Voltron Lego

@JK47 and @zerodeefex brought this to my attention. Picked up on the last box at the local Lego store. It's OG Voltron, so how could I refuse? I some ways, the OG cartoon is better (more streamlined plot of good vs. evil, and the OG Explorers kicked ass with flying Kung-Fu moves from the start) than the new Legendary Defenders cartoon on Netflix. The Netflix cartoon has much better voice acting.

I do prefer the look of OG Voltron vs. the new Voltron. There was something about that 1980s era robot look. Less sleek, less toylike, more rugged war machine.


The is the new Voltron.


Here the box for the Lego set:


And the 15 some bags:

 

The Lego set was actually extremely easy to put together. The box says 16+, but that's only because of the 2000+ pieces. It only took my son and me two evenings to finish it. The bags make it easy. Each of the five lions is built separately with a number of bags assigned to each lion. The black lion is the biggest and uses 5 bags. the blue and yellow lions of the legs use 3 bags each. The arms use 2 bags each. Another bag or two contain the sword and shield. The lions that make up the arm are the smallest.

The black lion is the most involved build.



LOL, that's part of the Lego toolsets, but in gold color. The Voltron cross is a tire iron!








Now it's starting to look like something.

 

The head is actually pretty ingenuous. No pre-molded parts or stickers. The lions upper jaw actually flips down over the robot head to form the crown, just like in the show.

 

Here the blue lion that forms one of the legs. The photos show how the build is very straightforward.





This is the blue lion's head that forms the foot, As such, it's a separate piece from the lion's body which is allowed to pivot when transformed into the full Voltron robot.

 

Back to the black lion, there are the hind legs of the black lion, which form the thighs of Voltron.





And here are the completed blue and black lions. We can see that the black lion, which comprises the head, shoulders, torso, and thighs of Voltron is much bigger!

 

Here is a shot of the blue lion with the head rotated up to form the foot.



Test fit.



Now the thighs of Voltron have to be removed and reinserted at a 90-degree angle. I wish they could have been rotated, but I understand why this was done: to ensure rigidity. It's a big set. A part that could have rotated with the weight of the torso and two arms may not have stood up well.

Otherwise, no other parts need to be removed. The lion appendages, including the tail, are simply rearranged. The blue lion legs come up nestled to the body, like in the show.

 

The lions that comprise the arm are extremely simple.




Here is the yellow lion that makes up the other leg with the red lion (right arm)


There is some variance with the lions. Note the top-mounted plasma cannon and two fins of the yellow lion, just like in the show. The side-mounted missiles on the hindquarters are not there though.

 

Almost complete. Just need to finish the left arm / green lion.



Red lion fitted as the right arm. Similar to the thighs, the shoulder pieces need to be pulled off and rotated 90-degrees to allow the arm to fit properly. The right hand has more articulation than the left because it is intended to hold Voltron's Blazing Sword. The articulation of the shoulder and elbow are just on a single plane. The Lego ball joints lack sufficient friction to hold such heavy pieces in the place.

The legs are just straight without any joints, not even at the hips. The only parts on the legs that articulate are the feet. The Voltron figure actually tilts just slightly backward, to account for the weight of the sword and shield which will be held by the arms. Overall the figure is very sturdy.



The green lion's legs are retracted toward the body. Getting ready to fit.


A very inventive high friction system using Technic parts (gears) was developed for the shoulder joint to keep the arms posed up or down to stay in place.

 

Stylized Lego set completion photo to be posted on Instagram.