Trendmasters Giant Voltron

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Description

Kumtoshi and the Giant Classic Trendmasters Voltron

Our member Kumtoshi has been kind enough to detail his remastering of the 1999 Trendmasters "Classic" Giant Voltron robot. Compared to the original GoLion this toy can be considered a "Jumbo" and is made of pastic. It is just about the exact size of the Godaikin GoLion on the original box front! Kumtoshi has given us a step-by step article on how to make these enhancements yourself. Here's his scoop on modifying a Trendmasters Jumbo Voltron to look like a Godaikin.

Attached are some pictures of the unaltered original Trendmasters Voltron. If you compare them side by side with mine, you can begin to see what I've done. The picture called "Thigh Measurement" is a diagram showing the measurement's used for the upper thigh areas which is described below.

The more I think about it, the more little things I painted to make it closer to the original GoLion/Voltron III.What got me started actually was the horrid flat silver pain used on all the lion's faces. I began painting these areas white and followed my original GoLion as a guide through the whole process. After that, I sprayed clearcoat over these areas to prevent paint wear/scratches even though it's just displayed in a case.

I then had the confidence to begin painting everything on the lions to make them look just like giant versions of the original diecasts. The Trendmasters molds were surprisingly well done.

The elbow joints on Green and Red Lion were 90 degrees in the wrong direction so his elbows wouldn't bend correctly. I unscrewed the lion's bodies and luckily was able to simply turn the joints and replace them in the grooves. I bolted the halves together and they turned out perfect!

I then painted the cockpit hatch on Green Lion red and applied clearcoat. Then I replaced the sticker. I also touched up the noses on all the lions after painting them.

On red lion, I painted the 4 blue/silver stickers from the original diecast on the lion's back. Everything was clearcoated. One other note on the Green and Red lions is that I cut the fins off and sanded them smooth. I had to repaint the green and red "missile" hatches so that this wasn't obvious what was done.

Yellow lion got a black nose and red ear stripes. The black missile launcher (which raises) got touched up because the auto painting process only covered the top of this feature. This may be seen on the unaltered photos if you look very closely. Actually, it is hard to see. After this was painted on all sides, it looked a lot better. I then painted the 2 red fins on yellow lion's back; clearcoated again.

After painting the face white like the other 5 lions, Blue lion got the white nose, 4 yellow stripes (molded in by the way), and red ear sections. All features were clearcoated. Next I painted 2 white sections on his back.

Black lion got the white sections on his wings which were done pretty straightforward at this point. I then painted in the red "belt" area just below his yellow star "belt buckle". Again, this was already molded in; just needed some love. I then painted his gold shoulder and elbow areas to match the original's.

The most difficult to paint was black lion's head, which required several sections to be painted: under the ears when folded open in robot mode, the white areas on the ears themselves, the red "sideburns", the green cockpit window (I think that is what the original's represented?), and painted the robot's face dark navy blue, again to match the original's.

To make the Black Lion's thighs longer to correct the proportions in robot mode, I had to take a DEEP breath. Remember, at this point, I had a modified GoLion which didn't look half bad. BUT,I couldn't let his squat stance go by any longer. I got out a hand wood-saw; yes a HAND WOOD-SAW!!! Don't let the little one's do this! I sawed of the feet, just above the knee joint, about midway up the thigh area. I then measured each side of the thigh. Note, the thighs are slightly wider left to right than front to back. I Don't remember exactly, but the measurements were dead on using a metric ruler; somewhere about 4.8 cm X 4.4 cm respectively. Check and you'll see what I mean. I then placed these measurements onto paper, and like Pauly does on Orange County Choppers, I transferred these measurements, CAREFULLY NOW!, onto paper. I then measured how the silver part of the thighs but up to the hip joint. Look at the pics of him carefully to see what I mean. Essentially, this area is 5mm X 5mm (see Thigh Measurement file for pic of what I'm talking about). This was done for those sides facing OUTWARDS. A similar technique was done for the inner thigh areas, except the measurement is only 2mm X 2mm because the hip doesn't protrude as far.

I then transferred this template onto a Tamiya plastic sheet which I got at a Japanese Toy/ hobby store (you can get these in various thickness) and cut them out. I then super glued them onto the upper thigh sections, one side at a time. On the inside of these extensions, I applied copious amounts of epoxy to make it all strong and solid, especially the sealing edge. I then reattached the feet sections which slide into the extensions somewhat snuggly. Viola! After drying and painting silver to match the original's, my goliath GoLion was now more appropriately proportioned and looked like a pretty darn good "mega-me" of the original.

This is pretty much what I did to make the ultimate unofficial new-age jumbo of GoLion. Total time, excluding waiting for paint + glue to dry was approximately 15 hours. This included measuring the sections for amputation during the surgical procedures, etc.