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World Event Productions has been putting out sets of the original Voltron series for some time now. Each set is in a beautiful tin box and there are five sets in total, meaning that there is one set for each lion.

Now I was never much into Voltron growing up because, in 1984-85, I was on the edge of getting out of toys. And I always found that the situation repetative — G-Force, stuck on a Rocket Robin Hood-esque planet, losing individual fight the daily robeast until, lo, they combine and slice the baddie in two. Now that may not be entirely fair to dumb the entire 72 episodes down to that motif, but there you go.

But my brother loved Voltron so it was always on every day after school at 4:00 p.m. like clockwork. So it forms a bit of background noise, which was fine for days of working my way through four groups of 99 bezerkers in a 10 X 10 room on the Commodore 64 (we do Bard’s Tale good!)

Anyway, I do remember that there was a second Voltron show that seemed to pop on sometimes. It was never as frequent but it seemed much more interesting because it was at least set in space, even if the basic plot seemed the same. And the idea of fifteen vehicles, rather than five lions, had to form the giant robot — well, that seemed really neat too.

So the week after Christmas, I was out at the HMV in Merivale and looking for the Second Season of Transformers: Animated, when I stumbled upon a pecular box. It wasn’t like the Lion boxes (cardboard instead of metal, boxed instead of flip-style) but it was clearly Voltron. It looked like the company had continued to put out Voltron and had moved onto the vehicle Voltron.

I stared at the box for a long time but eventually put it down. I couldn’t be sure the contents of the DVD, so I figured I’d do some checking. Lo and behold, when I got home I discovered it was in fact what it said it was. Today I had the occasion to pick it up, seeing as it was only $26.99.

Getting it home I had a chance to discover the Voltron.com site for the first time. This is a site done right, with a lot of promos and additional information, notably how the company started and where the idea for Voltron and other projects came from. There is even a glimpse at what could have been Voltron 2, had vehicle Voltron done better.

There is also a really cool fan section, which is notable for the contribution of one Robert Burden, a graphic artist who put together an impressive painting of Voltron, the painting of which is told through a time-lapse camera. It is an impressive video and piece of art. Some of his other works are also very impressive.

All this to say, I’ve another cartoon series to get through. Apparently this is just box one of three, with land and sea teams to follow. It will be good to have something to listen to while I’m getting new munnies ready. I’m really eager to start watching.