Voltron

We are living through a Jumbo renaissance of sorts. Super7 is still releasing Star Wars Jumbos, we had the recent Godzilla Jumbo from Jakks (as well as all their Star Wars Jumbos) and now Toynami brings us this Voltron and the upcoming Jumbo Godzilla. This is Toynami’s second try at a Jumbo Voltron / Golion, and while the first one was more of a giant vinyl figure, this one feels like a true Jumbo.

Toynami’s Voltron ships in a large outer box – if you are a box fetishist run away because the shipping label gets stuck right on the outside. I know some people collect the shipping boxes as well as the interior packaging.

Inside, wrapped in a plastic bag is the glorious Jumbo box. The plastic bag is not a toy, so try not to choke on it.

One side features a die-cut window while the other sides feature product shots.

Interestingly, the label on the back lists it as a vinyl, while in actuality there’s very little true vinyl on this figure. Most of the figure consists of various grades of Polyethylene in various durometers.

Inside, Voltron is secured to a cardboard tray with a few twist ties.

Damn, this thing is glorious. It’s nearly 30 inches tall to the tip of the wings, and it’s full on Jumbo goodness. Yep, that’s right, it fits all the credentials to be a Jumbo Machine:

– Firing fists
– Greater than 24″
– wheels on the feet
– mostly polyethylene construction.

Some stickers need to be applied out of the box. You need to apply the number stickers and a few others. I almost feel like there could be a few more stickers for the arms. Maybe ReproLabels will get on that.

The head is a hard vinyl, maybe poly but i’m not entirely sure. It doesn’t turn, but I like this new head sculpt a lot. The slanted parts on the sides are more similar to the look in the show than on other recent releases.

Each arm swivels at the body, and has a ball joint at the elbow. One of my ball joints had a cut in it where the plastic was separated. It’s minor.

In true Jumbo fashion, the fists fire. The springs are strong and fire with a significant force. Each fist is keyed to only go in a certain way and are made out of vinyl with a hard plastic core and peg.

My Green Lion head is missing the paint in one eye. The red one is fine.

From the arms down there’s no articulation. The body is one piece, while each leg is a distinct piece from the knee down. The wheels on the feet roll smoothly with little resistance.

So lets talk a bit about how this differs from the prior Jumbo release from Toynami. There are some interesting design choices going on here, all of them good. Certain aspects of the design harken back to the animation design such as the side panels on the head and the lack of detail for the legs on the red and green lion. But other aspects are nice nods to the original diecast toy. The individual numbers and firing fists are distinct throwbacks to the original Popy toy.

Also, note the silver protrusions off of the back. These are a design cue taken from the diecast toy where the legs of the black lion stick out the back.

Compared to the original release, this new Voltron is much better proportioned. You don’t realize how odd the old one looked until you put them side by side. The old version seems positively clunky compared to the new.

The Jumbo Voltron is a brilliant release, hitting all the right notes to make a modern Jumbo with all the aspects we love about the classic toys. I can’t wait for the upcoming Godzilla!

You can get your Toynami Jumbo Voltron at one of these fine retailers:

• Order Voltron 30th Anniversary Jumbo Lion 24-Inch Action Figure from Entertainment Earth!
• Voltron 30th Anniversary Jumbo Lion 24-Inch Action Figure from Amazon