Voltes V

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Name	Voltes V
Toy Line	Soul of Chogokin
Number	GX-31
Manufacturer	Bandai
Released	2006
Materials	ABS, Diecast, Plastic
Scale
Category	Chogokin
Series	Voltes V
Designer	Tsuyoshi Nonaka
Orig. Price	¥16,590

Choudenji Machine Voltes V (超電磁マシーンボルテスＶ)

Just delivered to my doorstep by Betatoys, the long awaited GX-31 Soul of Chogokin Voltes V.

The box is your standard SOC box (9” x 4” x 14”). It’s a bit bigger than the Combattler V box, but not as big as the Dancouga box. Inside are two trays. The Styrofoam tray holds the volt machines in place, and has a cool cover with retro box art. The second tray is clear plastic for all the accessories. Also included is a beautiful color manual, with transformation instructions.

Voltes V consists of 5 Volt machines that combine to form the mighty Voltes V.

	Volt Crewzer Volt Crewzer is the smallest Volt Machine, and forms the head of Voltes V. It’s all plastic, and features moveable landing gear, opening cockpit, removable wing blades, and small missiles that show if you tilt the cockpit forward.
	Volt Bomber Volt Bomber forms the arms of Voltes V. The upper arms are metal, but that’s about it. The landing gear is removable and rests on the stand when not in use. The front landing gear retracts into the body.
	Volt Panzer Volt Panzer forms the chest of Voltes V. It features real rubber tank treads, articulated claws, and a small door that opens below the cockpit. The entire body of this vehicle is metal.
	Volt Frigate Volt Frigate forms the legs of Voltes V. The lower legs and part of the waist is metal. The Volt Frigate features landing gear and spring loaded turrets.
	Volt Lander Volt Lander forms the feet of Voltes V. Each vehicle features spring loaded wheels, chrome drills, and moveable antennae.

Assembling Voltes is almost self-explanatory. The lander separates and clicks into the bottom of the frigate. Fold the tank treads around the back of the Panzer and attach to the top of the frigate. Unfold the Bomber and insert into the top of the panzer. Slide the sleeves down and pull out the fists. Unfold the Crewzer and attach to the Bomber via a magnetic joint.

The combined voltes is sturdy and quite articulate. There is a suprising range of motion in the legs and arms. Unfortunately, there is very little movement in the head, and no articulation in the waist. The toy holds pretty much any pose; nothing seems loose or flimsy.

Voltes comes with a ton of accessories:

Gatling Missiles – These missiles clip into the hollow arm of Voltes V. Be careful, as those missiles do come off. You don’t want to lose one.
Chain Knuckles – This is a chain assembly that clips into the hollow arm of Voltes V. It has a long metal chain that is attached to a mace-like weapon at the end. In the show this is supposed to shoot, but here it does not.
Voltes Bazooka - Voltes’ right arm can be bent to reveal a cannon. The cannon slides out, but be careful not to pop the hand off in the process.
Choudenji Strings – These yellow strips are actually supposed to come from Voltes’ belt. To replicate this effect, the yellow belt piece is actually removable and the yellow tab fits into the waist.
Choudenji Goma – These spinning tops can connect to the end of the Choudenji Strings to lash out at enemies. You have to actually take the top apart to attach it to the strings. (I wasn’t aware of this when I did the video review!)
Tenkuu Ken - Also known as “Lightning Sword” or “Laser Sword”, This is Voltes’ most prominent weapon. In the show, the Tenkuu ken would appear from the chest of Voltes V, with the red emblem becoming the hilt. To replicate this, Bandai created a folding Tenkuu ken, that can unfold and become the full-sized sword. Unfortnately this sword is flimsy, so Bandai has also provided us with a full sized solid chrome Tenkuu ken. There is also a replacement chest part to insert into the cavity left by the sword.
Taka Mecha – Otherwise known as “Mechanical Eagle”, this red bird-like mecha can attach to voltes’s back. An assembly attaches to the bottom that also has a space for the small energy controlling device. In the show, the Taka Mecha delivered the energy controlling device to Voltes V so it could fire the Choudenji Ball weapon. This whole assembly fits into the back of Voltes by opening a small door and moving the tank treads to the side.

Other accessories

Variant hands – The hands that come attached to voltes arms are nicely articulated, but look too small in robot mode. By adding caps to the arms, you can attach any one of 3 different fists to each arm. Voltes V comes with sets of open hands, closed hands, and sword holding hands. Unfortunately, the sword is too heavy for the wrist connection and tends to droop a little.
Stand – The stand is nothing special – there is a place for each accessory on it, but no nameplate. Some of the accessories, like the Choudenji Strings, the small chrome landing gear, and the blades for the Crewzer, will fall off instantly if you bump it just a little.

I think this is the best SOC combiner yet. There are a few things that Bandai could have done better, but they are really small things. I would have liked to have seen more articulation in the head and waist, I would have liked Bandai to do something about the pegs left on the waist, and I wish they were consistant with their use of nameplates on the stands. I am not as surprised about the lack of firing gimmicks.

This toy is really solid and suprisingly heavy. It is a really satisfying experience. You can get your Voltes V Soul of Chogokin at Betatoys.com

The Soul of Chogokin Voltes V was released May 20, 2006, with a retail price of 16,590 Yen.

Video Review

Submitted by JoshB on 7 June, 2006 - 09:07.

Click on a thumbnail to enlarge

Voltes V	Voltes V	Voltes V	Tenkuu ken	Tenkuu ken
Chain knuckles	Choudenji goma	Taka Mecha	Voltes V	Voltes V and Combattler V

View all pictures in the gallery

Great start!

Submitted by BlazeEagle on 12 June, 2006 - 18:40.

Loved the video review!! Excellent review. I'd love to see more video reviews! An great start, keep up the excellent work!

Best wishes,

BlazeEagle

great review

Submitted by robbyv on 12 July, 2006 - 00:15.

I loved your video review! I had the original big Voltes V toy as a kid -- and it's nice to see the major improvements on this new one.

Just a comment -- those pointy things inside the Volt Lander "hood" are supposed to be drills, so they're not really supposed to shoot out.

Again, great review! I'm going out to buy one!

Very cool...Thanks a lot.

Submitted by J Paul Tan II on 25 May, 2007 - 07:58.

The video review satisfied me a lot.That toy is totally AMAZING with its versatility,arsenal,etc...I'm glad I found the website that shows its "moves"(as seen on the video review).
Now I wish I could buy one of those in my hometown...OMG!!!NO MONEY,NO CREDIT CARD,NOT A SINGLE ONE AVAILABLE IN MY HOMETOWN,Philippines.Man,how long could I wait for santa to give me one of those? Anywayz,THANKS TO WHOEVER PUT THIS AMAZING TOY REVIEW ABOUT MY ALL-TIME FAV ROBOT CHARACTER, VOLTES V!!!!!

--Paul Tan--

Just plain great!!!!

Submitted by deltagrail on 25 July, 2007 - 09:20.

Have been looking for this toy (at least, its old variant) since I was a kid. Went to a lot of stuffs since then, but then, you just dont forget this one. just got one a couple of days ago, and another one coming within the next few days. made sure i have a spare and more. just a plain great toy!!!!!

I'm a die hard Voltes V fan

Submitted by birdlog on 2 August, 2007 - 04:45.

I'm a die hard Voltes V fan even when a kid.. and
I'm somewhat one of the lucky kids under 7 years
old to have been bought the Voltes V DX (1979) by their
dad. When I was a kid, I was happy enough to play
with the die cast toy but as I grew up and developed
a taste for perfection, I began to get dissappointed on
how inaccurate the toy was made. When I first saw the
SOC GX-31 version, I got very excited to see how accurate
its features was compared to the Anime. With this excitement
and now that the once 5 year old boy has grown up and
is now able to afford a GX-31, I bought one the minute I
had the chance. So there i was, very excited as I got home
not a moment spared, opened the box, checked the contents and
without looking at the manual, combined the 5 vehicles to form
Voltes V! What a feeling it was, I was back to being that 5 year
old boy which dad bought a Volt in Box years ago... after a few
minutes of adoring the GX-31, the excitement and sense of fullfilment
changed to dissappointment.. Yes, after a few minutes with GX-31 I've
noticed some points, in which Bandai could have done better or plainly
could have done with this version.
1) The neck seems to thin
2) The landing gears could have been made better on the wing part of
Cruizer 1
3) the upper legs could have been longer
4) second important thing is, they could have put push-to-release locks
(This system is present in the DX Version)
to hold each vehicle into robot mode instead of just snap-ons.
Due to the heavy lower body (Frigate and Lander combined). I've
experienced the Panzer and Frigate separating when holding Voltes V
by the waist to lift it
5) and the most important thing of all, they could have copied the
red arm joint system of the old Voltes V DX version. With the GX-31
only the upper part of the red arm joint folds, thus providing us with
an unproportional arm when folded. If only the lower portion of the
red arm joint also folds like the old DX version, more arm poses can
be made by the GX-31 and Voltes V would have looked better doing
arm poses with the sword or without.

With that said, I know this is a long shot but I hope that someone from
Bandai would plan on creating a renewal GX-31 just like what they did
with the GX-01 when they created and released GX-01R.

Oh please...please... let there be a GX-31R! How I'd love for that to happen
'til then all I can do is wait

I'll see you soon GX-31

Submitted by Cyclone Blue on 30 October, 2007 - 21:22.

WOW! as in really big WOW! It's unimaginable how this masterpiece of a toy is in demand! I pre-ordered one at Hobby Link Japan last September and the new batch of this was supposed to come out at month-end of October..and it did. HLJ did not even have remaining stocks at all. It went like OCTOBER-RESTOCK STATUS straight to BACK-ORDER STATUS..skipping ON-STOCK! (I'm quite sure coz I'm checking their website everyday)

Fortunately and thankfully, my order's been confirmed and is now in the process of being shipped. So I'll see you soon GX-31! Well hopefully a week or two from now. Can't wait to get my hands on you! LOL

TENKUU KEN!! V NO NI GIRI!!!

Cyclone Blue

soc lover

Submitted by l_q_long on 18 May, 2008 - 12:01.

leon
hi,had just brought this guy few week weeks ago from my local dealer.had have with it n even get some of the paint chipped.haha,but its ok,cause its a great piece with lot of gimmicks n fun with..good review josh,i buy it because of your review r too good.

My SOC Voltes V comments

Submitted by ivanko on 10 June, 2008 - 00:50.

I finally got my hands on an SOC Voltes V. I was as giddy as a schoolboy getting a really cool Christmas gift.

After tinkering and admiring my purchase, here are some of my comments on the toy....
- The toy's design is as faithful and comparable with the animé series. This feature really made my day.
- The connecting neckpipe (for lack of a proper term) of bomber 2 could have been a tad longer or had a retractable feature similar to that of the voltes bazooka.
- I can't seem to connect the rear landing gears of bomber 2. Can you guys give an explanation and a solution to this?
- The folding sword was a nice feature to add to mimic the blade coming out of the hilt but unfolded, it sucked. So I just keep it folded up and stored in panzer's belly
- The connection of the right lander is not as solid as the left's once volted in.
- Overall, the toy really rocks.

Finally, my childhood has closure :)

Did anyone get the Voltes Headquarters playset?

Submitted by The Big R on 13 June, 2008 - 10:11.

Did anyone get the Voltes Headquarters playset? The SOC Reideen review today made me realize nobody did a review of the excellent bootleg playset of the Headquarters.

Nice quality plastic, lights in the bottom, different parts to display as vehicles or robot mode... It takes the SOC Voltes set from "Amazing" to "Top 3 SOCs ever" status, and really is a must-own if you have this set.

Gets better....

Submitted by ivanko on 7 July, 2008 - 02:22.

I've been "playing" with my Voltes for a few weeks now. Every 2 days, I volt them in, do different poses, then volt them out and display them in v formation. The color scheme of Voltes goes hand-in-hand with my superman collection, even enhances it.
I've noticed that as the weeks go by, the volting-in process gets easier. Could this be a feature that Bandai has considered into the designing of their toys? My purchase of the chogokin has surpassed all my expectations.

I'm really considering getting the Camp Big Falcon set to complement it, but parting with 4,500 bucks (100 dollars rounded off) is something of a big deal to part with. Maybe someday :)

Video review comments

Submitted by ivanko on 8 July, 2008 - 23:45.

I got to watch your video review on the SOC Voltes yesterday. As good as the review is (as well as other reviews that you do), I'd like to react on some of the comments you made on the toy:

- The mecha falcon (mechanical eagle in the Philippine translation) played a crucial role in the upgrade of the volt-in system of the robot. In one episode, the Boazanians figured out that they could disable Voltes by frying its electromagnetic system by creating a beam capable of knocking it out completely, rendering the volting-in process useless. The falcon comes into play in part two of the episode by delivering blue prints of a new and improved electromagnetic engine system. It also delivers a new engine and plants it into panzer (thus the inclusion of that small engine)

- The weapons showcase is modeled after Camp Big Falcon, the headquarters of the volt machines. I agree with you that Bandai should've been consistent with their labeling of the showcases.

- The chain knuckle's meant to punch through a beast fighter, then reel them in closer in order to give it a further beating. In the show, there are 2, one on each arm.

- You were commenting on the purpose of the small trapdoor on the cockpit of panzer. Asides from sporting a number 3, it's meant to easily pull out the cockpit upon disassembly of the mecha.

- Lastly, I was completely mortified by the way that you haphazardly handled the toy. I take great care when I tinker with my chogokin, so seeing how you handled it shocked me. But at the end of the day, its your toy.

Operational Base!

Submitted by ivanko on 4 August, 2008 - 03:46.

I recently purchased the Operational Base (Camp Big Falcon in the Philippines) accessory to complement my SOC Voltes V. I'll share a review and some pics soon :)

nO rESPECT fOR tHE vOLT iN bOX!

Submitted by Cyclone Blue on 16 November, 2008 - 20:35.

I still find this original release GX-31 better than the "respect for volt-in box" issue that they will release soon.

the deeper and darker blue and red and metallic silver colors give voltes a far stronger appearance - making him look like really a "super robot"...and anime accurate.

With the lighter blue like the DX had, he looks more plasticky looking plus with all the label prints all around the body...i don't know...it doesn't work for me at all. These may have gone well for the DX Godaikin during its time but not for the GX-31.

Furthermore, if their intentions were to copy the look of the DX version, why are some of the sticker (?) labels different from the DX? They should have just copied exactly what the DX looked like so that it can be truly said "respect for the volt-in box"?

Cyclone Blue
"No Gnu is Good Gnu like Gary Gnu"