Growing up I watched the American version of Voltron and I liked it well enough. I mean it was no She-Ra, but I was hip and cool at 4, so I found time to enjoy it. What was better than the cartoon though was the toy line. My cousin had everything. The Lions. The pilots. The castle play set; like everything. I was in awe of his collection. Mostly because I wanted his Princess Allura, but that is neither here nor there. The only thing I knew was that I wanted some Voltron items. Of course my zest for Voltron came up a bit short. Once I was ready to buy items, there really wasn't much to find. Sadly Voltron had left the toy stores.
Thankfully there was Children's Palace (competition for Toysrus back in the day) and I had the chance to gather some Voltron folks growing up. So let's check out some pictures!
Haggar the Witch and her pet cat Coba
Released by Panosh Place, Haggar was a single carded figure and came with limited articulation. (Only her head and right arm could move.) She is already sculpted holding her cat Coba and she came with a little mini coffin clip on pin bearing her name (so all the cool kids could be fashionable.) Haggar was pure evil and shared some similarities with another witchy robed woman by the name of Shadow Weaver. They were both beauties that turned into "ewwies" after embracing evil. Though unlike Shadow Weaver, Haggar had no problem revealing her face.
Now is it Haggar or Hagar? I have seen different spellings for the mega witch, but I have always thought it was spelled Haggar. The sculpting was very simple for this toy. Part of that was because it was 1984. The other part of it was that... it was 1984. Toy making has come a long way and in my mind I am still waiting for the perfect Haggar. I would love a fully articulated Haggar with a plastic robe and a removable Coba. Plastic clip-on pin optional. Plus, I know that the line was small in size, but I would love 6 inch awesome figures from Voltron. I'm not the only one, am I?
Mutilor and the Coffin of Doom
Mutilor was a robeast that came with the Coffin of Doom. For those who have forgotten, Haggar makes the robeasts that travel to Arus in flying coffins to go up against Voltron. Only in the 80's would it ever make sense for a cartoon and toy line to make collecting coffins super cool.
The Coffin of Doom flips open and there is a plush plastic liner inside for the robeast to travel comfortably. Mutilor is also your basic robeast with feet that remind of the armadillo shoes from the Alexander McQueen collection. Anyways the Coffin of Doom had a button that could make clicker sounds to simulate lasers being fired from the coffin. I also believe there was a light up feature, but since I just reunited with this coffin, I am not really sure.
The Coffin of Doom also had wings that could fold out. Actually as far as toy coffins go, this is like the Mercedes of toy coffins. I really liked the Voltron toy line and though Mattel recently brought it back in 2012, there will be no more Voltron in 2013. So, I really hope someone can pick this property back up and release some more cool Voltron toys. The old line from Panosh Place was a lot of fun.
Also, getting the chance to reunite with this coffin has been fun. I recently found it in the attic and had actually forgotten having ever owned it. Haggar and Mutilor have been with me for awhile now. I am not sure how sad it is that I have collected that much stuff since I was young, and still forget some of the things I collected back then. But, it does make for some fun surprises!
Anyways, enjoy the photos and leave your comments on the old Voltron toys. Or even the new Voltron toys. And keep it here! I have a lot of fun stuff planned for October. Happy Toy Chest Tuesday everybody! Until next time!
Nice! Your are in alot better condition than mine! Dont be sad about forgetting stuff about back then, I have a ball reliving the memories that flood back when writing about something that was a lost treasure :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comment! Haggar and Mutilor have been with me for a long time so I have managed to care for them. The biggest surprise was the Coffin of Doom, that thing was in the attic for a long long time and still held up rather well. And I agree, writing about these old toys bring back so many memories and experiences. It is nice to be able to record these events!
DeleteThese are a lot of fun from the looks of them and i really like there colors and design.
ReplyDeleteThe Voltron line did use a lot of color. I really liked this line and I do hope that it can continue some how.
DeleteWoah-I love crappy toys and that Haggar is pure crap in the best way! The cat doesn't even have the option of being put down! I remember one time playing a show with my band where I insisted the guitar player set up a voltron on his amp. But how cool would it be to be able to wear one of those voltron pins on your shirt on stage? Could represent without having a toy up there.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why they didn't make a shadow weaver for PoP seeing as how this toy was produced the same year by a much crappier company. I think they wanted all the pop toys to be pretty and shadow weaver would have more likely ended up as a motu toy.
But speaking of Voltron do you remember how violent that show was!? the one episode where the bad guys buried those slaves in the sand with their heads sticking up and they were gonna chop their heads off! Ghastly stuff compared to american toons of the time where you couldn't even punch people.
I really would love to see what the toy line could be capable of with the updates in toy making. I really want an updated Haggar!
DeleteAnd I don't think Shadow Weaver was made into the line back then because she was a character created by Filmation, so Mattel did not have the rights and if they could have, Mattel just never got to her. Now I say that, but I could be incredibly wrong on that. But I feel like there were some reasons as to why Shadow Weaver was not made.
Voltron was a violent show though! I think some of the robeasts were killed in jarring ways. I mean it is really nothing shocking now, but I remember it being something else back then. But that goes for a lot of cartoons. There were always things that were a little off kilter. Like 90% of the Jem cartoon was truly so outrageous, that I could never see something like that get made again in the same way. Frosta and He-Man was also another issue of cartoon stuff that was just, "I can't believe I got to watch that!" The 80s was just the best time for cartoons, for sure.
Well Voltron was anime, and pretty much all Japanese kids shows were more violent than anything we ever had. Speed Racer is pretty crazy unedited and even the live action stuff like Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot had gun play and killing back at a time when American tv was banning violence in kids entertainment. I don't know if you know about the parental crusade against violence that happened in the 60's, but groups protested how much violence was being shown on kids shows like Space Ghost and the Herculoids, so they made all these restrictions.That's why the 70's was largely all mystery solving teens and funny animals stopping monsters and ghosts that never turned out to be REAL monsters or ghosts. You'll notice that even in the Superfriends cartoons from the 70's the characters always have to "use their brains" to get out of situations. No punches were thrown!
ReplyDeleteHe-man broke some boundaries and brought back some action to toons. Though I believe he still wasn't allowed to punch anyone directly or cut anything with his sword.
I sadly never saw Jem. What was so outrageous about the show? Was it sexual or something? I didn't think it was an action show.
Yeah He-Man did break some boundaries with violence on tv shows, and it is interested to see how some shows have changed through the years, unlike what was going on in the 60s and 70s. He-Man and She-Ra both dealt with certain themes that pushed some boundaries for [arents back then. There was an episode where He-Man thought he killed someone.
DeleteJem was just outrageous in the best way possible. There was plenty of drama and suspense. It was like Melrose Place but with music. I mean someone was always getting close to dying. Kimber was flirting with men left and right. There is just a lot of great stuff in that cartoon that I look back on and think, "Why was this even a cartoon? This needed to be a prime time soap." I highly urge you to watch the Jem series. It ties with She-Ra for my favorite 80s cartoon.
Nice! Voltron was one of my favorite shows growing up. I didn't have much from the line. But I scored something awesome recently. I think you'll dig it.
ReplyDeletehttp://jasonvorhees.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/new-stuff-and-a-pretty-awesome-find/
Thank you for the comment Jason! I'm checking the link out now. : )
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