Sadly cancelled before they got aHector Ramirez cameo.

Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light was a short-lived toyline released byHasbro in 1987. The series was set on the alien world ofPrysmos, a technological utopia which was suddenly plunged into a feudal, medieval state when the "Age of Science" came to an end and the new "Age of Magic" began. The heroic Spectral Knights and villainous Darkling Lords struggled for control of his new world using magical powers gifted to them by the wizard Merklynn, famously represented in the toyline as colourful holograms on the figures' chests and weapons.

As a contemporary ofTransformers,Visionaries received a similar dual-pronged advertising push. The line was given an animated series (lasting only one season of thirteen episodes) co-produced bySunbow Productions andTMS Entertainment, featuring many voice actors who also worked onTransformers and scripted byFlint Dille,Buzz Dixon, andDouglas Booth, and most importantly as far as this article is concerned, a comic book fromMarvel Comics. Like everything else to do with the line, the comic book did not last long, running to only six issues and being cancelled halfway through a four-part story. Regardless of this failure, the UK branch of Marvel Comics reprinted the series, but it performed evenworse there, and their comic only managed to reprintfour of the six issues before folding. They also reprinted the first issue again in an annual released in 1988. The final two issues of the original comic were then split into eight smaller parts, and printed asback-up strips in the UKTransformers comic, running from#183 to#190, during which time the series was brandedThe Transformers & Visionaries. A few months later,Visionaries returned to the UK comic when the first issue alone was reprinted yet again (presumably to piggy back off the animated series belatedly appearing on British TV that spring as part of Children'sBBC's flagship Saturday morning seriesGoing Live), this time split up intoseven parts and included in issues#213 through#219.

Years later,Visionaries would share another unusual connection withTransformers when Hasbro reused the name of the brawny Spectral Knight Cryotek for a newRobots in Disguise character.

In 2017, after some heavy foreshadowing,Visionaries joined the ongoingHasbro Universe, receiving acrossover comic that pits the characters against the Transformers.

Fiction

Animated continuity

Swindle thinks theDarkling Lords ofPrysmos might be good customers, and plans to use his experience with theAngry Archer as a primer to speaking their quasi-medieval lingo.AllSpark Almanac

2005 IDW continuity

After the Trinary Re-Alignment had reverted Prysmos to an arcane state, the wizardMerklynn chose a group ofPrysmosians onto whom he imparted artifacts of great magical power to become his Visionaries.Schismatic Merklynn masterminded that one incarnation of the group splinter into the Darkling Lords andSpectral Knights wanting to take advantage of the fires of the change brought about by the charismatic Darkstorm.Good Men

This age would not last however. Eventually the ternary stars drifted out of alignment, unleashing gravitational forces that tore Prysmos apart. Though millions of Prysmosians died, the majority of the Visionaries managed to escape their planet.SchismaticStranger Eons

A shape resembling that of the Visionaries' hexagonal chestplates appeared on a wall inside theTomb of Amtoltec inDahshur,Egypt alongside other hieroglyphs, some of which depictedShockwave and theMicronautsAcroyear andBiotron.The Secret of the Mummy's Tomb

In2018, the surviving Visionaries came to inhabit the city ofNew Prysmos onCybertron where they debated how to proceed with regards to theirCybertronian hosts, though not all the Visionaries chose to attend the meetings.Schismatic

The Visionaries splintered even further afterVirulina murderedKup and declared war on the Cybertronians. The Spectral Knights opposed her plan of genocide but in doing so, they earned the ire of the ordinary Prysmosian citizens and were chased out of New Prysmos. The Darkling Lords then consolidated their hold on the city while the Knights sought out the Cybertronians as allies to derail the plans of Merklynn and the Lords.Cybertron No More

Seeking to heal the rift between Darkling Lords and Spectral Knights, Virulina sought the remainder of the Spectral Knights, now underCryotek's command, and convinced them to pledge allegiance to her.Desperate Measures Merklynn had his own plans for reunification and convincedArzon to join his cause and to one day become leader of the Visionaries in the new world order.Good Men AfterGaladria's healing magic had given a happy ending to virtually all parties, the Spectral Knights assumed full control of New Prysmos with Leoric as leader once again.The Curtain

WhenUnicron attacked Cybertron,Windblade sought out Leoric to use Prysmosian magic to teleport the Cybertronian race toEarth. Though the Visionaries managed to evacuate Cybertron before Unicron destroyed it, Windblade noted they'd hadn't made the trip to Earth.Road's End Unbeknownst to the Cybertronians, the Visionaries had been sent back to the prehistoric past of Prysmos where they dissolved their factions and began anew.A World and a Future

Marvel UK Reprints

Toys

Revolution

"G.I. Joe vs the Transformers! Action Man and MASK fight for humanity, but where do Rom and the Micronauts stand?" So what am I, chopped liver?

• Revolution Set (SDCC Gift Set, 2017)
  • Accessories: Staff, whip

Released as part of aSan Diego Comic-Con 2017 exclusive set, Leoric is an action figure made up of redecoed parts from variousG.I. Joe action figures, with a new head, torso and weapon based on Leoric's classic design. He was packed with several otherHasbro Universe action figures:Jetfire,Matt Trakker ofM.A.S.K.,Action Man,Roadblock ofG.I. Joe,Rom and aDire Wraith, and nineMicronauts mini-figurines. Unlike his original toy, he doesn't have a hologram on the chest.

Leoric is included in the set despite the lack of Visionaries in theRevolution comic; he was presumably added to promote theupcomingVisionaries comic, which was officially revealed at the convention.

External links

• Visionaries at the IDW Hasbro Wiki
• Visionaries at Wikipedia
• Prysmos Wiki - AVisionaries Wiki
• Visionaries scripts at the Sunbow Marvel Archive