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.
As co-host of Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast, I reviewed these lion toys for the podcast’s YouTube channel. Check it out here.
Here is a link to all Voltron merchandise at GameStop: Link
These are my all-time favorite toys of the 1980s Voltron lons that don’t carry pilot action figures. (Yes, I like them more than the Popy/Bandai Golion of the early 1980s, the classic Matchbox version in the mid-1980s, and the Bandai Soul of Chogokin GX-71 of 2017.)
Now it’s time to take a similar look at Voltron: The Third Dimension.
Dens
Just as in Voltron: Defender of the Universe, the Lions in Voltron: The Third Dimension spend their idle time in “dens” on Planet Arus.
Black Lion’s den is within a lion statue on one side of the Castle of Lions.
It’s not clear which side of the castle sports the lion statue.
Red Lion’s den is within an active volcano.
Green Lion’s den is inside a giant tree stump.
Blue Lion’s den is at the bottom of the moat that surrounds the Castle of Lions.
Yellow Lion’s den is inside a giant lion statue in a desert.
It’s unclear how far the dens of Red, Green, and Yellow Lions are from the Castle of Lions. The Castle’s moat is surrounded by trees, so Green Lion’s tree stump den might be nearby, but it might not. In any case, it seems unlikely that all five dens are equidistant from the Castle.
Lion Launch Sequence
As in Voltron: Defender of the Universe, each Lion pilot boards a small shuttle that travels in a tunnel to a point beneath his or her Lion’s den. It’s unclear how the pilots reach the shuttle from the control room. In the program’s second episode, “Red Lion Breaks Loose,” the pilots exit the Castle of Lions’ control room through a seemingly ordinary doorway.
Lance exits through a seemingly different doorway than the others, but maybe all doors lead to the Lions.
When we next see the pilots, each is in an identical “shuttle bay.” (In most episodes, what Keith calls the “Lion Launch Sequence” begins in these shuttle bays rather than in the Castle’s control room.) Each bay’s exterior walls are natural rock, which implies that all five bays are located below ground.
How each pilot reaches his or her underground shuttle bay from the presumably above-ground control room of the Castle of Lions is unclear. Maybe the pilots descend in vertical chutes, as they do in Voltron: Defender of the Universe. On the other hand, maybe the pilots take Lion-colored spiral staircases. Or water slides. I’m going with water slides.
Once each pilot has taken a seat inside his or her shuttle, a transparent canopy closes, and the shuttle begins to travel in a horizontal tunnel. Interestingly, all five tunnels start with a shallow and seemingly unnecessary S-curve.
The shuttles soon accelerate to a high speed, and at a certain point, each tunnel seems to dip downward sharply. There’s no indication that the pilots hold their hands up and scream, as if they were riding in roller coasters.
Our next view of the pilots is from the inside of the Voltron Lions — from inside the cockpit in each Lion’s head, looking rearward. Each cockpit has a hole in the floor, and we see each pilot ascend into the cockpit, still seated in his or her now open-canopied shuttle. The shuttle seat becomes the Lion cockpit seat, and the rest of the shuttle goes… elsewhere. The open shuttle canopy seems to disappear just behind the rear wall of the cockpit.interior literally becomes part of the Lion’s cockpit interior. The lights beneath the cockpit go dark, conveniently hiding how this magic happens.
Once the pilot is inside his or her Lion, he or she places the Lion’s Lion-colored key into a special slot in the cockpit, and the Lion powers up.
Unlike in Voltron: Defender of the Universe, Black Lion, when in its den, is always concealed within the lion statue. Just before Black Lion launches into the sky, the statue disappears, as if by magic. On the other hand, maybe the statue is only a hologram.
The other Lions “simply” leap out of their dens.
It’s unclear where the pilots keep the keys when they aren’t in use. The uniforms are form-fitting, and they don’t seem to have pockets. Maybe the keys are kept in compartments hidden in the bulky, mouth-concealing portions of the helmets.
And that’s how the brave pilots of the Voltron Force get to their Lions.
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 4.
Because 104 episodes of Voltron: Defender of the Universe were adapted from episodes of Beast King Golion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, some Voltron fans believe that Voltron‘s mythos was created mostly by happenstance, as each episode was adapted. There is almost certainly a degree of truth to this notion, but if a viewer examines the episodes more closely, he or she might find more depth to the story and characters than one might expect — and perhaps more than the writers actually intended. This is certainly the case with Pidge and Chip.
“Letters from Home” establishes that Pidge and Chip are twin brothers.
LISA: Chip’s very close to his brother. Don’t forget — they’re twins.
The episode also establishes that the brothers are orphans.
LISA: Chip and Pidge were orphans as children. Their adoptive parents took them both, so they wouldn’t be parted.
Pidge, himself a highly intelligent person, considers Chip to be the smarter twin, as he indicates in a letter to Chip in the episode “Letters from Home.”
PIDGE (voice over – as if reading his own letter to Chip): You always had the brains!
Later, after Chip has joined the Voltron Vehicle Team, his teammates acknowledge and admire his intelligence. In “A Man-Made Sun,” the five-member Air Team (of which Chip is a member), and Sea Team leader Krik, are in a death trap.
JEFF: Chip, you’re the scientific whiz — any suggestions?!
Chip saves everyone, after recalling some of his and his brother’s childhood interests.
CHIP: My brother Pidge and I used to study solar power as a hobby.
At some point in their childhoods, Pidge and Chip are adopted. They meet their parents at the orphanage. Pidge recalls some of the details behind the adoption in “The Green Medusa.”
PIDGE (inner monologue): I know what it’s like… finding new parents and a new home. I was an orphan, and I remember the day my new parents came to take me away. (Flashback to the orphanage) WOMAN: Are you sure you’ll like living with us? PIDGE: Yes, ma’am. I know I will. (Present) PIDGE (inner monologue): She was very good to me, but I always wished I’d had my own mother.
Pidge provides further details of the adoption in a letter that he writes to Chip in the episode “Letters from Home.”
PIDGE (voice over – as if reading his own letter to Chip): Remember the day at the orphanage, when Mom and Dad came to adopt me, and I said I wouldn’t go unless they took you, too? We swore we’d never be separated! Well, we’re finally separated, and I miss you.
The accompanying video, reused from “The Green Medusa,” shows only Pidge shaking the hand of his future adoptive mother.
We don’t know how old Pidge and Chip were when they became orphans. We don’t know how old they were when they were adopted. For that matter, we don’t know old they are in the “present” of the Voltron programs. In the footage from “The Green Medusa,” Pidge looks the same as he does in the “present” scenes of the program. This might suggest that Pidge and Chip were adopted no more than a few years before they joined the Voltron Force.
How are we to interpret what Pidge told Chip in the letter? Were Pidge and Chip’s future adoptive parents really planning to adopt only Pidge? Did Pidge have to put his foot down and insist that they also adopt Chip? Maybe the prospective parents had just met only Pidge, and Pidge told them up front that he and Chip must be adopted together, perhaps even before the prospective parents knew that Pidge had a brother.
In any case, how would Chip feel to be reminded, years later in a letter, that Pidge had insisted that Chip be adopted along with him? Pidge undoubtedly meant it to express how close they were to one another… but it’s also possible that the words, especially if said repeatedly over years, would make Chip feel inferior to his twin brother.
I point this out, because at the beginning of “Letters from Home,” Chip is sad because he hasn’t received a letter from his mother. (He receives the letter from Pidge at the end of the episode.) To hide this from his teammates, he goes so far as to write a fake letter that he claims is from his mother.
CHIP: Mom says, “I think of you often. We had a nice long letter from your brother Pidge today. He’s fine. I wish you and he were stationed together. Twins shouldn’t be separated. I miss you both.”
One might interpret this as more than a fake letter. It sounds like a cry for help. Maybe Chip isn’t doing well with the separation from his brother, but he perceives that Pidge is doing fine. And maybe it’s Chip who wishes he and Pidge were stationed together, especially when we learn later from Pidge’s letter that the brothers swore they’d never be separated.
In any case, Chip’s friends notice his sadness.
KRIK: Obviously his mother, for some good reason, couldn’t write to him this time around. So he felt abandoned all over again.
Chip is so distraught that he fails to join the rest of the Air Team on a mission. Later his teammate Rocky looks directly at Chip and speaks of him in the third person, with words so pointed as to suggest that Rocky knows just how to hurt his friend most. I don’t think Rocky means to be as hurtful as he comes across, since in many other episodes, he and Chip seem to be close pals, but…
ROCKY: This squirt thinks because he’s small, he gets special privileges! Well, he don’t! He’s gotta grow up and learn to be half the man his brother Pidge is!
Chip felt abandoned by his real parents, and he feels abandoned now from not having gotten a letter from his mother. He feels inferior to his twin brother, and Rocky’s words seem to confirm that belief. Ouch.
Later Chip talks about his fake letter to his friend, Lisa of the Sea Team.
CHIP: I wrote this to myself, and everybody knows it. How can a person be so dumb and live? Why didn’t she write? Maybe something bad happened to Pidge!
Chip just said, in so many words, that he doesn’t deserve to live! Then he covers it up by worrying once more about Pidge.
And how does Lisa respond?
LISA: Everything’ll be all right, Chip. You weren’t the only one who didn’t get mail. Sometimes a packet gets held up or lost. Aw, come on. You wouldn’t want your brother to see you like this, would you?
Soon afterward, a Robeast attacks, and the Voltron pilots are called to their ships.
LISA: Chip, yo you hear that? They need us. Come along. It’s not too late! What about Pidge? Wouldn’t he jump if *his* team needed him at a time like this? CHIP: Wait up, Lisa! I’m coming! Just because I’ve been a wimp, doesn’t mean I have to stay a wimp! LISA: You’re no wimp.
Lisa also means well, but her words seem to reinforce — twice — that Pidge is the better of the twins. And when Chip calls himself a wimp, she refutes his feelings.
I feel for the guy.
And at the end of the episode, when Chip finally gets that letter from Pidge, how does it conclude?
PIDGE (voice over – as if reading his own letter to Chip): Mostly I work with our Voltron team to defend Princess Allura and her planet from invasion. I fly the Green Lion, and I form Voltron’s left arm. I’m left-handed, you know. What part are you on your Voltron team? You oughta be the head. You always had the brains! Hey, do you think we’ll ever get to take that vacation we’ve been dreaming about for years? Well, write soon, and fill me in on everything! Chip (in tears, reading the letter): Love, Pidge.
Although the letter doesn’t state this outright, it seems like this is the first letter that Chip has received from Pidge since they separated. Why else would Chip not know about Pidge’s mission, or which Lion Pidge pilots, and why would Pidge not know which Rugger Chip pilots?
It’s no wonder that Chip is so sad. He became an orphan. He feels that he was adopted only because Pidge insisted that Chip be adopted. He feels inferior to Pidge. His friends’ words seem to reinforce that he is inferior to Pidge. He hasn’t heard from Pidge in weeks, months, or even longer. And he hasn’t heard from his mother as he had expected.
But it gets worse. In an earlier episode, “Pidge’s Home Planet,” Pidge and Chip’s home planet is destroyed!
PIDGE: Picking up radioactive missiles heading for Planet Balto! Oh, no! That’s my home planet, Keith! It’s being attacked! PIDGE: “My family was moving to another planet. I don’t know if they made it! Gotta go and see! LANCE: The whole planet has been destroyed! Wiped out! HUNK: Pidge, we’re near your village! PIDGE: I see, but I don’t recognize it. Wait, that’s my school… my home! PIDGE: Looks like the people escaped to another planet, but my world is sure ruined! KEITH: At least we’re sure everybody got safely off the planet before Lotor started his dirty work.
After a battle between Lotor and Voltron, Balto explodes!
PIDGE: At least I can think of Planet Arus as my home now till I find where my family has gone. Wish I could’ve seen my back yard once more.
Later in the episode, Pidge receives welcome news from his friend and teammate.
ALLURA: When get back to Arus, I’m going to make you an honorary citizen! Then you’ll have both a new home and a new world. Okay, Pidge? PIDGE: I’d like that.
And later, on Arus:
ALLURA: To Pidge! Now a full-fledged citizen of Planet Arua! PIDGE (to the Space Mice): Hi, fellow citizens! This is *my* country now! I could become a duke! An earl or a baron or maybe even a knight! But gimme your honest opinion. Am I too short to be a prime minister?
Pidge might seem to be in a better state than his brother, but Pidge might not be in the best mindset either. In “The Sleeping Princess,” Prince Lotor and witch Haggar execute an elaborate plan to make Princess Allura seem to have died, so that during her funeral, they can steal her body and take her back to Planet Doom. As Lotor drives the hijacked, horse-drawn hearse, Pidge jumps onto the carriage and tries to strangle Lotor. Eventually during a skirmish, Lotor stops the hearse and holds the unconscious Allura in his arms, ready to take her away. Pidge halts their plans temporarily by revealing a grenade and pulling out its pin with his teeth!
PIDGE: Her life means more than yours or mine or anybody’s!
Lotor then puts Allura on the ground.
PIDGE: Now get out! I oughta feed you this!
Then Pidge, who is still holding the live grenade, charges at Lotor and Haggar! Hunk and Keith plead with Pidge to get rid of the grenade, but he ignores them. As Pidge reaches Lotor, Lotor leaps over Pidge’s head. Pidge is knocked backward, landing next to Allura, and the grenade flies out of his hand. Pidge places himself over Allura’s body to shield her from the coming blast. The grenade lands on the hearse and explodes!
What was Pidge thinking? Anyone in the Voltron Force would stop at nothing to protect Allura from Lotor, but… a grenade? Why did Pidge have a grenade to begin with? Was he the only person who brought a grenade to Allura’s staged funeral? And why did he pull the pin so early during the confrontation with Lotor?
Pidge usually seems like an outgoing and joyful person, but his behavior during this incident suggests that he was in a dark place. Did he feel imdebted to Allura for making him an honorary citizen of her planet? Was this culmination of his childhood as an orphan, a lengthy separation from his twin brother, and the destruction of his home planet?
Pidge and Chip weren’t the only kids in their adopted family. They also have a younger sister. Pidge mentions her in the episode “Surrender,” after he meets a young girl named Tammy, who tells Pidge that after she grows up, she wants to become a Space Explorer like Pidge and the rest of the Voltron Force.
PIDGE (inner monologue): She reminds me of my kid sister back with the Space Explorers on Planet Terra.
Even as members of the Voltron Force, Pidge and Chip seem to be minors, and they have an even younger sister who is among other Space Explorers. If we assume that Pidge and Chip are about twelve years old, how old would their younger sister be — ten? Even younger? Tammy seemed to be no older than about eight.
March 4, 2019, Update: Shannon Muir suggested to me that perhaps one or both of Pidge and Chip’s adopted parents were career Space Explorers. This might have influenced the brothers’ decision to become Space Explorers themselves, and it might explain why their sister was “with the Space Explorers” — because she was with her parents.
How are Pidge and Chip related to their sister? She is mentioned only in “Surrender.” She might not be their biological sister. She might be the biological child of Pidge and Chip’s adoptive parents — or she might also be adopted.
In “Final Victory,” Lotor has been defeated — although it’s not known for how long — and Pidge contemplates the future.
Pidge (inner monologue): Now that there’s peace in *this* part of the universe, I guess the Galaxy Alliance will be sending us out on assignment some place else. Hey, maybe they’ll call us back to join the rest of the Voltron Force! I’ll get to see my brother, Chip, again! I’m gonna write him a apace letter right away!
Aboard the Stellar Ship Explorer, Chip receives another letter.
ROCKY: Hey, Chip, looks like you got a *real* letter today! CHIP: It’s from my brother, Pidge! He says their Voltron Force defeated all the Drule bad guys in the Danubian Galaxy. Now maybe they’ll be coming back to join us! If the Galaxy Alliance doesn’t decide to transfer them to another trouble spot. JEFF: And if *we* don’t get sent to another galaxy! But then we expect that, because we’re all a part of Voltron, Defender of the Universe!
The twins finally re-unite in “Fleet of Doom.” We see them smiling and shaking hands, and a Space Mouse sits on a shoulder of each brother. Chip is taller than Pidge, and they don’t look exactly alike, which suggests that they are fraternal rather than identical twins.
After the events of “Fleet of Doom,” I imagine that Pidge showed his brother some of the Space Mice’s talents, which he had mentioned in his first letter to Pidge in “Letters from Home.”
PIDGE (voice over – as if reading his own letter to Chip): When we’re not flying, I spend my time training animals. You oughta see the great act I’m putting together with some very clever mice here at the Castle.
As an additional curiosity, in “A Ghost and Four Keys,” Pidge calls himself an “Earth man.”
PIDGE: Come on, you robots! You’re only a bunch of nuts and bolts! Let’s see what you can do against one little Earth man!
Why would Pidge call himself an “Earth man?” Before joining the Voltron Force, the brothers had lived on Balto. Did they live on Earth before they were adopted? Were they born on Earth? Did Pidge call himself an “Earth man” simply because he had attended the Space Academy of the Galaxy Alliance, which was headquartered on Earth? Voltron: The Third Dimension establishes Pidge to be a native of Balto, and Voltron Force establishes the same for Pidge and Chip, but that’s not necessarily true in Voltron: Defender of the Universe.
August 23, 2019, Update: I recently noticed a voiceover line of Pidge from the episode “The Little Prince.” The Voltron Force, trapped on the Omega Comet, is on its way to oblivion. A mysterious angel appears before them and offers to them the opportunity to proceed to the afterlife, sacrificing Arus to Lotor, or to return to Arus, sacrificing this opportunity to see what lies beyond. Pidge considers the alternatives:
PIDGE: Maybe I’d see my family again. No, we’ve gotta go back to Arus!
It’s unclear whether Pidge is referring to his biological parents or his adoptive parents. In “Pidge’s Home Planet,” Pidge mentions that he needs to find out where his presumably adoptive family has gone following the devastation of Balto. Maybe he subsequently learned that his adoptive family did not survive.
Pidge and Chip overcame major obstacles in their younger years, they lost their home planet, and they continue to struggle with feelings of abandonment and insecurity. But they are every bit as heroic as their bigger teammates in the Voltron Force.
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 open their world to beings from throughout the universe who have struggled and fought against Galra oppression.
And they come. Let’s take a look at the new arrivals from other worlds.
Although it’s difficult to recognize the species of many beings in this establishing shot, it’s easy to spot some Balmerans and Olkari.
N-7 (artificial intelligence), and Captain Olia and her two children (unknown species). The third being from the right is an Unilu with a distinctive headband, who was seen in episodes as early as “Begin the Blitz.”
In no particular order: Slav (unknown species), an Arusian, Balmerans, a masked rebel (unknown species) who helped to free Matt Holt, Olkari, Nyma (unknown species), Ozar (unknown species), Olia (unknown species)
In the left foreground, an Olkari ship (I think). In the background, Balmera X-95-Vox, as seen in the first season (but rotated, so it’s less recognizable).
In the left foreground, an Olkari ship (I think). In the right foreground, rebel ships. In the background, Balmera X-95-Vox, as seen in the first season (rotated, so it’s less recognizable).
Blades of Marmora (who are, of course, Galra), Olkari, a Taujeerian, Puigians, Captain Olia, and a Balmeran, on whose shoulder is a (presumed) child of an unknown species
Shay, a Balmeran from Balmera X-95-Vox
Shay (hugging Hunk) and… her brother Rax?
N-7 (an artificial intelligence) and Nyma (unknown species)
Alteans, who arrived before the other non-humans: Romelle, Coran, Allura, and Space Mice (also of Altea)
Kolivan and Krolia of the Blade of Marmora — both Galra
A Balmeran
A Taujeerian in the foreground, and a Balmeran in the background
A being of an unknown species. The being reminds me a bit of the Pink Panther.
Vrepit Sal (a Galra), Vrepit Sal’s dish washer (species unknown), and a Balmeran
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 Iron Man from Marvel Comics? Is it a robot, like C-3PO from Star Wars? Is it a cyborg, like… Cyborg from DC Comics? (It should be noted that as late as in “Begin the Blitz,” Matt Holt is still flirting unsuccessfully with Princess Allura.)
The mysterious being speaks a single line in this episode:
“See if the Blades can use their cannon to take down the shield.”
The mystery being has a seemingly impassive, electronic-sounding, female voice.
At the end of the seventh season, in “Lions’ Pride Part 2,” Matt Holt returns to Earth, and he is holding hands with the being, so it appears that Matt and the being have fallen in love and are in a relationship.
In the eighth season, we get a glimpse of the being in “The Prisoner’s Dilemma.” In “Clear Day,” Matt playfully puts a miner’s helmet on the being’s head, and later the being poses with the Holts in a family photo.
In the eighth-season episodes “Genesis” and “The Zenith,” the Netflix subtitles reveal the being’s name: N-7.
I asked Lauren Montgomery to explain who N-7 is. (At the time I asked her about the character, I had forgotten that the being’s name had been given in subtitles.) Here is Lauren’s response, dated January 6, 2019:
Her name is N seven. I assume it’s a reference to mass effect though I know our writers don’t play video games so I’m not sure how they came up with it. N seven is a robot. Full on AI so she’s technically not a she, but Kimberly did the voice so we tend to just refer to N seven as a she anyway. But robots are generally genderless. It just seemed right that Matt, like Pidge, would fall in love with technology.
Lauren also pointed out that in the final episode, Pidge and Matt Holt are essentially building a robot “child,” Chip, further demonstrating Matt’s (and Pidge’s) love of technology.
Thanks to Lauren Montgomery for sharing this insightful back story for N-7!
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 fans differentiate the Vehicle Team episodes of 1980s Voltron by likening it to Star Trek, while likening the Lion Force episodes to Star Wars. Maybe this is why!
I have no idea why the “USS Enterprise” marking would be next to an “SR-5” marking. Ginger’s Rugger is Rugger #5, so “R-5” would make sense… but what’s with the “S?” In Voltron, Ginger is part of the Air Team — but “Air” doesn’t start with “S.” The five Air Team vehicles combine into the Strato Fighter, so maybe that’s where the “S” comes from. On the other hand, in Dairugger, the team is called the Air Rugger Team — the “Aki Team” for short, and the five Ruggers form the Air Rugger. None of those terms start with “S.”
Then again, I’m trying to rationalize a marking that’s next to a nonsensical “USS Enterprise” marking. Curse you, brain, for overthinking yet again! :)
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 is inspired by Invid mecha from Robotech and Genesis Climber Mospeada.
To the right of the Destroid are two toys that are inspired by the VF-1 Veritech from Robotech and Super Dimension Fortress. Check out the “knockoff” color scheme of the Veritech on the left. The body and head are black, the arms are red and green, and the legs are blue and yellow, not unlike Voltron.
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 Shake-Ups — and Marc Morrell and I, as host and co-host of Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast. Marc and I will present at least one panel at the convention. We hope to see you there!
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, Veronica, Luis, and Marco; father or father-in-law of Mom. First name unrevealed.
Veronica – Sister of Lance, Luis, and Marco. First mentioned in “Bloodlines.”
Marco – Brother of Lance, Veronica, and Luis. First mentioned by name in “Bloodlines.”
Luis – Brother of Lance, Veronica, and Marco. First mentioned by name in “Bloodlines.”
Lisa – Wife of Luis; sister-in-law of Lance, Luis, and Marco. First mentioned by name in “Launch Date.”
Silvio – Son of Luis and Lisa; older brother of Nadia; nephew of Lance, Luis, and Marco; grandson of Mom; great-grandson of Pop-Pop. First mentioned by name in “Launch Date.”
Nadia – Daughter of Luis and Lisa; younger sister of Silvio; niece of Lance, Luis, and Marco; granddaughter of Mom; great-granddaughter of Pop-Pop. First mentioned by name in “Launch Date.”
Rachel – First mentioned by name in “Launch Date.” Unspecified relation. Lance didn’t mention her in “Bloodlines,” which suggests that Rachel isn’t Lance’s sister. On the other hand, in “The Grudge,” Veronica refers to her brothers and sisters — and in “Bloodlines,” Lance had mentioned only Veronica as a sister. Perhaps Rachel is a younger sister — she was at the “kids’ table” in “Launch Date,” after all — and Veronica counted her sister-in-law Lisa as a sister?
