http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/voltron_title_shot.jpg
[[caption-width:326:Loved by good, feared by evil.]]

->''Form feet and legs! Form arms and body! And I'll form the head!''

CombiningMecha cartoon, created in 1984 by combining the {{Toei}} anime shows ''{{GoLion}}'' and ''{{Dairugger XV}}'' (this was necessary to meet the minimum 65 episodes for syndication). This is still considered ''the'' combining mecha in areas of pop culture (like, for instance, hip-hop) that don't have much crossover with anime fandom, but even anime fans still love it.

There was even supposed to be a third series from a Toei anime, ''{{Albegas}}'', but it was never used. The two Voltron series, ''Voltron: Defender of the Far Universe'' ("Lion" Voltron) and ''Voltron: Defender of the Near Universe'' ("Vehicle" Voltron), occupied completely different story lines.

While not as severe in the editing of ''{{Robotech}}'', there were changes to fit the Voltron series together, such as Zarkon (''Lion Voltron'''s main villain) being sort of a vassal of the Drule Empire (the bad guys of ''Vehicle Voltron''), the two short kids being brothers, and the Galaxy Garrison of Dairugger having scenes cut into Lion Voltron, where they would talk about the situation, but never do anything (since there was no 'fight footage' available that featured the conversing characters).

Eventually, additional episodes of ''Lion Voltron'' were made with all new footage from Toei Animation, which were not based on anything from ''[=GoLion=]''. A special called "Fleet of Doom", which featured ''both'' Voltrons, was also produced in this way.

''Lion Voltron'' is better remembered, probably because it aired first, same reason the ''{{Macross}}'' part of ''{{Robotech}}'' is remembered more than the latter parts, although the other series of both still have fans.

''Vehicle Voltron'' had a whopping 15 characters (essentially three five-man bands who all joined up in the end), so the target audience -- children -- could barely keep them sorted out then, much less remember them fondly as adults.

In both versions, the MonsterOfTheWeek was always a Robeast. Some robeasts were huge Mecha. Others were apparently non-robot aliens that grew to gigantic size when hit with a special energy beam (a plot device that would be heavily reused decades later in the first season of ''Power Rangers''). Both species of robeasts were ''always'' killed by being sliced in half with the [[ForgottenSuperweapon Blazing Sword]], upon which they would explode. The explosion footage (like much of the rest of the fight scenes) was recycled for all episodes, so all robeasts die the same (to censor out some of the quite violent deaths in the actual series).

In the United States toy market, ''Lion Voltron'' was sold under the name "Voltron III", while "Vehicle Voltron" was sold as "Voltron I". A third Voltron, "Voltron II" was also available. This "Gladiator" Voltron was based on ''Albegas'', which was scheduled to be released as another in the US ''Voltron'' saga, but never materialized.

According to legend, World Events Productions originally intended to use ''Mirai Robo Daltanious'' to make ''Voltron'', but they asked Toei for "the show with the lion" and were sent ''[=GoLion=]'' instead, deciding they liked it better. Ironically, Daltanious is made up of one of each of the types of robots used in the ''Voltron'' series: a lion, a vehicle, and a humanoid "gladiator".

In the early 21st century, ''Voltron'' was [[{{Revival}} revived]] in the form of ''Voltron: The Third Dimension'', a completely CGI animated continuation of the ''Lion Voltron'' storyline. In its second season, Voltron was redesigned as a "Cyber Stealth" model. How exactly a robot that big could qualify as "stealth" even when painted black is anyone's guess.

There is talk of a movie, but the rights are apparently in dispute.

You can now watch the original on Youtube [[http://www.youtube.com/show?p=ZGHTL85TNSc here]] or on [[http://www.hulu.com/voltron-defender-of-the-universe Hulu]].
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!!This show provides examples of:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: Lion Voltron ]]

* AlienInvasion
* AllYourColorsCombined
* AssKickingPose
* {{BFS}}
* BigBad
* {{Bishounen}}
* TheBigGuy (Hunk)
* CaramelldansenVid
* CatsAreMean
* CombiningMecha
* CoolSword
* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong (Wonderfully averted when Lance doesn't trust a potential new pilot. Although it was for the wrong reason, Lance was right because the new guy was the MonsterOfTheWeek.)
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome
* DracoInLeatherPants (Lotor is so very, very much this. Doesn't help that a lot of his worst acts were edited out.)
* DubNameChange
* EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses (Allura, and her cousin Romelle)
* EverythingsBetterWithSparkles (Allura does sparkle sometimes)
* {{Fanfare}} (Although Voltron's score is a far more explicit one than Golion's which just as parts of a fanfare in its bouncy theme.)
* FetishFuel (When Allura wants to pilot the blue lion, her nanny spanks her, and Coran ties her to a chair. In another episode, Lotor ties princess Romelle up with chains. In another episode, Allura is swimming in a bikini, and her top falls off in the water.)
* FiveManBand
* ForgottenSuperweapon (Blazing Sword, always the ''last'' thing they pulled out in battle)
* ForGreatJustice (When Keith spouts about Voltron's role)
* FriendToAllLivingThings (Allura and the mice. She even knows their language.)
* [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Golion Is Big In America]]: ''Voltron'' is far better known in America than ''Golion'' is in Japan. In fact, Golion is almost forgotten there. This is because when Golion premiered in Japan, there were already ''tons'' of transforming/combining mecha shows on airwaves, while in America it was pretty much the only show of its kind (not to mention it had to compete with Super Sentai in Japan too, which America didn't get until the early 90s).
* GladiatorGames
* HeyItsThatVoice ("The narrator is [[{{Transformers}} Optimus Prime?!]]")
* {{Homage}} (It could be unintentional, but Allura's grand dress dress [[http://www.sfstlskyway.com/allurawall.jpg bears a resemblance]] to [[SleepingBeauty Princess Aurora's]].)
* HumongousMecha
* TheLancer (Lance, really)
* LarynxDissonance: In the US dub, a lot of the female extras voices were done by a guy.
* LeitMotif
* LimitedWardrobe: except possibly Allura, everyone else has exactly two outfits - his uniform, and one set of civvies.
** Allura has three outfits: her uniform and ''two'' sets of civvies.
* {{Macekre}} (In terms of some of the plot, like making the villains somewhat more one-dimensional, or in terms of LullDestruction (holy cow the LullDestruction), but actually improved the show in others, like the music. In general, most people consider the show a "good" Macekre in that while the changes were ''vast'', by and large they were done so that the show would even be airable in the U.S.; the edits don't remove what made the show fun in the first place (e.g., people in combining robot lions having one BigDamnHeroes moment after another).)
* MemeticMutation: '''''AND I'LL FORM THE HEAD!'''''
* TheMerch
** OfficialCosplayGear
* ModestRoyalty (Once Allura is a pilot, she usually wears her pink jumpsuit instead of her fancy dress.)
* {{Mooks}}
* {{Mordor}}
* NameTron (especially since Golion didn't have that kind of name)
* NotableOriginalMusic
* OverlordJr -- Lotor
* ParentalAbandonment (Voltron -- both of Allura's parents died years before.)
* PimpedOutDress (Allura's dress. Oddly enough, Romelle's dress isn't that fancy, but when she wears a battle jumpsuit it fits this trope better.)
* PrincessClassic (Even as a pilot, Allura is like this.)
* PrincessCurls (Allura/Fala, although they way they are drawn makes them easy to mistake for sideburns.)
* PrincessesPreferPink (Allura wears pink with everything, even her uniform.)
* {{Robeast}} (TropeNamer)
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething (Allura as one of the pilots)
* TheShortGuyWithGlasses (Pidge)
* StandardizedLeader (Keith)
* TheStarscream
* StayInTheKitchen (The way Allura's guardians treat her some of the time)
* StockFootage
* SuperRobot
* SuperRobotWars (Golion appears in ''SuperRobotWarsW'')
* TakeOffEveryZig
* TransformationIsAFreeAction (Subverted oh so many times, that's what happens when you get DangerouslyGenreSavvy villains.)
* TroperForce
* UnfortunateImplications (How Koran and Nanny basically treated Allura when she wanted to pilot. That episode was one of the least rerun on [[CartoonNetwork Toonami]].)
** Although Allura is the last of the royal family, so they aren't totally unreasonable to not want her to fly. A better case would be when Nanny volunteers to scout recruits, she puts an emphasis on having a man pilot the Blue Lion.
* UnwillingSuspension (Romelle)
* {{Warrior Prince}}ess (Allura)
* WickedWitch
* {{Woolseyism}} (Sven ought to be the Woolseyism poster child.)
** To detail: the character that would become "Sven" was killed off early on so that Fala could become a pilot. However, the Japanese rather liked the character and wanted him to return. So the Japanese version has [[BackupTwin his twin brother]] show up, which ends up feeling a little ham-fisted an awkward. World Events had a "never say die" policy at the time, so instead of killing Sven early they just glossed it that he had to go off-camera for a bit and then came back.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Vehicle Voltron ]]

* TheBattlestar: the Explorer, the space carrier from which the vehicles launched before combining
* BloodlessCarnage: Although {{Dairugger XV}} had its fair share of military death, the American re-dubbing took pains to tell the audience that the things being shot up were "robot attack ships" and "android stormtroopers." The next-to-last episode even had a violent Drule lynch mob chanting, "Capture the president! Capture the president!"
* CombiningMecha: two ways! 15 small vehicles could combine into three larger ones, and then if that didn't get the job done, could re-combine into the titular SuperRobot
* DubNameChange
* ForgottenSuperweapon: the blazing sword... so similar to the Lion version, but both shows were Toei productions anyway.
* HumongousMecha: not only Voltron, but also the Robeasts who tended to be piloted vehicles in this version.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters
* {{Macekre}}: from what I understand, the entire nature of the conflict between the Galaxy Alliance and the Drule Empire was changed. Also, of course, being forced into the same universe as Lion Voltron.
** The Galaxy Alliance was only in this show, and called the Terran League.
** The two short kids were not brothers.
* TheShortGuyWithGlasses (Chip)
* StockFootage
** Considering that both ''Go Lion'' and ''Dairugger XV'' were Toei productions, it honestly wouldn't surprise me if they ''shared'' stock footage between them... but I don't have access to enough clips from both series to prove it.
* SuperRobot
* TakeOffEveryZig (I think... haven't seen it in a while)
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks (the reaction to US fans when the series changed, since they didn't know the whole story)
* TransformationIsAFreeAction (see above.)
* TroperForce
* WagonTrainToTheStars
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