Four decades of Voltron toys, one archive.

Voltron reached shelves in 1984 through Matchbox, which split the property three ways and gave each part a number: Voltron III was the Lion Force, Voltron I was the Vehicle Team, and Voltron II was a Gladiator robot from Lightspeed Electroid Albegas, a third Voltron series that was scrapped before it aired. The toys shipped anyway. Those were Bandai molds, modified to meet American safety rules, and the diecast lineage they came from runs all the way to what is being made today.

Panosh Place took the action-figure side in the same window, and its Castle of Lions playset is the piece that Voltron collectors still chase. After that the licence moved around: Trendmasters reissued the original Popy mold in the nineties, Mattel ran a subscription line in 2012, Playmates held Legendary Defender, and the premium end is now split between Bandai's Soul of Chogokin, threezero, Blitzway and Super7.

Every entry here carries the line it belongs to, the year where we can source one, and a buy path. Prices and stock states are only published where a live retailer listing was read, and they are a snapshot taken at build time rather than a live till.

Common questions

What was the first Voltron toy line?

Matchbox, in 1984, across three sub-lines numbered Voltron I, II and III. The Lion Force sets are the ones most people picture, and they are catalogued here alongside the cartoon that sold them.

Why is there a Voltron II that is not Voltron?

Because World Events was preparing a third Voltron series adapted from Lightspeed Electroid Albegas and dropped it in favour of twenty new Lion Force episodes. Matchbox had already tooled the toys, so the Albegas robot went out under the Voltron name as the Gladiator sets.

Which Voltron pieces can still be bought new?

18 items in this archive were in stock or on pre-order at a retailer we read, and they are the ones on the shelf at the top of this page. A pre-order counts: availability is three-state, and grouping a pre-order with sold-out hides things that are genuinely buyable.

Does this archive cover more than figures?

Yes. Vehicles and playsets sit inside their line's shelf, statues and premium pieces are grouped under Statues and replicas above, and anything a line has not claimed lands on the unfiled shelf.