Lightspeed Electroid Albegas


Lightspeed Electroid Albegas is an anime series produced by Toei Animation, that aired in Japan from 1983 to 1984. The series was also later moderately popular in Latin America, Spain and Italy during the late eighties. 45 episodes were produced, clocking in at approximately 25 minutes each. The series is also known by other translations of its title, such as "Arbegas", "Arebegas", "Lightspeed ElectroGod Arbegas" and "Arbegas: El Rayo Custodio".

Original story and concept

Three talented students of Aoba Advanced Technology High School, Daisaku Enjōji, Tetsuya Jin, and Hotaru Mizuki, create award-winning robots as part of a school competition. At this time, the evil Derringer, a brutal alien race that has subjugated most of our galaxy, plots to control the universe so its ambition is also to conquer Earth and arrive through aggressive invasion. To combat this threat, Hotaru's father, Professor Mizuki, takes the three robots and modifies them for battle. Albegas, a super robot, is born.

Concept

The three individual robots form by stacking on top of one another to form a super robot called Albegas. There are six stackable formations. Each one serves a special function. Individually, the name of the robots are derived from the first three letters of the Greek alphabet. Albegas' weapon of choice is the Sanbai Plasma Sword, with which he defeats enemy Derinja robots by splitting them in half. Each robot also uses an individual sword.

Staff

Albegas members

Aoba School allies

Derinja (Derringer) Civilization

A race of purple-skinned beings led by Grand Deram, a sentient being made of energy which lives in the center of the Derinja's home planet Deram. "President" Azass is the leader of the invading force stationed at his orbital base and Generalissimo Duston his top army officer, until they are replaced in Episode 29 by Bios and his lieutenant Dari.
Their giant robots, called "Mecha-Fighters" and often prefixed with "Mecha-", act as monsters of the week. A few are piloted, and the pilot is usually killed when Albegas splits their Mecha-Fighter in half. Duston, Azass and Bios suffer this fate as well, while Dari is badly hurt but taken prisoner by the Albegas staff, dying later in their headquarters.
All remaining Derinja are dematerialized in Episode 45 when Albegas destroys Grand Deram and makes the Deram planet explode.
NameVoices by
President AzassEiji Kanie
President BiosHidekatsu Shibata
Generalissimo DustonMasaharu Satō
Generalissimo DariMasaharu Satō
Commander KatastraKōji Totani
Commander Mira ZeroSatomi Majima
Officer DimeReizō Nomoto
Grand DeramMasaharu Satō

Robots

A friend of the three pilots, Goro, also piloted the comic relief Gori Robo.

Stackable configurations

When combined, the first listed robot forms the upper torso, head, arms, and thighs of Albegas, the second robot listed forms the midriff, upper backpack, and the backs of the lower legs, and the third robot forms the waist, the lower backpack, and the prominent portion of the lower legs.

Super Abega and New Super Abega

In the beginning of the series, each pilot also used a smaller aircraft, which was flown in through small hatches into the backs of the robots in order to pilot the robots. The three aircraft could also combine into a single jet called the Super Abega.
They were very quickly replaced by a different set of small aircraft that could transform into different bipedal droid forms, and similarly combined into the New Super Abega.
Original JetTransforming Jet/RobotPilot
Jet AlphaNew Jet Alpha/Jetrobo AlphaDaisaku Enjoji
Jet BetaNew Jet Beta/Jetrobo BetaTetsuya Jin
Jet GammaNew Jet Gamma/Jetrobo GammaMizuki Hotaru

''Voltron'' and ''Albegas''

Albegas was intended to be incorporated into the Voltron universe as the third portion of the Voltron: Defender of the Universe series, but due to the extreme popularity of the GoLion-derived Voltron and lack of popularity of the Dairugger XV–adapted portion of the series, the plan was ultimately scrapped in favor of a season of newly-animated "Lion Voltron" episodes commissioned specifically for the American show. However, die-cast Albegas toys were still released as "Voltron II in the Matchbox Voltron toyline, and Albegas made a brief appearance as Gladiator Voltron in the Voltron comic book series.

Episodes

Arcade game

Albegas was a laserdisc arcade game produced by Sega, with Toei Animation producing the animation for it. It was released in Japan in March 1984.
In Japan, Game Machine magazine listed Albegas on their July 1, 1984 issue as being the tenth most-successful upright/cockpit arcade unit of the month. In North America, it was going to be published by Bally Midway for the U.S. under the title of Cybernault and a prototype video was made to demonstrate what the game would be like. However, the release of the game was cancelled.