The Newcomers' Introduction to Lemurian Legends and its Fandom

An Abridged History of Lemurian Legends and its Fandom From The Perspective Of A Fan

Written by Hailumbra with ample help from Nordwarf and Treearcher12. Special thanks to Reptilegirl for her invaluable contributions by giving her accounts of events mentioned in the essay.

Author's Note from Hailumbra

This article is not meant to be complete and exhaustive retelling of the fan community's history; rather it acts as a quick introduction to newcomers who may be confused by jargons and references to past events that they might come across in fan-contributed articles.

While much efforts have been spent in confirming facts and trying to track down old faces (and believe me, I tried!), much of the historical records have been scattered among websites and even Usenet groups that have long went dormant and could only be retrieved using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Many of the fan-base controversies of the past have also been generalised or intentionally left out for brevity; if I tried to cover everything the article would be a hundred times as long and still cannot cover them all.

If you think that any of the details is wrong, or that you or somebody have been wrongly represented, please PM me and I'll be happy to listen to your side of the story and set the accounts straight. However I cannot change history, so I will not entertain requests to manipulate confirmed facts. Threats or personal attacks are not tolerated and will be immediately reported.

Introduction

Lemurian Legends is a highly successful toy and television franchise first created by the KidsJoy company and now owned by Wonderland Entertainment Group. Throughout its thirty years' existence, it has seen numerous reincarnations and spin-off, and gathered a large devout fanbase that has already spanned two generations. It ranked up there with Transformers, GI Joe, Barbie and My Little Pony as one of the most famous pop culture icons based on a children's franchise.

The history of Lemurian Legends can be broadly divided into four incarnations of the canonical television shows, mirroring the trends of television animation; the edgy original from the eighties; the nineties age of television animation; the anime craze of the 2000s; and the critically-acclaimed revival today. As you will see, the history of the fan community could be just as dramatic as a story arc of Lemurian Legends, filled with conflicts, history, idols - and even villains.

Lemurian Legends: Heroes of Eternity (1984-1993)

The first television series bearing the trademark of Lemurian Legends was titled Lemurian Legends: Heroes of Eternity. Don Boken was the head producer of the show, working under KidsJoy's fledging in-house animation studio. The studio had been churning out short-lived cartoons that were based on the company's toy licenses like Turtle Knights and Star Tron, and Lemurian Legends was no exception. First aired in the summer of June 1984, it was a low-key cartoon made on shoe-string budget to promote KidsJoy's new toy-line bearing the same name. Today the toys are considered prized collectors' items, but back then sales of the toys were only lukewarm, partly due to intense competition from much more successful franchises of the time - and partly because the quality of the toys were generally considered 'below-average'.

The cartoon, which starred a fellowship of five fantasy heroes led by Rex the human warrior, was not immediately popular due to its low-budget production. The abundant animation mistakes in the first season have even become the basis of an Internet meme that parallels the 60s Spider-Man meme. Despite its shortcomings, it captured the heart of kids and pre-teens with its bold stories, well fleshed-out characters, and an elaborately crafted fantasy world called Lemuria.

One can almost sense while watching that the creative people behind the show were aware that there was little chance of the show lasting beyond its pilot season of ten episodes, but rather than giving a sloppy work they took the boldest direction possible without fear of angering the television executives - since they didn't expect to hold their jobs for long anyway.

By the time the pilot season had finished airing, Lemurian Legends had gained an impressive fan-base. Sales of the toys sky-rocketed, and the KidsJoy company, which was in financial difficulties back then, went all out to develop the franchise. They expanded the pilot into a full season, eventually ordering five seasons in total. The company also released more higher quality toys to meet rising demands - some of which were actually show-accurate.

Over time, the fanbase grew stronger, and by the time the third season was aired it had become a global brand. The team behind the show became legends in the animation circle, many of whom went on to work in bigger studios and had illustrious careers. Comics, novels, and even an officially-sanctioned fan-magazine titled Lemurian Chronicles were published in quick succession.

The pinnacle of the franchise was the release of the first movie, titled "Lemurian Legends: Rise of Umbra" in 1988. Showcasing the first appearance of the franchise's now beloved villain Queen Umbra, it was an ambitious attempt at bringing the television to the big screen. Advanced bookings were sold out within hours of the announcement. The movie was hyped up to that point that it was regularly mentioned in news talk show right up to the night of the launch. Any kids whose parents could afford the tickets were excited to watch it.

The final critical reaction to the movie was between mixed to 'acceptable'. While movie critics praised its art style, many panned its inaccessible story that relied on years of back-story to understand, its uneven pacing, and an ambiguous ending that was intended as a hook to future seasons but confused even fans. Regardless, the movie is still held up as a cult-classic today, and its public re-screening is now a regular fixture at Lemurian Legends themed conventions.

The earliest recorded LLHoE fan-club was called Rex's Rangers and was founded in 10 January 1986. First mentioned in issue 28 of the Lemurian Chronicles magazine published on June 1986, its membership grew to a whopping 500 members at its peak. The fan-club also formed the first known online community, in the form of a dial-up bulletin board system, or BBS.

More online fan clubs would later sprung up on Usenet newsgroups, the biggest and most famous of which was the succinctly named lemurianlegendsfanclub launched in April 1988. Publicly available records of threads in those newsgroups painted a picture of a lively - and very vocal - community of fans who regularly discussed their interpretations of the story canon and share fan-fiction; a few have even published completely fan-written online magazines, containing unofficial toy catalogues that pointed dedicated collectors towards sources of rare mispainted toys.

Sadly, like many television icons of the era, good things often ended on a sour note. The studio behind Lemurian Legends was embroiled in a heated legal dispute with KidsJoy over payment and ownership of trademarks, and eventually the studio was dissolved after the end of season four, its talents going their separate ways and advancing their careers in other studios. KidsJoy outsourced the production of season five to multiple offshore studios at the same time, and fans considered that to be the show's unmaking.

Season five was notorious for being the season with the worst animation and story arc, and it was exceptionally poorly received. There were rumours that television executives were firing highly talented animators and story-writers, because they were not churning out new characters fast enough to convert into merchandises. After the lacklustre reception to season five, KidsJoy decided to scrap the show entirely, and with that the first incarnation ended its television run.

To this day, fans still argue over whether season five was as bad as popularly assumed. Although its suffered from poor animation quality and saddled with too many supporting characters, ardent fans maintain that it was still worthy to be considered canon. The argument in their favour was that Don Boken still retained creative control over the entire project to the end and kept the season's writing standard in check. Detractors spun it the other way and said that this was the season that marked the decline of his career; Don Boken went on to other television projects, but none of them came close to matching Lemurian Legends in success.

Regardless of how the original series ended, Lemurian Legends had become recognized by KidsJoy as a commercial success, paving the way for the franchise's second generation.