The History of Visionaries: The Hologram Gimmick Didn't Sell

The Visionaries cartoon is actually very good. Great voice acting and great script. Worth watching even in this day and age

I came for the holograms, but I stayed for the magical poems. "Three suns aligned, pour forth their light, And fill the Archer's bow with MIGHT!"

"Whispered secrets of a shattered age, I summon you: renew this sage!" An excellent but underrated series. The first episode with Merklynn (the Merlin of this series) giving them tests to determine who gets what totem was seriously good.

"Sheathe these feet in the driveing gale. Make swift these legs over land I sail." Sad. It's been 30 years, and I can still remember every incantation to release the totems of all Visionaries with staffs. Yet I don't remember the atomic weight of any element.. And I can't name more than 10 state capitals. It's funny the things that stick in your head. Thanks for the blast from the past. Now I'm off to find that Transformers /Visionaries comic.

I really enjoyed the Visionaries, great cartoon and good figures, and yes, I used to use them with other figure lines. The size difference didn’t matter to my imagination.

Parents FYI; You name your kid Darkstorm, he's probably going to grow up to be a super villain. Just sayin'.

Damn, I loved Visionaries! Can't wait to see a proper return with 6 inch articulated figures with actual holograms and huge animal translucent plastic figurine accessories for the projections. Always wanted that. Edit: Oh yeah, great vid btw!

Visionaries were badass. So cool to see them featured here!

I think the failure for me for visionaries was that, while the show was great, the figures never came with an animal form. I’m sure it was to keep the price down, but the lack of an animal form kept the full magic of the show from being realized during playtime.

Back in the 80s, there was a toy convention in Toronto called "A Time For Children" which would showcase new toy lines. I remember Visionaries had a big display there, and my friend and I were blown away by the cool holograms (which were a relatively new thing, and while it was a gimmick for sure, we still thought it was cool). I never did have any, but i did watch the cartoon when it was out, and found, like many cartoons of the 80s, it very quickly fell into a formula of good guys getting themselves into trouble, running low on magical energy, and doing one last ditch effort to use their magical animal forms to get out of whatever ridiculous situation they got into.

I actually I enjoyed the Visionaries as a kid. Those rhyming summoning verses were pretty cool to memorize.

You guys are crushing it with the "History of" vids lately, thanks for doing this one. Even though I only owned 2 to 4 figures from this line it still was one of my favorites from my youth. It's up there with Sectaurs. Keep up the awesome work!!!

I love Visionaries. I've got a sweet Cryotech bear tattoo. :)

Thank you for posting about Visionaries... amazing artwork for the opening title scene

Totally dug that cartoon. Can't believe it only lasted 13 episodes though. Sidenote: I love how Dan holds his hands like he's moving an invisible ostich egg from left to right.

I loved these as a kid, had almost all of them. I was genuinely shocked when it didnt take off. I thought and still do think it was a really great IP. Great video thank you.

This video is near and dear to my heart. I loved that toy line and still do. I had all the figures and vehicles. Someday I’d like to have them again.

One of my all time favorite shows. The premise was so good too - post apocalyptic world ruled by magic with semi-tec knights fighting each other in a feudal society. Sounds badass. It blew my mind as a kid before I discovered D&D.

Visionaries cartoons were awesome. The overall premise was a little out there, but they had remarkably solid episodes and relatable characters. This show surely deserved a longer run.

Witterquick was my jam back in the day. Red? Gray? Boomerang? Cheetah? Sweet eye-slitted helmet? Winning mix of awesome.