Photon

Photon is a classic TV series featuring one of cinemas greatest anti-heroes, David Stay's "Mandarr". Watch as the Aryan Empire seek to conquer the galaxy with their new super-weapon, the blacking ray. Can Bodhi-Lee, our protagonist of questionable character, stop the Aryans and more to the point, SHOULD he?

Watch what George Lucas called "the series I should have made".

"Prepare to get blacked" - Mandarr

I've seen many people stating that "Lazer Tag" came out first, and "Photon" copied them. ACTUALLY, "Photon" was developed in the late 70's, while "Lazer Tag" came out in the mid 80's.

This was actually a pretty cool kids show - (Looking back) the only thing I find that sucked about it was their use of popular music of the day... only sung by nameless singers instead of the original artist. Just didn't sound as good. ;(

the game gear for Photon is also very hard to find compared to Lazer Tag - until recently(2 sets were auctioned off this week - SHOCKING!), the only set I had ever seen for sale was back in 1998.

This show has been a wonderful introduction into vintage 1980s action, made in collaboration with the people who made Super Sentai. Introduced to me by the great philanthropist and businessman Patrick O'shaughnessy who made allusions to how the struggles of our hero Bhodi Li helped him to overcome his hurdles in life. I find it heartwarming how Parcival and Tivia were able to defeat the evil Arrian empire and their attempts to blacken planets and turn their photon crystals into the darkness. Heavy recommend.

Remembering back to the 80's, I get chills of nostalgia. Toys, Video games and all playthings just got reinvented and/or turned on it's ear. Back when the Rubik's Cube was at it's peak, Worlds of Wonder released LAZER TAG. This craze became the rage, but when it came to the Entertainment Marketing, we got a horrible Saturday Morning Cartoon. Entertech, a division of LJN toys, countered with PHOTON. Like it's counterpart, you got a PHASER, a Sensor, but also a Helmet with lights and sensors as well. They didn't stop there. Action figures with the same InfraRed Tag tech followed. Actual Characters that we can get into. Then to top it all off, the LIVE ACTION TV Show. I remember all of the SCI FI Space stuff, kind of a STAR WARS meets POWER RANGERS feel. The Plot. EVERY world has a light orb that lasts 100 years. If the orb is charged by the good guys, everything is beautiful for that time. If the orb is charged with Darkness from the bad guys, the planet becomes a wasteland. So the battle ensues. The good guys fly around in the ZEPHYR with MOM, their computer leader. They use the PHOTON centers as a training facility. Chris Jarvis/BHODI LI becomes the best player and is recruited to join the team of good. He is taken in by: Tivia, warrior princess of Nivia; Parcival, adolescent computer geek from Earth (we think); Lord Beathen, Robotic Ninja Warrior; Leon, the giant Lizard Hero; and Pike, who looks like a Mr. Potato Head. It was a Grandfather to the Power Rangers but without the Bulk and Skull like cheese. More serious like the newer Rangers series. All in all, lots of fun for what it was. Not everything has to win an award to be fun.

And YES, AGAIN IMDb is displaying the wrong COVER to this series. What is pictured is an ANIME that is completely UNRELATED.

It could only happen in the 80's. Take one of America's fastest rising animation studios. Add the notion of doing a scifi kids show entirely in Japan just to capture the campiness of Japanese directing. Use mostly bluescreen sets to shoot on. And finally, base the entire show on the fad phenomenon of the 80's Photon Laser Gaming and this is what you get. In typical 80's fashion you get 30 minute stories with some decent action and attempt at entertainment (they really did try folks.) which also in typical 80s fashion bodyslam you with a moral message come the end. What wasn't so typical was the fact that it was probably the only kids show to feature knock offs of popular 80's hits, okay this show and that blasted Kidd Video, but anyway what could be better than watching a cool teen space warrior blasting at bad guys with Photon guns and doing cool gymnastics with other colorful space warriors to "Danger Zone". Well its gone now, or maybe not, perhaps when DIC gets its "Entertainment Network" going (whenever that is) they will revive this little gem for the new generation to gawk at.