There’s mai-ox, kay, […]

Too soon? Probably.

In the Voltron: Defender of the Universe episode “The Lion Has New Claws” — the episode immediately following the one in which Blue Lion pilot Sven is seriously injured — Princess Allura secretly takes Blue Lion for a ride in the middle of the night. Despite the princess’ attempt to be stealthy, an alarm sounds […]

Today Netflix released the seven-episode sixth season of Voltron Legendary Defender! To celebrate, here are some of the fake spoilers that I tweeted on Twitter in the days and weeks leading up to the release. For all of these tweets, plus many more by many fellow Voltron fans, click here. #FakeVLDS6Spoiler Varkon discovered to be […]

As a fan of “metafiction” books such as Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology, the Star Trek Chronology, and Timeline of the Planet of the Apes, I’m fascinated by how some enthusiasts of a television or movie-based fictional universe create chronologies from clues in the TV episodes or films. In two previous articles on this website (https://lionsandpilotsandbots.com/2017/12/27/5-11-14-and-monday-chronologizing-voltron-legendary-defender/, […]

The Shake Ups, a band that specializes in pop culture-themed “power pop” music, is releasing a Voltron-inspired album on June 1, 2018. Entitled The Shake Ups – Legendary Defenders, the album features 15 tracks that cover Voltron Legendary Defender and Voltron: Defender of the Universe. The tracks cover a variety of topics in Voltron lore, […]

In the first-season Voltron Legendary Defender episode “Taking Flight,” the Castle of Lions tears itself from the surface of the planet Arus, and assumes what became its ongoing new form: a spacecraft. Its crew informally called it the “Castle-ship.” Voltron Legendary Defender wasn’t the Voltron-related program with a Castle-turned-spaceship. In Beast King Golion, one of […]

As a longtime Voltron fan, and as co-host of Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast, I am sometimes asked which episode of Voltron: Defender of the Universe is my favorite. My response has probably varied over the years, but the episode that I find myself watching most frequently is “Space Explorers Captured,” the first episode […]

Updated October 25, 2018, to include information from Volume 3 of the comics. Because Voltron Legendary Defender is serialized, it’s interesting to try to figure out when different works of tie-in fiction take place. As of this writing, there have been three works of tie-in fiction that aren’t short story adaptations of episodes of the […]

In the 1980s, and still today, toy makers try to entice retailers to purchase current and possible future toy offerings at an annual trade show called New York Toy Fair. In the pre-Internet era of the 1980s, a toy maker would give printed catalogs to retailers, so that they would be aware of the toys […]

Captain Olia is one of the more intriguing guest characters in the fourth season of Voltron Legendary Defender. She appears in only three episodes, and speaks in only two, but her canine-like visual design and her distinctive, sweet-but-tough voice, provided by Jessica McKenna, make her easy to like and easy to remember. Olia first appears […]

In “Yearning for a Year: Attempting a Chronology of Voltron Legendary Defender” (Link), I attempted in vain to figure out a year in which the Voltron Legendary Defender story takes place. In the weeks that followed, while I re-watched the earliest episodes of the program, I discovered two clues that, when used together, seem to […]

On December 13, 2017, shortly after Marc Morrell and I recorded the (not yet released) 4th-anniversary episode of Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast (Link), I had the idea of celebrating the holidays Voltron-style, by creating a holiday carol video. One week later, Marc and I have just released the video on the Let’s Voltron […]

Updated December 6, 2017, with information from a recent New York Times article about shipping. Since Voltron: Defender of the Universe premiered in 1984, there has been Voltron fan art and fan fiction. Perhaps surprisingly to a casual Voltron fan, much of Voltron fan art and fan fiction concerns romantic relationships. Fans of Voltron: Defender […]

Every Voltron television program has been surprisingly vague about the years during which its story takes place. No aired episode of Voltron: Defender of the Universe provided even a specific century — although in the unaired original pilot episode and in some marketing materials, it’s stated that “it’s the 25th century.” Neither Voltron: The Third […]

Uggamuggatron: Defender of the Neighborhood!

I’ll just leave this right here.

In response to a tweet asking how to watch Voltron: Defender of the Universe programs, here is a current guide to how to get more Voltron TV in your life. Voltron: Defender of the Universe Select episodes can be watched on the official Voltron YouTube channel (Link: https://www.youtube.com/user/WEP/). All episodes are viewable on Amazon Video […]

Each Voltron television program tells a different tale about the origin of Voltron and Princess Allura’s royal lineage. In Voltron: The Third Dimension, Allura and her father, King Alfor, are descendants of a fascinating and unique character: Queen Ariella. Ariella had a special connection with the Voltron Lions. In the episode “The Troika Moons,” the […]

Just posted to the Let’s Voltron podcast’s YouTube channel (link) is a video review of four new Voltron Legendary Defender basic action figures: Shiro, Keith, Lance, and Cannon Fire Voltron! I had fun making this video, and I hope you enjoy watching it! And happy hunting for these new action figures! Watch the video here: […]

When I first watched Voltron: Defender of the Universe in weekday syndication between 1984 and 1986, I had no idea that the show had been adapted from the anime programs Beast King Golion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. I first learned this in the late 1980s, in an issue of Starlog magazine, in an article […]

While rewatching “The Legend Begins,” the final episode of the third season of Voltron Legendary Defender, I created this image so that Voltron fans such as myself could better remember the original five Paladins of Voltron. Enjoy!

It takes many skilled and talented people to create a television series like Voltron Force. In that series, Sesinio Ampongan, Jr., is credited as a CGI modeling, rendering, and compositing artist. Here is an exclusive interview with Sesinio. How did you become involved in 3D art and art in general? I took up Bachelor of […]

I’m a junkie for what I call the “meta-fiction reference” book — that is, a fictional universe reference book that treats that universe as if it were real. As a long-time Star Trek fan, I’ve considered the gold standards for such books to be Bjo Trimble’s classic Star Trek Concordance and Michael and Denise Okuda’s […]

Here is a simple reference for the names of Lotor’s four generals from Voltron Legendary Defender. The generals were introduced during the program’s third season. The spellings of the names are based on the English subtitles of the episodes. Pronunciations are based on how their names are pronounced in the episodes. (Click the image to […]

In a social media-filled Internet, an argument could be made that fan websites — or personal websites of any kind — are obsolete. Since I created Lions and Pilots and Bots… Dot Com in January 2017, I’m of the mind that fan websites still have a place in cyberspace. This article is a Fan Website […]

Although Voltron Force lasted for just one 26-episode season, in 2011-2012, and the show didn’t have much in the way of tie-in merchandise, some of the tie-in merchandise that was made was pretty cool. Among these items were six Voltron Force childrens’ readers. Published by Vizkids between 2012 and 2013, each of the six readers […]

In the mid-1980s, Voltron: Defender of the Universe was a big thing. The TV series was popular, and so were the toys. The first Voltron toys to hit retail shelves were sold by Matchbox Toys. It seemed that nothing could stop Voltron — either the robot in the television episodes, or the toys on toy […]

Today marked the release of the 100th episode of Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast! Four special guests joined us in celebrating, an announcement was made about a certain Blue Lion pilot’s date of birth, many listeners shared their thoughts about the podcast, and we gave away some great prizes, thanks to World Events Productions […]

On June 10, 2016, one year ago today, Netflix dropped the eleven-episode first season of Voltron: Legendary Defender, and Voltron was back. The program instantly became a hit with many longtime Voltron fans, as well as a new generation of fans that had not previously heard of Voltron. The title of the feature-length premiere episode, […]

In every Voltron television program to date — Voltron: Defender of the Universe, Voltron: The Third Dimension, Voltron Force, and Voltron: Legendary Defender — the Castle of Lions has been the home and base of operations of the Voltron Lions’ pilots and their closest allies. In a crisis, each Lion’s pilot often needs to make […]

As described on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_layout), in the days before page layout software such as Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress, newspaper page layouts were created… by hand. In the 1980s, a page layout was created by physically pasting images and blocks of text onto a rigid sheet of paper. This “camera-ready” page was then shot on film, […]

(This article is based on material that I wrote for the “Voltron 101” episode of Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast.) Introduction This article is a primer for all things Voltron. If you’re a new fan who was introduced to Voltron through the all-new series, Voltron: Legendary Defender, and you’re curious about what came before, […]

On March 24, 2017, Netflix released the first season of Voltron 84 — a re-packaging of twelve episodes of Voltron: Defender of the Universe, the television series that introduced Voltron to the universe in 1984. Episodes of Defender of the Universe have been re-packaged before — in the mid-1990s, as The New Adventures of Voltron […]

In the second episode of Voltron: Legendary Defender, “Some Assembly Required,” the paladins of Voltron struggle to figure out how to combine the Lions and form Voltron. At one point, Keith suggests, “I mean, let’s try literally building Voltron, like, stacking on top of each other.” That episode was released on Netflix in June 2016. […]

In the pre-Internet era, fan clubs were fun ways for kids to feel more connected to their favorite TV programs, radio programs, and even toy lines. Little Orphan Annie, a children’s radio program that aired between 1931 and 1942, had a fan club known as the Little Orphan Annie Secret Society. Star Wars, which premiered […]

“Encyclotron” articles are nuggets of information about Voltron lore. This is the first of those articles. If you’re a fan of Voltron: Defender of the Universe, then you almost certainly remember Sven, the original pilot of Blue Lion. If you’re a fan of Voltron: Legendary Defender, which you can now watch on Netflix streaming in […]

In 1984 Voltron: Defender of the Universe became a favorite TV program of countless children of that time. These days, between the Internet, Google, online discussion forums, and social networking, it’s often easy to forget that it was a bit challenging to be a Voltron fan in the mid-1980s’ days of long ago. But it’s […]

As I type this blog entry, the presumably 13-episode second season of Voltron: Legendary Defender has dropped on Netflix. I’ll binge-watch this season over the weekend!

Welcome to Lions and Pilots and Bots… Dot Com! This website will be all about Voltron. The site is bare-bones now, but soon it will contain news, a blog, information about each Voltron program, and much, much more. Thanks for stopping by. Come back soon!