Remember Voltron? Sure you do. Even if you’re not au fait with the original anime, you’ve probably seen the dub or the recent Dreamworks remake for Netflix.
Okay then, for the percentage of the population that didn’t understand what the smeg Ryan Reynolds was on about in Deadpool when he was so excited at winning that ring in the arcade, Voltron was a westernised version of 1981 Japanese series Beast King GoLion (it probably lost something in translation). Five young pilots command five robot lions, forming the Voltron Force. The Force is charged with protecting the planet Arus from the evil King Zarkon of planet Doom, his entourage and army of huge “ro-beasts”. The five lions can combine into one giant robot, the titular Voltron, when facing an enemy they can’t defeat alone.
Sound familiar? Hardly surprising, since GoLion was produced at around the same time as the first live-action Super Sentai series to feature combining robots, Taiyo Sentai Sun Vulcan. It was a thing in Japanese culture that seems to have stuck. And now, LEGO have announced a new Voltron set!
Yes. the LEGO Ideas Voltron: Defender of the Universe set had reached the final stage of approval and is coming to a store or popular e-commerce site near you soon. And, hell, just look at this beauty:
There is not enough win in my immediate vicinity to describe just how much this thing rocks. I mean, JUST LOOK AT IT! And here’s LEGO’s not-at-all excited press release:
“Voltron – Defender of the Universe. A big congratulations to len_d69 on becoming the next official LEGO Ideas fan designer! Leandro’s passion for Voltron started at a very young age when his parents bought him a Voltron toy. From that moment on Leandro was hooked. Building with LEGO bricks allowed Leandro to celebrate his passion for The Defender of the Universe even more. We’re really excited to be able to introduce Leandro’s Defender of the Universe set. Leandro’s project sets itself apart for its creative way to build with LEGO bricks…
A childhood favorite, I tried to recreate Voltron as faithfully as I could in both lion and combined form. Adding in details to make it look as close as possible to its Anime version. There are basically five separate lions in the set, each having their own unique articulation. They can be played with individually or as one big robot.
1) Black Lion – Forms the head and the body
2) Red and Green Lions – Form the arms
3) Blue and Yellow Lions – Form the legs
When combined, they form Voltron which stands around 16 inches in height and weighs close to 1kg.”
Sixteen freakin’ inches tall. A whole kilo of foot-impaling plastic brick goodness. Yes, I’m aware that it’ll cost a fortune, or even a fivetune. LEGO does now. But come on! All I need now is for LEGO to announce some Star Trek and Power Rangers sets and I will die a happy bunny…
Source: Bleeding Cool
Dave Bowling
Dave was born at an early age to parents of both sexes. He has been a self-confessed geek for as long as he can remember, having been raised through the 80s on a steady diet of Doctor Who, Star Trek, Red Dwarf and (sigh) Knight Rider. Throw the usual assortment of Saturday morning cartoons into the mix and we have something quite exceptional: someone with an encyclopaedic knowledge of utter tosh; a love of giant robots and spaceships fighting; and the strange desire to leap tall buildings in a single bound while wearing his underpants over his trousers. The death ray is currently in the works and one day you shall all bow to him, his giant space station and fleet of funky orange space shuttles...
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