It’s the first Saturday of the last month of Summer, so you know we’re going to have to go big! So with that, grab a bowl of your favorite cereal, get comfy and get ready to dive in to some Saturday Morning Cartoons with a viewing of Voltron: Fleet of Doom, the story that brought us the team up between Lion Voltron and Vehicle Voltron!
Fun Fact: I ditched school in the 3rd grade to be able to watch this on WPIX in NY one morning, as it was too epic to miss out on. Check it out –
From Wiki:
Voltron: Fleet of Doom is a television special involving heroes of both Voltron series working together to defeat their sworn enemy, King Zarkon, who aligns with the remnants of Emperor Zeppo’s Drule Empire to create a mighty armada called the Fleet of Doom.
As the two anime both Voltrons were adapted from (Beast King GoLion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV) never crossed over in their original forms, Toei was commissioned to create entirely original animation footage to create this movie.
The movie was released later on DVD by the company originally responsible for taking the Japanese source material and bringing it to American audiences, World Events Productions (WEP).
Plot
In his attempt to destroy the Galaxy Alliance, King Zarkon allies himself with Viceroy Throk of the Drule Supreme Council to create a mighty armada known as the Fleet of Doom. To stop Zarkon and his allies, the heroes of both Voltron series must join forces to stop them before they can destroy the Alliance. But when Princess Allura is captured by Witch Haggar, Keith sets out to rescue her so that they can rejoin their friends in time to stop the Fleet of Doom from destroying the secret power base of the Galaxy Alliance.
Cast
- Peter Cullen – Commander Hawkins, Coran, King Alfor, Narrator, Viceroy Throk, Hutch
- Michael Bell – Lance, Krik, Shannon, Marvin, Modok, Wolo
- Lennie Weinrib – Hunk, Prince Lotor, Cliff, Rocky
- Neil Ross – Keith, Jeff, Pidge, Chip
- B.J. Ward – Princess Allura, Haggar, Cinda, Ginger, Lisa
- Jack Angel – King Zarkon, Cossack
This special brings back so many memories. Simpler times, my friends. Simpler times.
With that, I want to thank each and every one of you for spending time here on the ‘Port just to geek out and watch cartoons with us. I mean this sincerely when I say that me and my boys really enjoy the idea of watching cartoons with you all, so I hope the same can be said for you!
SURVEILLANCE PORT 
Fleet of Doom is epic! As much as I love Voltron, any mention of it also conjures up a mishap from my youth.
It was the summer of 1988. School was out, and I would spend most of my days riding my bike to the friendly local comic shop. I still have a subscription to G.I. Joe at this point, but Robotech and anime-adjacent things are my current obsession. I found out there’s going to be a comic convention in a few weekends. It’s not far from my best friend’s house, so we scheme to get our parents’ permission to go. His dad will drop us off and pick us up. Our tickets were like $5 or something (two weeks’ allowance for me back then) and they also enter us in a raffle for-wait for it-a MIB complete Voltron! The raffle will be the last event for the con, and I have to beg my best friend’s dad to let us stay until the raffle is over. I’m glad he did, because I won!
Fast forward to later that summer. My parents are having a cookout and my best friend happens to be there. There are a bunch of younger kids there, and Max and I are expected to keep them entertained. Thankfully they brought some of their own toys, and everything goes fine until one of them decides to go to my room and get Voltron. Back then the SDF-1 and Voltron were like the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant. They were not to be touched by anyone but me. Voltron ends up being a little too heavy for this kid and you can guess what happened. I’m pissed off the rest of the night and I noticed that he brought two Robotech figures with him-Max Sterling and Roy Fokker. I don’t have these two, so they become reparations. I still have them to this day, but Voltron is long gone.
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Wow, what a crazy story! Brother, I can’t believe how similar our paths are.
Please forgive me as I most definitely don’t want to steal your thunder, but I can share an almost similar story – Swap the kids for an aunt that didn’t realize it would be so heavy and dropped it from my hiding spot on the top of Nonna’s china cabinet. It came down right on the blue lion and split her legs open. In trying to fix the leg, it was crazy-glued in to a closed / converted position.
My uncle later divorced that woman, so my reparations come in the form of making pretend he did so for disrespecting the defender of the universe in such a way.
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Voltron: Fleet of Doom, for all its flaws, is never short on action. Thank you for talking about it.
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