The Green Lion with Pidge is the latest set from the Voltron Classics toy line. It gets more exciting, and harder to wait, as it takes two months for each new set to come out. But Mattel is really handling this line quite well. The size alone for Voltron was enough to convince me to get a subscription.
With my past Voltron Classics reviews, I was quite extensive and thorough, talking about both the pilot figure and the lion vehicle, however this time I’m going to condense the review and be more concise. I have a tendency to talk a lot, to the point of excess, so I’m going to experiment with a much more clear-cut review here.
A large part of the reason I’m trying to be more concise with this review, is because every review I do of these sets seems to turn out the same. They’re all made the same way, and in turn end up getting the same opinion from me. And while consistency is good for a toy line, when it comes to reviewing, it can end up quite bland. So I’m going to mostly let the pictures speak for themselves in this review, and while I’ll still give my opinions on the figures, I’m just going to cut to the chase.
I’m also going to nix the scoring that I usually do for each section, and just give one overall score at the end. The reason is because all the scores for these sets seem to end up being the same anyway, and also because it’s just getting to become too tedious for me. Too rigid, just for the sake of it. I would prefer to do my reviews a little more lax, since all people want to do is look at the pictures and read my opinions. I don’t think a strict scoring system is all that relevant to be honest. So if this review goes well, this is how I’ll be doing all of them from now on, which will hopefully translate to me getting more reviews done.
Alright, now let’s get to the review.
| PACKAGING– The packaging for Pidge and the Green Lion are in the same style as the previous figures. A nice colorful box packaging for Pidge that hides everything inside except for a small window displaying the figure, and some great artwork adorning the front and back.The Green Lion has a giant window box, perfectly showing off the figure within from every angle. He comes with a cool backdrop displaying a forest, which is where the Green Lion slept in the cartoon. Very attractive and functional packaging.
SCULPT – Pidge looks just like how Pidge should as an action figure. His short stature, his spiky anime hair, and his big glasses and the grin on his face perfectly capture him. I’m so glad Mattel didn’t cheap out and use one “buck” body throughout all the pilots. Pidge’s hips stick out a little far, and don’t look quite as proportionate as they should, and just like with the other pilots, he has a sculpted gun in its holster by his hip, yet inexplicably has a sculpted gun hand. It’s a strange tease, that’s for sure. But other than that I can’t really complain about his sculpt. The Green Lion has a lot of great intricate detail sculpted into him. Lots of paneling. And I really love how they retained the accuracy to the cartoon by making him more rounded and curvier than the other lions. Whereas the Red Lion is like a big rectangular box, the Green Lion is more akin to a long cylinder, and it translates well here.
PAINT – As far as I can tell, Pidge has no paint problems, except for his glasses. The rims of his glasses are clearly sculpted on, so the paint kind of seeped down into the face sculpt, making them look a lot thicker than they were intended to be. The rest of him seems to be painted quite nicely, and the insignia on his uniform looks great too. The Green Lion, like the others, doesn’t have a whole lot of painted detail. Some on the face, a little on the back, but mostly he’s just been cast in the appropriate colors. And while it looks good, the customizer in me can’t help but wish there was a paint wash on the white parts of him to help bring out that great sculpt.
ARTICULATION – The articulation on Pidge and the Green Lion are limited. Pidge has a ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders, swivel-hinged elbows, waist swivel, t-hinged hips, and swivel-hinge knees. Some decent articulation, but not a lot of posability options. It’s clear the pilots weren’t meant to do much other than stand or sit, and I’m not really bothered by that, but I can understand some would be. The Green Lion has lots of movement, but is largely limited due to the springs in his legs that allow him to automatically transform from Voltron limb, to Lion form. Still, as the pictures will attest, you can get some really dynamic poses out of him, thanks in large to the big hinge in the middle that’s meant to be Voltron’s elbow. And the fact that every joint is ratcheted helps retain the stability of his poses and is sure to come in handy when forming Voltron.
ACCESSORIES – Pidge comes with an alternate helmeted head, that I think is a brilliant move on Mattel’s part. Instead of trying to make a clunky oversized helmet to fit over the figures’ head, the alternate head looks much better. And for all the customizers out there, the helmet and head are separate pieces, in case you want to try and remove the helmet and just have Pidge standing there holding it by his side. He also comes with a display stand that doubles as the key to his lion, and is an homage to the vintage Panosh Place toy line that had the same feature. The last accessory for Pidge is the collect and connect piece for the Blazing Sword. He comes with the bottom of the blade, but as you can see from the pictures, it can’t be connected with the other pieces until we have the hilt, which I’m assuming comes with Allura. Seems like Mattel really is teasing us well, not being able to connect all the sword pieces yet, and waiting until the very last lion, the Black Lion, to be able to connect any of the lions together. Well played, Matty. The Green Lion just comes with his three-bladed weapon that fits in his mouth. There are two grooves on the underside that his teeth fit perfectly into to help retain its position. This too is an homage to the older toys which included these specific weapons for the lions. I really love that Mattel included them in the line.
TRANSFORMATION / ACTION FEATURE – I would be remiss if I didn’t touch on this. The Green Lion transforms the exact same was as the Red Lion, with the legs folding up the same, and with the back panel lifting up to hide the tail in. The springs hold well, but it does seem kind of easy sometimes to let your hands accidentally hit the buttons on him to release the legs. He has one big button on his belly, and another on his rear-end that release the front and back legs, respectively. He also has a peg that folds down that’s obviously going to be inserted into the Black Lion to form a good ball-jointed like shoulder. So that should be fun. It remains to be seen if the springs will hold up over time, or if they don’t, if it will affect the ability to transform the lions. The other big draw to the Green Lion is being able to house his pilot Pidge inside of him. All you have to do is take the key that comes with Pidge, insert it in the slot in the top, and fold out the panels to make room for him. Pidge fits wonderful inside, most likely due to his small size, and looks great taking his seat. There’s some cool stickers inside showing off all the instruments and paneling inside the cockpit. A fun added feature to the lion, that’s for sure. Of course the Lion isn’t in scale, and the pilots should be sitting in the heads of the lions, but I’d rather not have to deal with either 1/4 inch tall pilots, or a 10 foot tall Voltron toy.
FUN – It’s Voltron, of course it’s fun. 5 giant lion robots connecting together to form an even more giant robot who has a giant sword as a weapon? I’m pretty sure that in the dictionary, that is one of the definitions of “fun”. If not, it should be. Voltron is fun, and the Green Lion and Pidge are also quite fun. The pilots are a nice addition to the line, and I’m glad Mattel included them. I would have been fine without having the pilots, but I have to admit it’s awesome to have them. And having the three lions so far standing side by side makes me even more excited for October to have all 5 of them.
OVERALL – It’s a great set, and I’m even more glad now that I subscribed. I was wary at first, because I knew about the spring-loaded action feature in advance, and I knew the pilots weren’t going to be that posable. However, they don’t detract from the fun to be had with these figures, and I’ll admit again that I mostly subscribed just to have a 2 foot tall super posable Voltron figure, so I’m not that worried about being able to pose the individual lions, or the pilots for that matter. I think if you’re a Voltron fan, then this set, along with the others are must haves. Despite the flaws, I think it will be worth it when all 5 are released. FINAL SCORE: 3.5 / 5
Where to buy: Unfortunately it was only available on Mattycollector and is currently sold out. However, you can try the following, but you will have to pay secondary market prices. |
      
 Three down… |
In order to maintain a symmetry with the text and the photos in the review, I’ve placed the remaining photos below in a gallery. Just click on a thumbnail to enlarge the picture.
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