Blitzway 5Pro Studio Carbotix Voltron
Box is crazy huge!! Spans 23.5 x 11.5 x 18.75 inches in dimension!
Styrofoam blocks are packed in to protect the main box.
An outer clear plastic baggie is included to protect the main box.
The main box art design is a thing a beauty!
Credits to the guys who made this impressive thing happen.
The main tray is so huge, velcro straps are included to help lift it out of the box. Whoa.
(Side note: I forgot to take a proper shot, but to return the Black Lion to the tray, it’s hind legs need to be folded backwards into itself to present a “clean” thigh front when in the box)
The Lion accessories are packed inside the display base.
Various tools are included to help work the toy’s finer points. Very professional.
Optional stickers for that “retro” vibe included.
Unlike the other lions, where the batteries come pre-installed, the batteries for the Green and Red Lions are packed separately.
I love how crazy detailed the manual is! Plus every page is fully colored, and even shows how to correctly handle the “less-than-obvious” joints on the toy.
Pilot figures
Hmm… My Alura is a bit bent. I guess I’ll have to heat and reset her later on.
The pilot figures stand roughly an inch high.
Head’s up note: Considering the amount of shiny diecast and chrome on this figure, I do recommend wiping down the chrome parts when you get them out of the box. The contact to the plastic baggies over time have left some smudges on these parts. They’re easily wiped down with a clean cloth, thankfully.
Also, do note that there is an excessive amount of lubricant on some of the lions’ joints. (you’ll notice droplet marks on the surface of my backdrop in some pics) Best to wipe down each lion’s legs with some clean paper towels as well.
Black Lion
Piloted by Keith Kogane (Akira Kogane in Golion), the Black Lion is the main command unit of the team and forms Voltron’s body (and head).
For stability reasons in combined mode, the Black Lion’s hind legs cannot flex forward. They’re blocked from moving past a certain point by this thick piece of metal.
Thanks to the shoulder joint design, the Black Lion has a lot of allowance to move its front shoulders.
All of the Lions’ paws can rotate on their ankle joints, allowing for some additional poseability.
Black Lion’s wings are all on ratchet joints.
Anl aternate pilot figure sits inside each of the c0ckpits.
You can place Keith standing on top of the Black Lion. Just like in the closing credits!
Black Lion Rotary Cannon/ Black Bazooka (one cannon for each shoulder).
Black Lion Mouth Blade / Black Sword
Red Lion
Piloted by Lance McClain (Isamu Kurogane), the team’s second-in-command. The Red Lion specializes in combat in extreme heat environments, even being able to withstand molten lava.
An alternate pilot figure seated inside the c0ckpit.
You can place Lance standing on top of the Red Lion.
Big Fire mouth cannon
Armaments – Hidden cannon (Double Pod), Red Lion Mouth Blade/Red Sword, Lava Cannon/Red Laser (right shoulder)
Plasma Flash Cannon /Magma Missile (left shoulder)
Green Lion
Piloted by the youngest (and resident genius) member of the team, Pidge (Hiroshi Suzuishi). The Green Lion is able to navigate easily across woodland terrain.
An alternate pilot figure sits inside the c0ckpit.
You can place Pidge standing on top of the Green Lion.
Green Tornado mouth cannon
Armaments – Hidden Weapon (Green Needle), Green Lion Mouth Blade/Green Sword and Shooting Star/ Green Knife
Laser Cannon/ Green Gun
Blue Lion
Originally piloted by Sven Holgersson and then Princess Allura (Princess Fala of Altea in Golion), the Blue lion is a powerful force to be reckoned with underwater.
Remember to close the connection port when in lion mode. It’s opened up by default in the box.
An alternate pilot figure sits inside the c0ckpit.
You can place Alura standing on top of the Blue Lion.
The leg Lions come with a mid-torso hinge joint, so that you can proerply pose the lions “sitting down”. This idea was first present in the SOC Gx-71 Voltron.
Armaments – Hidden Weapon (Blue Missile), Blue Lion Mouth Blade/Blue Sword, Water Rod mouth cannon in the Lion’s mouth (that’s actually Voltron’s “Foot Missile” in there), Triple Barrel Mortar Cannon/ Marine Missile
Shoulder Cannon/ Ice Missile
Yellow Lion
Piloted by Hunk Garrett (Tsuyoshi Seidou), the team’s “strong man”. The Yellow Lion specializes in desert combat.
An alternate pilot figure sits inside the c0ckpit.
You can place Hunk standing on top of the Yellow Lion.
Armaments – Yellow Lion Mouth Blade/Yellow Sword, Hidden Weapon (Yellow Bazooka), Sand Storm mouth cannon, Dual Shoulder Blockbuster Turrets/ Sand Cannon
Radial Shotgun Shoulder Blaster / Gatling Missile
Voltron Force Go!
Transformation Notes
While the transformation for the most part is very similar to most Voltron toys out there, there is the added element of the lion leg covers for combined mode. The panels are on a double hinge so be careful when moving them into position. It takes some getting used to, but once you get it done, it looks great.
I love this clever concept to swap around the tails and the connection posts into the same canal in the arm lions. Just make sure to use the tools to fish out the connection posts to avoid damaging the toy.
IMPORTANT!When opening the cover for the back section of the arm lions, make sure the mid-sections are rotated to this orientation to allow for more clearance.
Too bad there’s no way to hide the front legs of the leg lions. Oh, well…
Ready to form Voltron!
Activate Interlocks!
Dynotherms Connected!
Infracells up!
Megathrusters are go!
Go Voltron Force!
Form feet and legs!
Form arms and body!
And I’ll form the head!
Voltron
(Western version backstory).
Created by King Alfor of Arus, Voltron was the galaxy’s main defense against the evil King Zarkon and his armies of Planet Doom. Unfortunately, following a battle against the Zarkon’s witch, Haggar, Voltron is separated into 5 lions and hidden away on planet Arus. Thanks to the efforts of five brave space explorers, the mighty robot is reawakened and the fight to save the universe begins.
Thanks to the well-balanced design and lots of joints, you can pose Voltron down like this, no problem!
Voltron’s Attacks
Fire Tornado and Laser Magnum
The set comes with an optional “open mouth” face plate for Voltron.
Spinning Laser Blade/Space Cutter
Do note that the blade is just simply pegged into the handle, it tends to fall off quite easily. It came off while I was working on it, good thing nothing broke when it landed on the floor.
Solar Combat Spears/Double Sword
The swords can combine to form a lance.
Blazing Sword/Juu Oh Ken (Ten Kings Sword)
“Four Lion Attack!”
In the series, Voltron doesn’t really get a “power up” upgrade like other Super Robot shows, instead the team discovers a new secret attack late into the series (Episode 32). The Four Lion Attack, which can be recreated with this toy.
Similar to the SOC version, each of the lion heads of each of the limbs can be tugged free to recreate this attack (also, remember to never lift or hold a limb lion by its head, the body will pop free from all the weight of its torso).
“Four Lion Attack!”
Lastly, you can place the pilot figures up on top next to Voltron’s head for a proper team pose. It’s very, very cool! I wish the DX SOCs had tiny pilot figures too.
ELECTRONICS DEPT.
Batteries for the electronics are PRE-INSTALLED in each of the lions, so do take note to remove them if you’re going to display them for a long while. Only the Red and Green Lions don’t have their batteries pre-installed.
Each Lion type runs on different button battery types.
-Black- LR41 (3 needed)
-Green and Red – BR-311 (1x each)
-Yellow and Blue – CR1220 (1x each)
The battery compartement for Black Lion is on its nape. Just pry open the hatch to access it. The on switch for it is located on the opposite side, basically the Black Lion’s “Adam’s apple”. lol…
The batteries for the leg lions are under the roof of their mouths. Easy enough to get to. Also remember to pull out the plastic tabs first before working with the electronics. These tabs prevent the batteries from coming into contact with the plates and thus, prevent draining.
Good, strong LEDs. Nice!!
To be honest, I didn’t attempt working the batteries for the Green and Red Lions. So I’ll just leave them be.
DISPLAY BASE
As previously mentioned, the top part of the base opens up to reveal the accessories for the Lions. Nice!
You’ve gotta admire the detail and planning that went into designing this.
Even more impressive, the lid is held in place thanks to magnets. Very cool!
To recreate the scene where the Lions launch into formation to form Voltron, Blitzway included color-coordinated acrylic stands to suspend the lions in mid-air.
The lions are pegged securely into the stands.
Let’s go Voltron Force!
For additional display options, there’s a couple of flip out struts in the back of the display base that are meant to hold the Blazing Sword and Spinning Laser Blade.
For even MOAR display options, you can also change the orientation of the support arms for when you display Voltron in combined form. The Blitzway designers thought of everything!
Optional attachment piece for the Red Lion support arm to hold the Blazing Sword.
Optional Attachment piece for the Green Lion support arm to hold the Spinning Laser Blade.
Sadly, I couldn’t do a comparison with the Soul of Chogokin Gx-71 Voltron, due to still letting my arm recover from a bad fall I had a few weeks back. Gx-71 is stored way in the back and it would require a good amount of lifting a lot of stuff to get to it. So, I guess this will be something I need to get back to one day.
The Good
-The weigh in:
–Black Lion – 965 Grams
–Red Lion – 143 Grams
–Green Lion – 141 Grams
–Blue Lion – 506 Grams
–Yellow Lion – 509 Grams
–Voltron/Golion – 2266 Grams (!!)
-Voltron stands roughly 14.25 inches tall (15 inches counting the wings).
When using the display base, this bumps up the height clearance of the combined figure to 16.5 inches tall.
-Diecast parts for all the Lions are roughly the same:
–the main torso of each Lion
–Legs of each Lion (except for the arm Lions?)
–Connection posts for Voltron’s shoulders
–Voltron’s ankle joints.
-Beautiful box art! I think this is the first time I’ve ever been blown away at how cool a package looks. None of the DX SOCs ever had me gush over their box arts, but this one really impresses.
-They used foam blocks to protect the main box!
-Excellent details in the manual! It covers almost everything, even the articulation options, plus it’s fully in color!
-Voltron has an ab crunch joint with a very good range of motion!
-Concealment panels for each of the lion legs for all of the limb lions. Finally someone tried this!
-Decently painted and properly scaled Pilot figures!
-C0ckpits with pilots inside!!
-Tools are included to help the customer fiddle with the finer aspects of transforming the toy better.
-LEDs for light up eyes on all of the lions’ heads and even Voltron’s eyes.
-LEDs are bright!!!! You can really see the light shine through the Lion’s eyes.
-Impressive layout design the storage compartment for the weapons in the display base. You can fit practically everything in there.
-You just gotta love the effect of the lions posed in flight mode on the display base! Just wow!
-The execution of how the tails and connection ports change places for the forearm Lions is genius! I sure wish Bandai thought of this one with their Gx-71.
All of the Lions’ paws can rotate, allowing for some additional poseability.
-Thanks to mid-torso ab crunch now present in all of the lions, it adds great poseability options for each of the Lions!
-The proportions for Voltron here look really soooo good! Blitzway did an incredible job on this!
-Display base even has more than one configuration!
-The back part of Voltron’s knees features compressable covers. This was somewhat of an issue with the Gx-71 SOC Voltron for some, the lack of these covers left a huge gap in this area.
The Bad
-While the set comes with pilot figures, I do wish Sven was included as a 6th figure for the team.
-Attaching the LEDs for the arm lions seemed like a chore. I didn’t attempt it myself. lol..
-Same as with the SOC Voltron, the leg lions still do NOT have the “secret” missile launchers in the heads of the leg lions that the original vintage toys had.
-No way to hide the front legs of the leg lions, unfortunately…
-Sigh… I really wish the hinges were on the back side of the wings. You can clearly see the hinges sticking out like sore thumbs. The SOC version had this same problem as well.
-While the set features LEDs, a part of me does wish the base featured some audio tracks. But I guess that’s a whole mess of licensing that would most likely add into costs.
The Ugly
Some minor QC issues on my Red Lion, the glue for the ears was insufficient and it kept falling off. An easy enough fix with glue though.
Likewise with the Red Lion, for some reason, the fumes from the glue for the hidden weapon didn’t dry right and left white residue all over Lance inside the c0ckpit. Poor Lance…
While these are issues for my copy, I don’t find them to be real dealbreakers. The glue residue can be cleaned off with a Q-tip. At least I’m not dealing with any serious issues.
Overall, it’s simply incredible! Blitzway somehow managed to take everything the already impressive Soul of Chogokin Gx-71 Voltron came with and then cranked it up some more! The size, the details in every aspect of the toy down to the packaging and manual, the base, The sheer amount of diecast metal, everything in this set screams wow! The design team thought of everything! I would have to say, this set is probably the most definitive version of Voltron out there right now. It even fits right in with the scale of the DX Soul of Chogokins!
While I usually love the addition of LED effects, the hassle of having to deal with removing the small batteries afterward is a bit of a downer. I understand that Blitzway had to deal with adding electronics to small pieces that had to also be removable (the lion heads), but given the choice, I think I would’ve preferred it if they made the battery compartments be located somewhere easier to work with, like the torso. Plus I wish they packed the batteries separately instead of having them pre-installed to avoid destroying the electronics for sealed units 20 years down the road.
I suppose the biggest issue of this set is the high price tag for it. At roughly $700 USD, it’s no easy trigger to pull. I had to really think hard before I jumped in myself. But in the end, I’m glad I did. If I had to choose this or the Gx-71, I think if one has the funds, then this is definitely the one to get, as you really are getting what you’re paying for here (and then some).
Funfact: Usually back in the day (and even now), voice actors pulled double duty when doing voiceover work. One interesting bit of info, Neil Ross did both the voices for Keith and Pidge, while Hunk and Prince Lotor had the same voice actor (Lennie Weinrib).
Gold
