#plastic kits

(●♡∀♡) Hello beautifuls!

They have arrived! Two sets of the Golion Super Minipla plastic kits by Bandai.

(¬‿¬) But it says DreamWorks Voltron Legendary Defender on the box!

When I first pre-ordered these, they had been brought to my attention by @kurojishiyo who posted some product photos from a Japanese blog. I had noticed on the promo photos that copyright credit was being given to DreamWorks.

Later, I saw the SDCC 2018 Exclusive box art  (via kurojishiyo’s post) and thought it was very interesting that they used the VLD logo when this is clearly a Golion plastic kit (e.g. OG Voltron) by Bandai.

For the standard version (what I have), the box art has a pose of Voltron that is different from the SDCC exclusive (which has the Blazing Sword effect).*

On the box, the name “Voltron” is used throughout and all language is in English. The VLD logo is used on every side, and all copyright is given to WEP and DreamWorks. There is a disclaimer that “no candy/gum [is] included”, and a link with QR code to the bandai.co.jp/candy/survey site.

The instructions are also bi-lingual (Japanese and English) and Golion appears with Voltron in both English and Japanese: [ ゴライオン / ボルトロン ].

yeah, yeah, I highlighted the blue longer than I meant to “ヘ” is not part of the name. -__-

This is very interesting, as it suggests that there is an effort to tie Golion to Voltron in Japan, and that this was not done for the sake of re-packaging job for sale outside of Japan. SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!

I have several vintage Bandai Golion plastic kits (among others), so I’m very familiar with Bandai’s packaging and how they set up their traditional plastic kits.

What makes the Golion/Voltron Super Minipla different from the vintage kits—aside from the larger size and no need to paint it—is that these are from Bandai’s “candy” toy line (which apparently has different categories, such as Super Minipla).**

I know very little about the “candy” toys, as I could never tell from product shots of the various Super Minipla combiner robot sets (Ideon, GaoGaiGar, etc) whether or not they were blind boxes (which I rarely buy).

I’m curious as to what the packaging for these kits look like from Japan. Do they say Golion or Voltron? Are they using the VLD logo? Are they sold separately, each lion in it’s own box? Were they packaged together and have different box art using Japanese text?***

But most importantly...WHY WAS THE VLD LOGO USED!?

This is Golion/OG Voltron, not VLD. I assume some weird copyright thing? Why not just make a VLD kit then? I hope this leads to that.

I don’t expect to put these together anytime soon, but I’ll post photos when I finally do.

* It kills me that I pre-ordered these before I saw the SDCC version. I really dig the Blazing Sword that they have for it.

** Someone more knowledgeable please correct my description of the Bandai “candy” toy line.

*** I’m also wondering if the mold or any part of design comes from the hard-to-get Golion kit (Super Alloy?) that is larger than the ones that I have, also by Bandai, and I never see it go for under $300 on auction sites.

Spotted in the digital wilds of Yahoo! Japan auctions: * 

This is an auction for the Black Lion super mini-pla, and the packaging is in Japanese, using the Hundred Beast King Golion logo.

The art on the front of the box is the same as the set that I ordered.** 

Copyright and trademark is in English listing WEP and DreamWorks.

* This is related to my earlier post where I wanted to know if the Voltron Super Mini-Plas were sold separately and with different packaging than what I received when I ordered the set.