No one's really done an inflatable lion with a good-looking mane. Lionel's standing design basically has a triceratops' frill, the Jets design was unnecessarily lumpy and flat-faced, and Topcats' experiments didn't nail the transition or have enough volume. I decided to opt for a wraparound outer chamber so I could have a hard angle between the face and mane and a good degree of volume to the mane without generating excessive stress. The earliest version of this idea can be seen in "Kitwana's Big Review", with the head and neck of the lion effectively pushed through a beachball. To some extent, it should fit into the gap left by the long out-of-stock Squeakco laying cats.

The base of the design itself is gendered, the male has broader shoulders, a more prominent jawline, and narrower hips while the lioness has a rounder muzzle, narrower shoulders, and ample hips. This will carry over to future variations/retextures of the large cat base. At this point, the likely derivatives are a tiger, smilodon, Red XIII, and a Liger-type Zoid. I'm rather biased when it comes to the last one.

This design is make or break thanks to the issues with the kronosaurus raft and firebird. If workmanship issues beyond minor interchamber leaks are present that's game over for my independent toy projects. There shouldn't be any problems with the lion and lioness as they don't have box baffles or wing structures and are similar in shape to previous successful builds.

Original 2D design © of me
3D Modeling and scene by distendedpoly

In retrospect, I feel like I should have done a lion cub design as well. It's just too small to be cost-effective though...