The 1980s animated TV series Voltron: Defender of the Universe returns to the small screen, on the Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel, starting on February 18th.  Voltron episodes will run during the 10:30 pm (ET, PT) timeslot Monday through Friday for a year.  The Voltron cartoon was based on two anime series GoLion and Dairugger XV, and featured plenty of giant robot fighting action -- though much of the violence from the two original Japanese series was removed for the American cartoon, which ran on Saturday mornings and had to conform to the standards of the time for children's programming.

The tremendous success of the Transformers live action movie, which was based on another 1980s cartoon, has made it a near certainty that producer Mark Gordon will get to make a live action Voltron film (see 'Voltron Movie Close'), and the possibility of a major motion picture has energized the entire property. 

Media Blasters released its fifth collection of Voltron cartoon in December of 2007 and has three more planned for 2008.  Devil's Due is publishing a Voltron Complete Omnibus Hardcover ($49.99) later this month, and Toynami is producing collector-oriented Volton figures.