Voltron, wait a second this seems familiar.

The next Anime series I would encounter in syndication was Voltron. There was something strikingly familiar between Voltron and Battle of the Planets: An older mentor, a charming leader, a stand offish second in command, a female, a fat guy, and a young kid; Civilian outfits, and color coded helmeted hero costumes. Voltron helped shake some of the cobwebs loose about a show I had watched when I was younger, oh yeah, the aforementioned Battle of the Planets. But now instead of a command ship that deployed each heroes unique vehicle, there were 5 robotic lion vehicles that could form into one Giant Robot. Voltron did have some advantages over BotP, but even with a Giant Robot, it didn't live up to the action packed battles seen in BotP those few short years earlier. Thankfully with the massive popularity of Voltron another hidden gem rose to the surface... tune in next post for the startling revelation.