Mattel 23″ Voltron Classics Follow-Up Video Review
Saturday, October 20th, 2012 by Pixel Dan
This is just a quick follow-up video on the 23″ Mattel Voltron, addressing some of the questions that have come up.
Pixel-Dan.com
Saturday, October 20th, 2012 by Pixel Dan
This is just a quick follow-up video on the 23″ Mattel Voltron, addressing some of the questions that have come up.
I think your blue lion is a dud. That's happened on my yellow lion but only once or twice. Do you have the connectors for the legs line up? there is a small arrow that is suposed to be lined up with a nocth before you plug the legs in.
Just got in Black Lion, assembled Voltron — and y'know, all the little nagging things that had been bothering me from month to month about this set of toys washed away for a few moments (most of all, nasty crooked stickers in the Blue Lion cockpit — Blue & Green had the most problems for me) in the joy of assembling this titan, arming him up, and posing him for battle. In the end, it seemed to be all worth it.
On the one hand, I'm glad I didn't have a big nasty stray yellow slop mark like you had on Black Lion's leg, but I did have a nice white slice of paint wear across the edge of Black Lion's nose. Also, he was way dusty right out of the box! Weird! I will say, yeah, balancing Voltron is a huge pain. Wish the knees bent a little farther. I've actually stressed the plastic in the joint of my Black Lion's left knee a bit trying to bend the knee just a smidge more to adjust the toy's weight. I've got him standing up perfectly straight when in a totally neutral stance, but the minute you start articulating the arms, or add the weight of any of the accessories, suddenly he wants to tip forward.
The worst for me isn't the spring-out legs in the Blue & Yellow Lions. Those are a bit of a pain, and y'know, it did become less of a problem when I bent the feet per the instructions like you did here in the follow-up video. For me, though, it's the hind legs of my Green Lion. They were duds from the minute I got it, and I worried and fretted about how it would be when I assembled Voltron. Well, it was as bad as I feared. I've actually got an elastic hair band around the legs to prevent them from popping out. I don't even have to DO anything for them to pop; they explode out generally within seconds of me moving my hand from them. I probably should have gotten on the horn to Mattel about it, gotten my money back, and turned around and bought a new one off of eBay for a little more … but I didn't want to do anything that might, maybe, possibly prevent me from completing Voltron. Now that I've got him assembled, I might still hit eBay and buy a second Green Lion and cross my fingers and hope it's not as bad. (Did anyone else have problems like that with their Green Lions? This was just a one-off thing, right?)
I've heard most of the green lions have that problem. I used a clear rubber band that came with the black lion and wraped it around twice to keep the legs managable.
My Green Lion's legs seem ok, but yeah. I've heard a lot of people having problems with both Greena nd Blue specifically. The clear rubber band idea seems popular, and is a great thought! Still…I wish that feature just didn't exist.
Green and Blue lion both seem to be the most common for leg problems, from what I've heard. Unfortunate, for sure.
So, I got the Black Lion and he is fantastic! I really love the assembled Voltron. Mine has had no problem standing. The legs on my Green lion are a bit tricky and the action feature is annoying, but other than that I can get him into all sorts of cool poses.
One thing about the sword stand though. I'm thinking people are over-thinking it. I didn't have any issues at all, and here's what it looks like: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8196/8114631583_bc5…
Now, apparently people thought the tabs on the stands were supposed to go into the channel of the sword? What people are interpreting as little tabs that fit into the groves of the sword, I took as small ledges on which the sword is supposed to sit. If you look at the design of the tabs they are two different shapes. Why would they be two different shapes if they are to fit into the same groove? Also, one is noticeable larger around than the other. This works great if the larger one is to fit over the front and the skinnier one fits over just the back of the hilt. If it were designed to fit over the blade, it would have to be the same shape as the other stand, surely, as the blade of the sword is so large that the smaller stand would never accommodate it.
That's just my interpretation, at least, based on the way they are designed.
That's actually a really good thought, Jon! And it looks like it works great! Very cool! I haven't seen anyone suggest this yet, so maybe we are all overthinking it, or maybe you just found an alternate method that works! Either way, I like it! And I'm going to use that method for mine now! Thanks for posting! 😀
Because of the problem with the first one. I didn’t even bother with getting the one that game with Keith out.
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Can we get a comparison with a Unicron or Primus figure, I would mind seeing how they stack up?
Saw you did a guest appearance on the Collection DX show. Your site, CDX, and Poe Ghostal are my three favorite toy sites. Great job on the show!
Thanks! i had a blast on there! the CDX guys are great, and I was honored they asked me to be a part of their show! 🙂
What I ended up doing was cutting off one of the pegs on the sword stands so that way they would still latch together around the blazing sword but if I wanted to take the sword out all I had to do was unhook them from holding on to each other and it pops open to let me remove the sword. I wouldn't have known to do this had I not watched your video before opening my black lion. so thank you for helping me to figure out this fix.
Did anyone else have a problem connecting the red lion to the black? Right out of the box, i tried to assemble Voltron and could not get the red lion to stay in its socket. I pressed as hard as I could but it would not secure. In fact I pressed so hard i ended up sweating! No toy should make me sweat! The other arm socket was fine and worked with no issues at all. Upon closer inspection I discovered that one of the spring loaded tabs that secures the connector in place was upside down.
In order to fix this I had take my screwdriver and dissassemble the black lion's right leg. After getting into the mechinism I took the spring out of the tab and almost lost the metal pin holding it in place. I was able to turn the tab the right way round. Then I spent ten minutes trying to get the leg back on! After all that messing around, my black lion seems to have 1 less ratchet joint in the right leg, probably due to my re-assembely of it. All these problems were found withing minutes right out of the box.
So I was finally able to form Voltron and what a dissapointment. The thing can barely stand its own weight. The hips dont seem strong enough. They rachet out fine, but not forward or back. When i move the arms, force of the movement WILL knock anything he is holding out of his hands.
The black Lion also has plenty of paint blemishes and scrapes as does the sword he came with. Getting to the accessories in the black lions box was an absolute pain. I like to keep my packaging whenever I can and it was infuriating getting them out without damaging the box. I would also wager the scrapes and scratches on the sword were cause by all the accessories clashing together due to being seemingly shoved in there.
I am not a Voltron fan, I bought this cause I love big robos and combiners. When i bought a sub earlier this year, I did so blind. There was no indication of the quality that we would recieve. All we had to go on was Matty's word. The previous 4 lions were good. They gave a good indication that the final piece would be worth the wait. People bought it for the voltron mode, we wanted that epic 23inch robo for an awesome display. Everything hinged on the black lion and it failed. Now we have it many of us are feeling short changed and we cant do anything about it. Some may say "you knew what you were getting into" when in fact, we didn't. Had i known the voltron mode was going to be so poor i wouldn't have bothered buying it. I finally have him standing on my shelf in a ok dynamic pose. Yes he has artciulation, but if he can support his own weight whats the point? He may as well be a brick, at least that way he would be sturdy. Yes the size is impressive and he is the biggest thing in my collection, but he is also the biggest waste of money in my collection.
This was my first Mattel product and I promise you, it will be my last.