Voltron

Imagine walking into a fast food restaurant and you notice the kids meal features the usual Shrek or My Little Pony toys. Now imagine walking into a fast food restaurant and you notice the kids meal features Voltron III. Big difference right? Now imagine only being able to get that in the Philippines. Bummer. Well the Jollibee chain of restaurants were lucky enough to have Voltron toys as their prize items. Each lion came with a base that doubled as the lid for your drink. Pretty neat idea.

Here is the set of five lions. You get one with every purchase.

Number 1 is the ever popular Black Lion.

Number 2 and 3 are the Red and Green Lion.

Number 4 is the Blue Lion.

Number 5 is the Yellow Lion.

To give each lion a feeling of specialness, each lion has a holographic numbered sticker.

When combined together, they form Voltron. He stands about 9″ tall so it’s not small. Notice any resemblance to another toy? Yes, this seems to be directly designed off the Toynami Masterpiece Voltron. I wonder if Toynami had anything to do with this or if Jollibee just completely ripped of the sculpt.

Even the head sculpt is very similar.

Even the neck articulation is the same at the base of the head and the base of where the neck meets the shoulders.

Another similarity is the way the arms join to the torso. Using the same tabs as the Masterpiece Voltron. Notice the Black Lion’s front paws just hanging out top when transformed into Voltron. One of the compromises made.

Even when attached it leaves a gap due to the poorly folding legs. I would like to point out that the connecting tab on my red lion was glued so I can’t attach the red arm.

Not convinced that they copied? Notice the backs of the legs. You will see those things that look like “V8 Engines poking out the backs of the lion legs are the same as the Masterpiece version.

The similarities end when we start looking at all the little details. Obviously this toy has to sacrifice a lot to be able to be given away free in a kids meal. One cost cutting measure was making the legs hollow on one side. The paws are not articulated, so that limits the posing of the lions and makes the black lion paws stick out of the shoulders.

While each leg has attaches in the same way all Voltron have. The black lion legs clip onto small tabs on the yellow and blue lion. If you look closely, you will see where the the tab on the yellow lion grips onto the Black lion knee. Seems stable enough but after a few combinations, I’m sure the tab will wear off.

Here is a picture comparing the sizes of the mini kids meal version with the Toynami Masterpiece.

This figure is more appealing visually on a shelf than appealing during play. It doesn’t seem like it would stay together during lengthy play. Not to say that it’s going to break, but it’s probably not going to stay together in the hands of a 5 year old kid. Also some small details had to be sacrificed- like paint apps and working elbows. They do swivel but do not bend. But hey its Voltron. Maybe with the new Voltron Force show we may get a chance at getting a version of Voltron when we buy a burger. But we’re not going to buy a kids meal just for a toy are we?

Don’t lie.