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NEWS: Voltron: Legendary Defender Animated Series' Final Season Previewed in Video


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prime_pm



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2333
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2018 11:54 pm Reply with quote
Well it's been quite a ride from start to finish. Albeit not always an easy one, but one I will appreciate being a part of from the beginning.
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Ashen Phoenix



Joined: 21 Jun 2006
Posts: 2904
PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 10:39 am Reply with quote
It's been one heck of a wild ride. I hope to see more from Studio Mir and these writers, actors, for a long time.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4352
Location: New York
PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 11:24 am Reply with quote
Yeah, Dreamworks is putting the show out to pasture, letting the showrunners go to Sony, hasn’t been a peep of merchandise outside some Funko pops, and teaching the world Tumblr is not, nor will it ever be an accurate representation of public interest (although I would argue Firefly already did that.)

Rest in pieces Voltron, the franchise. At least now this disaster ensured no live action movie.
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Scion Drake



Joined: 25 Nov 2017
Posts: 941
PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 3:01 pm Reply with quote
Beatdigga wrote:
Yeah, Dreamworks is putting the show out to pasture, letting the showrunners go to Sony, hasn’t been a peep of merchandise outside some Funko pops, and teaching the world Tumblr is not, nor will it ever be an accurate representation of public interest (although I would argue Firefly already did that.)

Rest in pieces Voltron, the franchise. At least now this disaster ensured no live action movie.


Oh please quite the over exaggeration, this show wasn’t a disaster.

Despite several issues it had especially behind the scenes, it still did well enough as a Netflix cartoon & is a worthy entrant to the Voltron franchise, especially help giving it something of rejuvenation.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
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Location: New York
PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 3:24 pm Reply with quote
Scion Drake wrote:


Oh please quite the over exaggeration, this show wasn’t a disaster.

Despite several issues it had especially behind the scenes, it still did well enough as a Netflix cartoon & is a worthy entrant to the Voltron franchise, especially help giving it something of rejuvenation.


The merchandise tanked by Playmates’ own admission. Dreamworks let the executive producers go, a spinoff idea that was bandied about is dead in the water, and there hasn’t been a peep on the live action movie since those metrics came in. If anything, this is probably the franchise’s death knell outside of nostalgic throwbacks like that Honda commercial and the toys and models of 80’s Voltron/GoLion.
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Scion Drake



Joined: 25 Nov 2017
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 3:51 pm Reply with quote
Beatdigga wrote:
Scion Drake wrote:


Oh please quite the over exaggeration, this show wasn’t a disaster.

Despite several issues it had especially behind the scenes, it still did well enough as a Netflix cartoon & is a worthy entrant to the Voltron franchise, especially help giving it something of rejuvenation.


The merchandise tanked by Playmates’ own admission. Dreamworks let the executive producers go, a spinoff idea that was bandied about is dead in the water, and there hasn’t been a peep on the live action movie since those metrics came in. If anything, this is probably the franchise’s death knell outside of nostalgic throwbacks like that Honda commercial and the toys and models of 80’s Voltron/GoLion.


The people in charge of merchandise did a pretty bad job of it. They wren't really very competent.

Also spin-offs for shows get announced every-day & most never fall through. Its a common thing, not really Voltron specific especially that live-action movie which is most likely still buried under mountains of red tape.
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cyberdraco



Joined: 30 Jun 2013
Posts: 619
PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2018 5:02 pm Reply with quote
I'm gonna miss this show when it's gone. It's has been really, really good.
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Ashabel



Joined: 16 Feb 2010
Posts: 350
PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 1:31 am Reply with quote
Beatdigga wrote:
The merchandise tanked by Playmates’ own admission.


Pretty sure that's because Playmates' contribution to the merchandise was hecking terrible. Five half-assed action figures that barely looked like the characters they were supposed to represent, plus the super-overpriced and super-clunky robot that nobody actually watches the show for. Yeah, that sure is gonna make people open up their wallets.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 11:54 am Reply with quote
Ashabel wrote:
Pretty sure that's because Playmates' contribution to the merchandise was hecking terrible. Five half-assed action figures that barely looked like the characters they were supposed to represent, plus the super-overpriced and super-clunky robot that nobody actually watches the show for. Yeah, that sure is gonna make people open up their wallets.


No one watches the show period, because the don’t use the robot, well, outside of hardcore shippers anyway. Kids were bored, and that boredom reflected in the toys outright bombing on all ends (with the sole exception apparently being the combining robot, which thanks to the deluxe set of all five being a Toys R Us exclusive before those stores went belly up, didn’t help). The VR game that was supposed to be the first of a series and starred Lance, the character the Tumblr fanbase loves? Bombed. Clothes? Bombed. The primary audience was bored and/or put off by the fandom and this is the end result, a dead franchise. Don’t blame Playmates for the writing boring kids to death because the EP’s didn’t like mecha.
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Scion Drake



Joined: 25 Nov 2017
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 6:24 pm Reply with quote
Beatdigga wrote:
Ashabel wrote:
Pretty sure that's because Playmates' contribution to the merchandise was hecking terrible. Five half-assed action figures that barely looked like the characters they were supposed to represent, plus the super-overpriced and super-clunky robot that nobody actually watches the show for. Yeah, that sure is gonna make people open up their wallets.


No one watches the show period, because the don’t use the robot, well, outside of hardcore shippers anyway. Kids were bored, and that boredom reflected in the toys outright bombing on all ends (with the sole exception apparently being the combining robot, which thanks to the deluxe set of all five being a Toys R Us exclusive before those stores went belly up, didn’t help). The VR game that was supposed to be the first of a series and starred Lance, the character the Tumblr fanbase loves? Bombed. Clothes? Bombed. The primary audience was bored and/or put off by the fandom and this is the end result, a dead franchise. Don’t blame Playmates for the writing boring kids to death because the EP’s didn’t like mecha.


I'm pretty sure the show's fanbase is not comprised entirely of shippers. Just because its the most volatile does not mean its indicative of it as a whole. Silent Majority and all that.

Even without the robot the ground combat is still good. IF you are a mecha fan, sucks to be you but there are things to like about the show beyond just the giant robot.
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Agent355



Joined: 12 Dec 2008
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Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready...
PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 8:31 pm Reply with quote
Beatdigga wrote:
Yeah, Dreamworks is putting the show out to pasture, letting the showrunners go to Sony, hasn’t been a peep of merchandise outside some Funko pops, and teaching the world Tumblr is not, nor will it ever be an accurate representation of public interest (although I would argue Firefly already did that.)

Rest in pieces Voltron, the franchise. At least now this disaster ensured no live action movie.

Can you provide sources that the merchandise didn't do well? I believe you, and I think that's a shame. It also makes sense that the Y-7 audience may not have flocked to it---the show focused on character drama more than humor or action, so it was geared more to middle schoolers and high schoolers. But Netflix doesn't release viewing numbers for any of their shows, so there's simply no way to know how popular it was with which demographics. All of that is speculation.

I don't believe you about the executive producers being let go, or that this is a cancellation rather than a natural end to the story. I heard nothing about the executive producers being let go, and they both appeared recently at NYCC to talk about how they've been building to the end of the show.

Also, Joaquim Dos Santos is a top-tier animation director who specializes in martial arts choreography. He's done amazing work his whole career, from Justice League to Avatar to Voltron, and all the hand-to-hand combat scenes are dynamic and fluid. It may not have had as much Giant Robot combat as old school fans craved, but the action was there.
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Beatdigga



Joined: 26 Oct 2003
Posts: 4352
Location: New York
PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2018 9:24 pm Reply with quote
Agent355 wrote:
Beatdigga wrote:
Yeah, Dreamworks is putting the show out to pasture, letting the showrunners go to Sony, hasn’t been a peep of merchandise outside some Funko pops, and teaching the world Tumblr is not, nor will it ever be an accurate representation of public interest (although I would argue Firefly already did that.)

Rest in pieces Voltron, the franchise. At least now this disaster ensured no live action movie.

Can you provide sources that the merchandise didn't do well? I believe you, and I think that's a shame. It also makes sense that the Y-7 audience may not have flocked to it---the show focused on character drama more than humor or action, so it was geared more to middle schoolers and high schoolers. But Netflix doesn't release viewing numbers for any of their shows, so there's simply no way to know how popular it was with which demographics. All of that is speculation.

I don't believe you about the executive producers being let go, or that this is a cancellation rather than a natural end to the story. I heard nothing about the executive producers being let go, and they both appeared recently at NYCC to talk about how they've been building to the end of the show.

Also, Joaquim Dos Santos is a top-tier animation director who specializes in martial arts choreography. He's done amazing work his whole career, from Justice League to Avatar to Voltron, and all the hand-to-hand combat scenes are dynamic and fluid. It may not have had as much Giant Robot combat as old school fans craved, but the action was there.


Certainly -

1. The toys bombing...was admitted by Playmates themselves when answering a fan query.

https://mobile.twitter.com/MarkOliver023/status/991715632449245186

Adding to that was the big Hyperphase Voltron being scaled back from a mass toy release to a convention exclusive. https://www.comicbookmovie.com/convention_news/comic-con/sdcc18-exclusive-hyper-phase-voltron-first-look-and-where-to-find-it-a162203

2. Dos Santos and Montgomery jumped ship from Dreamworks to Sony where they're going to be working on the new Spider-verse franchise. As the head EP's, if Voltron was continuing, that probably wouldn't have happened. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/spider-man-spider-verse-sequel-spinoff-works-sony-1164210

3. Dos Santos and Montgomery wanted to make Avatar in space, but that was not what people wanted to see, clearly. Advertising a big robot and never using it, instead going for comedy episodes and dull looking hand to hand fights clearly turned off the primary demographic. It's like I said before, like Firefly, a loud audience doesn't equal a numerous one.

The thing is, you're probably right about Dos Santos being a good martial arts director. Which is probably why he pitched Dreamworks a Street Fighter cartoon. https://twitter.com/jds_247/status/968954121469358081?lang=en Clearly they were impressed enough to give him Voltron, despite him and Montgomery not liking giant robots and actively fighting with the studio to use it less (and apparently chasing away sponsors as a result). It's not a good fit because their talents and interests lie elsewhere.
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Drac



Joined: 08 Apr 2005
Posts: 165
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 4:36 am Reply with quote
None of this loathing of the source material surprises me. Dos Santos and the other Avatar co-creator were interviewed on the official Nickelodeon podcast a while back and when the host asked them about Anime they praised Hayao Miyazaki but said everything else, they only name dropped Akira, was sexist.

They saw an opportunity to piggyback off Hayao Miyazaki's rising prominence in the USA and made a show with a generic Anime art style while trying to ape the feeling of a Studio Ghibli production. Avatar as a franchise was a financial failure for Viacom and other TV networks still don't want serialized action cartoons. The only reason Netflix wants to work with them is because nerd fandom might pay off like the Marvel movies did.

Good riddance to this raggedy Voltron franchise as a whole.
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Stampeed Valkyrie



Joined: 10 Aug 2014
Posts: 825
Location: PA
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 12:23 pm Reply with quote
I'm still up in the air about this series as a whole.. It's been up and down.. more downs then up. I'l stick with it to the end though as I am already invested this far.

My complaints about this series have been listed previously.. This is not Voltron.. this is Paladins. Voltron doesn't even make an appearance half the time. You don't make a remake of something and then leave out the core element for most of your episodes. But this alone doesn't kill this series.. I think it's the overall Political Correctification that Netflix is crapping on everything lately that really Killed this for me.

As for toys.. I went out and purchased several sets to check them out.. the combining plastic deluxe version, the smaller Diecast combining version.. and even managed to locate the Voltron 84 version which turned into Pure Unobtainium.
All sat on shelves.. except maybe the Voltron 84 version which was available for a whole 2 weeks and then vanished.
I didn't even know there was an all 5 lion gift set at Toys R Us until the store closed.. and by that point all the versions I found were beat to hell.


In conclusion.. lets hope this ends on a good point.. I will go back to an occasional rewatch of the original series.. and life will be good again.
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H. Guderian



Joined: 29 Jan 2014
Posts: 1255
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2018 1:31 pm Reply with quote
While I appreciate the decent work that went into the first, and just the first Avatar series, what happened to Voltron is suitably tragic. When the robot hardly appeared and our master of sass and jerk character gets turned into Sokka 3.0 I knew early they were going to miss the point. They might wind up making a show with good elements, but will drag it down by including something they don't care about. I've seen blatant toy commercials in shows more successful than this.

Voltron should be a giant robot toy commercial, and now these creators that have talents won't get more work because they're proven they will snub the 'toy sales' if they aren't fully on board. you're making a robot show, sell the robot and then focus on all your modern character updating.

Pay your bills before spending on yourself. They splurged the budget, a metaphor, on doing what they wanted to and lazily conceded they couldn't deliver on the core premise.
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