PACKAGING – The packaging for Hunk is in the same style as Lance. The left half of the package is covered with the Voltron logo, a picture of Hunk from the cartoon, and his name. We see the figure of Hunk, and his extra head, and key on the right through a small window. At first it seems like a waste of space, but as I said before the left side of the package fits the collect and connect piece for the “forming” blazing sword. I really like the packaging for the figures in this line. It’s simplistic, yet very attractive and gets the point across. All things I’m a fan of.

PACKAGING SCORE: 3 / 5

SCULPT – Hunk has a very cartoon accurate sculpt. All the proportions look right, and even the smoothness of the body are all ‘toon accurate. I particularly like how Hunk is actually much taller than Lance, so this is proof that Mattel isn’t just using the same body for all the guys. He’s taller, bulkier, and even his feet are bigger…much bigger actually. In short, Hunk is a big guy and the figure pulls this off nicely. I love the head sculpt too. It’s undeniably Hunk, right down to almost naive smile he loved to sport in the show. He also features a sculpted gun to his hip, completely unremovable like Lance’s yet still features a gun hand. Again, I am baffled.

SCULPT SCORE: 3 / 5

PAINT – There’s very little paint slop on Hunk. The head is perfect, right down to his headband, and so is most of the body. There’s some slop around the belt buckle, but that seems to be it. Unfortunately that’s also “it” for all the paint on the figure too. So much of his is left unpainted and looking plain. There’s no kind of wash or anything on the figure to help bring out the sculpt. Not even the gun on his hip is painted. It’s just a dull gray. I assume it looks more cartoon accurate without the the paint details, but based on the figure alone, it just looks plain and lazy.

PAINT SCORE: 2 / 5

ARTICULATION – Hunk’s articulation is the exact same model as Lance’s. He features a ball jointed neck that just acts as a cut, ball jointed shoulders, swivel-hinged elbows, waist cut, Mattel style hinged hips, and swivel-hinged knees. Most of the joints on Hunk are tight, except his hips. The hips on mine are pretty loose. I hope this isn’t a problem throughout the production, and mine is just an anomaly, but I can only review the one I have so I have to do so accordingly.

With this model, you’re not going to be getting very dynamic in your poses. These pilots are certainly the most articulation figures Mattel has ever produced in a 3 3/4 inch scale, but it’s still not enough. I’m thinking Mattel was focusing mostly on the lions and the pilots were afterthoughts. But it would have been nice to get the pilots with proper collector-based articulation so we can actually pose them.

What’s really sad is that if they had just given the pilots removable guns, that would have upped the posability by a lot. As it is now, your pilots at most could just stand there, holding nothing.

ARTICULATION SCORE: 2 / 5

ACCESSORIES – Hunk comes with three accessories. He comes with an extra helmeted head, and a key that opens up the Yellow Lion, and acts as a display base, and he includes the hand guard collect and connect piece for the “forming” blazing sword. The helmeted head looks great, and lucky for those customizers out there the helmet and head are separate pieces. A little heat and a little torque and you should be able to have the helmet by itself for your pilot to hold by his side.

As I said before in my Lance review, the key is a very nice homage to the vintage keys that came with the Panosh Place Voltron figures. I also like that it acts as a display base. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work so well for Hunk. His feet don’t fit very well on the display base, and I think the holes in his feet are too big, because they don’t really plug onto the peg on the base very well. So not only does he have loose hip joints, but the display base that’s supposed to help him stand has a peg that’s too small.

The collect and connect piece included with him looks great. It’s the hand guard to the blazing sword and is painted up very nicely. It plugs perfectly into the handle included with the Lance figure, and is hinged so you can flip up the hand guard to put it in the Red Lion’s mouth, and then flip it back down so it’s properly guarding Voltron’s hand. I really like this collect and connect idea, since it adds value to the sets and gives us something extra. I know the Black Lion is coming with the normal blazing sword, but it’s nice to get this extra version of the blazing sword as well.

ACCESSORIES SCORE: 3 / 5

FUN – These pilot figures just aren’t very fun. Not by themselves anyway. They’re fun when you play with them in conjunction with their lions, but as figures themselves they are not fun. They don’t even come with anything to hold really, nor are they very posable. Like I said before, if their guns were removable that would have instantly made them more fun since they could have had guns to hold. But Mattel and logic have always had their arguments.

FUN SCORE: 2 / 5

OVERALL – Hunk is not a great figure, and I’d expect that all of the pilots in this line will be getting similar scores. While it’s awesome that we’re getting pilots for the lions, if they had been sold separately then I would most likely have skipped them to be honest.

OVERALL SCORE: 2.5 / 5

YELLOW LION

PACKAGING – The Yellow Lion features the exact same styled packaging as the Red Lion before. It’s a giant window box that perfectly displays the lion inside in a cool pose, and we can see his weapon accessory attached behind him. I like how all the lions have backgrounds in the packaging that resemble where they come from in the show. All the lions “sleep” in various parts of the globe, and when they’re awoken they fly together in one spot to form Voltron. The Yellow Lion sleeps in a desert, so it’s nice to have that referenced in the packaging. It’s all very vibrant and perfectly gets your attention. And the big window is the perfect way to tease collectors too.

PACKAGING SCORE: 4 / 5

SCULPT – Man, this guy is big. Like, very big. A lot bigger than the Red Lion. It makes sense though, because the Red Lion is an arm and the Yellow Lion is a leg. Legs are bigger and longer, so the Yellow Lion would have to be huge. But even knowing that, it’s still surprising when you get him in person just how big he is. And all the detail on him is great. It looks pretty much perfectly cartoon accurate. I always loved how each of the lions had distinct body types and head sculpts, and I love it here too. This IS the Yellow Lion of Voltron. I honestly don’t think I have a single complaint about the sculpt itself. What more could you want from it?

SCULPT SCORE: 5 / 5

PAINT – Like the Red Lion, the Yellow Lion is severely lacking paint. What little paint it does have looks good though, and there is no slop. But like I mentioned before, getting some actual paint detail would have really made the sculpt pop. He’s got a lot of sculpted panels and mechanical detailing, that would look amazing with the right paint job applied. The whole thing is still very vibrant and looks accurate to the cartoon in its simplicity, but for me 100% cartoon accuracy isn’t always necessary. I prefer my figures to be properly painted to be honest. It should also be noted that the Yellow Lion does feature the number 5 on his back, because these lions are meant to be ‘toon accurate, and in the show the lions didn’t have the numbers on their backs.

PAINT SCORE: 2 / 5

ARTICULATION – The Yellow Lion has a decent amount of articulation, almost as much as the Red Lion. He’s got a hinged jaw, a head that can rotate, a neck joint that allows his head to move up and down, single knee joints, ankle joints, and a joint in the middle of his tail. He doesn’t feature the mid-torso hinge like the Red Lion did, since he doesn’t need. The Red Lion uses that hinge as the elbow for Voltron, but the Yellow lion just forms the lower right leg.

The up and down head movement is there, because his head has to be positioned all the up to form Voltron’s foot. But in Lion mode it actually gives you more display options, which is nice. That joint isn’t free moving though. There are only three positions it can be put in. All the way down, half-way up, and all the way up. It clicks into position in these three spots. Kinda disappointing there actually, but it’s not the worst thing ever.

All the joints are tight, because they’re ratcheted. They click into place with each movement. Something that’s clearly meant to help the completed Voltron be more stable.

Just like with the Red Lion, the spring loaded feature used in all the lions severely limits the posability of the legs. Even though these lions were originally marketed as being really posable, they just aren’t. Lots of good articulation, but not a lot to be done with it.

ARTICULATION SCORE: 3 / 5

ACCESSORIES – The Yellow Lion comes with one accessory. It’s a recreation of the bladed dagger weapon that the older versions of the Yellow Lion came with. It’s nice to be getting these weapons since it really adds to the display options. There’s a small separation in the handle where the teeth fit nicely into, holding the weapon in place. I really like that Mattel is including these weapons.

ACCESSORIES SCORE: 4 / 5

TRANSFORMATION / ACTION FEATURE – Just as with the Red Lion and all the other lions yet to come out, the Yellow Lion features a spring loaded transformation gimmick. You lift his head up all the way until it clicks into place, fold his legs up until they click into place, and fold his tail up and rest it in a small cavity on the lion’s back.

He also has this rectangular piece on his stomach that flips down to help balance him. Because of the way his legs fold up, his feet are actually pointed downward too far, meaning without that rectangular piece the leg would be constantly unbalanced. You’d think this is something Mattel just would have designed not to happen, but apparently not. I’m actually pretty disappointed in the way this leg looks, because not only do we have his feet that greatly interfere with how the leg is supposed to work, but his head positioned in such a way that the leg is constantly leaning forward. It doesn’t look natural, and I’m afraid that when Voltron is completed he’ll just always be slightly leaning forward.

This is why a free moving, or a ratcheted joint in the neck area would have been better, so you could position his feet anyway you wanted or needed to. Maybe it will look better once Voltron is completed, but I just don’t know. I’m very wary about it.

To put the Yellow Lion back into lion mode, simply press a button on his stomach, and it causes the legs and head to go back into position. Of course you’ll still need to adjust the legs some after the button pushing, so it almost makes it useless when you think about it…and just like the Red Lion, you have to put his tail back into position manually.

The two main reasons I don’t like this action feature, is because nobody is sure what will happen with the stability of the lions once the springs wear out over time (as they are wont to do). Will the lions just fall apart, or will they work the exact same way as before, just without the springs (meaning everything will have to be transformed manually)? Only time will tell. The other reason I don’t like it, is because it’s very easy to accidentally push that button, and if that happens when you’re trying to form Voltron, I can imagine it getting very annoying. I’m still not sure why Mattel would include a very child-appealing action feature in an adult collectible. To sum up everything I just said, I am not a fan of the spring-loaded feature.

TRANSFORMATION / ACTION FEATURE SCORE: 2 / 5

FUN – Despite all the problems, the Yellow Lion is still a really fun toy. Yes, I really don’t like the spring loaded feature, but even so he’s still a lot of fun to play with. And you can have Hunk inside the lion for added playability.

All you have to do is take the key that came with Hunk and insert it on the Yellow Lion’s back. Then, his entire back lifts up revealing the cockpit. Inside you’ll see lots of cool decals that indicate sensors and switches and panels and whatnot. No paint detailing inside though.

Then you just put Hunk inside. The only problem here is that Hunk is so big, that he doesn’t fit into the seat properly. You can see from the photos on the right that in order to fit him in the cockpit at all, you have to do so at an angle. Both shoulders won’t sit against the back seat. Only one. Again, you would think that this is something Mattel would have sussed out beforehand, but alas here we are.

But even with THIS problem, Hunk still can fit inside with the back closing up no problem. And it’s still a really fun idea. I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t love the fact that you can sit the pilots inside the lions. It just adds so much to the display and playability options. I’m glad Mattel added this option.

FUN SCORE: 4 / 5

OVERALL – The Yellow Lion is a pretty great toy, despite his problems. The problems only really become apparent once you start nitpicking everything about it, which is what a reviewer is supposed to do. But I can’t deny the joy and fun is just messing around with the Yellow Lion and thinking about how awesome it’s going to be once Voltron is completed. He could have been done better, especially without the spring loaded action feature, but I still quite enjoy him and I look forward to when the next Lion/pilot set is released.

OVERALL SCORE: 3.5 / 5

RECAP –

LANCE SCORE: 2.5 / 5

RED LION SCORE: 3.5 / 5

SCORE AS A SET: 3 / 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.

• Amazon has the Yellow Lion and Hunk set available, and at the time of this writing this is the cheapest one.
• EBay is your only other option really. You can try to find a good deal there.