Voltron: Defender of the Universe!
So, I bought Voltron! My son and I put him together the other night. Took us about three hours; we both built an arm and a leg, then I 'supervised' the Black lion. I've been driving my wife crazy referring to him by some of his lesser known titles, like Voltron: Defender of the Coffee Machine, and Voltron: Defender of the Dining Room Table. You get the idea...
I won't bore you with all the construction details, other than that this set is put together. I mean solid. None of the old move-him-around-a-little and stuff starts falling off. Nope, you've got technic in there, angled plates top and bottom locking together, practically everything is double reinforced for strength. Old Lendy wasn't messing around!
Defender of the Coffee Machine!
Defender of the Refrigerator!
Defender of the Fireplace!
Defender of the Barbecue!
It's on!
Grrrrrrrr
Don't get me wrong, though. It's by no means an action figure. The arm joints move, although limited, and the head turns. That's about it. But It still makes for some great poses, as you can see. And that's just around the house! There are small rubber wheels placed sideways under the feet which keeps him from sliding, too, which I find to be a nice little feature.
Now, according to Tommy's Bricknerd Contributor Handbook, page 473, paragraph five, he states, "Always respect the LEGO Brand." In light of that, I have to say that marketing, age/skill level demographics play a huge part of the design process. So when I thumb through the catalog, I usually go right to the Star Wars section. I often think about, let's say, how certain things could be built differently. And that's fine. I've got plenty of plates and wings. So, personally, I don't need to spend $50 or $80 on those kind of sets.
With that in mind, I think Voltron, at $179, is a huge bargain. I can't see how I could really improve upon it, other than a few nit-picky details. Tons of nifty parts and colors, impressive scale and construction. It's beautiful!
But unfortunately, Volton will soon be relegated to just being Defender of the Basement LEGO area : (
