NerdSociety is proud to be bringing back a thrilling feature where vintage toys get their respective due every month! In honor of her release and subsequent sell out on Mattycollector.com this morning, I thought it would be fun to check out the original Princess Allura from Voltron: Defender of the Universe!

Released in 1984 by Panosh Place, Princess Allura came packed with her helmet, blue Lion Key, and the figure herself. The front card featured wonderful art of Allura to the side with a cool space theme in the background. The Voltron title was also emblazoned across the top. I also believe that this version of Allura came from Canada. I love having world traveled toys in my collection.

A closer look of the toy really shows how far toy making abilities have come, however, this figure was a very nice item for 1984. With a few areas of articulation, this Allura resembled the character nicely. Pink has always been my favorite color, so growing up Allura was obviously my favorite. However, if Pidge had been the one in pink, this would be a whole other post. The packed in helmet was easy to put on and remove from the old line and the Lion Key was slightly larger to add a sense if imaginative play for the owner.

Flipping the card over, we can see a few things going on. First there was a Voltron adventure picture on the back of each card. Below the larger picture was a character bio card (love bio cards!) One interesting point about this layout was that there were no pictures of other items to purchase.

The adventure picture for Allura was a scene of the Voltron pilots in water awaiting their rescue by Allura and the Blue Lion. Can I just say how nice this picture was? One of the things I disliked about the original cartoon was that Allura always seemed to get herself into trouble and would require rescue at every turn. Not to mention it took her forever to learn how to pilot the Blue Lion. I like that the photo showed Allura riding into the rescue. Underneath the photo was also a written description detailing the story in the picture.

The Top Secret Bio File had a picture of Allura in a royal gown with a space mouse, which were actually really cute from the cartoon. I don’t normally tend to like mice or other rodents, but I would actually keep a space mouse as a pet. Well… probably just a toy version. Either way the bio file gave away some important pieces of information about where she is from, details on piloting the Blue Lion, as well as some personal attributes.

I never really had much from the original Voltron line. My parents were trying not to feed into my obsessive collecting habits. However I was able to purchase this Princess Allura in what can only be described as a faux flash sale on eBay a few years ago. I also hope that those of you who wanted the new Allura from Mattel’s spin on old school Voltron were able to pick one up on Mattycollector.com. It has been nice to see Voltron make a comeback with the new Voltron Force. Hopefully the second season of the new cartoon will air soon as well as some new VF toys. For now enjoy this trip down the toy memory lane! Be sure to also check back because Vintage Toy of the Month will return on the 15th of every month! Until next time…

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