Vehicle Voltron drawn by Meredith Mulroney
The Voltron Vehicle Force (aka Voltron I and Voltron of the Near Universe) is the incarnation of Voltron composed of fifteen all-terrain vehicles. Piloted by a multispecies team of space explorers, the Voltron Vehicle Force defends the Galaxy Garrison exploration fleet tasked with searching for new habitable planets to support an overpopulated Earth. The Drule Empire, on a similar mission, confronts the fleet at every opportunity. Can the Drules be convinced that cooperation is the best hope for both sides?
As Voltron was always marketed as a single series, "Vehicle Force" is not a canonical name, but is widely-used in the fandom to distinguish this incarnation from the others. Another common nickname is "Vehicle Voltron"
Characters
Also see these pages until their info is properly migrated to appropriate pages
The Voltron Force[1]
Air Team
- Jeff Dukane
- Rocky
- Wolo
- Chip Stoker
- Ginger
Land Team
- Cliff
- Cinda
- Modoc
- Marvin
- Hutch
Sea Team
- Cric
- Lisa
- Tagor
- Shannon
- Zandee
Allies
- Commander James Hawkins
- Captain Newley
Enemies
- Hazar
Comic Books
Devil's Due Publishing, current comic book license-holder, introduced the Vehicle Force in one of its story arcs, though the focus shifted back to the Lion Force after that arc's conclusion.
Unlike the animated series, which only had two crossovers with the Lion Force (once at the end of the Lion Force run, and the other in the "Fleet of Doom" special, which brought both Voltrons together), and which depicted the two Voltron Forces as being longstanding friends, the comics showed Keith and Jeff as having an antagonistic relationship with one another, particularly with regard to the Lion Voltron's supposed "sneak attack" on the Vehicle Voltron.
Plot
Promotional Shot of Vehicle Voltron
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, and the Drules 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.
Team Dynamics
This Voltron team consisted of 15 members, who were divided into three teams of five, known respectively as the Land, Sea, and Air Teams. Each team was specialized in gathering data or fighting in their area of expertise. Each team could also combine their vehicles into a bigger machine, with each combined vehicle differing amongst the three teams. These fighters were:
- The Aqua Fighter (Sea Team)
- The Turbo Terrain Fighter (Land Team)
- The Strato Fighter (Air Team)
When necessary, all 15 vehicles combine to form the mighty Voltron. This Voltron in the toyline was referred to as Voltron I (also called the Vehicle Team), since it was planned to be the first Voltron to be released.
The Voltron of the Future
Based on Armored Fleet Dairugger XV, this Voltron premiered after Voltron Lion Force. This is due to a tape mix-up, originally this was to be the first Voltron to premiere. 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. The machine was referred to in one issue as V-15, and was actually attacked by the Lion Voltron in order to repair itself.
In early episodes, it was mentioned that the Vehicle Voltron, once assembled, had only five minutes of nuclear operational capability. This angle promptly vanished during later episodes.
Episode Guide
- ↑ The original TV series only provided first names; middle and surnames were first provided in the Devil's Due comics series