Pop Culture's Greatest Mistake? The Story of Voltron: Defender of the Universe

The fact that an iconic animated show of the 80s only came to be because someone at Toei went "lion anime? Right, got it!" and sent over Go Lion amuses me to no good end.

I've never consumed cocaine...but I was a 9 year old who loved Voltron. Presumably, the experience is indistinguishable.

One of the best toys ever when it first came out . The big metal Lions that worked separately and connected to form Voltron was one of the best toys you could get in the 80’s

I am 44 years old, born in 1979, and grew with Voltron. This video was such a blast! Thank you for all your work.

That intro music with Peter Cullen's voice over still gives me chills to this day.

Voltron impacted my childhood extravagantly. My mom stated, a month ago, about how she remembered my brother and I yelling, “Form feet and legs! Arms and body! And I’ll form the head!”

Voltron was my number 1 as a child. You always felt so grown up watching it because it was so mature in its writing. I was part if the robot generation. Anything that transformed, I watched it. Gobots, Transformers, Voltron, Tranzor Z, Mighty Orbots, even M.A.S.K.

I always loved how the orchestra music was used in the U.S. versions. It really helped set the episodes off.

We grew up in a cul-de-sac in the 1980s and had this massive weeping willow tree in our backyard with five very large, sturdy main branches, and there were 5 of us neighborhood kids, so we used to play Voltron in our tree, each branch being one of the lions. We would 'borrow' my dad's new home video camera (where you had to strap the entire VCR unit over your shoulder and hold up the 20 lb camera AND a crappy boom mic that only seemed to pick up wind noise), and we spent hours scripting, acting, and filming our own Voltron shorts. This show was great fuel for the imagination. :)

“Because Voltron is badass” - Bill Hader Hot Rod 2007

"My favorite character is Hutch, he pilots the Ford Bronco that's the left foot of vehicle Voltron" said no one ever

I was prime target audience when Voltron came out and at 41 the theme music still gives me goosebumps. Oh and Lion Force all the way!!

I still get that certain feeling whenever I see Voltron. The music, the animation, all of it was such a big influence on me as a kid. Its probably my favorite piece of Fandom in the early 80s. I love it unabashedly

Props Dan for naming all 15 Vehicle Voltron pilots in a single breath. Love VV.

the voltron theme still sends chills down my spine. so iconic

That explains a lot...I remember watching the second season and wondering what happened to the lions and where all the vehicles came from. Definitely great memories.

I personally LOVED Voltron, specifically the Lionbot Voltron. I liked Vehicle Voltron too but let's be honest, when someone says "Voltron" we see Lionbot Voltron in our minds, not Vehicle Voltron. I think I watched too much anime as a kid because I saw that "Tranzor Z" ad and immediately recognised it as Mazinger Z. LOL

While not in the big three (GI Joe, Transformers, MOTU) in terms of popularity, Voltron holds an almost sacred places in 80s lore. Likely the first "anime" that got popular in the U.S., it was a show that we could tell back then was sort of chopped and pasted together at points, and was more "mature" than even it came across, but it just had this "magic" to it that we could not get enough from, watching the lions go through that sequence of emerging from their individual hiding places after the Voltron team, in the most bad@ss way, hyperloops to them. Each sequence being identical (due to animation cost) in every episode, with that "Let's F'ing do this!!!" soundtrack in the background. That stuff STILL pumps you up. A lot of the episodes were hard to follow, but honestly that recurring sequence is what you showed up for, and what 99% of us like to see when we look up video of it. And MF'ing Optimus PRIME narrates the opening!

It's endlessly interesting to me that depending on where you live in the world a different anime super robot is part of your pop culture because it's the one your country was exposed to first.

There was also Voltron Force. It included the original characters plus the princess 's niece plus two cadets. They all wear a lion com that acts as a communicator as well as give them special weapons and give Voltron different configurations and weapons. It is on Amazon prime but was ended before the story was completed.