Voltron Classics Black Lion

What a long, strange trip this has been.

After no small amount of drama my Black lion arrived. I first woke up to what I thought should have been a shipping notice only to be told that Matty Collector was cancelling my order… WTF? Three phone calls and two days later it turns out that when there was a billing error and that, instead of notifying me there was a problem. they canceled the order and didn’t notify me until they day I was supposed to see it ship. Well we eventually got it sorted and it finally shipped out.

At this point I’ve pretty much had it. I’m not expecting the Black Lion to wow me and am just looking forward to getting the reviews over with and moving on. Then the package arrived…

I found myself more impressed than I was expecting. The lion is HEAVY and well made. I have a few very minor paint scuffs, but all the joints are tight and clicky.

The cockpit has all its stickers on straight.

Even the paint applications on the pilot figure are better than previous figures. His helmet, however, is glued onto his head crooked. So that makes five for five as far as pilot figures with issues.

The Black Lion features fairly generous articulation. The spring loaded limbs don’t really get in t,he way this time around.

With that said, the Black Lion is still a bit of a brick. There is no getting around that really. Forming the torso of a giant robot will do that to you.

Despite that he doesn’t look bad.

Transformation on the Black Lion is pretty straight forward, but there are some differences from previous releases.

First things firs,t though. The ratchet joints in my front paws have pretty much crapped out already.

When I first started playing with this guy they would sit flush with the leg when folded up. As they day went on, however, they started to spring a bit back out. In the scheme of things it’s not a big deal but it does make me worry that other joints will fail over time.

I called customer service and was told they would get back to me. They where fairly rude once I explained I was calling about an exchange, barely spoke English, and whoever I was speaking with hung up on me.

Anyway, back to the review. The feet on this release flip around, presenting tabs.

You make sure you line up the arrow to the line on the side and you are ready to form Voltron.

The arms fit in well, and unless you’re trying to take them off they stay put.

Same for the legs. They snap in, and unless you press the small button on the back of the legs to release them they aren’t coming off.

He is not without his issues. To fully appreciate the good and bad of the finished figure you really should watch the videos towards the top of the page.

We already knew that the elbows on Voltron won’t swivel and that really sucks because it would have given so much more in the way of posing.

While we have some great rotation in the thighs and a hip joint, the knees only go back one ratchet. So again, you are limited with what you can do.

You CAN get some good poses out of it. It does stay together. My nephews will love it.

I for one am glad to be done with this and for all it’s good I do not recommend you go out and seek this on the aftermarket for inflated prices. The whole line is riddled with quality control issues and was over priced to begin with.