Icarus Toys United Gokin UG-00B Voltron Dark Lion Force
Item comes shipped with an outer brown shipper box.
Box dimensions: 18.5″ x 13″ x 6.25″
The main box is packaged with a “wrap around” layer of styrofoam.
Tray
Inner plastic cover for the tray.
Black Lion
Black Bazooka
The Black Bazooka runs on 2 pieces LR1130 (AG10) Batteries. Batteries not included. I didn’t have any with me at the time of the photoshoot. Oh well.
Black Missile
Mouth Blade
I’m not sure who copied whom here, but the Icarus Black Lion can also do the sitting pose. Bandai’s SOC does it better though thanks to the ab crunch joint in the SOC version.
Red Lion
The heads of both arm lions can fire thanks to triggers located here. This also helps facilitate the swapping of the heads. More on reasons for that later.
Mouth Blade
Green Lion
Mouth Blade
Blue Lion
Mouth Blade
Yellow Lion
Mouth Blade
Lions charge!
Let’s form Voltron!
-How to properly fold the lion legs (please take particular note of how the hind/rear legs fold)
-To properly connect the arm lions, make sure you align the sockets to the “locks” for the shoulders.
-To release the leg lions, just push on these tabs here. To release the arm lions, you just have to tug them really hard (no release buttons).
-The Black Lion’s tail is supposed to fold up like so I think,
Voltron!
Well, it’s been delayed for almost a year but Icarus finally rolled out their Dark Lion Force Voltron. I’m glad to say that, as a toy, it rocks! I’m not going to go into the legal side of this toy since that’s one messy debate, so I’ll just enjoy the toy itself.
Love ’em or hate ’em, there’s no denying Icarus did an amazing job with the paints on these figures.
The set comes with optional “hands” (heads) for the arm lions, they are actually different, the optional hands seem to have a smaller hole for gripping the weapons. I don’t know if it’s just me but I had an easier time making Voltron hold onto the shield/Spinning Laser Blade with the optional hands than with the default hands.
Form Spinning Laser Blade!
The set comes with various swords for Voltron.
-Blazing Sword
-Blazing Sword Effect part
-Flaming Blazing Sword
-“alternate”, evil-looking Blazing Sword (totally “concept” only, never appeared in the Voltron show)
Form Blazing Sword!
The Blazing Sword effect is a nice bonus and I think it’s my favorite accessory in the set.
Lastly, Voltron also comes with a “flaming” Blazing Sword. I know this never really happened in the show, but it looks visually stunning.
Voltron also comes with an extra “evil” Blazing Sword. Not sure why, since in the Anime he never wielded two of them at a time (he had another set of weapons which were short swords though)
Voltron comes with an optional “open mouth” faceplate. It’s actually done via magnets. Pretty sweet.
Icarus Voltron can hold a slashing poses, no problem!
Supposedly, this set is limited to 1000 units produced.
The Good
-The Weigh in:
–Black – 411 Grams
–Red – 94 Grams
–Green – 87 Grams
–Blue – 257 Grams
–Yellow – 278 Grams
–Voltron – 1127 Grams (SOC is heavier – 1416 Grams)
-Voltron stands roughly 11.5″
-Diecast parts include:
–Black – Most parts of the torso, Voltron’s crotch joint, tail (except connector portion)
–Red – Upper half of torso, parts of Voltron’s elbows, tail (except connector portion)
–Green – Upper half of torso, parts of Voltron’s elbows, tail (except connector portion)
–Blue – Practically entire torso, tail (except connector portion)
–Yellow – Practically entire torso, tail (except connector portion)
-Each of the lions has ratcheted shoulders. Black lion has an extra set of ratchets for his knees for Voltron mode.
-Icarus actually included a Black Missile launcher for this set.
-While the connectors for the arm lions are plastic, they hold on really well, far better than the Toynami version by a mile.
-Arm lions have some degree of poseability in their torsos when in lion mode.
-Bending toes on all the lions.
-Mid-torso rotation and even some very minimal “ab crunch” is present in the toy.
-Ratchet joints on the “ankles”, yes!
-I don’t know why but I love seeing this section. It almost seems like gears I guess.
-Actual “firing” hands. I’ve missed this… (looks at SOC DC Mazingers, scratches head)
-There’s also a ratchet joint for Voltron’s neck! Cool!
-The connections for the arm lions is solid! Toynami can learn something here.
-Magnet gimmick used for swapping Voltron’s face plates.
The Bad-lol… ok, who proof read this?
-Err… hehehe, really not a fan of how the connectors look in lion mode. They must really be happy to see the princess? I would’ve preferred it if they could somehow fold all the way in.
-Was hoping for a display stand of some sort. No luck.
-Except for the mouth blades, the lions are kinda pretty bare, but I guess it’s better than Toynami’s 1st attempt at Voltron (zero accessories for the lions).
-Legal issues. lol…
The UglyNo real quality control issues for me here (on mine anyways). It looks great and the paint and colors blend really well. I hope there won’t be any issues as the toy ages as this is technically an untested, “new” company release (Miracle Productions, Mad Toy, Icarus Toys? Are they all the same guys? No idea) .
I loved the concept of adding LEDs to the Black Bazooka, even though the choice of batteries is odd, I wish they went with the more standard LR44 batteries for toys (easier to find).
On a personal note, I don’t know how the legal side of this toy goes, since Icarus says they got permission to license the toy under Classic Media (I think), World Events Productions says otherwise. Me, I was already desensitized to unofficial bootlegs since “Lionbot” came out when I was a kid. I had a lot of fond memories of that toy before finding out a decade later it was an unofficial copy of the original Popy Go Lion. Did finding out my biggest cherished childhood toy was a fake diminish my appreciation of it in any way? A little, but it sure as heck didn’t take away the memories of hours of enjoyment I had playing with it.
Overall, This toy is pretty good, ratchets everywhere, very good amount of heft (anything over a kilo is a win) and excellent articulation and poseability, beautiful paint job, the basics are all covered.
Still, I think I like the colored version better since the paint really pops, Since this is technically a “concept” figure and the color scheme isn’t based on anything from the various media (I think), this isn’t a completely “must have” figure. If given the choice between this and the colored version, the colored version is naturally the way to go. I was actually thinking of skipping this one but they got me with the “limited to 1000 units and this is the last piece we got in the store” line and dove in on an impulse buy. I need more willpower next time. 😀
About the leg lions, there’s actually a hidden torso joint in there to allow some “left to right” mid-torso articulation.
Since Icarus published a warning disclaimer that “exerting too much force in pulling out the joint might result in possible breakage”. I don’t really recommend this as it doesn’t really add much to the leg lions overall. Just steer clear of doing this.
Gold
