Set #21311 Voltron Defender of the Universe: LEGO Ideas introduces us to many impressive ideas, a lot of them I have not experienced first hand. Admittedly I go more for the licensed properties which niggle nostalgia in my brain. Or I feel might be interesting display items. That being said I’ve been eyeing several models outside of the usual. As far as Voltron is concerned. This is one of those sets that lingered quite some time and I feel the lack of Minifigures helped with that, that being said this is a highly impressive set and we shall discuss why during this review.

Packaging

Unlike other LEGO Ideas sets this one is not a pop-open box with flaps that can be resealed. It’s too large for that, so we get a box which features taped flaps on top and bottom. Open it up and you’ll find 16 numbered bags. Six manuals sealed in plastic and a small sticker sheet. The external package shows off the full model quite nicely, the back shows the combination in great detail as well as indicating the finished models of all five lions.

The six manuals represent each lion and a separate manual for the sword and shield as well as the write-up on the franchise/property, the fan builders and the designers in charge of this particular set. Everything is quite superb, all five lion manuals are colour coded to match their respective lion. Overall some very nicely designed manuals and very well made.

The lone sticker sheet in this set is small as the details are all handled with brick-built ideas, no printed elements were included though which is rather a shame as the five tiles with the five numbers would have been a nicer inclusion.

Parts

This set is packed heavy with parts, it has two thousand three-hundred and twenty-one pieces, many of these are solid yellow, blue, black, green and red with white and grey used for contrasting details. That being said, I would not recommend this as a parts pack mainly due to the price, also I have no idea what is rare and what is not outside of the following few items:

LEGO Tool set in Gold. Printed circle tiles with mechanical detailing. Printed NEXO Shield element with design for Black Lion head. The LEGO Tool set is more often seen in black, I’m not sure how many times we’ve seen it in gold, but the rest of the parts are definitely unique to this set.

Minifigures

This set did not include Minifigures or Microfigures. LEGO decided that the Pilots did not require such a thing and I have to say they aren’t wrong, although I do wish we’d gotten a Lion Castle set to include the pilots and to display next to Voltron even if the scale wouldn’t work completely accurately.

The build

Bag #1: The construction of Voltron begins with Hunk’s Yellow Lion. The first bag features the parts and build of the complete torso of the mechanical robo-lion. This is an extremely detailed build with a lot of impressive steps. The details are all here, it features a load of very nice techniques and only a single sticker which is where the number for lion sits on a 2x2 tile piece. It’s short to start, but once you get going this build is pretty solid with no elements of fall-apart-during-build syndrome or difficult steps.

Bag #2: This build mostly works on the lion’s neck/head and as such is relatively quick. There wasn’t anything that stuck out to me as tricky or frustrating, the build was extremely satisfying as you worked on enhancing the details and completing the lion.

Bag #3: This last build is highly repetitive as you make four limbs and attach them to the rest of the lion. This build was extremely quick and easy without any big problems. There’s some nice printed round tiles on the four legs which add a few details, but most of the blocky design of the Robo-Lion is built out of bricks, which just works with this model as a solid build.

Bag #4: Sven’s lion is started with manual #2 and bag #4, as both Yellow and Blue lions are legs for Voltron these two builds are fairly similar, there are some key differences when it comes to detailing, but the basic building for the torso of the model found here is almost identical in design for the skeleton. All of the additional details make it look different and unique, however you will find many parts similar to Yellow’s build.

Bag #5: The head is built much differently from Yellow, but the neck joint is fairly similar if not exactly identical, the rest of the build in this bag is quick and satisfying.

Bag #6: Here we find the last part of the build and it’s pretty much the exact same build as Yellow Lion. This is because the legs are identical, there is nothing different between this build and the one found in the Yellow Lion model.

Bag #7: Being the central torso of Voltron, the next build beginning here is Black Lion and features a much greater number of parts and unique design elements. The build starts with the back of the lion also known as Voltron’s pelvic region when in his robot form. This is layered with plates, bricks and other elements to make a sturdy model and the build is relatively quick with no issues or tricky build elements while working on this section. This build is fairly layered as well.

Bag #8: Moving on to the next section of the model is where we build the front section of Black Lion’s torso, or the chest area of the giant robot Voltron. This build is just as layered with bricks on top of bricks and giving us a large number of details. This doesn’t really look like a Lion body, while you’re building this you’ll start to see Voltron a lot more than Black Lion because the two are loaded with details that are more visible in the robot form.

This portion of the build did have a bit of a frustrating spot. Getting the chest plate design to line up perfectly required a bit of patience and precise positioning of the hinged elements used to make that unique design aspect look right. Overall not much else frustrated me while building this.

Bag #9: Now we flip the body over and start working on the Black Lion a bit more. This build is where you work on the front legs and the broad shoulders of the lion. This model is thick and extremely chunky, so the build requires a lot of plates and other elements being attached together. There wasn’t a whole lot difficult in this build, everything went together very smoothly and I enjoyed it immensely.

Bag #10: Building Black Lion’s head and the wings on his back with this bag makes you really work on adding all the necessary details as everything clicks together with clutch power. When I finished the lower jaw all I could see was Voltron’s face, which I suppose is a necessary cheat for the model since it cannot slide the head out like the original toy model did. Overall though a really enjoyably build… I do recall that the wings were a bit annoying until you got both of them on though as they did like to move around.

Bag #11: The rear legs are built solidly with many bricks, this is necessary as these will be used in connecting the lions together once you finish building everything. These two legs are mirror images of each other, so once you finish one you’ll know pretty much what to expect for the second. Once he was finished I enjoyed just sitting back and taking the time to enjoy the model.

Bag #12: Here comes the Red Lion, this build is for a smaller model and so you construct the torso first, single sticker placement for the number and the rest is fairly nice. You will find that this build is quicker compared to the previous models in the set, mostly because the parts count has been reduced for these smaller lions.

Bag #13: After finishing the torso you build the legs and head which is even quicker than the previous build. Overall the Red Lion build is equally satisfying compared to the others, but it is noticeably less involved compared to the legs and torso of Voltron.

Bag #14: Green Lion’s build starts here and the basic framework inside is similar to Red Lion, the exterior of the model however is built very differently, while Red Lion has a flatter top Green Lion’s build is smoother using more curved elements to give the torso a unique look.

Bag #15: Again the head and legs are built here, pretty repetitive compared with Red Lion. Building the legs for both models is extremely samey as each build for the legs is repeated twice for right and left rear and front legs. Green and Red Lion’s heads are built the same, however the detailing is different and while their shapes are identical where certain parts are placed they are different. Overall a fast and easy build.

Bag #16: This final build includes the Blazing Sword, the Shield and then the instructions for converting the lions and attaching everything together. The build for the shield starts first, this build is quick and easy and not too frustrating.

Loads of silver near-chrome elements used here to make the shield look great. The sword build started out a bit screwy, some of the plates like to separate a bit until everything is fully secured, which was a bit odd as I don’t recall models having this issue when using such large plates in the past. Sword looks really great once you finish it though.

The completed model

Yellow Lion: The first of the five lions is highly impressive as far as models go. His legs can move on click-hinges to achieve minor pose variations. His jaw opens and of course you can move the neck area as part of the transformation, but that’s for the Voltron discussion. I like the model, it’s very well done, I think the only problem with this model is that it does not include the separate lion’s weapon. Each lion featured a unique weapon in the anime that it could use before combining into Voltron. Considering these weapons would have no storage when combined I can see why the original model creator chose to leave them out of his Ideas Submission. But if you really need it you can probably MOC your own weapons for the individual lions.

You can get pretty much straight poses and running/flying poses that’s about it.

Blue Lion: Originally piloted by Sven and then Princess Allura, the Blue Lion makes up the other leg of Voltron and as such is equally bulky and fairly large. A solid model with some interesting red and yellow contrasts when built, this model has moving legs, a swiveling tail and a jaw which can open and close. While the build was fairly similar to Yellow Lion, the profile and basic look of the finished model is unique to the character/mecha. Overall a really solid model without much play features, but this entire set is meant to be built and displayed, not just built to play with.

Black Lion: This chunky model is piloted by Keith the leader of the team. Something I never understood, Lance wore blue, but piloted Red Lion, Keith wore red, but pilots Black Lion and Sven wore black, but he piloted Blue Lion. I suspect this was trying not to follow the Sentai Team colour coordination, but it just looks odd.

Considering this set has no Minifigures, it’s not that big of a deal. This solid lion model has to be so solid because it needs to support the weight of the other lions once combined into Voltron. This means his shoulder joints and hip joints DO NOT MOVE, they are locked into place with Technic Pins which makes Black Lion the least poseable. True you can move the legs at the knee joints, but the posing options for Black Lion is very limited. Overall though I still like what LEGO has done here, it’s a very solid model. The true meat of the model though is when we get to Voltron himself.

Red Lion: Lance’s lion is much smaller as a model, this is necessary to avoid making the arms too heavy and is accurate to how the arms of Voltron appear in the animation and original toys. Red Lion as a model works better as an arm than a lion, the mouth is static, the head can’t move despite being on two ball joints. There are moveable legs and a middle joint which is the elbow for Voltron. Honestly compared to the first three models I feel the arms suffer somewhat for having to be two different modes.

It was clear with these smaller figures that we have sacrificed somewhat in lion mode for the combined form. It still looks nice, a solid model, sadly it just isn’t the best. That being said it’s nice as a display option.

Green Lion: Pidge pilots the Green Lion and, aside from a few design changes on the head and a less blockier design the model is basically identical to Red Lion when it comes to the build. The final model has no articulation, much like the others. Instead we see the articulation being used more for arm mode. I said the head doesn’t move with Red Lion, but that is a mistake, both Green and Red can look side to side, but it can’t look up sadly.

Something all of the lions share is some nice metallic silver parts, these are essentially used for the noses on the larger lions, but there are more silver elements on the tops of Green and Red. Overall Green and Red are more limited in pose options, but they are perfect to complete the final model of Voltron.

Blazing Sword: This model looks great, but is using less silver elements. Honestly it feels like the awesome silver elements should have been used for the blade as well. That being said this is a honking big sword, it’s at least as a long as a 6 inch figure, really impressive looking model.

Shield: I can’t recall whether or not this has a name just yet, I’m still only a handful of episodes in to the series all I know is they don’t use the shield as often as the sword. This shield is quite impressive as it includes a lot of silver elements to make it look more metallic and seeing this really makes me wish LEGO had made the sword the same colour. Definitely a serviceable model, it fits into the hand fine, compared to the sword which has a spare part that doesn’t store anywhere when he’s holding it.

Voltron: This model is awesome, it isn’t as poseable as some may have preferred, but it does a very good job of serving the fans who want a LEGO Voltron in their display. He’s really tall, can support the weight of the sword and shield and everything clips together solidly. I only just finished the build, so I’m wondering if time will play a factor in keeping the model from drooping, guess we’ll have to wait and see.

It is unfortunate though that you can’t rotate the hands to make him ‘Form Blazing Sword!’ The hands are pretty static, you can get a few decent poses, but Red and Green lion’s ball joints prevent it from swivelling at the wrist, it can only rock up and down for action poses.

The model is pretty static at the hips too, it’s locked in and you can’t bend the knees or rotate the hips to make a walking pose, he basically just stands there. If you want dynamic poses for your LEGO mecha models you might feel disappointed here, but I just love the sheer bulk and heft of this model. Really glad I finally got this set.

Overall opinion

This was a very impressive set, the build was highly involved for the larger lions and there was a lot to do. Loved every minute of constructing this set, I usually breeze through the builds and finish very quickly, I took my time with this set because I seriously liked what I was accomplishing. He does have a few issues, posing the giant robot form or the lions is exceptionally limited, so you can’t really get a lot of dynamic action shots when he’s standing on the shelf, but he is still quite imposing.

I’d recommend this set if you’re a fan of the property and aren’t interested in building your own. You’ll need to rely on the secondary market these days to get one, but it’s definitely worth tracking down if you want them. Highly Recommended.

LEGO Review • Set 21311

Name: Voltron

Set number: 21311

Theme: LEGO Ideas

Pieces: 2321

Year: 2018

Quick Review

An amazing build that really replicates the original Voltron perfectly. Five lions that are great on their own. Can form into Voltron and hold his sword and shield. A really solid and enjoyable build.

Full Build Review

This LEGO Ideas set is real tribute to the Voltron character capturing Voltron in near perfect LEGO form.

The build consists of the 5 individual lions which are very nice & reflect the original lions from the cartoon really well. Although unique, lion 4 & 5 are very similar as are lion 2 & 3 with only a few body pieces different. These 4 lions have some movement and enable you to pose them in a variety of ways.

Black lion build is a little different. It is a large solid build. The big downside with this lion is that it’s not poseable like the others. It has no articulation in the back knee or body so is a very static piece.

The set also has a sword and shield. Unfortunately, the sword is only decorated on one side which is a bit of a let down when posing Voltron.

Once complete all 5 lions can be formed into Voltron easily. The legs on lions 2-5 fold upwards and their tails insert into the black lion to create Voltron.

In Voltron form this is an impressive model, standing large in the display cabinet at 15 inches tall (the sword is 11 inches long!!) There is some posing ability with the head and arms but the weight of the sword restricts the arms holding it up to high. The one big downside of robot form is that the legs don’t move so he is stuck in a standing pose like an intimidating statue.

Overall a nice build & great tribute to Voltron. It makes for an amazing display piece but can’t really be that awesome articulated LEGO robot that it really should be.

Follow me on Instagram @ogel_evil for all the photos of this review and more lego reviews and pics.

I really enjoyed building this set. The transformer approach is really new and amazing, it also take a bit of time to build.

the only issue I see that I got a bit bored because during the building we repeat the ideas 2 times for the legs and arms

i still recommend to buy

As a kid I was a fan of the original Voltron and always wanted the lion play set, but I always wanted Lego more so I never got it. You can imagine how happy I was when Lego announced this set. It has certainly lived lived up to expectations. The review heading is, obviously, subjective, but after 30 years of building Lego I really think this may be the most innovative set I've ever had the pleasure of building.

Parts

The first thing you notice building this set is the amount of colour. The lions themselves are in bright, primary colours and hidden inside the builds are a surprising number of small lime green and purple pieces, among others. There is also a lot of lacquared silver on the shield and around the chest piece.

The Build

The lion pairs are mirror images of each other and so the builds are similar in structure, but the details are very different. Given how solid the model is, I felt a little surprised at how little of the time I felt like I was building the "bones" and how much time felt like adding details. The heads in particular are a real joy to build with lots of small details made with surprisingly few pieces. The detail is achieved without the use of stickers, apart from the numbers 1-5 for the lions. This is most impressive on the face which has a printed brick for the mouth but is otherwise brick built. All manner of building techniques are used here, with just about every way of joining Lego represented here somewhere.

The Models

I use plural because there are two ways to show this model, as the five individual lions or as Voltron. When you first build it you'll change between both a lot. The five lions look great, with all but the black lion being very posable and looking fairly agile. The lions all have real personality to them, and despite the build similarity between the leg pair and arm pair, they feel like very distinct models. But as good as the five lions look, I'd imagine most people will settle on keeping this as Voltron.

Voltron is impressive. There's a real weight to this model, both physically and in terms of presence. It feels like a real cohesive whole and yet when you look at it for any length of time you notice again all the detail from the individual lions. It is very true to the source material, from a distance there is nothing that tells you this is Lego rather than a diecast model. It is also surprisingly posable for such a sturdy model, with the arms bending in a plane at the shoulder, elbow and wrist and the head swivelling. It stands very solidly on the ground with no sense that it might fall over. In this form you can also add the shield and sword which are beautifully rendered in Lego.

There are a couple of minor niggles, and they almost entirely involve the black lion. Its back legs are quite chunky, they are stuck at a slight angle and don't rotate at all, and both the front and back legs need to be removed and reattached when going from lion to Voltron form. These are all understandable from a stability point of view and the change over is quite quick and painless. It is frankly amazing that these are the only compromises they had to make to get this thing to work.

Final Verdict

The recent years have seen a lot of exceptional models in the UCS range and with models like the Apollo rocket. These are cleverly designed, very true to the source material and look beautiful. However, I don't think there has been a model that surpasses this Voltron set in terms how difficult the source material was to model and how successfully it has been achieved. This set is a tour de force of Lego and will be pride of place for anyone's collection, especially if you grew up with the series.

Welcome back to the iconic Voltron. this new edition brings back memories of the Voltron toy my sons and i enjoyed over 20 years ago, as we pretended being in control of these space legends assembling and disassembling the limbs and changing the shape of the unit. later years my eldest son sold off each cat separately for pocket money. As soon as i seen this series listed i ordered from Lego direct, and as an early birthday present had it delivered to him for his young family to enjoy the unpacking and assembly. I received progress texts of the 9 hour build, they enjoyed the build together as difficulty level was medium for this kit, as they had built smaller kits together before. it now has pride of place in the kitchen protecting the larder.

Just a small addition to this review, near the end of the build it was found that there were 4 small mainly green parts missing from set. These were Easley replaced from other sets, they were internal parts.

This is my first post on this site hope it is helpful. cheers all.