Metalions (series)

**Metalions** (메탈리온) (核晶少年 Nuclear Crystal Youth) is a 3D animation cartoon (2018-2020) created by Winsing Animation in association with Young Toys. It reuses mecha designs from **Biklonz**, an older IP from Young Toys.

## Story

*While cleaning his house, eight-year-old Elon finds a summoning device and scooter left behind by his brilliant scientist grandfather. While riding the scooter and wearing the summoning device on his wrist he gets into a dangerous situation. Just then, the Archean necklace his grandfather left behind starts lighting up and summons an ancient Infinite Warrior (a Metalion) named Leo. Leo saves Elon from danger, and develops a liking for Elon. The newly reawakened Leo is appalled by the unruliness of humans and is saddened that Earth’s energy had long been depleted. Leo explains to Elon how he’s a Infinite Warrior and used to be his grandfather’s friend. Leo asks Elon to help him find all the remaining Archean Stones to restore the Earth’s energy. Elon designs a stone detector and uses it to begin his journey with Leo. The pair set off in search of the stones scattered around the world.*

*10살 소년, 우주가 위험에 처한 순간, 할아버지의 아키언 스톤 목걸이에서 갑자기 빛이 나오고, 그 부름을 들은 메탈리온, 리오가 등장한다. 리오는 우주를 구하고 둘은 친구가 된다. 오랜 세월 잠들어 있던 리오는 그동안 지구가 인류의 무분별한 개발로 인해 에너지를 잃은 사실에 상심한다. 지구를 구하기 위해 우주와 리오는 전 세계에 흩어져 있는 아키언 스톤을 찾는 긴 여정을 시작한다.*

*동물 변신 휴머노이드 로봇, 메탈리온애니메이션 속 메탈리온을 완구로 만나보세요!*

## Characters

* Elon
* Donald
* Kira
* Alvin
* Harrison
* Theodore
* Leonard

### Infinity Warriors

* Taurus
* Leo
* Aries
* Scorpio
* Ursa
* Hurricane
* Aero
* Ghost
* Eclipse
* Infinity

### Mega Beasts

* Direwolf
* Sabertooth
* Argentavis
* Mammoth
* Giant Elk
* Cross Attacker
* Thunder Guardian
* Barbarian King

### Antagonists

* Sigma
* Leonard
* Beverlick
* Puppeter
* Agent R

## Episodes

Metalions spans a total of 104 11-minute episodes which are split into four seasons in China and two seasons just about everywhere else,

List of Metalions Episodes

## Credits

### English Cast

* Alex Bergen - Alvin, Leonard
* Daegan Manns -
* Daniel Nelles -
* Declan o' Reily -
* Emma Fowler Houghton -
* Fraser Tuff - Sigma
* Griffin Kingston - Theodore
* Hans Wackershauser -
* Jochanan Dufresne - Elon
* Jonathan Molinski - Argentavis
* Josh Meredith -
* Joseph Girgis - Donald
* Maureen Jones - Raven
* Michael Shepherd - Mammoth
* Murray Farnell - Sabretooth
* Natash Strickey -
* Olivia Duke - Kira
* Roger Rhodes - Taurus, Elon's Father
* Rylan Strachan - Leo
* Scott Roberts - Harrison

## Reception

### South Korea

Pictures of Metalions was initially leaked on the Korean interweb in late 2017 and were met with heavy backlash from fans of Tobot, Biklonz, and Athlon. This was coming off of the end of the contract between Young Toys and Retrobot, which cancelled the three shows listed, and fans were already frustrated at Young Toys for cutting off the shows they enjoyed. The decision to use the Biklonz toys in Metalions was particularly a point of tension as Biklonz was pitched by Retrobot, even if the designs themselves were made by Young Toys. The situation worsened when Metalions ended up being globally distributed instead of Biklonz, especially when Young Toys decided to bring the series to Korea (thus selling the same toys twice with a 2-5 year gap).

The series was brought up to the admin of the Retrobot blog, who was surprised to see the Biklonz toys being used like this and stated that this would understandably make fans upset. This reply later resurfaced during the drama regarding the release of Tobot Galaxy Detectives, and some users criticized Retrobot for their handling of the issue and stated that they were essentially giving their fans the OK to vehemently hate on Young Toys and the Metalions franchise.

As of 2020, Metalions has ended its run in Korea, however, and commercial and critical reception isn't quite up to speed, to say the least.

Toy sales have been cited to be generally very poor, with some stating that the sales figures were even worse than that of Biklonz. One of the causes of this is likely the fact that all the DX toys are just repainted versions of the Biklonz mecha with less features, which makes them unappealing for any families or collectors who happen to already have the Biklonz versions. Around two and a half years had passed since Biklonz had been cancelled when Metalions was released in Korea, so there were some collectors who picked them up since they missed out the first time around (and quite a few families who didn't even know what Biklonz was definitely bought some for their kids), but within that interval were several opportunities to get the Biklonz toys - including from Young Toys themselves at one point.

In addition to that, several people noted the significantly higher number of quality control issues with the Metalions versions of the figures, which involved paint, molding, joints, or all of the above. (Ironically, Biklonz had QC issues too, mostly involving the soundboxes not functioning properly; Metalions removes all of these soundboxes but now has QC issues *everywhere else*.) It wasn't all bad news, though; the smaller Auto Changer and Mini lines, which were completely new designs for Metalions specifically, were generally well-received. Notably, a pair of tweets from toy reviewer and Young Toys partner Koora showcasing the Auto Changers of Cross Attacker and Thunder Guardian blew up in popularity, so it wasn't like the toyline was a complete garbagefest, even if sales were less than desirable.

On the side of the cartoon is where things get a little messy, because Metalions had to compete with the critically acclaimed Biklonz series - and to many people, it didn't even get close. Most agreed that Metalions looked better visually, mainly pertaining to the shiny high-quality textures on all the models and the well-made stock footage, but Biklonz topped it on every other level, from the characters and storyline to the special effects and action sequences (though Metalions arguably did have some good action as well). One of the more glaring issues was the quality of the dialogue, which had been directly translated from Ocean Productions's English dub rather than the original Chinese version. Ocean's scriptwriting is fairly decent in English, but it felt very awkward when translated into Korean.

## Links

### External Links

* http://www.youngtoys.com/kor/product/list.do?brand1=13
* https://en.winsing.net/star/56.html