Do you like a challenge?

A friend of mine recently bequeathed a bunch of his old childhood toys, and among the Go-Bots and Transformers was, you guessed it, a Voltron III.

Or maybe it's a GoLion. Or a Lionbot. But it doesn't seem to completely match any of these.

It's not the Matchbox version, as it comes with the fist launchers, sword, shield (/w blue centre) and other "choking hazards".

It's not the Lionbot, at least none I've ever seen on the Internet, as it has the silver painted thighs vs. stickers. The rocket launcher has yellow highlights, not red ones.

And then there are some strange anomalies:

- the belt buckle is a stylized "V", not a star shape
- The numeral 3 on Green Lion is not framed in red plastic
- There are no engravings or labels anywhere on the model, except one; behind the tail of Black Lion cryptically reads "MADE IN TAIWAN R.O.C."
- the "feet" are not spring-loaded
- the rocket launcher on Yellow Lion is black

Perhaps it's some bizarre bootleg variant I've never seen. I do know that it is from the 1980's, but I don't know who made it.

Here's a picture:
http://www.silentblue.net/images/voltron.jpg

Anyone seen anything like this in their collections or travels?

Looks like a bootleg to me.

K2Cliffhanger might be able to tell you what it is since he's the resident Voltron toy expert.

While I thank SGB for the compliment, I am not the toy expert by any means.

What you have is a definate boot leg. DMD I believe, had one, or a friend of his did and they tried to switch the star belt on his with the V belt on theirs. I know I read it somewhere, and I believe it happened to DMD.

Here's a pic I got from another forum board that was talking specifically about bootlegs:


It's a better shot than what you gave, but you can see that the Blue lion has white section almost in view on camera. The Go-Lion and even Matchbox sets have NO white in that area on Blue Lion. Plus, there is the obvious V instead of the star. On top of it all, is the fact that you state there are no markings on any of the lions except for Black Lion where it states, Made in Taiwan. That right there is the red flag of boot leg.

It's a fine toy if mint condition if one can't afford the legit version. However, due to collectors now collecting even the bootlegs to showcase the differences, getting them is becoming harder. As for whom made it, I can't answer your question. Searching on Google for an hour also proved nothing.

Thanks K2. So it looks like it's probably some sort of Lionbot bootleg variant...it's quite remarkable to see so many Voltron knockoffs that are in their own right fine models themselves. Go figure! They don't make toys like this anymore.

P.S. Does Lionbot have any identifier labels, or is it just as anonymous?

Well the problem with Lionbot is it's been made over and over. Each time losing quality from the first.

They have to make it slightly different from the model they sold say 5 years ago compared to this years version so people in the know can identify them between each toy. For the general person, they can't tell...which is what the toy company wants.

I've seen people trying to sell a Trendmasters 97 set as a Matchbox or Go-Lion original on eBay. I've also seen people trying to sell a Panosh Place labeling it as the MPC by Toynami. I got a huge laugh out of it when I looked.

So, hopefully DMD wanders in here and can lend a helping memory of his to this for some more answers...or the people on the other board I'm a member of answer my questions. Either way, an answer should be coming your way.

Got an answer for you quanta. It's an official bootleg, but not many of those where done because the other companies made them stop. Apparently, they were the first ones to rip off the idea while the original Go-Lion was in production.

One the production of the original stopped, then came Lionbot, and they didn't care as much.

All in all, if your friend is looking to sell, I'd buy it since as a collector, I'd like to have it to showcase the differences between the legit and bootlegs. PM me and let me know if they are interested.

An official bootleg? Is that like dry water? Would you know who made it, then?

And why make a bootleg that is 90% indistinguishable from the real thing?

P.S. I'm blocked from sending PMs to you, K2. I haven't really thought of selling it, but what the hey, make me an offer. I did go through eBay looking at all the toys there; it's fascinating to see how popular they are!

Sorry about that, I forgot a long time ago I set personal settings to accept only PMS from people I have on my list. There was a spammer going through, and so I did that.

Well to give a fair offer, I'd like to have more pictures of the whole thing, not just the upper body if you don't mind.

From what I've seen I'd offer 50-75 since the red and green lion's heads aren't there, I can see chrome peeling, etc. Getting new heads on eBay can be a task as many people end up going for the same thing because their robot has no red or green heads either.

I'll add you to the friends list so you can PM me.

Oh, allow me to give you a better picture of ol' Mr. V over here:

http://www.silentblue.net/images/voltron.jpg

It's got the white stripes on Blue Lion, both the fists, and enough plastic missiles to arm half of COBRA. It has both wings but one of them just won't stay on.

What do you guys think?

Okay, my offer has gone up now. I thought you didn't have the fists/lions heads.

How's 100 with shipping?

Hey there!

That's most likely the Taiwan knock-off called Five Lions (the V as in the Roman Numeral for 5). One of my ex-friends tried to pry the star off of the waist of my Voltron to substitute it with his Five Lion's V!

That knock-off is good because it has most (not all) of it's shooting weapons. The Red and Green Lion's cannons are not pictured. The wings are busted and the sword's a little warped though.

What happened to the Blue Lion's tail?

Hi, maybe I may be of some help. I have been collecting Golion Voltron for several years now. The one you have is known as 5 lions/King Lion.

But the one you have pictured is not a complete 5 lion/King lion. The green and red lion is from a later lionbot edition. The picture K2C posted is the real complete 5 lion/king lion version.

This Voltron with a "V" is rumored to be the first bootleg of Voltron to hit the market in the 80's.
I myself believe that is to be true.

It is a very high quality bootleg and my favorite Voltron bootleg in my collection.

-Plastic is very close in quality to the originals.
-Good paint
-metal like the original
-lions have sharp teeth
-chrome joints and tails for the red and green lions

BUT!!!

This "V" Voltron can even go further in variation!!

The very early release of it had extended necks for the yellow and blue lions!!

It looks cool and adds a cartoon look to it.

This one is extremely rare.

Not many people even knows it exist.

Like K2C has mentioned people like collecting bootlegs to show the variations.

I have been wanting to do reviews on the variations of the originals to the bootlegs.

If you can find this Voltron bootleg variant with the "V" and yellow and blue lions having extended necks I highly recommend it! It is truely a one of a kind especially with all the different lionbots that were made worldwide.

I am fortunate to own one of these in MIB never used condition. I have seen another on the net and the guy sold it for 450.00!!

As for the "V" Voltron without the extended necks for the blue and yellow lions is still very difficult to find in MIB unused condition.
I have seen several in loose played with condition but I think these bootlegs are only considered to be true collector pieces if in mint condition.

Hope this helps.....

Well then, since we have the true experts now on this topic...does the 100 sound like a decent offer since it has different red and green? I don't want to skim this guy.

it really depends on the seller on how much it is worth to him.

I have one that is similar in that the blue lion looks identical, but mine has an upside down star belt with a black face aand yellow gromits on the side instead of chrome or gold???? Any clues? I do not think mine is all original because it came to me very dusty and needs some repairs and parts. The red and green lions are mostly plastic without the heads.