Greg Tyler's Unofficial Voltron Website
Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast #106 will be released later today! This episode features an exclusive interview with AJ LoCascio (Prince Lotor from Voltron Legendary Defender), the conclusion of the podcast’s coverage of Voltron at San Diego Comic Con 2017 (with guest Shannon Muir), an initial reaction to the recently released third season of Voltron Legendary Defender (with three guests), and a surprise at the end!
Check out Let’s Voltron at: http://letsvoltron.com
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 full it at full size.)
The fourth season of Voltron Legendary Defender is scheduled to hit Netflix on October 13, 2017.
Source: https://twitter.com/LetsVoltron/status/893559269160824836
At midnight Pacific Time, Netflix released the seven-episode third season of Voltron: Legendary Defender, and a six-episode fourth season of the series will be released in October.
In the second-season finale, Team Voltron leader Shiro disappeared during an intense battle against Emperor Zarkon, who was critically injured. In the final moments of the second season, Zarkon’s witch Haggar ordered the summoning of Prince Lotor.
Congratulations to Lendy Tayag, whose amazing LEGO Ideas Voltron is on its way to becoming a licensed LEGO product!
Episode #105 of Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast is online!
Marc Morrell and Greg Tyler are joined by guests Shamus Kelley, Shambhavi, and Dani, as they discuss the Voltron events and experience at San Diego Comic Con 2017.
Although Greg wasn’t at the con, he still flew the five-colored flag by reviewing the new Voltron Legendary Defender Metal Defender lion figures by Playmates Toys for the podcasts’s YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsbQhMdwCgc
Two lucky listeners also won Voltron San Diego Comic Con prize packs!
Listen to Let’s Voltron #105 here: http://letsvoltron.com/105
Andrea Romano, voice director of Voltron Legendary Defender, has announced that she will retire this week, according to IGN (http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/07/31/legendary-voiceover-director-andrea-romano-retires).
Romano’s professional credits include Tiny Toon Adventures, DuckTales, Animaniacs, Batman: The Animated Series, ReBoot, Spongebob Squarepants, The Legend of Korra, and many other television and feature film projects.
In early 2017, Lions and Pilots and Bots Dot Com author Greg Tyler had the opportunity to meet Andrea Romano during a recording session for Voltron Legendary Defender, and he and Marc Morrell of Let’s Voltron: The Official Voltron Podcast (http://letsvoltron.com) were fortunate to interview her in Episode 74 (http://www.letsvoltron.com/74).
Animation aficionados no doubt wish Ms. Romano the very best as she begins the next chapter of her life.
From around the Internet and social media…
Voltron collectors in the Action Figure Junkies Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/AFJunkies/) have recently spotted some of the second-wave Voltron Legendary Defender basic action figures at a Walmart store in California. Figures spotted include Shiro, Keith, and Lance. Thanks to fellow Voltron fan and collector Mark Oliver for the scoop!
Other collectors have reported that Metal Defender Lions of Voltron, a box set of all five Metal Defender lion figures, have been seen at Target stores, priced at $69.99, roughly $5 less expensive than when the Metal Defender Lions are purchased individually. (Each Metal Defender Lion has an MSRP of about $15.)
There have also been numerous sightings of Voltron Legendary Defender, an all-new box set of all five Legendary Lion figures, which had originally been released individually as part of the toy line’s first wave. The Voltron Legendary Defender box set is a Toys R Us exclusive, and it can also be purchased on Toys R Us’ website (https://www.toysrus.com/product?productId=131665686).
Happy hunting, collectors!
On August 1, 2017, Simon & Schuster will release two new Voltron Legendary Defender chapter books, and more books are scheduled for release later this year. The books are being published under the Simon Spotlight imprint.
The chapter books are being marketed to children of ages 4 to 11 and Grades K-4, and their list price is $6.99.
But that’s not all!
For more information about these books, check out the Voltron Legendary Defender book series page on Simon & Schuster’s website: http://www.simonandschuster.com/series/Voltron-Legendary-Defender
The books can be pre-ordered or ordered from your favorite online or brick-and-mortar bookstores, as well as from The Voltron Store (https://store.voltron.com/).
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 Spotlight — an examination of a Voltron fan website that has piqued my interest.
In this Fan Website Spotlight, we’ll take a look at three related websites which were created by SGB. I’ve known SGB for years by way of the legacy Voltron.com forums, where I have posted as Dudley Drule Right.
First is the Voltron Image Archive. This website offers a unique look at the Voltron phenomenon.
The site hasn’t been updated in about five years, but I can vouch for how difficult it can be to update a website when a pesky thing called real life keeps getting in the way. It doesn’t matter much that the site hasn’t been updated lately, because the content is solid, informative, and entertaining.
Perhaps the first thing you’ll notice when you visit the Voltron Image Archive is that SGB collects animation cels from Voltron: Defender of the Universe. Collecting these cels is a challenge. Voltron is over three decades old, and it was animated in Japan. For those who don’t already know, 104 of the 125 episodes of Voltron: Defender of the Universe were adapted from one of two anime programs: Beast King Golion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, both of which were animated by Toei Animation. The remaining 21 episodes were also animated by Toei, but they were newly animated for Voltron, rather than reused from prior anime productions.
The Image Gallery page contains links to:
All three links lead to screen captures organized by episode. The Lion Voltron link also has screen captures organized by character — meaning character, Lion, Robeast, or Voltron himself. Here is a screen capture of the page that highlights the Yellow Lion:
(Incidentally, from my online interactions with SGB, I can tell you that he has unparalleled knowledge of the visuals of Voltron: Defender of the Universe. From a single screen capture, he can often identify the episode that featured it.)
This section of the site offers an incredibly detail-oriented look at the Lion Force and Vehicle Team episodes of Voltron: Defender of the Universe. For each set of episodes, you can access series notes, a voice cast list, and — the best part — a deep dive into individual episodes. Each episode page contains a brief synopsis of the episode, writing credits, a handful of screen captures, trivia, deleted scenes and dialogue, and dialogue that changed between when the script was written and when the voice actors were recorded.
There’s a page for each of the first 20 Lion Force episodes, and a page for each of the first 20 Vehicle Team episodes. Detailed analysis of television episodes is incredibly time-consuming, so I appreciate the work that SGB has put into each page.
This section of the Voltron Image Archive covers the numerous Voltron DVD releases from around the globe. Each DVD release has a dedicate page which describes technical details, special features, menus, screen captures, and other notes.
This section covers many Voltron comic books, with the strongest focus on the short-lived but fan-loved releases by Devil’s Due Publishing.
The special features section includes images of SGB’s impressive collection of Voltron animation cels, video clips, wallpapers, scans, and much more. You could spend hours browsing this great content. The Dairugger XV stickers are a favorite of mine.
The links page is a bit outdated, as over the years, many Voltron websites have come and gone.
SGB’s other two Voltron-related fan websites are Hundred Beast King Golion and SGB’s Kikou Kantai Dairugger XV Site. These sites focus on, respectively, Beast King Golion, the 1981 anime program that became the basis for the first 52 Lion Force episodes of Voltron: Defender of the Universe, and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, the 1982 anime program that became the basis for the 52 Vehicle Team episodes of Voltron: Defender of the Universe.
As much as I love the Voltron Image Archive site, I actually prefer SGB’s Golion and Dairugger sites, because they cover in depth many aspects of these programs, neither of which is well known to many Voltron fans.
Each of these sites is organized into the same sections:
This section of each site has a page for each examined episode, with well described images of scenes that were cut from the anime program when it was adapted into Voltron: Defender of the Universe. If you’re familiar with Voltron: Defender of the Universe, but unfamiliar with Golion and Dairugger, then you would be amazed by what was shown in Japan. Some of the imagery could be quite disturbing to younger viewers.
These sections were taken down at some point for overhauls that have not yet been completed. As I’ve said previously, real life has a knack for getting in the way of maintaining and updating a fan website.
This section of each site covers a handful of basic questions about Golion and Dairugger.
SGB’s Voltron Image Archive, Golion, and Dairugger fan websites are among my favorite Voltron-related websites. It’s my hope that SGB will someday complete the Voltron Shows section of the Voltron site, and the Cut Pics sections of the Golion and Dairugger sites. The sites are entertaining sources of information that you won’t find anywhere else.