2019 Geek-A-Long: Voltron

This week the Geek-A-Long pays homage to one of my husband’s favorite childhood cartoons: Voltron! He was so hyped up about the square that Jac and I invited him to be a guest GAL blogger this week to share his love of Voltron with all of you. With no more ado, I give you “Kevin’s love letter to Voltron: A glimpse into how toys impact our fandoms.” ;) ~Megan-Anne

Whether you’re knitting, crocheting, or cross stitching this square, you can download the Voltron pattern here. Instructions and charts for both knit and crochet are listed in the pattern. When you’re finished making it, don’t forget to Instagram your squares at us @lattesandllamasyarn with the hashtag #geekalong! Want to hang out with other people making the blanket? You can find moral support in the Geek-A-Long group on Ravelry here.

What’s cooler than one robot? Five robots that turn into a bigger robot, that’s what. Voltron was one of my favorite toys growing up, alongside the transformers that combined into a massive transformer. I remember watching the cartoon, but the plot never stuck with me. Just the parts with the giant robots. The original show was an adaptation of a Japanese anime, and then there was a type of Voltron that was made up of vehicles rather than lions. It was the coolest toy.

My dad and brother were into model cars. I thought they were OK, but one time they had a model for the vehicle Voltron and it was magical. I built the pieces that built the robot. Its long lost to time and childhood, but when Gundam model kits started coming to America around 2000, I fell back in love with building small plastic robots. Nothing can ever compares to the excitement I felt ripping into a strange box covered in Japanese writing. It was a toy and a mystery because I also got to intuit the directions from the confusing pictures. I built robots and character at the same time!

Voltron was rebooted by Dreamworks for Netflix. It’s pretty great. The show is very different from the plot of the original and much more interesting. Sometimes there is a big robot fight, but more often than not, it’s the pilots out of the lions being awesome. It makes the action so much more interesting to know the stakes to every fight are so personal. The animation is great and it’s a fun show.

Megan-Anne didn’t consult me before making the square. Her and Jac put the elemental symbols for the five lions on them, and that’s pretty cool. But, I told her that she should have made the square out of five smaller squares that come together to form one big square! She told me that I had, “literally just described the process of joining a blanket, which happens at the end of the year.” So, I’ve decided to view this year’s blanket as a bunch of smaller “lion-squares” forming a giant warm wooly Voltron.

~Kevin

See ya later Pala-dudes!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider making a donation to Child’s Play Charity. Here is a direct link to our official donation page benefiting the charity. Please help us raise $1,000 this year. No contribution is too small! Wanna make your donation go even further? Lattes & Llamas will donate $1 for every skein of Geek-A-Long Yarn purchased.