Friday, February 22, 2013

Saint Seiya Myth Cloth EX Phoenix Ikki Review



         Bandai started their new bronze saint line with the one and only Pegasus Seiya and with major success.  The figure was a work of art and most fans would agree that the figure is one for the ages.  Now the next figure for the saint seiya bronze section is coming out and with the form of a phoenix.  Phoenix Ikki is the second character to come out on the series and with good reason, he was the fan favorite for many people when they were young and people just love the character.  Today, we received the new myth cloth EX figure and let’s see if the figure lives up to the expectations of people for the EX line.

         The box layout is no different than the Pegasus one, it has the same plastic cover with the picture of the figure on the front, and his constellation.  On the sides of the box we have the figure doing a signature move and the object mode on a close up, and on the back of the box, they show you the different poses he can be put in, and different faces, a standard move of Bandai to get our attention.  Now if you take the plastic cover off, you can see the box is like the Pandora’s Box in the series like phoenix cloth is, a very nice touch of Bandai.  Now if we look inside, we have a total of 4 buster cards on the box.  

Buster number one, we have the figure itself with most of his armor parts, which is the normal cloth, not the broken one.

On buster 2, we see the skeleton of the object mode, we have the chest and the waist, and we have the wings and the feathers of phoenix ikki.  

On buster number three, we see the full broken armor version of the cloth, then we see the other 3 faces of the figure, to make a total of 4 faces, and we see the hands and other accessories for the figure.  

Overall the figure has the same amount of armor and layout that Pegasus seiya EX had on launch day.

         Now as the object mode was put together, you could tell that its very solid cloth, the object mode was very stable, and it even has a stand to support the armor on the back, something that the old myth cloth did not have and made a pain to get the object mode to stand up.  

This object mode is mostly made of the armor, so the armor plays a big roll on the figure.  One very nice thing that this figure can do is, because of the two sets of armor, you can put one set with the figure, and the other with the object mode.  Only thing you might be missing would be the feathers on the object mode, but that is not a breaking flaw on the figures part.  Overall the object mode is very well made and a good addition to the collection.


         Now the figure is one for the ages.  The figure is mostly composed of pure metal parts, the only plastic part I could find would be the face piece and that’s about it.   The chest is a bit loose but because the chest hold on with small clips on the sides.  One thing that I do recommend is not to play with the chest much.  

The hinges are a bit fragile and very weak, so moving it around might not be a good idea.  The same hinges are in the belt, same warning goes to that part as well.  But overall the figure looks great, and with the broken armor the figure looks fantastic.  For some reason the figures broken armor feels a bit more heavy but that must be for the extra detail it has.  The torso part also bends for the figure and for the object mode form, which is a nice feature for the figure.  Some people said that the figure feels out of proportion, but that is not the case, the figure looks and feels great, and I can’t find a flaw on the figure itself.



         So overall I have to give this figure a solid 10.  The figure is great and it belongs in your collection.  If you are looking for perfection, you can’t get more close than this piece of art.


Thank you to iShop2go for letting me review this figure. 

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Saint Cloth Crown Poseidon Review



One of the most popular gods of the saint seiya series is the god of the sea, Poseidon.  His release has been waited for over a year and it’s a very popular character, but many people have their worries about this figure as the major disappointment of last year’s crown Series of Sagittarius Seiya.  But I think most people are going to be pleasantly surprised when they see the crown figure with their own eyes.  Let’s get started.

         The box is a standard crown box as last year’s figure.  It has a pop out cardboard and to cover 4 sides of the box and the texture of the cardboard has the figure of Poseidon in the front with a nice feel to it.  This piece of the box is white and it’s very colorful.  The box itself is around 22 inches high and around 12 inches in length.  Taking off the cover is a box with a reflection kind of material with a deep marine blue to it.  On the reflection part you can see the marine zodiac and also pictures in black about the figure.  Overall this box is as spectacular as the box of Pegasus seiya crown of last year.

         Opening the box you see 3 compartments as well with this figure.  Compartment number one has most of the parts of the figure and some hands and a couple of faces. 
Compartment 2, has a lot of parts for the thrown, as this figure comes with a thrown itself to be displayed with the figure. 
On compartment 3, we have parts for the display mode of the object mode; it’s like a huge stand and looks very nice. 
Also in this compartment, you have the skeleton of the object mode and many parts for the display thrown and the chair thrown it.  Overall the compartments are the same as last year’s so this part was not very shocking for the public.
Now as we build the object mode, the figure or the object mode is very similar to the human build of Poseidon and vas very fast to build. 
 Things that I did notice right away with this release it more metal to the figure, and not a lot of plastic.  Sure it still has some mechanisms of last year’s figure but it’s not as bad as last year.  The object mode is a sight to see and a very beautiful addition.  Some people are even tempted to buy 2 figures because the object mode itself is as beautiful as the figure itself.

Now for the main course of this review; the figure was as easy to build as the object mode and took around the same time.  The color of the cloth looks fantastic and has a nice copper gold feel to it that most marine warriors have.  The figure feels solid and has a 50 to 50 percent of metal and plastic, which is a good balance compared to last year’s figure. 

The faces of the figure look great and do not feel bad made in any way.  The hair has movable tails on the side for them to move with the cloth which is an added bonus to me.  Overall this figure is far better than the actual figure of last year.
There was only one bad part about this figure.  When you try to sit him down on the thrown, the parts of the legs want to fall off from the figure so you have to be very careful with this kind of position.  It the last of my worries as most people will display him standing up, or in his object mode.  The thrown and the display thrown for the object mode are a very solid addition to the figure.  As you will see in some pictures, they look fantastic as they should.



         Overall the figure gets a solid 10 from me, it a better improvement from last years and very well made figure.  You can tell that they were trying to improve the quality of the figure and the figure for a 12 inch scale looks fantastic.  I would recommend to buy this figure right away if you are able to.

 Thank you to iShop2go for letting me review this figure.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Saint Seiya Myth Cloth Ex Andromeda Shun


Over the past months, we have seen a major improvement over the EX line and how people are little by little liking the figures more and more.  This is a great step forward for Bandai and a great product for us consumers.  The time has come for another much loved character to step in the Myth Cloth EX line and that is Andromeda Shun.  Over the past months we have seen many pictures and a lot of people were not very convinced this figure was going to be good compared to the other figures.  Well today we will find out if this is the truth or it’s just a myth.

         So we are going to look at the box and the package right now.  The box is a standard myth cloth ex figure box with the plastic cardboard on top with the figure itself and the object mode showing on the sides.  On the front we also have the constellation of Andromeda on the back of the figure.  On the back we have the figure itself with many poses and some pictures of the object mode.  This is very standard with all the EX boxes and its nothing new we have not seen.  When you take off the plastic cover you can see the Pandora’s Box of Andromeda with a gray kind of color like on the anime.  

When we open the package we have 3 buster cards.  On buster number 1, we got the figure itself with most of the normal armor.  

Buster number 2 has the skeleton of the object mode and the rest of the parts of the normal cloth armor for the figure.  

On buster number 3, we have all the broken armor and the rest of the faces of the figure.  We also have all the hands which in total should be around 12 to 14 hands for the figure.  We can also see the chains which come with real chains and some plastic ones.  If you ever owned a myth cloth of Andromeda Shun, you already know how this works.

         Now the object mode was very easy.  As you know this armor is very light on parts so it took around 5 minutes to make the armor.  The only difficult part was to put the chains on the arm sockets.  Because they are very loose to put on, they would fall off very easily.  This is not a deal breaker but it’s just a minor nuisance to deal with.  Other than that, the figures’ object mode is fantastic and very well made, 10 out of 10 for me. 



         Now making the figure was as easy as the object mode, very simple to put on and very simple to build.  The faces of the figure are fantastic and they look wonderful.  Some people were very worried about the faces but I have to say every face has great detail and they all look great, even the crying one.  I think out of the all Ex line, the Andromeda faces have been the best of the lot, with all of them being spectacular.  

And if you have collected the bronze saints EX before, you know they come with an extra set of broken armor.  The broken armor feels heavier but in no way or fashion the figure looks wrong.  Both sets have great detail and are very well made.  

The figure comes with real chains and something nice that added with the figure is that the chains come in rings, and not part of the armor, so they can be added separately which other myth cloth figures did not have this feature.  Overall the figure is great with a great look over all and I have to say it’s one of the best myth cloth EX figures up to date so far.

Thanks to iShop2go for letting me review this figure an remember

GO OUT AND BUY IT!