[Dr Kain]

Good news, I got my Black Lion and Keith, and they are pretty awesome. Bad news, the lion legs constantly pop out and he is too top heavy to stand if you move his arms.























All right, so now that I have gotten over the "OMG" stage, I want to post my full thoughts from start to finish.

At the beginning, I was very hesitant on the sub, but I was watching Golion at the time and was in the mood for it so I bought it on its last day. When I got Red Lion, I was disappointed because you really couldn't do much with the legs, the body looked too thin, and worst of all, the spring gimmick was a joke. Lance, on the other hand, was pretty cool despite being smaller than a Joe and costing $5 more than one. Then came Yellow Lion and Hunk, which were even bigger disappointments due to the paint issues and my legs did not seem to lock in properly. I'm not sure what happened though, because in time, they stopped popping out at the slightest shake. In fact, even on my Voltron combined, they don't really pop out. Nevertheless, I started to really like both lions due to their size, and because they looked nearly identical to the way they looked on the cartoon (and before anyone interjects, there will never be 100% accurate lions unless someone decides to just make non-combining lions, which I doubt will ever happen).

Green Lion and Pidge came, but they kind of added to the disappointment again. The glasses on Pidge look way too thick and his crotch area is a little too big. Nevertheless, the biggest issue came from Green Lion's cockpit opening very easily and the worst paint issues of any of the lions. In fact, I was so pissed at this one I was almost ready to not renew my credit card, which would have been a shame, because both the Blue and Black Lions have turned out to be phenomenal. Blue Lion came and I could not believe as beautiful it was. I am not sure exactly what it was, whether it was the anime accurate look coming back to me, the great sculpt on Fallah, or the sheer size of the lion, but I was blown away. This is at the point that I realized these lions were cool despite their short comings and stupid gimmicks

And at long last, came the Black Lion, and what an incredible site he was to behold. The lion itself is just massive, but more importantly, it surpassed my biggest fear, it looks like a lion. My biggest gripe with every Voltron released before Toynami's version is that the Black Lion always tended to just look like a torso with legs attached to it rather than a lion. I had the Trendmasters repaint of the original Matchbox toy, and I hated the Black Lion from there. It was clunky, the arms and legs would never stay attached, the lion had no neck, and the wings were fragile as all hell. The same happened with the actual Trendmasters Voltrons, especially their big one, only this time, all of the lions looked like body parts with legs. It was not until Toynami's Masterpiece Voltron that the Black Lion looked like a lion, so I am glad to see that Mattel went ahead and made sure their Black Lion mimics this. Another thing I loved that Mattel did is the articulated tails. I love how the tails on the lions look like tails, and how those found on the appendages fold into the lions instead of either sliding down or becoming the connector points. The only one I have an issue with is Black Lion's, but no one has ever found a way to get rid of that tail when he is transformed as Voltron, and I cannot think of one either, so I can't really fault Mattel on that one.

Combined, this figure just down right rocks. He is very top heavy, so it is hard to keep him posed all that well, but the amount of poses you can get him in is incredible. Most importantly, I am amazed that the legs do not slide off Black Lion given their size, as even the smallest of combining Voltrons seemed to have that problem if you lifted them more than an inch off the ground.

Overall, I am truly glad I got the sub because this thing is incredible. Yes, I absolutely hate the spring gimmick. It is worthless and annoying to be in an adult collector's item. However, I feel the positives out weigh the negatives. I also know there are some who wish the legs had been silver or die-cast, but I am very pleased they did not go that route. For one thing, die-cast would make these lions even heavier than they already are. Secondly, as I have said earlier, I like how they are anime accurate, and giving them a silver color would take away from that aspect for me. Finally, I am so happy to finally own the entire collection of the pilots. I have been wanting to own toys of them for years, so this was fantastic. I just hope one day Mattel sees fit to give us Hagar, Lotor, and Zarkon so I can have the main trio of villains to confront the pilots, especially since Lotor is my favorite character in the show. Nevertheless, some of you may hate them due to the QC issues and stupid gimmick, but I for one am extremely pleased in the long run despite my initial fears and frustrations with the line. I just cannot see myself buying another version of these lions ever again unless they figure out how to do a combining Voltron with lions that can be posed and sit like they did on the show.