Welcome to The Visionaries.net. The Visionaries .net is a resource dedicated to the 1980s toy / cartoon / comic toy lines known as The Visionaries by Hasbro Inc, Marvel Inc and Sunbow Productions.. Here you can discover, or re-discover, the characters, the stories and the legends which made up one of the greatest cartoons of all time.

This website contains:

• Full episode guides - including image gallery, missing scenes, bloopers as well as general notes.
• Profiles of every character - including some which never made it into the show.
• Full toy gallery - including information on variants, unreleased toys / prototypes from both series
• Full comic archive - consisting of comic covers, information on US / UK releases and credits.
• Video cover archive - we hope to cover every different video / dvd release of the series.
• Map of Prysmos - containing information on every town, city and place of interest on their planet.

Some of this information has NEVER been seen before, on the web, and unless you've studied the series as much as us, and gone through all the original scripts, you should find somthing that you previously did not know.

We've been fans of the series since it was released in 1987 and, after buying a computer, have always wanted to create a Visionaries website. Information on the series was hard to come by, but thanks to Metrodome there is now a DVD available to buy, and we have finally had the time to turn our vision into reality. We hope you enjoy your time on this site.

 

The Visionaries .net team

Summary

Visionaires is based on a post cataclysmic world, known as Prysmos, which resembles medieval times. Their world was thrown into chaos due to a cosmic occurrence, when the three suns of Prysmos came into alignment, and caused all technology on the planet to fail.

After some time a new order rose from the rubble, made up of several kingdoms. A great wizard, known as Merklynn, offered a new hope with the dawn of a new age, the Age of Magic.

Origin of the line

Back in 1987 Hasbro designed a toy line, accompanied by a 13 episode cartoon series and 6 part comic mini-series, called the Visionaries. This line incorporated action figures and holograms (which were believed to be the next "big thing" at the time). The line held in-different sales, neither good nor bad, but due to the high costs of making the holograms feature on the toys Hasbro cancelled the line after Series 1. A second serious of toys were produced, though the numbers are unknown, these can be seen as prototypes in various catalogues and advertisements. The comic series, produced by Marvel (originally under their Star Comics banner) ended in the middle of a four part story, so at least two un-published issues were probably created, at least to storyboard form.

17 years on Metrodome, a UK based production company released the series on DVD, which saw an increase in the awareness and popularity of the line increase. The DVD sold well and a US release was planned, by Rhino, who later discovered that they did not own the rights to distribute through North America.

Through the interim years between the series being released and Metrodome's DVD release, information on this series has been incredibly sparse (there were only two dedicated websites on the Internet). This has grown now, to four, and there are more sites which have Visionaries sections.

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The Story

It is a time where magic is more powerful than science, and only those who control the magic, control destiny. They are THE VISIONARIES!!

Far away in a distant galaxy, the people of the planet Prysmos lived in an age of great technology. They had taken control of all of the sources of energy, and enjoyed a life of comfort and ease for 7,000 years... but this was not to last, for the realignment of the three blazing suns of Prysmos signaled the end of the age of science and technology. When all of the electrical energy have been depleted from the world, an age of magic began. But it would take some time before men would believe this.

Years passed, and as the old order collapsed a new more primitive order rose form the rubble. Knowing that the balance of power between Darkstorm and Leoric could easily be tipped, both frantically searched for a military advantage. The ancient wizards Merklynn contacted both parties and told them that he was seeking brave knights, men and women of vision, as he wished to teach them the ways of magic.

Darkstorm was very skeptical, as was Leoric, although after a little display by Merklynn he conceded that perhaps there was magic. Not to be outdone by his adversary, Darkstorm also agreed to partake in the quest for magic.

Several knights then quest for magic, with only 14 succeeding. They were rewarded by giving them animal totems, which represented their true self in animal form. Those knights who carried staffs were also given great powers, such as Wisdom, Knowledge, Destruction, Invulnerability, Fear and a variety of others. Those knights without staffs were given the ability to empower vehicles.

The knights then split into two groups, the Spectral Knights, led by Leoric (the Prince of New Valarak) and the Darkling Lords, led by Darkstorm (a lord who lives in a castle in a swampland). The two sides battle each other for control of the magic, as well as the rule of New Valarak and Prysmos.