Posted on November 7th 2015 by David Mapes
Of all the Visionaries toys the Holodrome remains the Holy Grail for Visionaries fans and collectors. For years fans pondered how far the Holodrome made it through production, with some unsubstantiated claims that the playset, and Season 2 characters, were released in parts of Europe. Could this be true, could the fabled Season 2 toys be out there? The answer is a simple no. We spoke to some of the team at Abrahams-Gentile, the original designers of and owners of the Visionaries brand, and they confirmed that the Holodrome and Season 2 figures did not make it to full production, although engineering pilots had been completed. The steel tools, used to cut the moulds, were manufactured and last seen in a factory in China in the 1980s. A handful of Engineering Pilots for Season 2 characters were produced for Hasbro, and it is believed they remain to this day in their archive facility. As for the Holodrome, it too made it to a completed Engineering Pilot stage (with a few examples being made) though their location remains unknown.
Categories Concept Artwork
Tagged Concept, Prototype, Paperwork, Toys, Iron Mountain, Holodrome
Posted on May 11th 2015 by David Mapes
Planned for release by Milton Bradley in Year 2 of Visionaries, Visionaries: The Game was a 2 dimensional board game where the premise of the game was to move your Visionaries characters around Prysmos in order to reach the Magical Light. The tagline to the Visionaries series is Knights of the Magical Light, and although the light is mentioned once in the cartoon series, the Magical Light is never mentioned in name (it is merely assumed that this light is the magical power which Merklynn bestows on the successful knights). In Visionaries: The Game the magical light was actually going to appear as some sort of crystal or light source and the end of the game, we assume indicating that your Knight then gains their power (or some other sort of power). The image below shows an early concept of the Magical Light at the end of the game. Interestingly the image below shows a trap, activated by your hand, pushing the knight away.
Categories Concept Artwork
Tagged Concept, Paperwork, Iron Mountain