May 2018 – Lions and Pilots and Bots… Dot Com!

The Shake Ups – Legendary Defenders: Voltron-Inspired Album Releasing June 1

Posted on May 31, 2018 by Greg Tyler

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, from Shiro, Haggar, and even the Space Mice from Voltron Legendary Defender to the Voltron Vehicle Team from Voltron: Defender of the Universe.

In a Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast episode scheduled to be released on June 1, Marc Morrell and I spoke with band members Patrick O’Connor and Savannah O’Connor about the upcoming album. The Shake Ups were kind enough to allow Marc and I an early listen to the album, and… well… it’s a lot of fun! There’s something to like in each of the tracks. My personal favorites are “Space Mice”, “Quiznak!”, and “Team Punk.”

If you like Voltron and music, you’ll like Voltron music — and you’ll like this album, so check it out!

Playmates Toys – No Pidge, Allura, Hunk Action Figures

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Greg Tyler

It has been reported on social media that Playmates Toys has decided not to produce Voltron Legendary Defender action figures of Pidge, Princess Allura, and Hunk. Although Playmates Toys released twelve action figures in its basic assortment, only three were of characters from the show — Shiro, Keith, and Lance. The other basic figures consisted of the five (non-transforming/combining) Lions, three Voltrons, and Robeast Myzax.

At various toy fairs, Playmates had teased figures of Pidge, Allura, and Hunk, as well as King Zarkon and Robeast Drazil. Zarkon and Drazil were not shown at the most recent toy fair, February’s New York Toy Fair 2018, which suggests that by that point, Playmates had already decided not to proceed with making those two figures. Other no-shows at NYTF 2018 that had appeared at previous toy fairs were a super-sized, non-transforming/combining Red Lion, which would have been bundled with an exclusive variant of the Keith figure, and a super-sized, non-transforming/combining Blue Lion, which would have been bundled with an exclusive variant of Lance.

This Voltron collector is saddened that only half the Paladins of Voltron are represented as action figures.

The link below is to the toy review video of Shiro, Keith, Lance, and Cannon Fire Voltron basic action figures, which I made for the Let’s Voltron YouTube channel.

Castle Ships in Voltron Lore

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Greg Tyler

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 the anime programs that were adapted into Voltron: Defender of the Universe, the Golion Team calls Castle Gradam its home. In the 50th episode, “The Great Storming of Galra,” Raible reveals that the Castle can convert to a spaceship. The Golion Team uses the ship as part of a final assault on the planet Galra.

The Castle’s transformation initiates when Raible inserts a special key into the Castle’s main console.

The Castle does not launch from Altea until Golion‘s 52nd and final episode, “Burn Galra Castle.”

Because Golion‘s 52 episodes were adapted into episodes of Voltron: Defender of the Universe, Castle Gradam and its ship mode appear in Voltron, although in the latter program the Castle is called the Castle of Lions. In Voltron, the Castle’s ship mode is revealed in “Zarkon Becomes a Robeast,” which was adapted from Golion‘s “The Great Storming of Galra.”

The Castle of Lions’ ship mode makes a notable reappearance in “Fleet of Doom,” the two-part final story that was animated entirely new for Voltron. In that story, the Castle of Lions transports the Lions to the Galaxy Alliance’s Power Base, to rendezvous with the Voltron Vehicle Team and remove the Drule/Doom forces that threatened the base.

Although Voltron: The Third Dimension featured a Castle of Lions, no ship mode is seen or referenced in the program’s 26 episodes. Perhaps a ship mode would have been revealed had more episodes been produced.

In the 26th and final episode of Voltron Force, the spirit of King Alfor activates the Castle of Lions’ transformation to its spaceship mode. The Castle’s ship mode is a surprise even to Princess Allura. The Castle helps Voltron win a decisive victory over Maahox.

Castles-turned-spacecraft are seemingly as much a part of Voltron lore as the Defenders of the Universe themselves.