DE 
EN 
Series: Voltron - Defender of the Universe
Year: 1985
From days of long ago, from uncharted regions of the universe, comes a legend! The legend of Voltron, Defender of the Universe! A mighty robot, loved by good, feared by evil. As Voltron's legend grew, peace settled throughout the galaxy. On planet Earth a planetary alliance was formed, together with the good planets of the Solar System, they maintained peace throughout the universe. Until a new, terrible menace threatened the galaxy. Voltron was needed once more. This is the story of the super force of Space Explorers. Their mission: to bring back ... Voltron, Defender of the Universe!
Prelude: If you are in any way interested in mecha and giant robots, odds are you’ve at least heard of Voltron, Defender of the Universe, or GoLion, as he was called in Japan. Now there have been several different giant robots called Voltron, but the most famous one is made of robot lions and one of his first toy incarnations was released in the 1980s. This is the one we’re looking at today. So let’s say Go, Voltron Force!
Lions: As you might have expected from a name like Lion Force, LionBot, or GoLion, this Voltron here is made up of lions. Five of them, to be exact. Now in the series they were often shown to be more or less the same size, but that doesn’t work for an actual toy robot, of course, given that one lion has to be the entire torso, while others are just the lower legs. So we have five robots in three different sizes here. Let’s start with the smallest.
The red and green lions form the arms of the Voltron robot, thus they are the smallest of the bunch. They are pretty boxy in design (all five of them are, really) and are actually the best-articulated of the lions, too. They have four chromed legs with knee and ankle joints, enabling them to do walk and running poses, as well as articulated tails and a hip joint (which becomes the elbow joint of Voltron). A yellow button on top fires off their lion heads like a missile and they come with a bunch of add-on weapons as well. The red lion comes with a double missile launcher, a chromed laser gun, and a chromed knife he can carry in his mouth. The green lion has a single missile launcher (but bigger than the red one’s) and has a different chromed knife for carrying in his mouth.
Next we have the blue and yellow lions, which form Voltron’s lower legs. They’re a good deal bigger than the arm lions and chunkier, too, but without the hip joint and cannot fire off their heads, either. They can look upward, though, and have the same nicely articulated legs as the smaller lions, as well as an unfolding tail. The yellow lion has an in-built missile launcher on its back, which can be pulled up, unfolds two smaller missile launchers from the sides of its head, and has a separate double-missile launcher it can attach to either front leg, plus a knife for the mouth and a spiked wheel for the other front leg. The blue lion has an in-built disc launcher on its back, a small missile launcher on top of its head, and has a (non-firing) missile launcher for its hind leg, as well as yet another mouth knife. Have I mentioned these guys come with lots of weapons? (See picture 33).
Finally, we have the big guy, the black lion, which forms the torso, upper legs, and head of Voltron. Naturally it dwarfs the other four in terms of size and is pretty bulky. It’s the only of the five with wings, too, which he can either keep folded in (as he usually did in the cartoon) or unfold to a rather impressive wing span (for a lion). All four legs are articulated here, too, and a moving tail is a given, of course. No in-built weapons here, but the black lion comes with a huge missile launcher and chromed knife (almost a sword) he can attach to either shoulder and a big mouth knife as well.
Bottom line for the individual lions: for early 1980s toys, they are surprisingly versatile with lots of play options and many weapons they can swap between them, of course. A fun group of toys, even without the joy of what comes next.
Combined Robot: Let’s go, Voltron Force! Form feet and legs! Form arms and torso! And I’ll form… the head! Admit it, if you ever saw the series, you know that piece of dialogue by heart and are probably hearing it in the voice of Neil Ross, who voiced Keith Kogane in the cartoon. Nevermind that it didn’t make that much sense, as Keith formed the head AND the entire torso, but I digress. The five Voltron lions combine into Voltron, Defender of the Universe, that’s all you need to know.
The four limb lions basically just fold in their legs, while the black lion straightens his hind legs and folds in his front legs. All four limbs attach to the torso and lock in securely. In order to take them back out, each needs to be unlocked by pushing a yellow button close to the connection. The same method was used for Vehicle Voltron and I like that very much, as it keeps the robot from falling apart. Some rougher kids might have just pulled the limbs out regardless, of course, thus breaking the toy.
The finished robot looks epic, is all I can say. And with yet another reminder that this is a toy from the 1980s, it’s pretty nicely articulated for the time. The arms can move almost freely, as the connecting piece for the shoulders is the articulated lion tail, there is an elbow joint, and the wrists can (kind of twist), as you can shoot off the lion head and put it back in at a 90 degree angle. The legs are less well articulated, no knee joints, but Voltron can still do a walking pose thanks to the poseable lion heads that serve as his feet. The head, with a face folding out of the black lion’s mouth, is immobile, but the wings can be put into a number of different positions, too, of you want.
Voltron comes with weapons of his own, of course, chief among them the famous Blazing Sword, which he can hold in either… well, lion mouth, really, as the mouths of the red and green lion serve as his hands. It’s not the most secure grip ever, but it works. The other hand can wield a star-shaped shield.
Overall I love this robot, even though he offers less play value than the individual lions. He is about the size of an old-school Leader Class Transformers figure, maybe a bit larger, though a good deal shorter than Vehicle Voltron. Not sure if that is true to their scale in the cartoon or not, to be honest. But either way, Lion Voltron is just epic in look and feel. The numerous diecast parts give him a nice, heavy feeling and he just looks fabulous with his sword and shield, the wings, everything. I’m probably fan-boying here a bit, I admit, but what’s not to love about this classic anime robot design here? Awesome!
Remarks: The story of the original Voltron cartoon was relatively straight-forward and pretty similar to many Japanese Sentai series. Five humans from Earth arrive on an alien planet and help the inhabitants (led by a beautiful princess) to fight off an evil space empire by riding inside five robotic lions that can combine into a giant robot. Most episodes featured the evil guys unleashing their newest Ro-Beast (giant monsters) against the good guys and Voltron would inevitably defeat it after some initial struggle. The only thing that really stood out was that, after just a few episodes, one of the original five (all male) pilots died, to be replaced by the aforementioned beautiful princess.
Despite the rather formulaic approach, I have many fond memories of the series and especially Voltron. I can still recite the opening monologue (voiced by the great Peter Cullen) from memory, as well as the monologue of the combination process. After acquiring the Vehicle Voltron several years back, I was happy to receive the Lionforce Voltron as a birthday gift from my beautiful wife. From the package I figure that’s probably a knock off, as it says neither Voltron nor GoLion, but if so, it’s a very good one.
In direct comparison with Vehicle Voltron I must say that Lion Voltron easily takes the win. He might be smaller, sure, but not only is he by far the more famous one, he just looks a lot cooler, has the better weapons, and better articulation as well. One day I might invest the money to buy a more modern Voltron figure, like the one from Soul of Chogokin, but for now I’m just very, very happy with this guy here. He’s Voltron, Defender of the Universe, a mighty robot! What more could you possibly need?
Rating: A
Picture Gallery:
