One of my favorite animated television programs from my childhood in the 1980s is VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE. The series follows the adventures of two teams of space explorers.  The first team, the Voltron Lion Force, consists of five members — Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk and Princess Allura — each of whom flies a giant, robotic lion. When attacked by the forces of Planet Doom, the lions provide a formidable line of defense, but when their might isn’t enough, the lions can unite into Voltron, a mighty robot loved by good, feared by evil. The second team, the Voltron Vehicle Team, had fifteen members who are divided equally into three sub-teams: the Air Team, led by Jeff, the Land Team, led by Cliff, and the Sea Team, led by Krik. Each team member pilots a combat-ready exploration vehicle, and each sub-team’s vehicles can unite into a faster and more powerful “sub-unit.” The Air Team’s vehicles form the Strato Fighter, the Land Team’s vehicles form the Turbo Terrain Fighter and the Sea Team’s ships form the Aqua Fighter. When neither the fifteen individual vehicles nor the three sub-unit ships can adequately defend all that is good from all that is bad, the fifteen vehicles can combine into another might robot called Voltron.

Although each Voltron had its fans, Lion Voltron was by far the more popular among kids of the 1980s. In the late 1990s, an all-new animated series, VOLTRON: THE THIRD DIMENSION, followed the further adventures of the Voltron Lion Force. Many of the voice actors from VOLTRON: DEFENDER OF THE UNIVERSE returned to reprise some of their roles, and the show’s visual effects and motion-capture-based animations were very advanced for their time.

On June 16, Nicktoons will debut another, all-new animated Voltron series — VOLTRON FORCE. Keith, Lance, Pidge, Hunk and Princess Allura are back, and they’re joined by three new cadets. Earlier today Nicktoons released an HD-quality trailer for VOLTRON FORCE, and it’s made me even more excited to watch the show.

Check it out!