So I went to Target a couple of days ago, looking for Ninja Turtles stuff (it's the third annual Haulathon event, and NECA is supposed to be coming out with a lot of fun goodies). Didn't find any TMNT, but I was greeted by a sad-looking endcap with six Voltron toys on it. One of each of the lion colors, plus an extra blue lion.

Now, I was aware that Playmates Toys had sold some Classic Legendary Lions back in 2017 or so. I remember this because my toy department at Walmart had shelf tags for them, but we never actually got the product in stock. I was pretty disappointed, because I would have bought them all in a heartbeat. So I guess this year they were reissued, and these were the toys I found at Target. Quickest impulse purchase I ever made. Twenty bucks per small lion and thirty for the Black Lion.

I have this casual relationship with Voltron. I was aware of the cartoon as a kid, though I didn't watch it regularly. I thought the Matchbox toys were super cool, and at one point I had tried to collect them, but the lions were expensive toys and my beloved Transformers usually took priority. A good condition Matchbox version nowadays can go for anywhere from $300-$500 or more. I'd love to have a vintage version some day. At one point I ended up with a headless Green Lion that bounced around for years until, I think, I finally sold it off. Can't do much with one headless lion.

I actually did end up with the Panosh Place version at one point. It was a Christmas gift for somebody that my aunt had bought, forgotten about, and ended up giving to me later on. This version was bigger than the Matchbox edition, and it had opening cockpits for action figures that I never owned. But, despite the bigger size, it felt a lot cheaper, like a knockoff. It had a lot of manufacturing shortcuts... the individual lion legs weren't articulated, and it didn't have that 1980's Japanese-engineered feel. I left it behind when I moved out of my dad's house, and I have no idea what happened to it.

So the Playmates versions are much bigger than the vintage Matchbox toys. They're close to the size of the Panosh Place toys, actually. The Red Lion and Green Lion are fully twice the size of the old Matchbox ones, I think. They don't have any die-cast metal and none of the parts are vac-metal chrome, but the individual lions are styled like the classic versions (I know there have been various attempts to redesign them and modernize them over the years). The jaws on the four small lions are spring-loaded. The heads of the Green Lion and Red Lion don't launch this time. If the Black Lion were a Hasbro toy, they'd sell him as a Commander-class toy. He's that big.

The Black Lion also has an electronics package, so it makes various sound effects from the 1984 cartoon. It also recites dialogue from the show, which I think was recorded by sound-alike actors rather than using actual existing dialogue clips from the original actors (fun fact: Transformers actors Peter Cullen and Michael Bell and Neil Ross all provided voices on Voltron). Even plugging the lions together for the combined mode triggers specific sounds, because there are tiny little triggers that get tripped when you plug the lions together. The toy can detect when some lions are missing and says things like "Princess, we're a team, and we need you!" if the Blue Lion isn't attached, for example. It's astonishing how inexpensive these toys were, considering today's marketplace and all the things they can do (especially the Black Lion).

And the combined Voltron robot is huge. It's over 16" tall and feels like a Titan-class toy. It's almost too big, if we're being honest. I know there are lots of various modern-era collector-targeted Voltron updates (one of which sells for like $800 or something ridiculous) but this satisfies my craving for a big, modern Voltron update.

And yet, I find myself still longing for the smaller vintage version. There's just something really appealing about that very specific Japanese aesthetic, with the die-cast parts and all those spring-loaded ratcheting joints. This is a very good Voltron toy, but it's not a very 1980's Voltron toy.

Eventually I am going to want to track down the Matchbox version. Back in 1997 or 1998, I had gotten the Trendmasters version, which appeared, at least at first blush, to be a straight reissue of the Matchbox version. But, after getting it home I had discovered that it was a gutted version that was missing a lot of the gimmicks I had remembered from the edition that my childhood friends had owned (like the "ears" of Yellow Lion opening up to reveal missile launchers and stuff like that). It retailed for like $30, which seems like peanuts now, but back then when I was dead broke, thirty dollars was a lot of money. It could have gotten me, like, three Beast Wars toys I didn't have yet. So, I returned it to the store. In retrospect, I should have just kept the damn thing, but what can you do.

Does anybody know if the Matchbox versions and the Trendmasters versions are the same mold? If I were to, say, buy broken lion pieces and cobble together an intact unit, could I mix and match parts from both, or would they not be compatible? The second-hand Matchbox toys I see on eBay all have really bad chrome damage to the legs of the various lions. That's gonna be a dealbreaker. I don't expect the toys to be perfect after 40 years, but I want them to be presentable, at least.

Zob (envisioning having a non-Transformers robot display some day where I'll put my Tonka GoBots, Voltron, etc.)

On 4/4/2024 5:49 PM, Zobovor wrote:
> Does anybody know if the Matchbox versions and the Trendmasters versions
> are the same mold?  If I were to, say, buy broken lion pieces and cobble
> together an intact unit, could I mix and match parts from both, or would
> they not be compatible?

They're from the same mold. Though there could have been running
changes. The most complete and best version is the Godaikin GoLion.
Matchbox's version nerfed some of the features and removed the weapons.
Trendmasters nerfed even more features, but included some of the weapons.

Travoltron wrote:

> They're from the same mold. Though there could have been running
> changes. The most complete and best version is the Godaikin GoLion.
> Matchbox's version nerfed some of the features and removed the weapons.
> Trendmasters nerfed even more features, but included some of the weapons.

I find the various weapons to be rather silly, honestly. Swords and things that the lions carry around in their mouths? It's a little ridiculous.

One cannot deny the appeal of robot cats. If Voltron had been made up of a bunch of dogs? Not nearly as cool. But cats are awesome.

Zob (Alexa, play "Robo Kitty" by Excision & Downlink)