Orion Quest (a.k.a. Johny Bryant)

The pilot of Grandizer and one of the coolest heroes of the Force Five series. Although he is identicle in appearance to a normal human, he is in fact an alien from the planet Antares and is physically superior in both strength and agility to normal humans. For most of the series he is a one man fighting force, taking down the onslaught of Vegan saucer robots single handedly. The other human characters mostly serve only to create plot devices where he has to risk life and limb in order to save them.
Professor Valconian

He is the professor of the science laboratory where Grandizer is stationed. In the beginning, he is the only one who knows Johny Bryant's true identity. Unlike the majority of professor characters in Force Five, he was not responcible for creating the Grandizer super robot, which leaves one wondering, what the hell does this guy do at the laboratory anyway?


Lance Hyatt He is stationed in the science institute under Professor Valconian. The saucer he flies he built himself, and he probably thought he was hot stuff, too, until Grandizer showed up. Even Lance would be the first to admit that the numbers of his groupies has greately diminished with the arrival of Orion Quest. Regardless of all this, he still sometimes is under the delusion that he can face the Vegan saucer fleet all by himself in his little home-made saucer. He usually starts out fairly well, taking down a few of the Vegan saucers, but then cries for help when a saucer robot appears, and waits for Grandizer to come to the rescue. He later learns Johny Bryant's true identity after seing him perform some super human stunts and adding one and one together to yield the inevitable conclusion. Later on in the series, he pilots the saucer wing that replaces Grandizer's saucer. It is then that he actually has an important role in the show, as opposed to just being a plot device.


Panhandle Morgan
He is the owner of a ranch near the laboratory. Why a top secret laboratory responcible for protecting the earth against alien invaders was built next to his ranch, I'll never know. All this is fine for Panhandle since he is constantly looking through his telescope ready to meet aliens from another world. He even thinks Lance is an alien when he first sees him come out of his saucer. Panhandle never seems to realize that the aliens he is looking for are bad, and always seems surprised when they keep attacking his ranch. Someone should tell him that if he really wants to see someone from another world then he should probably try looking in the mirror, because he just about the weirdest f*cker on the show. One has to wonder if this character was Japan's way of making fun of Americans.


Brenda Morgan
She is Panhandle's daughter and works with him on the ranch. She has an ongoing relationship with Johny and later finds out his true identity. For most of the series she serves as a plot device as well. She gets her fifteen minutes of fame when she is injured, and has to receive a blood transfusion from Orion. Not only does the transfusion save her life, it gives her Orion's enhansed physical abilities for a short period of time, just enough to help liberate the science institute from Comander Ding who has taken over the lab. Towards the end of the series, I believe she even copilots the Grandizer's new spacer wing.


Sonny Morgan
He is Brenda's sister. His main job, like most other children on the series is to be annoying.


Vega the Strong Ruler of the Vegan Empire and the one responcible for destroying Orion's home world of Antares. He pursued Orion after he fled to earth with the stolen Grandizer robot. His goal is to steel back Grandizer, and subjugate the earth like he did Antares.


General Belicos General of the Vegan Armada, second in command to Vega the Strong. Your typical bad guy except for the fact that he had a little red-headed lady living inside his head. See below.


Lady Gandye She is another high ranking official of the Vegan Empire. She has the unique honor of living inside General Belicos' head. Her exact rank is unclear, although she is definately above of Commander Ding, and may even be above General Belicos. She doesn't have to ask permission to open his face and show herself. She has an efficiently annoying voice and is extremely adept in harrassing Commander Ding.


Commander Ding You've already heard me talk about him a little, he's the Commander of the Vegan Armada. He's the one who has to get his hands dirty while his superiors are sitting comfortably on the mother ship. He commanded a group of Vegan soldiers in taking over the science institute, took great joy in torturing Professor Valconian by putting him in a large centrifuge, and finally got to insult Panhandle in a way we viewers always wanted to. There doesn't seem to be any higher ranking member of the Vegan empire who doesn't enjoy pushing him around. He even comes to Orion's aid when he is being attacked by Vega's personal bodyguard Gorman. (see below). He and his ship are later destroyed by Grandizer. That's gratitude for you. Gorman He's Vega's personal bodyguard who enters the story to rid Vega of Orion Quest once and for all. He would have succeeded, too, if it wasn't for Ding's treachery. Commander Ding feared that if Gorman succeeded, he would take his place in the Vegan hierarchy. Ding aided Orion so that he would destroy his rival in the Vegan empire.