Legendary Black Lion
We’ve seen Sinigy talk about the Green Lion, Star Saber talk about the Blue Lion, Jmann talk about the Red Lion and Dkun talk about the Yellow Lion. Now it’s my turn to talk about the one that ties them all together, the Legendary Black Lion.
Where the other lions come on a blister card, the Black Lion comes boxed. There’s a hole for a “try me” feature. Of course the larger size comes with a larger price. The Black Lion retails for $29.99, about $10 more than the individual lions.
Out of it’s packaging, the Black Lion is stunning. It’s got a hefty weight to it, and it holds its own as a stand alone toy as well as part of the combined Voltron.
Each limb has clicky joints at each point of articulation. It is so satisfying to hear that toyetic click each time you move something.
The toes look sharp, but they are a softer rubber.
Paint detail is great, especially on the head. I noticed that each lion has a different style of Jaw, giving each a unique personality. Playmates has done a great job capturing the details of the animation models in toy form.
The jaw opens, but is not spring-loaded like the other lions. The teeth are rounded, which is of course a safety measure, but it also feels very similar to how the vintage toy had rounded teeth for the US release.
The neck has an extra joint allowing it to look down, but it cannot rotate. Not having neck or head rotation is an odd omission for this toy.
The Black Lion has a hatch on his belly where the pilot and his speeder can dock. The speeder is about 3cm long.
The wings are fully articulated, but not removable, or extendable. They do have a great range of motion though.
While the Black Lion comes with no weapons, it does have a sound feature. This feature is activated by a button on his side, and it also lights up the V on the chest. There are supposedly over 50 different sounds for this toy that can be activated in various ways.
To get ready to form Voltron, there’s little you have to do. The process is very similar to most every version of combining Voltron toys ever made. It will instinctively come back to you even if you haven’t transformed a voltron since you were a child.
The rear legs need to be straightened out. Notice the little black tabs at the knees. These tabs are actually buttons that activate the sound effects for the combination. The toy is smart enough to keep track of how many times you add a limb, and also in what order. But you will see all of that in the combined form review.
The shoulders rotate around and a door opens on each in which you can fold and store the legs. There are no visible buttons here, instead, the activation points are inside the shoulders where the pegs from the red and green lion go.
Finally, fold down the head and fold down the faceplate. The ears also need to come out, and are a bit difficult if you have short fingernails like mine.
And now we are ready to form Voltron!
As the others have said, Playmates really nailed this line, and made a wonderful toy that is both well made and fun.