Voltron Vehicle Force New World
Classic Collection

Say what you will about Japan they know something that the whole world needs to learn.

Giant robots are cool. And they’ve know it since the 50’s.

Occasionally westerners will look at all the giant robots that Japan has and says “Hey we need some of those!!” and so they buy the series, watch it without subtitles, decide what it’s about get some western actors to re-voice it and voilla! That’s how Robotech was born and that was made up of 3 completely separate Japanese series. It’s also why sometimes series like Voltron make no sense.

In the 80’s when there was a level of Voltron mania in the playground it came in two flavors “Lion force” and “Vehicle force” this was because it was really two separate Japanese TV series Beast King GoLion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV which just happened to feature multiple space vehicles piloted by young pilots that when combined turn into a giant fighting robot with a sword.

Lion force came out first and in the story line this is set in the “far universe” Vehicle force was set in the “Near Universe” and the storyline has completely changed. Instead of being quite fantasy based what with Voltron fighting evil witches and everything now it’s more sci-fi involving a group of humans searching for new planets to colonize.

But like all land grabs someone’s nose is out of joint and in this case that would be the Drule evil despotic landlords in this part of the galaxy. This Voltron team consists of fifteen members, divided into three teams of five,  the Land, Sea, and Air Teams. Which of course when they combine together they become a giant kick ass robot because there is hope for the future.

Confusingly when you bought the Voltron toys this Voltron was referred to as Voltron 1 because this was set closer to earth than that lion thing.

Look this is a kids show, it doesn’t stand up as well as it could the voice acting is barely passable, the storylines alternate between simplistic and confusing and the animation is um…well it’s better than Filmation but nothing to write home about.

Having said that the burst of nostalgia that I got the first time that those vehicles became Voltron gave me shivers. 

Because there’s nothing better than giant robots.

Audio:  Audio is 2 channel dolby digital serviceable as far as it goes but nothing to get excited about.

Video:  Video is pan and scan DVD quality but a nice plasma will really bring out the poor quality of the source material.

Special Features:  Yeah that would be nice wouldn’t it? What we have here is 18 episodes over two discs and not a brass razoo more or less.