Under The Tempurung: Go team!

Carebears (colorful and cuddly), Ninja Turtles (Americanized ninjas), Thundercats (fighting cats lah), Justice League (who doesn't know them), Power Rangers (duh), Powerpuff (sugar, spice and all things nice), Team Titans (it's Teen, Teen), and... Voltron.

"Hah, Voltron? Whassat?"
"Does it have something to do with lightning ah? You know, volts?"
"Faster go Google!"

8 groups named after famous action figure cartoons for the upcoming SJGC Youth Camp, and I had to get the one animation I'd never heard of. Well, it's good to learn something new everyday. This cartoon seems to be a popular one from the uh, earlier generation. Not too different from Transformers, actually.

Voltron is a series of animated television programmes, the first of which was titled Voltron: Defender of the Universe. There has since been a second series, made in the 1990s using CGI techniques. The 1980s Voltron series was based on two unrelated Japanese anime series GoLion and Dairugger XV. The anime was later dubbed into English and edited by the North American television production and distribution company World Events Productions.

There are two Voltron variations:

Lion Force Voltron (Voltron of the Far Universe)

The first episodes featured a team of five young pilots commanding five robot lions - blue, yellow, green, red and black, which could be combined to form Voltron. In this undefined future era, the Voltron Force was in charge of protecting the planet Arus (ruled by Princess Allura) from the evil King Zarkon of planet Doom, his son Lotor, and the witch Haggar, who would create huge Robeasts to terrorize the people of Arus.

Vehicle Voltron (Voltron of the Near Universe)

In this iteration of Voltron, the Galaxy Alliance's home planets have become overcrowded, and a fleet of explorers has been sent to search for new planets to colonize. Along the way, they attract the attention of the evil Drule Empire (long engaged in an ongoing war against the Alliance) who proceed to interfere in the mission of the explorers and the colonists. Since the Voltron of Planet Arus was too far away to help the explorers, a totally new Voltron is constructed to battle the Drule threat.

This Voltron team consisted of 15 members, who were divided into three teams of five. Each team was specialized in gathering data or fighting in their area of expertise. They could also combine their vehicles into a bigger machine. These were known respectively as the Aqua Fighter (Sea team), Turbo Terrain Fighter (Land team), and Strato Fighter (Air team). When necessary, all 15 vehicles combine to form the mighty Voltron.

According to the back story provided by World Events Productions, the Vehicle Voltron was constructed after consultations by the Galaxy Alliance with Planet Arus's King Alfor before his death, with the new Voltron's designs retrofitted in part from the original, much older, Lion Voltron schematics. However, in the continuity of the recent comic by Image and Devil's Due Publishing, the Vehicle Voltron came about through the capture and study of the original Voltron on Arus by forces from Earth itself. Thus, while machines cannot truly be cloned, this new Voltron could be considered an imperfect clone of the original Lion Voltron.

Vehicle and Lion Voltron.
To be honest, they look more like vacuum cleaner and bionic dog.

Now I gotta go scratch head over how to dress up, or rather, what to dress up as for Fun Nite. Costumes and action figures aren't exactly my forte. Wouldn't it be nice if I could just be a cute little Carebear - plaster myself with hearts, rainbows, fluffy clouds and twinkly stars, and shower everyone with love, joy and peace.