Monday, April 4, 2022

King Of Beasts- GoLion (1981)

 

Voltron is now on Amazon Prime Video for viewing, and I got to thinking about the original series it was based on.  Those DVD sets are now OOP and cost way too much money.  I liked Voltron enough, though I never really cared much for the vehicles series.  There were too many characters in that one for me to keep track of, especially since you never saw that version too often.  The Lion Force was much more popular in the US.  Anyway, I had watched the first six or so episodes way back when, but didn't remember much.  The US version is rather entertaining, but it is so easy to see where the changes and edits are made.  It is a rather violent cartoon in the original form, and they make all kinds of living beings into "robots" so the deaths are easier to take.

What I always found funny was that GoLion was not that popular in Japan, and was ridiculously popular over here.  You could find toys everywhere.  Naturally this success begat imitators, Tranzor Z being an unfortunate example.  The five member team was nothing new in Japan, but it had limited success over here.  At least until 1993 or so.  I am enjoying both version now. 

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