Class of Bootleg	Class Two - Duplicated and Modified
Class Notes:	Appears to be combined from several different toy molds - Card art from both Voltron and Transformers
Bootleg Source:	Voltron (Lion version) and Transformers
Bootleg Rating:	(Four out of Five Stars)
Sightings:	USA
Vintage:	Winter 1997

This bootleg combines both the Voltron and Transformers franchises. The card art proclaims the toy as:

TRANSFORMER
LION CAR
CHANG FROM CAR TO ROBOT

And, no, that isn't my typo on line three....they're the ones who used "CHANG" for "Change".

The toy comes blister carded, with printing on the front only. The card art features four images.

1. A poorly drawn image of the Lion Car toy itself in robot mode. The color scheme is different from the toy included.
2. A nicely done graphic of a Lion Transformer lifted from the Kenner product. (The Transformer has been tenatively IDed as the Decepticon Super-Robot Predaking.)
3. A photo of the Lion Car in automobile mode. Again, the color differs from the enclosed product.
4. A photo of the real Voltron Lion Toy in robot mode. The picture is partially obscured by the Lion Car's sheild accessory.

Click for larger view (40K)

The toy itself is molded in yellow, white, red, and blue plastic, and has chrome highlights. It comes with a chromed sword and sheild based off of the Voltron accessories.

The figure is articulated at the elbow, and at two places on the shoulder. There is also a hinge at the knee, although it appears that the feet are joined together.

As you can see in the close-up at right, the Robot mode exactly matches the Voltron style. The logo in the center of the chest is a sticker - the rest of the details are painted or molded highlights. The head mold in particular seems to have been taken from an existing Voltron toy, or at least from another Voltron bootleg.

The hands and fore-arms of the Lion car are also taken from a Voltron toy. Both are Lion heads, cast in blue plastic. (The real Voltron toy has red and green hands - the Blue Lion forms the robot's right leg) Also note the red fins behind the figure's head. These are also based off of Voltron's styling - as is the star belt buckle that appears right under the logo-sticker.

Over the figures left shoulder you can see a detail of the artwork depicting the Lion Car.

At left we see a close-up of the Lion Car's feet. Note that the Blue-Lion theme has been continued here. Also note the Mitsubishi logo on the hood of the car!

Also shown is the star-shield accessory for Lion Car. The unrecognizable image in the center of the shield is printed on a sticker. The back of the shild has a U-Shaped handle as to fit into Lion Car's hand.

Under the Shield you can see the photo of the real Voltron Toy - note the belt styling spotlighted above.

Overall, this is a fine example of a Bootleg Toy. The combination of the Voltron and Transformer concepts are a nice mix, although I'm not sure why they used the Mitsubishi logo on the car's hood. I'm not a big transformer collector, but it seems to me that the car mode might be taken directly from another Transformer. If you happen to know which one, please let me know.