Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light was originally a range of action figures from Hasbro, released in 1987. This action figure range was promoted by two different media, telling the stories of the characters: a comic book series published by Star Comics and, the better known of the two, a half-hour animated television series made by Sunbow Productions in the same year. The toyline was not a big success, which led to both the series and the comic being cancelled after a very short run. The comic lasted only 6 issues, and was cancelled halfway through a four-part storyline. The animated series lasted one season of 13 episodes, and was not picked up for a second, possibly because all Sunbow cartoons came to an end after The Transformers' season 4 three-part, "The Rebirth", and G.I. Joe: The Movie, when Sunbow lost its contract and did not get it renewed. Visionaries is the only Hasbro property to be produced by Sunbow on their own, without the aid of Marvel Productions. Sunbow also used TMS Entertainment, in Japan for the overseas animation work for this show, which had previously worked on Dokonjō Gaeru.