Earlier today I went through some boxes of stuff, and I rediscovered the 12" all-plastic Trendmasters Lion Voltron that came with tiny action figures of the Voltron Force.

The Red and Green Lions have wheels so that they can roll when their legs are folded either up or out in "flying" position. The Blue and Yellow Lions also have wheels, and the rear ones have those pull-back-and-release motors so that the lions can "race" into battle.

The Black, Blue and Yellow Lions have spring-loaded missile launchers on their backs.

Like the die-cast Trendmasters and Matchbox Voltrons, the Red and Green Lions have spring-loaded, launchable lion heads. Unfortunately these lions don't have posable waists -- meaning that Voltron has no posable elbows.

Black Lion's Voltron face is attached to its lower jaw, so whenever Black Lion's mouth is open, you can see Voltron's face.

The Blue and Yellow Lions don't attach to the Black Lion via the tried and true, foot-up-keister connection. It's possible that this feature was changed to keep the Black Lion from literally kicking Blue and Yellow Lions' arses, but I suspect that the real reason for the dsign change was to accommodate the pull-back-and-release motors in the Blue and Yellow Lions' rear wheels. The Blue and Yellow Lions each have a prong that flips out from the keister. This prong, which somewhat resembles the tails of the Red and Green Lions, inserts into the Black Lion's rear knees after the Black Lion's rear lower legs are folded into the rear upper legs, much like how the front lower legs fold into the front upper legs.

Finally, each lion accommodates a tiny action figure, which is styled to resembled a Voltron Force member in a "Third Dimension" uniform.

Red and Green Lion each have a cockpit on the back of the lion, just forward of the waist. The cockpit is raised above the back of the lion. It's somewhat awkward-looking, but at least the pilots have clear, flip-up canopies that allow them to see outside. The other lion's cockpit hatches are opaque.

Yellow Lion's cockpit is in the lion's head, and its hatch can be opened by flipping up the lion's eyes and forehead. Blue Lion's is also accessible by flipping up the lion's eyes and forehead. Amusingly you can see the pilot's legs when you open Blue Lion's mouth!

Black Lion's canopy is in the lion's chest, behind the "cross shield" emblem. Unlike the other lions, Black Lion's cockpit requires its pilot to stand rather than sit.

Each pilot's base color is that of its lion, and each pilot has painted silver trim. Both arms are a single piece, so when you swing up one arm, the other arm swings up as well. The same is true for the legs. This limitation is okay, though, since each pilot stands about one inch tall.

Like Trendmasters' other 12" Voltron toy, which closely resembled Matchbox's toy from the '80s, the Red and Green Lion each have a "fin" on their backs, between the rear legs. Green Lion's is centered, but curiously, Red Lion's fin is on its left haunch.

The mouths of the Red and Green Lions cannot open. Like Toynami's Masterpiece Voltron, the mouths of both the Red and Green Lion have identically shaped cutouts in the upper and lower jaws. Whereas Toynami's lions have angled cutouts like the Red Lion from the animated series, this toy's lions have circular cutouts like the Green Lion from the series.

Surprisingly, when comparing the heads of Red and Green Lions to those of the Matchbox Voltron, the Trendmaster toy's lions' heads appear to be reversed.

This Voltron toy comes with at least one missile per lion, as well as the Blazing Sword and Spinning Laser Blade / shield.

On most Voltron toys, the lions' legs, Blue Lion's crown and ears, and Black Lion's shoulder joints and waist are chromed. On this toy they are molded in light gray plastic. Although chromed detail looks cool, from my experience in playing with the Matchbox toy as a child, chromed detail wears off unevenly and eventually looks bad. For that reason, I think I prefer this Voltron's light gray details over chromed details.

Overall the toy is quite cool. I don't remember its retail price, but this is probably the smallest Lion Force Voltron toy that can accommodate all five pilots.

Does anyone have this Voltron besides me? I reviewed it because, like the Trendmasters 24" Voltron, this one doesn't seem to get much mention around here. The "big three" LVs seem to be the Matchbox 12-incher, its Trendmasters clone, and the Toynami Masterpiece.

Here's one for sale on eBay. (No, I'm not the seller.)