[Dr Kain]

Voltron - Mattel's Red Lion and Lance

At long last, Mattel's new Voltron series has kicked off with the Red

Lion and Lance (also known as Kurogane/Moody in Golion).

Is it a worth while figure or a big bomb?

We all pretty much know who and what Voltron is. Most people also know it originated from two Japanese series known as Beast King Golion and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. In the US, these became known as the Lion Voltron and the Vehicle Voltron. Unbeknowst to anyone though, the Lion Voltron would become an icon throughout the country, even rivaling the likes of He-Man and Transformers. As such, there have been many incarnations released through the years. Matchbox and Panosh Palace released a variety of Voltron items in the 80's, which was then followd by Trendmasters in the 90's. Toynami then released a version known as the Masterpiece Voltron, which at the time, was the be all end all of Voltron figures.

Now Mattel enters the fold with a brand new 23inch Voltron that will be released in five different sets featuring each lion and their respective pilot. As such, they have a heavy burden on their shoulders, as not only do they have the Masterpiece version to compete with, but they also have to prove that they can provide a solid Voltron figure in its massive size, something that I felt Trendmasters failed to do so with theirs.

The articulation of the Red Lion is pretty standard. He has joints in his feet, joints in his knees, a joints in his shoulders/thighs, but they can pretty much only move in one direction, fowards or backwards. While being able to move the legs sides would have been nice, it is something that should never be expected and will probably never happen. First and foremost though, I must mention that Mattel decided to give this lion an action feature, which is both annoying and cool at the same time. The annoying part comes from the fact that the legs have springs in them that allow them to lock into place when you are forming the arm of Voltron. There is a button on the bottom of the lion and on the back of the lion (yes, its butt) that wwhen pushed, the legs will flip out and you just have to pose them any way you want to. However, I have minor concerns here, because what if the spring breaks over time? Does this mean the legs can no longer lock onto the body? Secondly, are these buttons going to be way too easy to hit when he is formed onto Voltron? On the other hand, it is cool because of the fact that you do just have to push it and the pop out of place. It is a double edged sword nontheless.

Unfortunately, the downside of his articulation is that his mid section is not made of seperate pieces, so you can only move his body side by side, so there is no bicep rotation for Voltron. If you look at the picture below, I have him with his body to the side and the plastic version of Masterpiece Voltron with what it looks like to be able to rotate the mid-section any way you like.



I do not know why, but I love the middle section there on the Masterpiece version as it allows it to have a more cat-like pose, even if it is a robot.



Here is a picture of the lions in almost the same pose. Just look at that size difference.



Now here is a picture of them from the front. One thing I find interesting is if you look, the Masterpiece one has its body covering the top section of the legs whereas the Mattel one does not, or rather, it does, but it is not as think as it is on the Masterpiece version. This is where one of the spots of this figure bothers me. When you look at it like this, it looks like it is an arm with legs sticking out of it as opposed to the Masterpiece one that looks like it is a lion's body behind his head. The same goes for the back end right after the mid-section. That is the one spot I felt every Voltron before Toynami's failed at, and where this one fails. Toynami's looked like lions when looking at it with the head in front of your eyes, no one else's has done that. It should not be that big of a deal, but for me, it is for some reason. It's kind of like having a Batman story without Bruce Wayne. It has to be both or neither.



In the aerial shot above, you can see the difference in details on the top of the lions. Once again Toynami's has more detail, but to be honest, that detail is not really there in the anime. I actually prefer the more basic paint that Mattel used as it looks much more accurate to the anime, but this is a debatable topic. Another thing I do prefer with Mattel's version is the tail. The tail is much longer on their version and instead of just sliding inward (or being the connector piece with Black Lion), the tail actually is folded into the body itself. You can open a hatch up and fold the tail withing. This is pretty cool and also helps make his transformation into an arm seem more toon accurate.




This shot here shows what each Red Lion looks like as an arm. Now the interesting thing is that the feet on the lion's backlegs are unable to fold foward as past incarnations have done. This threw a lot of people for a loop when they saw the Voltron formed at SDCC. In all honesty, I have always put my Masterpiece's back feet like that because having them forward on that Voltron for some reason seemed to hinder his arm movement when combined. Another piece I like better on Mattel's is the size of the connector joint. It is big and solid (albeit Freudian) and should fit into the hole on Black Lion without fear of it falling out or breaking.

One more thing I want to mention about this Red Lion is that he is made of plastic that feels really solid. I love my Masterpiece Voltron, but the lion legs and connector pieces feel like they are going to snap off if you look at them wrong. This figure is very solid and feels like it was put together with excellent materials so that it does not break. If it weren't for the fear that the springs may one day break, I would give this figure a 5/5. Instead, I'm going to give him a 4/5 because of the springs and because he does not look like a lion from the front view. Nevertheless, this is an awesome figure and I am very pleased with Mattel's work on it. I'd say he is really only over priced by $5-10 because of the springs, but I am now looking foward to the rest of the lions. I just hope that at least Black Lion comes out looking more like a lion than a torso with legs. It is also worth mentioning that the legs on these are far better than the one Trendmasters released, as those legs were short and really thick. These ones are longer, and while they are thick, they look more natural with the body.

At least we come to Lance/Kurogane/Moody. The pilots are the main attraction for me and the reason I got the Voltron sub. I have been wanting new figures of the characters that were accurate to the anime for years. At last, we finally get them, but are they worth the $15 price tag? This is a tough one. Like the Red Lion, I think Lance is slightly over priced but a few dollars, but given the recent price raise in G.I. Joes from Hasbro, Lance's price is starting to not look as bad. Of course, who can compare him to a G.I. Joe. If it is one thing Hasbro has mastered, it is how to do articulation on a 4inch figure.

Thankfully, Mattel has improved over what their standard fare was with the first DCU Infinite Heroes line that felt like they were DinoRiders from the 80s. Lance has quite a bit of articulation on him, but it still could be better. He has ball jointed knees, ball jointed hips so his legs can move forwards, backwards, and sideways, waist rotation, head rotation, and balljoints on his shoulders and elbows. The odd piece is that his knees can only bend backwards by about 30 degrees, but if you were to turn his lower legs around so his feet are facing behind him, they can bend at an 90 degree angle. That does not make much sense to me. Once again though, the figure is solid and the only thing that worries me is the neck joint. It is so thing that I feel like you need to slow swap out his heads so you do not break them.

Speaking of heads, both Lance and Red Lion's paint aps are incredible. I do not have any paint drops anywhere, nor do I see any brush strokes out of the lines or anything. His eyes on both faces is extremely well done and it makes you wonder why a He-Man figure that is 3 inches bigger cannot have paint aps as perfect as this. Even the painted key on his left breast is nicely done an detailed. My only complaint is that the holster on his belt is just a molded piece of plastic carved to look like there is a gun within it.




These shots pretty much just compare him to the original Lance toy that came out in the 80's. As you can see, there is a major difference beween the toy. The old toy does not even look like Lance outside of his costume.



Here he is without either head on. Like I said, the neck joint is very thin. Be careful when swapping them.





Lance is speechless.



If you notice, Lance comes with a lion key which also acts as his stand. To be honest though, he does not stand on it very well for long periods of time, as I found him starting to lean over right after taking this shot. Thankfully though, he seems to have no problems stand up without it, so it is not that big of a deal, but still kind of blows.

Overall though, despite his lack of articulation, I am pleased with the amount of detail that went into Lance's paint job, and I feel that partially makes up for it. As I said, $15 is probably $3 too much, but with the rising cost of our pastic crack, soon this will end up being the norm. I'm giving Lance a 4/5 just like his lion brother. Now Mattel just needs to give us figures of the three main bad guys to make all of this worth it.





EDIT:

I forgot to mention that the Red Lion has stickers on the inside of the cockpit to resemble a computer screen and keys. Unfortunately, my stickers are placed an angle so all three have been bent by the closing body pieces.

Finally, Red Lion does include a dual bladed dagger, which seems to stay in his mouth until you move him.




Here is my link with the original review: http://archivaria.com/DrKain/Voltron...n/RedLion.html