For more than 20 or more years, people have dreamed of a myth cloth collection. One that is worthy to display and have in their homes and rooms, and little by little we have had that reality come to life. Myth cloth has improved over the years, and also, some companies have made some great figures and statues of saint seiya. But nobody has made the most perfect representation of a figure as Bandai has with their myth cloth. And now when the time is right, people are demanding a new scale of figures, and Bandai has delivered the fans what we wanted… Saint Seiya Saint Cloth Crown, a new line from Bandai that brings perfection but to the 12 inch scale now. Many people have many hopes for this figure, and now it has come time to review a figure that would totally revolutionize the industry, if they did it right.
Well for starters, this is no ordinary figure, this is a 12 inch saint seiya figure from Bandai, as you may expect a lot of people are expecting something worth their money, because this is not a cheap set. As soon as you get the box you see we have the picture of the figure in the front. Were the figure is at, it just a plain white but has the figure full box pose, and on the back we have all the features the figure comes with. It comes with 4 faces, and 2 to 4 sets of hairs, well as what we see on the box. This white covering is removable and when you take it off, it is a solid gold color box, very chrome gold color. It has the picture of the figure blown up on the cover of the gold box and it’s on black outline, and on the back of the box it has all the zodiac cards, with the Sagittarius one highlighted, signifying that we are getting that figure. The box is big, over one foot long and almost 2 foot tall; this box has a weight of almost 6 pounds by itself. So this box is somewhat heavy. But now we are going to look at the package and see what we get as soon as we open the box.
As you open the box, you’re in for a surprise; inside the box we have 4 individual solid black boxes, all of the feeling up the package. Some boxes are bigger than the others, and you also see the instruction manual as you open the box. All the black boxes are the same height as the almost 2 foot tall box. So as you open each box, you can see the contents inside. One box has the figure itself, most of the cloth parts and hands. The second box has the wings itself which fill the box itself; they are very big wings just to have their own box. The third one, and the thinnest one of them, has just the base and the connectors; this base plays a major part on this figure’s balance as we will see soon. And the last box has the skeleton of the object mode, parts for the bow and arrow of Sagittarius and more cloth parts the figure needs. Instead of getting plates like the myth cloth, they all come in different boxes, and this shows the class and love they put on the package of this figure. As we look at the manual, it is a solid white color as the cover of the box. It has a nice logo of Sagittarius on the front with all the corresponding logos as the myth cloth manuals are. Inside we have some information of the figure but we also get the instructions of the figure. The instructions are color coded and are easy to read. Most curios of this is that the manual is very similar as a myth cloth build, and not as complicated or sophisticated as an EX manual is. But let’s not waste any more time and build the object mode.
As you take out the skeleton of the object mode, the first thing you will notice is that the skeleton is a transparent color. It has no gold on the skeleton. To put the parts on the skeleton is easy, most of the parts do disassemble and assemble on the skeleton, but to my shock this is not because the armor is solid metal, but most are just plastic. The cloths armor like the torso, most of the skirts, the legs, and even the arms and head are just plastic. They can divide in the middle for you can take them apart, and then assemble them together on the object mode. This was a very shocking surprise for me when I saw this. I was expecting more of this figure in Die cast metal. The only die cast metal I could find was in the shoulders, the front, sides, and back of the skirt parts, and that’s it. A total of 6 die cast parts which is very concerning. I don’t know about you all but this was not what I expected for the price. As a figure scaling form more than 180 American dollars, I would think they would put more metal into the figure and on this big of a scale. But let’s keep going, to assemble the parts as I stated was easy, just put the parts as the manual dictates and you should be set, a lot of the arm guards and foot guards come off from the actual part, to make the legs and feet, this is why all the parts can be used to make the object mode. Still when you put all the parts, the figure looks fantastic, but this is where you have some problems. When you put the wings on the object mode, this figure grows in size. It looks beautiful none the less, but it’s very heavy and very unstable. But Bandai saw this issue and gave you some connectors to balance the object mode in the base. Most of the weight is transferred to the wings, and get supported by the base, still when this is all set and done, the object mode just looks stunning. The amount of detail and how gold and shiny it looks it just leaves you in awe. But let’s make the figure now itself.
Well if you had a myth cloth before, just imagine that body but double or triple the size. The same articulation of a myth cloth this figure offers, just with some improvements, the joints in the knees and elbows are double jointed, which gives you more movement, but that’s it, the rest is just like a myth cloth body. The difference is that you don’t slide the parts to the figure, they assemble on top of the body, you assemble the chest from back and front, the waist, from left and right, legs and arms back and front and it all fits on the figure nicely. It does not feel loose in any way, but this is due to the fact that almost all this figure is plastic, which they were able to fit all the parts correctly. The faces swap the same as the myth cloth, just take of the face, but in the new one on the hair and pop the rest of the parts in place, that is it. No new mechanism as with the EX figures, they keep it simple and it’s kind of the same thing as before, just bigger. But the figure looks stunning. This figure looks great and the amount of detail it does on the armor, it’s just breathtaking. This may not be die cast metal but I can see why. The amount of detail they put on the parts it’s just unreal. But still in some ways it is a shame it does not have more metal. The feet of the figure are die cast metal as the myth cloth are, which is a good thing, but now it’s time to put on the wings. And wow, this changes the figure even more, the wings give the figure more volume and more weight as you expect. The figure has a hard time to stand on its feet but they stand helps in that area. If you want to be cautious you will put this figure on its base or leaning on a wall, cause this figure will tip if it’s not supported. The wings can spread almost 1 ½ foot on each side, which makes this figure to look at breathtaking. All together even without all the die cast metal, this figure looks fantastic, the face sculpts are perfect and they look a lot like Seiya. It also comes with Aiolos head but to some extent, this figure shines more with Pegasus Seiya head on it.
Overall this figure is great. Even though I was expecting more for my money, as soon as you put this figure all together, you just stair and look with beauty the work in front of your eyes. It is a breath talking masterpiece and belongs to any hardcore saint seiya fan. The lack of die cast metal and the plastic fact will play a major factor in buying this figure, but if you do buy it… let me assure you that you won’t be disappointed. For me, even without the die cast I give him a 9.5/10. It’s a great figure and I’m a very happy customer having this figure on my collection.
I want to thank ishop2go for letting me review this figure as always and remember… GO OUT AND BUY IT!!!
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Saint Cloth Crown Sagittarius Seiya
