View allAll Photos Tagged ANNIVERSARYEDITION!
I don't have many regrets in life, but I wish I had started seeing U2 live in 1997, right after my ESL class! I love various types of music, from opera to hip hop, but U2 is my favorite. And 1983 - yes, I'm biased!♥️
JCB Fastrac and Strong trailer working in the field collecting grain from the wheat harvest . . Kent . . UK
Photography © Jeremy Sage
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I love the winking head, though it's a bit weird looking with no eyeball. And, uh, no body of its own.
Urban Scenes and Scapes
"Usual Blurb" © by Wil Wardle. Please do not use this or any of my images without my permission.
Please "Like" Me on facebook:
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2003 marked the 100th Anniversary of the Harley-Davidson Motor Company.
As part of the centennial celebration the MoCo issued a year of special anniversary edition motorcycles
Image best viewed in Large screen. Thank-you for your visit!
It is very much appreciated...
Sonja
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
In Lockdown Level 5 in January 2021 and an overnight flurry of snow dusted the paths, seats and grass of the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin, Dublin. A welcome relief of the tedium for the kids.
Taken with a Leica M4-P and a Leica Elmar 5cm f2.8 lens on Kodak TMax 400 black and white film.
The only 50th Anniversary edition 12C to be imported to Hong Kong by McLaren. Love the retro page on the front.
it took me a while, but I finally got around to cracking open this beauty - presenting the Tamashii Nations Saint Seiya: Andromeda Shun God Cloth - 10th Anniversary Edition figure set, which I picked up at a Flea Market for $60 CAD.
If you were around during the early 2000s, you may remember a little toy line from Bandai called Knights of the Zodiac. Much like Ultimate Muscle, Knights of the Zodiac was based on an incredibly popular Japanese property - in this case, it was known as Saint Seiya, which had been around since the mid 80s. The series revolves around the chosen warriors of the Goddess Athena, who are gifted with armour sets, or "cloths" that draw their power from various constellations. I have yet to actually watch anything from this series, Japanese or American, but I do remember watching a bit of the first American episode and noting that they censored the living crap out of it. Other than that, the only other exposure I had to the series was occasionally I'd see pictures as a kid of the one they call Dragon Shiryu, who had some admitted badass looking gear. I think the number of suits in the series could probably give MCU Iron Man a run for his money.
The main gimmick of each figure was that you'd have a generic core figure (with the head generally being the only difference), and you could gear up each figure with chromed armour pieces. The Bandai of America releases were very much based on the sets I'd seen while clomping around Market Village and Pacific Mall in Markham, as the series popularity over in Asia made it a no brainer for local import toy stores to bring it relatively cheap figures from Hong Kong and sell them here. But this was 2004 - I had already graduated from University and was working full time, well on my way to becoming a toy snob. Furthermore, it was Bandai of America.. you just knew that they'd cheap out on something just to make a buck.
So, as you can imagine with no time actually watch the series, and effectively nobody ever talking about it locally, I basically had no real reason to keep up with the property. Little did I know Saint Seiya was an ongoing thing - it never did die overseas. So much so that Bandai of Japan actually went ahead and had Tamashii Nations further refine the figure line eventually resulting in the Myth Cloth Revival line, where all the original character were rereleased as new action figures, having core bodies that weren't quite Figuarts good, but were much improved over the original toys by at the very least allowing for figures with the proper body proportions and vastly improved articulation.
Andromeda Shun, as the name implies, is a character named Shun who wields the cloth of Andromeda. According to my research, Shun is generally hesitant to use violence as a solution to matters, but when he does all sorts of wonderful things happen. Considered the strongest amongst the core five saints (known as the Bronze Saints). His character has some other deep dark secrets that I'm not going to touch on, but overall, I'm told he's one of the most popular characters in the series. The God Cloth in the title indicates that this is the most powerful form of the named Cloth, in this case the Andromeda cloth. The original appears to have been released in 2009 (this was a 2014 figure), with improvements being more accurate colouring, and the addition of an alternate shocked expression face to recreate a key scene.
With the background out of the way, lets move on the actual overview.
First off, lets talk contents. This set MSRPed for 8,250 yen back in 2014, and even if you added inflation to the price there is no way in you'd get anything even CLOSE to what you get in this box for the price. You get the core body, two expressions (neutral, shocked), two front hair pieces (one for mounting the headgear), parts to the armour (all of which is die cast metal with the exception of the collar piece, wings, headgear, along with the chest and waist cover, and the pieces on the sides of the hands), two additional bracers with metal chains (main weapons), a formed plastic chain (Thunder Wave attack effect), 3 pairs of hands specifically for use with the armour (closed fists, chain gripping fists, posing hands), and the parts to turn the armour into an Object (think really ornate armour stand, which in the case of Andromeda is a kneeling figure) including some really intricate curved chains.
The armour itself consists of :
Headgear
Collar piece
Inner upper and lower torso frame
Chest piece
Waist piece
Pauldrons
Bicep guards
Forearm guards
Hip guards (both sides)
Thigh guards
Knee guards
Lower leg guards
Wings
As the photos show if it isn't on the core figure, it's either chromed plastic or it's coloured die cast metal parts. There's not a dull/unfinished piece on this gear whatsoever.
The main figure is larger than a modern day Figuarts - yes Nat is technically slightly smaller than the average male Figuarts, but its nothing that would change this statement. Very anorexic looking, which allowed for the equipping of less bulky looking accessories. The actual mobility isn't bad, as you get toe, ankles, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel, limited mobility waist and mid torso, shoulders with chest collapse, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, limited neck motion, and head articulation. The figure is also equipped with die cast clown shoes to improve balance both with and without the gear on. With the exception of the waist and torso, range of motion isn't too bad, and is definitely on par with the better offerings of 2009. Articulation of the various body parts is generally not further limited even after you equip the armour, with the sole exception being the upper body, which goes from limited movement to no movement due to the body armour harness effectively having no points of articulation whatsoever.
Equipping the armour is an incredibly painstaking activity, so much so that it took me almost 30 minutes the first time to put things on, mostly due to fear of scratching the finished surfaces. Even after realizing I had one of the leg armour pieces on backwards in my pictures, I decided that it's too much effort to put it back for a reshoot. You see, unlike the original Deluxe figures where you'd just clip on chromed plastic armour around the various limbs, this figure requires the removal of hands and legs to get the limb armour on. But, as much of a pain it is getting the parts on just right, and the limited range of motion overall, the finished product looks stunning, especially if you've got some bright lights on the figure. It's not quite Hot Toys die cast Iron Man, but it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless. As stated earlier, arms, legs, and head are generally unhindered even with the armour on.. that is to say it doesn't make it any worse. The pauldrons and hip guards have ball joints on the mounting parts to allow for more range of motion as to improve posing opportunities.
From an actual paint perspective, I honestly don't think there's much of it on the figure. There's the plastic hair, the hair, and the fleshtones. Everything else is pretty much chrome plating which looks glorious. There are some imperfections in the finish here and there, but those are rare to find. Overall, this is a one sharp looking figure. The chromed plastic parts blend in quite well due to excellent colour matching.
Build quality is picture perfect where it matters - the armour. Much like with the Hot Toys Iron Man line, the use of metal has allowed for thinner parts, which reduces the overall bulk of the figure, as well as permits for that fantastic metallic finish. Despite the general non linearity of the parts, everything fits together perfectly, which is saying a lot given how much assembly there is on this figure, and is a testament to the impressive QC that went into the manufacture of the armour parts, including the parts for Object. On the main figure, the only rough spot I could see was the finish on the waist section of the core figure wasn't great at all, but fortunately that section was effectively on the undercarriage, so it's not something that you'd normally notice. Based on my experience, joints will hold your desired pose, even with the additional weight of the die cast metal parts.
A few gripes before we adjourn. First off, by far the most annoying thing to do with this figure is to assemble Object mode. Not only do you need to keep track of the left and right parts (put on wrong the figure won't sit right), but putting the chains together is a major pain due to the small size of the connectors (both to the body and to each other) which is further exasperated by the fact if the forearms aren't lined up correctly you're going to have a hell of a time trying to actually get it right. If they (Tamashii Nations) designed the shoulders of the Object such that they would only point in one directly, why couldn't they do that with the forearms?
The second major issue I have goes back the usual gripe I have with Figuarts figures - the lack of a stand. While normally just annoying, the lack of a stand makes this figure a bit of a gamble to pose. You see, despite the giant metal clown feet, the figure can still fall over, especially when it's weighed down with all the armour pieces. Scratches is one thing, but my biggest fear is that it falls over backward, and either due to long exposure warps the plastic wings, or if you're really unlucky, falls over with a force that ends up snapping the wings. Neither of which are particularly attractive or desired, so until I can figure things out I'm leaving the Shun unarmoured.
Phew.. so there you have it. A long write up, but well worth it for a truly extraordinary action figure both from an aesthetic perspective as well as overall production values, a combination of which isn't really a thing these days unless you go one sixth scale or higher. I suspect "finishing the line", especially with my cheapness, is probably not something that is going to ever happen, but to be honest I say that about a lot of things. I guess at least I know what to look for, which is a good start.
With that said, it's off the next review, which I'm gonna flip a coin to decide on, but will be guaranteed to be less metal.
Shorebirds of Ireland, Freshwater Birds of Ireland and The Birds of Ireland: A Field Guide with Jim Wilson.
www.markcarmodyphotography.com
A temporary dwelling along the side of the National Concert Hall, Hatch Street in Dublin city. The tent was there for a couple of weeks before being moved on. There seems to be an increase in tents on the streets of Dublin during the COVID pandemic.
Taken with a Leica M4-P and a Summarit 35mm lens on Kodak Portra 400 colour film.
The 7” Kodak Aero Ektar is a fantastic lens. One of the best portrait lens made, and equally at home capturing landscapes. This one is fitted to an Anniversary Edition Graflex Speed Graphic 4x5. Graflex large format cameras have a well earned reputation as being well made, durable and very reliable. This one is one of 5 Graflex cameras that I own, but the only one that will accept this exceptionally large lens. Coming soon will be some images shot with this setup.
My Grandson's '85 Thunderbird, on its way to his home in Dixon, Illinois. It has been residing at our place for the last three years, during which he finished college, got married, and started a family. It needs some TLC but is still pretty sound and runs very well. Since it is not currently licensed or insured, it made the journey on a trailer. This one is a 30th Anniversary Edition, and has a number of features unique to the Anniversary Edition.
Oh yes, there is a truck in this picture also...
Happy Truck Thursday!
The cover illustration is by Alan M. Clark. The illustration for the first edition of the book is deceptively bland-looking by comparison:
www.flickr.com/photos/57440551@N03/15527546067/in/set-721...
This is the book that introduced readers to Norman Bates, his knife-wielding Mother and a horrifying shower scene at the Bates Motel. The story was adapted into Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film of the same name. Here is Hitchcock's take on that infamous shower scene:
it took me a while, but I finally got around to cracking open this beauty - presenting the Tamashii Nations Saint Seiya: Andromeda Shun God Cloth - 10th Anniversary Edition figure set, which I picked up at a Flea Market for $60 CAD.
If you were around during the early 2000s, you may remember a little toy line from Bandai called Knights of the Zodiac. Much like Ultimate Muscle, Knights of the Zodiac was based on an incredibly popular Japanese property - in this case, it was known as Saint Seiya, which had been around since the mid 80s. The series revolves around the chosen warriors of the Goddess Athena, who are gifted with armour sets, or "cloths" that draw their power from various constellations. I have yet to actually watch anything from this series, Japanese or American, but I do remember watching a bit of the first American episode and noting that they censored the living crap out of it. Other than that, the only other exposure I had to the series was occasionally I'd see pictures as a kid of the one they call Dragon Shiryu, who had some admitted badass looking gear. I think the number of suits in the series could probably give MCU Iron Man a run for his money.
The main gimmick of each figure was that you'd have a generic core figure (with the head generally being the only difference), and you could gear up each figure with chromed armour pieces. The Bandai of America releases were very much based on the sets I'd seen while clomping around Market Village and Pacific Mall in Markham, as the series popularity over in Asia made it a no brainer for local import toy stores to bring it relatively cheap figures from Hong Kong and sell them here. But this was 2004 - I had already graduated from University and was working full time, well on my way to becoming a toy snob. Furthermore, it was Bandai of America.. you just knew that they'd cheap out on something just to make a buck.
So, as you can imagine with no time actually watch the series, and effectively nobody ever talking about it locally, I basically had no real reason to keep up with the property. Little did I know Saint Seiya was an ongoing thing - it never did die overseas. So much so that Bandai of Japan actually went ahead and had Tamashii Nations further refine the figure line eventually resulting in the Myth Cloth Revival line, where all the original character were rereleased as new action figures, having core bodies that weren't quite Figuarts good, but were much improved over the original toys by at the very least allowing for figures with the proper body proportions and vastly improved articulation.
Andromeda Shun, as the name implies, is a character named Shun who wields the cloth of Andromeda. According to my research, Shun is generally hesitant to use violence as a solution to matters, but when he does all sorts of wonderful things happen. Considered the strongest amongst the core five saints (known as the Bronze Saints). His character has some other deep dark secrets that I'm not going to touch on, but overall, I'm told he's one of the most popular characters in the series. The God Cloth in the title indicates that this is the most powerful form of the named Cloth, in this case the Andromeda cloth. The original appears to have been released in 2009 (this was a 2014 figure), with improvements being more accurate colouring, and the addition of an alternate shocked expression face to recreate a key scene.
With the background out of the way, lets move on the actual overview.
First off, lets talk contents. This set MSRPed for 8,250 yen back in 2014, and even if you added inflation to the price there is no way in you'd get anything even CLOSE to what you get in this box for the price. You get the core body, two expressions (neutral, shocked), two front hair pieces (one for mounting the headgear), parts to the armour (all of which is die cast metal with the exception of the collar piece, wings, headgear, along with the chest and waist cover, and the pieces on the sides of the hands), two additional bracers with metal chains (main weapons), a formed plastic chain (Thunder Wave attack effect), 3 pairs of hands specifically for use with the armour (closed fists, chain gripping fists, posing hands), and the parts to turn the armour into an Object (think really ornate armour stand, which in the case of Andromeda is a kneeling figure) including some really intricate curved chains.
The armour itself consists of :
Headgear
Collar piece
Inner upper and lower torso frame
Chest piece
Waist piece
Pauldrons
Bicep guards
Forearm guards
Hip guards (both sides)
Thigh guards
Knee guards
Lower leg guards
Wings
As the photos show if it isn't on the core figure, it's either chromed plastic or it's coloured die cast metal parts. There's not a dull/unfinished piece on this gear whatsoever.
The main figure is larger than a modern day Figuarts - yes Nat is technically slightly smaller than the average male Figuarts, but its nothing that would change this statement. Very anorexic looking, which allowed for the equipping of less bulky looking accessories. The actual mobility isn't bad, as you get toe, ankles, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel, limited mobility waist and mid torso, shoulders with chest collapse, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, limited neck motion, and head articulation. The figure is also equipped with die cast clown shoes to improve balance both with and without the gear on. With the exception of the waist and torso, range of motion isn't too bad, and is definitely on par with the better offerings of 2009. Articulation of the various body parts is generally not further limited even after you equip the armour, with the sole exception being the upper body, which goes from limited movement to no movement due to the body armour harness effectively having no points of articulation whatsoever.
Equipping the armour is an incredibly painstaking activity, so much so that it took me almost 30 minutes the first time to put things on, mostly due to fear of scratching the finished surfaces. Even after realizing I had one of the leg armour pieces on backwards in my pictures, I decided that it's too much effort to put it back for a reshoot. You see, unlike the original Deluxe figures where you'd just clip on chromed plastic armour around the various limbs, this figure requires the removal of hands and legs to get the limb armour on. But, as much of a pain it is getting the parts on just right, and the limited range of motion overall, the finished product looks stunning, especially if you've got some bright lights on the figure. It's not quite Hot Toys die cast Iron Man, but it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless. As stated earlier, arms, legs, and head are generally unhindered even with the armour on.. that is to say it doesn't make it any worse. The pauldrons and hip guards have ball joints on the mounting parts to allow for more range of motion as to improve posing opportunities.
From an actual paint perspective, I honestly don't think there's much of it on the figure. There's the plastic hair, the hair, and the fleshtones. Everything else is pretty much chrome plating which looks glorious. There are some imperfections in the finish here and there, but those are rare to find. Overall, this is a one sharp looking figure. The chromed plastic parts blend in quite well due to excellent colour matching.
Build quality is picture perfect where it matters - the armour. Much like with the Hot Toys Iron Man line, the use of metal has allowed for thinner parts, which reduces the overall bulk of the figure, as well as permits for that fantastic metallic finish. Despite the general non linearity of the parts, everything fits together perfectly, which is saying a lot given how much assembly there is on this figure, and is a testament to the impressive QC that went into the manufacture of the armour parts, including the parts for Object. On the main figure, the only rough spot I could see was the finish on the waist section of the core figure wasn't great at all, but fortunately that section was effectively on the undercarriage, so it's not something that you'd normally notice. Based on my experience, joints will hold your desired pose, even with the additional weight of the die cast metal parts.
A few gripes before we adjourn. First off, by far the most annoying thing to do with this figure is to assemble Object mode. Not only do you need to keep track of the left and right parts (put on wrong the figure won't sit right), but putting the chains together is a major pain due to the small size of the connectors (both to the body and to each other) which is further exasperated by the fact if the forearms aren't lined up correctly you're going to have a hell of a time trying to actually get it right. If they (Tamashii Nations) designed the shoulders of the Object such that they would only point in one directly, why couldn't they do that with the forearms?
The second major issue I have goes back the usual gripe I have with Figuarts figures - the lack of a stand. While normally just annoying, the lack of a stand makes this figure a bit of a gamble to pose. You see, despite the giant metal clown feet, the figure can still fall over, especially when it's weighed down with all the armour pieces. Scratches is one thing, but my biggest fear is that it falls over backward, and either due to long exposure warps the plastic wings, or if you're really unlucky, falls over with a force that ends up snapping the wings. Neither of which are particularly attractive or desired, so until I can figure things out I'm leaving the Shun unarmoured.
Phew.. so there you have it. A long write up, but well worth it for a truly extraordinary action figure both from an aesthetic perspective as well as overall production values, a combination of which isn't really a thing these days unless you go one sixth scale or higher. I suspect "finishing the line", especially with my cheapness, is probably not something that is going to ever happen, but to be honest I say that about a lot of things. I guess at least I know what to look for, which is a good start.
With that said, it's off the next review, which I'm gonna flip a coin to decide on, but will be guaranteed to be less metal.
➪#PROJECTBLOWED #REPRESENT #LA #WESTCOAST! #ANNIVERSARYEDITION! ➡#stopeSUPPORTS⬅ #ogcrew re.blowed from 'stopedb' ➪subscribe now:: bitly.com/1GWA8g9 .wn
This is a 1967 Zorki 4 rangefinder stamped to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.
The camera is paired with the brilliant 50mm Jupiter-8 f2 lens.
All the shots that are featured in this catalog are shot with this here camera.
1990 GMC Vandura with Sherrod conversion.
Registered in May 1990.
Last MoT test expired in April 2014 (SORN).
Images of the BERNINA Anniversary Edition models B 880 PLUS AE, B 790 PLUS AE and B 770 QE AE, launched in 2018 to celebrate BERNINA's 125th anniversary.
it took me a while, but I finally got around to cracking open this beauty - presenting the Tamashii Nations Saint Seiya: Andromeda Shun God Cloth - 10th Anniversary Edition figure set, which I picked up at a Flea Market for $60 CAD.
If you were around during the early 2000s, you may remember a little toy line from Bandai called Knights of the Zodiac. Much like Ultimate Muscle, Knights of the Zodiac was based on an incredibly popular Japanese property - in this case, it was known as Saint Seiya, which had been around since the mid 80s. The series revolves around the chosen warriors of the Goddess Athena, who are gifted with armour sets, or "cloths" that draw their power from various constellations. I have yet to actually watch anything from this series, Japanese or American, but I do remember watching a bit of the first American episode and noting that they censored the living crap out of it. Other than that, the only other exposure I had to the series was occasionally I'd see pictures as a kid of the one they call Dragon Shiryu, who had some admitted badass looking gear. I think the number of suits in the series could probably give MCU Iron Man a run for his money.
The main gimmick of each figure was that you'd have a generic core figure (with the head generally being the only difference), and you could gear up each figure with chromed armour pieces. The Bandai of America releases were very much based on the sets I'd seen while clomping around Market Village and Pacific Mall in Markham, as the series popularity over in Asia made it a no brainer for local import toy stores to bring it relatively cheap figures from Hong Kong and sell them here. But this was 2004 - I had already graduated from University and was working full time, well on my way to becoming a toy snob. Furthermore, it was Bandai of America.. you just knew that they'd cheap out on something just to make a buck.
So, as you can imagine with no time actually watch the series, and effectively nobody ever talking about it locally, I basically had no real reason to keep up with the property. Little did I know Saint Seiya was an ongoing thing - it never did die overseas. So much so that Bandai of Japan actually went ahead and had Tamashii Nations further refine the figure line eventually resulting in the Myth Cloth Revival line, where all the original character were rereleased as new action figures, having core bodies that weren't quite Figuarts good, but were much improved over the original toys by at the very least allowing for figures with the proper body proportions and vastly improved articulation.
Andromeda Shun, as the name implies, is a character named Shun who wields the cloth of Andromeda. According to my research, Shun is generally hesitant to use violence as a solution to matters, but when he does all sorts of wonderful things happen. Considered the strongest amongst the core five saints (known as the Bronze Saints). His character has some other deep dark secrets that I'm not going to touch on, but overall, I'm told he's one of the most popular characters in the series. The God Cloth in the title indicates that this is the most powerful form of the named Cloth, in this case the Andromeda cloth. The original appears to have been released in 2009 (this was a 2014 figure), with improvements being more accurate colouring, and the addition of an alternate shocked expression face to recreate a key scene.
With the background out of the way, lets move on the actual overview.
First off, lets talk contents. This set MSRPed for 8,250 yen back in 2014, and even if you added inflation to the price there is no way in you'd get anything even CLOSE to what you get in this box for the price. You get the core body, two expressions (neutral, shocked), two front hair pieces (one for mounting the headgear), parts to the armour (all of which is die cast metal with the exception of the collar piece, wings, headgear, along with the chest and waist cover, and the pieces on the sides of the hands), two additional bracers with metal chains (main weapons), a formed plastic chain (Thunder Wave attack effect), 3 pairs of hands specifically for use with the armour (closed fists, chain gripping fists, posing hands), and the parts to turn the armour into an Object (think really ornate armour stand, which in the case of Andromeda is a kneeling figure) including some really intricate curved chains.
The armour itself consists of :
Headgear
Collar piece
Inner upper and lower torso frame
Chest piece
Waist piece
Pauldrons
Bicep guards
Forearm guards
Hip guards (both sides)
Thigh guards
Knee guards
Lower leg guards
Wings
As the photos show if it isn't on the core figure, it's either chromed plastic or it's coloured die cast metal parts. There's not a dull/unfinished piece on this gear whatsoever.
The main figure is larger than a modern day Figuarts - yes Nat is technically slightly smaller than the average male Figuarts, but its nothing that would change this statement. Very anorexic looking, which allowed for the equipping of less bulky looking accessories. The actual mobility isn't bad, as you get toe, ankles, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel, limited mobility waist and mid torso, shoulders with chest collapse, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, limited neck motion, and head articulation. The figure is also equipped with die cast clown shoes to improve balance both with and without the gear on. With the exception of the waist and torso, range of motion isn't too bad, and is definitely on par with the better offerings of 2009. Articulation of the various body parts is generally not further limited even after you equip the armour, with the sole exception being the upper body, which goes from limited movement to no movement due to the body armour harness effectively having no points of articulation whatsoever.
Equipping the armour is an incredibly painstaking activity, so much so that it took me almost 30 minutes the first time to put things on, mostly due to fear of scratching the finished surfaces. Even after realizing I had one of the leg armour pieces on backwards in my pictures, I decided that it's too much effort to put it back for a reshoot. You see, unlike the original Deluxe figures where you'd just clip on chromed plastic armour around the various limbs, this figure requires the removal of hands and legs to get the limb armour on. But, as much of a pain it is getting the parts on just right, and the limited range of motion overall, the finished product looks stunning, especially if you've got some bright lights on the figure. It's not quite Hot Toys die cast Iron Man, but it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless. As stated earlier, arms, legs, and head are generally unhindered even with the armour on.. that is to say it doesn't make it any worse. The pauldrons and hip guards have ball joints on the mounting parts to allow for more range of motion as to improve posing opportunities.
From an actual paint perspective, I honestly don't think there's much of it on the figure. There's the plastic hair, the hair, and the fleshtones. Everything else is pretty much chrome plating which looks glorious. There are some imperfections in the finish here and there, but those are rare to find. Overall, this is a one sharp looking figure. The chromed plastic parts blend in quite well due to excellent colour matching.
Build quality is picture perfect where it matters - the armour. Much like with the Hot Toys Iron Man line, the use of metal has allowed for thinner parts, which reduces the overall bulk of the figure, as well as permits for that fantastic metallic finish. Despite the general non linearity of the parts, everything fits together perfectly, which is saying a lot given how much assembly there is on this figure, and is a testament to the impressive QC that went into the manufacture of the armour parts, including the parts for Object. On the main figure, the only rough spot I could see was the finish on the waist section of the core figure wasn't great at all, but fortunately that section was effectively on the undercarriage, so it's not something that you'd normally notice. Based on my experience, joints will hold your desired pose, even with the additional weight of the die cast metal parts.
A few gripes before we adjourn. First off, by far the most annoying thing to do with this figure is to assemble Object mode. Not only do you need to keep track of the left and right parts (put on wrong the figure won't sit right), but putting the chains together is a major pain due to the small size of the connectors (both to the body and to each other) which is further exasperated by the fact if the forearms aren't lined up correctly you're going to have a hell of a time trying to actually get it right. If they (Tamashii Nations) designed the shoulders of the Object such that they would only point in one directly, why couldn't they do that with the forearms?
The second major issue I have goes back the usual gripe I have with Figuarts figures - the lack of a stand. While normally just annoying, the lack of a stand makes this figure a bit of a gamble to pose. You see, despite the giant metal clown feet, the figure can still fall over, especially when it's weighed down with all the armour pieces. Scratches is one thing, but my biggest fear is that it falls over backward, and either due to long exposure warps the plastic wings, or if you're really unlucky, falls over with a force that ends up snapping the wings. Neither of which are particularly attractive or desired, so until I can figure things out I'm leaving the Shun unarmoured.
Phew.. so there you have it. A long write up, but well worth it for a truly extraordinary action figure both from an aesthetic perspective as well as overall production values, a combination of which isn't really a thing these days unless you go one sixth scale or higher. I suspect "finishing the line", especially with my cheapness, is probably not something that is going to ever happen, but to be honest I say that about a lot of things. I guess at least I know what to look for, which is a good start.
With that said, it's off the next review, which I'm gonna flip a coin to decide on, but will be guaranteed to be less metal.
it took me a while, but I finally got around to cracking open this beauty - presenting the Tamashii Nations Saint Seiya: Andromeda Shun God Cloth - 10th Anniversary Edition figure set, which I picked up at a Flea Market for $60 CAD.
If you were around during the early 2000s, you may remember a little toy line from Bandai called Knights of the Zodiac. Much like Ultimate Muscle, Knights of the Zodiac was based on an incredibly popular Japanese property - in this case, it was known as Saint Seiya, which had been around since the mid 80s. The series revolves around the chosen warriors of the Goddess Athena, who are gifted with armour sets, or "cloths" that draw their power from various constellations. I have yet to actually watch anything from this series, Japanese or American, but I do remember watching a bit of the first American episode and noting that they censored the living crap out of it. Other than that, the only other exposure I had to the series was occasionally I'd see pictures as a kid of the one they call Dragon Shiryu, who had some admitted badass looking gear. I think the number of suits in the series could probably give MCU Iron Man a run for his money.
The main gimmick of each figure was that you'd have a generic core figure (with the head generally being the only difference), and you could gear up each figure with chromed armour pieces. The Bandai of America releases were very much based on the sets I'd seen while clomping around Market Village and Pacific Mall in Markham, as the series popularity over in Asia made it a no brainer for local import toy stores to bring it relatively cheap figures from Hong Kong and sell them here. But this was 2004 - I had already graduated from University and was working full time, well on my way to becoming a toy snob. Furthermore, it was Bandai of America.. you just knew that they'd cheap out on something just to make a buck.
So, as you can imagine with no time actually watch the series, and effectively nobody ever talking about it locally, I basically had no real reason to keep up with the property. Little did I know Saint Seiya was an ongoing thing - it never did die overseas. So much so that Bandai of Japan actually went ahead and had Tamashii Nations further refine the figure line eventually resulting in the Myth Cloth Revival line, where all the original character were rereleased as new action figures, having core bodies that weren't quite Figuarts good, but were much improved over the original toys by at the very least allowing for figures with the proper body proportions and vastly improved articulation.
Andromeda Shun, as the name implies, is a character named Shun who wields the cloth of Andromeda. According to my research, Shun is generally hesitant to use violence as a solution to matters, but when he does all sorts of wonderful things happen. Considered the strongest amongst the core five saints (known as the Bronze Saints). His character has some other deep dark secrets that I'm not going to touch on, but overall, I'm told he's one of the most popular characters in the series. The God Cloth in the title indicates that this is the most powerful form of the named Cloth, in this case the Andromeda cloth. The original appears to have been released in 2009 (this was a 2014 figure), with improvements being more accurate colouring, and the addition of an alternate shocked expression face to recreate a key scene.
With the background out of the way, lets move on the actual overview.
First off, lets talk contents. This set MSRPed for 8,250 yen back in 2014, and even if you added inflation to the price there is no way in you'd get anything even CLOSE to what you get in this box for the price. You get the core body, two expressions (neutral, shocked), two front hair pieces (one for mounting the headgear), parts to the armour (all of which is die cast metal with the exception of the collar piece, wings, headgear, along with the chest and waist cover, and the pieces on the sides of the hands), two additional bracers with metal chains (main weapons), a formed plastic chain (Thunder Wave attack effect), 3 pairs of hands specifically for use with the armour (closed fists, chain gripping fists, posing hands), and the parts to turn the armour into an Object (think really ornate armour stand, which in the case of Andromeda is a kneeling figure) including some really intricate curved chains.
The armour itself consists of :
Headgear
Collar piece
Inner upper and lower torso frame
Chest piece
Waist piece
Pauldrons
Bicep guards
Forearm guards
Hip guards (both sides)
Thigh guards
Knee guards
Lower leg guards
Wings
As the photos show if it isn't on the core figure, it's either chromed plastic or it's coloured die cast metal parts. There's not a dull/unfinished piece on this gear whatsoever.
The main figure is larger than a modern day Figuarts - yes Nat is technically slightly smaller than the average male Figuarts, but its nothing that would change this statement. Very anorexic looking, which allowed for the equipping of less bulky looking accessories. The actual mobility isn't bad, as you get toe, ankles, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel, limited mobility waist and mid torso, shoulders with chest collapse, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, limited neck motion, and head articulation. The figure is also equipped with die cast clown shoes to improve balance both with and without the gear on. With the exception of the waist and torso, range of motion isn't too bad, and is definitely on par with the better offerings of 2009. Articulation of the various body parts is generally not further limited even after you equip the armour, with the sole exception being the upper body, which goes from limited movement to no movement due to the body armour harness effectively having no points of articulation whatsoever.
Equipping the armour is an incredibly painstaking activity, so much so that it took me almost 30 minutes the first time to put things on, mostly due to fear of scratching the finished surfaces. Even after realizing I had one of the leg armour pieces on backwards in my pictures, I decided that it's too much effort to put it back for a reshoot. You see, unlike the original Deluxe figures where you'd just clip on chromed plastic armour around the various limbs, this figure requires the removal of hands and legs to get the limb armour on. But, as much of a pain it is getting the parts on just right, and the limited range of motion overall, the finished product looks stunning, especially if you've got some bright lights on the figure. It's not quite Hot Toys die cast Iron Man, but it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless. As stated earlier, arms, legs, and head are generally unhindered even with the armour on.. that is to say it doesn't make it any worse. The pauldrons and hip guards have ball joints on the mounting parts to allow for more range of motion as to improve posing opportunities.
From an actual paint perspective, I honestly don't think there's much of it on the figure. There's the plastic hair, the hair, and the fleshtones. Everything else is pretty much chrome plating which looks glorious. There are some imperfections in the finish here and there, but those are rare to find. Overall, this is a one sharp looking figure. The chromed plastic parts blend in quite well due to excellent colour matching.
Build quality is picture perfect where it matters - the armour. Much like with the Hot Toys Iron Man line, the use of metal has allowed for thinner parts, which reduces the overall bulk of the figure, as well as permits for that fantastic metallic finish. Despite the general non linearity of the parts, everything fits together perfectly, which is saying a lot given how much assembly there is on this figure, and is a testament to the impressive QC that went into the manufacture of the armour parts, including the parts for Object. On the main figure, the only rough spot I could see was the finish on the waist section of the core figure wasn't great at all, but fortunately that section was effectively on the undercarriage, so it's not something that you'd normally notice. Based on my experience, joints will hold your desired pose, even with the additional weight of the die cast metal parts.
A few gripes before we adjourn. First off, by far the most annoying thing to do with this figure is to assemble Object mode. Not only do you need to keep track of the left and right parts (put on wrong the figure won't sit right), but putting the chains together is a major pain due to the small size of the connectors (both to the body and to each other) which is further exasperated by the fact if the forearms aren't lined up correctly you're going to have a hell of a time trying to actually get it right. If they (Tamashii Nations) designed the shoulders of the Object such that they would only point in one directly, why couldn't they do that with the forearms?
The second major issue I have goes back the usual gripe I have with Figuarts figures - the lack of a stand. While normally just annoying, the lack of a stand makes this figure a bit of a gamble to pose. You see, despite the giant metal clown feet, the figure can still fall over, especially when it's weighed down with all the armour pieces. Scratches is one thing, but my biggest fear is that it falls over backward, and either due to long exposure warps the plastic wings, or if you're really unlucky, falls over with a force that ends up snapping the wings. Neither of which are particularly attractive or desired, so until I can figure things out I'm leaving the Shun unarmoured.
Phew.. so there you have it. A long write up, but well worth it for a truly extraordinary action figure both from an aesthetic perspective as well as overall production values, a combination of which isn't really a thing these days unless you go one sixth scale or higher. I suspect "finishing the line", especially with my cheapness, is probably not something that is going to ever happen, but to be honest I say that about a lot of things. I guess at least I know what to look for, which is a good start.
With that said, it's off the next review, which I'm gonna flip a coin to decide on, but will be guaranteed to be less metal.
it took me a while, but I finally got around to cracking open this beauty - presenting the Tamashii Nations Saint Seiya: Andromeda Shun God Cloth - 10th Anniversary Edition figure set, which I picked up at a Flea Market for $60 CAD.
If you were around during the early 2000s, you may remember a little toy line from Bandai called Knights of the Zodiac. Much like Ultimate Muscle, Knights of the Zodiac was based on an incredibly popular Japanese property - in this case, it was known as Saint Seiya, which had been around since the mid 80s. The series revolves around the chosen warriors of the Goddess Athena, who are gifted with armour sets, or "cloths" that draw their power from various constellations. I have yet to actually watch anything from this series, Japanese or American, but I do remember watching a bit of the first American episode and noting that they censored the living crap out of it. Other than that, the only other exposure I had to the series was occasionally I'd see pictures as a kid of the one they call Dragon Shiryu, who had some admitted badass looking gear. I think the number of suits in the series could probably give MCU Iron Man a run for his money.
The main gimmick of each figure was that you'd have a generic core figure (with the head generally being the only difference), and you could gear up each figure with chromed armour pieces. The Bandai of America releases were very much based on the sets I'd seen while clomping around Market Village and Pacific Mall in Markham, as the series popularity over in Asia made it a no brainer for local import toy stores to bring it relatively cheap figures from Hong Kong and sell them here. But this was 2004 - I had already graduated from University and was working full time, well on my way to becoming a toy snob. Furthermore, it was Bandai of America.. you just knew that they'd cheap out on something just to make a buck.
So, as you can imagine with no time actually watch the series, and effectively nobody ever talking about it locally, I basically had no real reason to keep up with the property. Little did I know Saint Seiya was an ongoing thing - it never did die overseas. So much so that Bandai of Japan actually went ahead and had Tamashii Nations further refine the figure line eventually resulting in the Myth Cloth Revival line, where all the original character were rereleased as new action figures, having core bodies that weren't quite Figuarts good, but were much improved over the original toys by at the very least allowing for figures with the proper body proportions and vastly improved articulation.
Andromeda Shun, as the name implies, is a character named Shun who wields the cloth of Andromeda. According to my research, Shun is generally hesitant to use violence as a solution to matters, but when he does all sorts of wonderful things happen. Considered the strongest amongst the core five saints (known as the Bronze Saints). His character has some other deep dark secrets that I'm not going to touch on, but overall, I'm told he's one of the most popular characters in the series. The God Cloth in the title indicates that this is the most powerful form of the named Cloth, in this case the Andromeda cloth. The original appears to have been released in 2009 (this was a 2014 figure), with improvements being more accurate colouring, and the addition of an alternate shocked expression face to recreate a key scene.
With the background out of the way, lets move on the actual overview.
First off, lets talk contents. This set MSRPed for 8,250 yen back in 2014, and even if you added inflation to the price there is no way in you'd get anything even CLOSE to what you get in this box for the price. You get the core body, two expressions (neutral, shocked), two front hair pieces (one for mounting the headgear), parts to the armour (all of which is die cast metal with the exception of the collar piece, wings, headgear, along with the chest and waist cover, and the pieces on the sides of the hands), two additional bracers with metal chains (main weapons), a formed plastic chain (Thunder Wave attack effect), 3 pairs of hands specifically for use with the armour (closed fists, chain gripping fists, posing hands), and the parts to turn the armour into an Object (think really ornate armour stand, which in the case of Andromeda is a kneeling figure) including some really intricate curved chains.
The armour itself consists of :
Headgear
Collar piece
Inner upper and lower torso frame
Chest piece
Waist piece
Pauldrons
Bicep guards
Forearm guards
Hip guards (both sides)
Thigh guards
Knee guards
Lower leg guards
Wings
As the photos show if it isn't on the core figure, it's either chromed plastic or it's coloured die cast metal parts. There's not a dull/unfinished piece on this gear whatsoever.
The main figure is larger than a modern day Figuarts - yes Nat is technically slightly smaller than the average male Figuarts, but its nothing that would change this statement. Very anorexic looking, which allowed for the equipping of less bulky looking accessories. The actual mobility isn't bad, as you get toe, ankles, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel, limited mobility waist and mid torso, shoulders with chest collapse, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, limited neck motion, and head articulation. The figure is also equipped with die cast clown shoes to improve balance both with and without the gear on. With the exception of the waist and torso, range of motion isn't too bad, and is definitely on par with the better offerings of 2009. Articulation of the various body parts is generally not further limited even after you equip the armour, with the sole exception being the upper body, which goes from limited movement to no movement due to the body armour harness effectively having no points of articulation whatsoever.
Equipping the armour is an incredibly painstaking activity, so much so that it took me almost 30 minutes the first time to put things on, mostly due to fear of scratching the finished surfaces. Even after realizing I had one of the leg armour pieces on backwards in my pictures, I decided that it's too much effort to put it back for a reshoot. You see, unlike the original Deluxe figures where you'd just clip on chromed plastic armour around the various limbs, this figure requires the removal of hands and legs to get the limb armour on. But, as much of a pain it is getting the parts on just right, and the limited range of motion overall, the finished product looks stunning, especially if you've got some bright lights on the figure. It's not quite Hot Toys die cast Iron Man, but it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless. As stated earlier, arms, legs, and head are generally unhindered even with the armour on.. that is to say it doesn't make it any worse. The pauldrons and hip guards have ball joints on the mounting parts to allow for more range of motion as to improve posing opportunities.
From an actual paint perspective, I honestly don't think there's much of it on the figure. There's the plastic hair, the hair, and the fleshtones. Everything else is pretty much chrome plating which looks glorious. There are some imperfections in the finish here and there, but those are rare to find. Overall, this is a one sharp looking figure. The chromed plastic parts blend in quite well due to excellent colour matching.
Build quality is picture perfect where it matters - the armour. Much like with the Hot Toys Iron Man line, the use of metal has allowed for thinner parts, which reduces the overall bulk of the figure, as well as permits for that fantastic metallic finish. Despite the general non linearity of the parts, everything fits together perfectly, which is saying a lot given how much assembly there is on this figure, and is a testament to the impressive QC that went into the manufacture of the armour parts, including the parts for Object. On the main figure, the only rough spot I could see was the finish on the waist section of the core figure wasn't great at all, but fortunately that section was effectively on the undercarriage, so it's not something that you'd normally notice. Based on my experience, joints will hold your desired pose, even with the additional weight of the die cast metal parts.
A few gripes before we adjourn. First off, by far the most annoying thing to do with this figure is to assemble Object mode. Not only do you need to keep track of the left and right parts (put on wrong the figure won't sit right), but putting the chains together is a major pain due to the small size of the connectors (both to the body and to each other) which is further exasperated by the fact if the forearms aren't lined up correctly you're going to have a hell of a time trying to actually get it right. If they (Tamashii Nations) designed the shoulders of the Object such that they would only point in one directly, why couldn't they do that with the forearms?
The second major issue I have goes back the usual gripe I have with Figuarts figures - the lack of a stand. While normally just annoying, the lack of a stand makes this figure a bit of a gamble to pose. You see, despite the giant metal clown feet, the figure can still fall over, especially when it's weighed down with all the armour pieces. Scratches is one thing, but my biggest fear is that it falls over backward, and either due to long exposure warps the plastic wings, or if you're really unlucky, falls over with a force that ends up snapping the wings. Neither of which are particularly attractive or desired, so until I can figure things out I'm leaving the Shun unarmoured.
Phew.. so there you have it. A long write up, but well worth it for a truly extraordinary action figure both from an aesthetic perspective as well as overall production values, a combination of which isn't really a thing these days unless you go one sixth scale or higher. I suspect "finishing the line", especially with my cheapness, is probably not something that is going to ever happen, but to be honest I say that about a lot of things. I guess at least I know what to look for, which is a good start.
With that said, it's off the next review, which I'm gonna flip a coin to decide on, but will be guaranteed to be less metal.
it took me a while, but I finally got around to cracking open this beauty - presenting the Tamashii Nations Saint Seiya: Andromeda Shun God Cloth - 10th Anniversary Edition figure set, which I picked up at a Flea Market for $60 CAD.
If you were around during the early 2000s, you may remember a little toy line from Bandai called Knights of the Zodiac. Much like Ultimate Muscle, Knights of the Zodiac was based on an incredibly popular Japanese property - in this case, it was known as Saint Seiya, which had been around since the mid 80s. The series revolves around the chosen warriors of the Goddess Athena, who are gifted with armour sets, or "cloths" that draw their power from various constellations. I have yet to actually watch anything from this series, Japanese or American, but I do remember watching a bit of the first American episode and noting that they censored the living crap out of it. Other than that, the only other exposure I had to the series was occasionally I'd see pictures as a kid of the one they call Dragon Shiryu, who had some admitted badass looking gear. I think the number of suits in the series could probably give MCU Iron Man a run for his money.
The main gimmick of each figure was that you'd have a generic core figure (with the head generally being the only difference), and you could gear up each figure with chromed armour pieces. The Bandai of America releases were very much based on the sets I'd seen while clomping around Market Village and Pacific Mall in Markham, as the series popularity over in Asia made it a no brainer for local import toy stores to bring it relatively cheap figures from Hong Kong and sell them here. But this was 2004 - I had already graduated from University and was working full time, well on my way to becoming a toy snob. Furthermore, it was Bandai of America.. you just knew that they'd cheap out on something just to make a buck.
So, as you can imagine with no time actually watch the series, and effectively nobody ever talking about it locally, I basically had no real reason to keep up with the property. Little did I know Saint Seiya was an ongoing thing - it never did die overseas. So much so that Bandai of Japan actually went ahead and had Tamashii Nations further refine the figure line eventually resulting in the Myth Cloth Revival line, where all the original character were rereleased as new action figures, having core bodies that weren't quite Figuarts good, but were much improved over the original toys by at the very least allowing for figures with the proper body proportions and vastly improved articulation.
Andromeda Shun, as the name implies, is a character named Shun who wields the cloth of Andromeda. According to my research, Shun is generally hesitant to use violence as a solution to matters, but when he does all sorts of wonderful things happen. Considered the strongest amongst the core five saints (known as the Bronze Saints). His character has some other deep dark secrets that I'm not going to touch on, but overall, I'm told he's one of the most popular characters in the series. The God Cloth in the title indicates that this is the most powerful form of the named Cloth, in this case the Andromeda cloth. The original appears to have been released in 2009 (this was a 2014 figure), with improvements being more accurate colouring, and the addition of an alternate shocked expression face to recreate a key scene.
With the background out of the way, lets move on the actual overview.
First off, lets talk contents. This set MSRPed for 8,250 yen back in 2014, and even if you added inflation to the price there is no way in you'd get anything even CLOSE to what you get in this box for the price. You get the core body, two expressions (neutral, shocked), two front hair pieces (one for mounting the headgear), parts to the armour (all of which is die cast metal with the exception of the collar piece, wings, headgear, along with the chest and waist cover, and the pieces on the sides of the hands), two additional bracers with metal chains (main weapons), a formed plastic chain (Thunder Wave attack effect), 3 pairs of hands specifically for use with the armour (closed fists, chain gripping fists, posing hands), and the parts to turn the armour into an Object (think really ornate armour stand, which in the case of Andromeda is a kneeling figure) including some really intricate curved chains.
The armour itself consists of :
Headgear
Collar piece
Inner upper and lower torso frame
Chest piece
Waist piece
Pauldrons
Bicep guards
Forearm guards
Hip guards (both sides)
Thigh guards
Knee guards
Lower leg guards
Wings
As the photos show if it isn't on the core figure, it's either chromed plastic or it's coloured die cast metal parts. There's not a dull/unfinished piece on this gear whatsoever.
The main figure is larger than a modern day Figuarts - yes Nat is technically slightly smaller than the average male Figuarts, but its nothing that would change this statement. Very anorexic looking, which allowed for the equipping of less bulky looking accessories. The actual mobility isn't bad, as you get toe, ankles, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel, limited mobility waist and mid torso, shoulders with chest collapse, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, limited neck motion, and head articulation. The figure is also equipped with die cast clown shoes to improve balance both with and without the gear on. With the exception of the waist and torso, range of motion isn't too bad, and is definitely on par with the better offerings of 2009. Articulation of the various body parts is generally not further limited even after you equip the armour, with the sole exception being the upper body, which goes from limited movement to no movement due to the body armour harness effectively having no points of articulation whatsoever.
Equipping the armour is an incredibly painstaking activity, so much so that it took me almost 30 minutes the first time to put things on, mostly due to fear of scratching the finished surfaces. Even after realizing I had one of the leg armour pieces on backwards in my pictures, I decided that it's too much effort to put it back for a reshoot. You see, unlike the original Deluxe figures where you'd just clip on chromed plastic armour around the various limbs, this figure requires the removal of hands and legs to get the limb armour on. But, as much of a pain it is getting the parts on just right, and the limited range of motion overall, the finished product looks stunning, especially if you've got some bright lights on the figure. It's not quite Hot Toys die cast Iron Man, but it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless. As stated earlier, arms, legs, and head are generally unhindered even with the armour on.. that is to say it doesn't make it any worse. The pauldrons and hip guards have ball joints on the mounting parts to allow for more range of motion as to improve posing opportunities.
From an actual paint perspective, I honestly don't think there's much of it on the figure. There's the plastic hair, the hair, and the fleshtones. Everything else is pretty much chrome plating which looks glorious. There are some imperfections in the finish here and there, but those are rare to find. Overall, this is a one sharp looking figure. The chromed plastic parts blend in quite well due to excellent colour matching.
Build quality is picture perfect where it matters - the armour. Much like with the Hot Toys Iron Man line, the use of metal has allowed for thinner parts, which reduces the overall bulk of the figure, as well as permits for that fantastic metallic finish. Despite the general non linearity of the parts, everything fits together perfectly, which is saying a lot given how much assembly there is on this figure, and is a testament to the impressive QC that went into the manufacture of the armour parts, including the parts for Object. On the main figure, the only rough spot I could see was the finish on the waist section of the core figure wasn't great at all, but fortunately that section was effectively on the undercarriage, so it's not something that you'd normally notice. Based on my experience, joints will hold your desired pose, even with the additional weight of the die cast metal parts.
A few gripes before we adjourn. First off, by far the most annoying thing to do with this figure is to assemble Object mode. Not only do you need to keep track of the left and right parts (put on wrong the figure won't sit right), but putting the chains together is a major pain due to the small size of the connectors (both to the body and to each other) which is further exasperated by the fact if the forearms aren't lined up correctly you're going to have a hell of a time trying to actually get it right. If they (Tamashii Nations) designed the shoulders of the Object such that they would only point in one directly, why couldn't they do that with the forearms?
The second major issue I have goes back the usual gripe I have with Figuarts figures - the lack of a stand. While normally just annoying, the lack of a stand makes this figure a bit of a gamble to pose. You see, despite the giant metal clown feet, the figure can still fall over, especially when it's weighed down with all the armour pieces. Scratches is one thing, but my biggest fear is that it falls over backward, and either due to long exposure warps the plastic wings, or if you're really unlucky, falls over with a force that ends up snapping the wings. Neither of which are particularly attractive or desired, so until I can figure things out I'm leaving the Shun unarmoured.
Phew.. so there you have it. A long write up, but well worth it for a truly extraordinary action figure both from an aesthetic perspective as well as overall production values, a combination of which isn't really a thing these days unless you go one sixth scale or higher. I suspect "finishing the line", especially with my cheapness, is probably not something that is going to ever happen, but to be honest I say that about a lot of things. I guess at least I know what to look for, which is a good start.
With that said, it's off the next review, which I'm gonna flip a coin to decide on, but will be guaranteed to be less metal.
it took me a while, but I finally got around to cracking open this beauty - presenting the Tamashii Nations Saint Seiya: Andromeda Shun God Cloth - 10th Anniversary Edition figure set, which I picked up at a Flea Market for $60 CAD.
If you were around during the early 2000s, you may remember a little toy line from Bandai called Knights of the Zodiac. Much like Ultimate Muscle, Knights of the Zodiac was based on an incredibly popular Japanese property - in this case, it was known as Saint Seiya, which had been around since the mid 80s. The series revolves around the chosen warriors of the Goddess Athena, who are gifted with armour sets, or "cloths" that draw their power from various constellations. I have yet to actually watch anything from this series, Japanese or American, but I do remember watching a bit of the first American episode and noting that they censored the living crap out of it. Other than that, the only other exposure I had to the series was occasionally I'd see pictures as a kid of the one they call Dragon Shiryu, who had some admitted badass looking gear. I think the number of suits in the series could probably give MCU Iron Man a run for his money.
The main gimmick of each figure was that you'd have a generic core figure (with the head generally being the only difference), and you could gear up each figure with chromed armour pieces. The Bandai of America releases were very much based on the sets I'd seen while clomping around Market Village and Pacific Mall in Markham, as the series popularity over in Asia made it a no brainer for local import toy stores to bring it relatively cheap figures from Hong Kong and sell them here. But this was 2004 - I had already graduated from University and was working full time, well on my way to becoming a toy snob. Furthermore, it was Bandai of America.. you just knew that they'd cheap out on something just to make a buck.
So, as you can imagine with no time actually watch the series, and effectively nobody ever talking about it locally, I basically had no real reason to keep up with the property. Little did I know Saint Seiya was an ongoing thing - it never did die overseas. So much so that Bandai of Japan actually went ahead and had Tamashii Nations further refine the figure line eventually resulting in the Myth Cloth Revival line, where all the original character were rereleased as new action figures, having core bodies that weren't quite Figuarts good, but were much improved over the original toys by at the very least allowing for figures with the proper body proportions and vastly improved articulation.
Andromeda Shun, as the name implies, is a character named Shun who wields the cloth of Andromeda. According to my research, Shun is generally hesitant to use violence as a solution to matters, but when he does all sorts of wonderful things happen. Considered the strongest amongst the core five saints (known as the Bronze Saints). His character has some other deep dark secrets that I'm not going to touch on, but overall, I'm told he's one of the most popular characters in the series. The God Cloth in the title indicates that this is the most powerful form of the named Cloth, in this case the Andromeda cloth. The original appears to have been released in 2009 (this was a 2014 figure), with improvements being more accurate colouring, and the addition of an alternate shocked expression face to recreate a key scene.
With the background out of the way, lets move on the actual overview.
First off, lets talk contents. This set MSRPed for 8,250 yen back in 2014, and even if you added inflation to the price there is no way in you'd get anything even CLOSE to what you get in this box for the price. You get the core body, two expressions (neutral, shocked), two front hair pieces (one for mounting the headgear), parts to the armour (all of which is die cast metal with the exception of the collar piece, wings, headgear, along with the chest and waist cover, and the pieces on the sides of the hands), two additional bracers with metal chains (main weapons), a formed plastic chain (Thunder Wave attack effect), 3 pairs of hands specifically for use with the armour (closed fists, chain gripping fists, posing hands), and the parts to turn the armour into an Object (think really ornate armour stand, which in the case of Andromeda is a kneeling figure) including some really intricate curved chains.
The armour itself consists of :
Headgear
Collar piece
Inner upper and lower torso frame
Chest piece
Waist piece
Pauldrons
Bicep guards
Forearm guards
Hip guards (both sides)
Thigh guards
Knee guards
Lower leg guards
Wings
As the photos show if it isn't on the core figure, it's either chromed plastic or it's coloured die cast metal parts. There's not a dull/unfinished piece on this gear whatsoever.
The main figure is larger than a modern day Figuarts - yes Nat is technically slightly smaller than the average male Figuarts, but its nothing that would change this statement. Very anorexic looking, which allowed for the equipping of less bulky looking accessories. The actual mobility isn't bad, as you get toe, ankles, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel, limited mobility waist and mid torso, shoulders with chest collapse, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, limited neck motion, and head articulation. The figure is also equipped with die cast clown shoes to improve balance both with and without the gear on. With the exception of the waist and torso, range of motion isn't too bad, and is definitely on par with the better offerings of 2009. Articulation of the various body parts is generally not further limited even after you equip the armour, with the sole exception being the upper body, which goes from limited movement to no movement due to the body armour harness effectively having no points of articulation whatsoever.
Equipping the armour is an incredibly painstaking activity, so much so that it took me almost 30 minutes the first time to put things on, mostly due to fear of scratching the finished surfaces. Even after realizing I had one of the leg armour pieces on backwards in my pictures, I decided that it's too much effort to put it back for a reshoot. You see, unlike the original Deluxe figures where you'd just clip on chromed plastic armour around the various limbs, this figure requires the removal of hands and legs to get the limb armour on. But, as much of a pain it is getting the parts on just right, and the limited range of motion overall, the finished product looks stunning, especially if you've got some bright lights on the figure. It's not quite Hot Toys die cast Iron Man, but it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless. As stated earlier, arms, legs, and head are generally unhindered even with the armour on.. that is to say it doesn't make it any worse. The pauldrons and hip guards have ball joints on the mounting parts to allow for more range of motion as to improve posing opportunities.
From an actual paint perspective, I honestly don't think there's much of it on the figure. There's the plastic hair, the hair, and the fleshtones. Everything else is pretty much chrome plating which looks glorious. There are some imperfections in the finish here and there, but those are rare to find. Overall, this is a one sharp looking figure. The chromed plastic parts blend in quite well due to excellent colour matching.
Build quality is picture perfect where it matters - the armour. Much like with the Hot Toys Iron Man line, the use of metal has allowed for thinner parts, which reduces the overall bulk of the figure, as well as permits for that fantastic metallic finish. Despite the general non linearity of the parts, everything fits together perfectly, which is saying a lot given how much assembly there is on this figure, and is a testament to the impressive QC that went into the manufacture of the armour parts, including the parts for Object. On the main figure, the only rough spot I could see was the finish on the waist section of the core figure wasn't great at all, but fortunately that section was effectively on the undercarriage, so it's not something that you'd normally notice. Based on my experience, joints will hold your desired pose, even with the additional weight of the die cast metal parts.
A few gripes before we adjourn. First off, by far the most annoying thing to do with this figure is to assemble Object mode. Not only do you need to keep track of the left and right parts (put on wrong the figure won't sit right), but putting the chains together is a major pain due to the small size of the connectors (both to the body and to each other) which is further exasperated by the fact if the forearms aren't lined up correctly you're going to have a hell of a time trying to actually get it right. If they (Tamashii Nations) designed the shoulders of the Object such that they would only point in one directly, why couldn't they do that with the forearms?
The second major issue I have goes back the usual gripe I have with Figuarts figures - the lack of a stand. While normally just annoying, the lack of a stand makes this figure a bit of a gamble to pose. You see, despite the giant metal clown feet, the figure can still fall over, especially when it's weighed down with all the armour pieces. Scratches is one thing, but my biggest fear is that it falls over backward, and either due to long exposure warps the plastic wings, or if you're really unlucky, falls over with a force that ends up snapping the wings. Neither of which are particularly attractive or desired, so until I can figure things out I'm leaving the Shun unarmoured.
Phew.. so there you have it. A long write up, but well worth it for a truly extraordinary action figure both from an aesthetic perspective as well as overall production values, a combination of which isn't really a thing these days unless you go one sixth scale or higher. I suspect "finishing the line", especially with my cheapness, is probably not something that is going to ever happen, but to be honest I say that about a lot of things. I guess at least I know what to look for, which is a good start.
With that said, it's off the next review, which I'm gonna flip a coin to decide on, but will be guaranteed to be less metal.
it took me a while, but I finally got around to cracking open this beauty - presenting the Tamashii Nations Saint Seiya: Andromeda Shun God Cloth - 10th Anniversary Edition figure set, which I picked up at a Flea Market for $60 CAD.
If you were around during the early 2000s, you may remember a little toy line from Bandai called Knights of the Zodiac. Much like Ultimate Muscle, Knights of the Zodiac was based on an incredibly popular Japanese property - in this case, it was known as Saint Seiya, which had been around since the mid 80s. The series revolves around the chosen warriors of the Goddess Athena, who are gifted with armour sets, or "cloths" that draw their power from various constellations. I have yet to actually watch anything from this series, Japanese or American, but I do remember watching a bit of the first American episode and noting that they censored the living crap out of it. Other than that, the only other exposure I had to the series was occasionally I'd see pictures as a kid of the one they call Dragon Shiryu, who had some admitted badass looking gear. I think the number of suits in the series could probably give MCU Iron Man a run for his money.
The main gimmick of each figure was that you'd have a generic core figure (with the head generally being the only difference), and you could gear up each figure with chromed armour pieces. The Bandai of America releases were very much based on the sets I'd seen while clomping around Market Village and Pacific Mall in Markham, as the series popularity over in Asia made it a no brainer for local import toy stores to bring it relatively cheap figures from Hong Kong and sell them here. But this was 2004 - I had already graduated from University and was working full time, well on my way to becoming a toy snob. Furthermore, it was Bandai of America.. you just knew that they'd cheap out on something just to make a buck.
So, as you can imagine with no time actually watch the series, and effectively nobody ever talking about it locally, I basically had no real reason to keep up with the property. Little did I know Saint Seiya was an ongoing thing - it never did die overseas. So much so that Bandai of Japan actually went ahead and had Tamashii Nations further refine the figure line eventually resulting in the Myth Cloth Revival line, where all the original character were rereleased as new action figures, having core bodies that weren't quite Figuarts good, but were much improved over the original toys by at the very least allowing for figures with the proper body proportions and vastly improved articulation.
Andromeda Shun, as the name implies, is a character named Shun who wields the cloth of Andromeda. According to my research, Shun is generally hesitant to use violence as a solution to matters, but when he does all sorts of wonderful things happen. Considered the strongest amongst the core five saints (known as the Bronze Saints). His character has some other deep dark secrets that I'm not going to touch on, but overall, I'm told he's one of the most popular characters in the series. The God Cloth in the title indicates that this is the most powerful form of the named Cloth, in this case the Andromeda cloth. The original appears to have been released in 2009 (this was a 2014 figure), with improvements being more accurate colouring, and the addition of an alternate shocked expression face to recreate a key scene.
With the background out of the way, lets move on the actual overview.
First off, lets talk contents. This set MSRPed for 8,250 yen back in 2014, and even if you added inflation to the price there is no way in you'd get anything even CLOSE to what you get in this box for the price. You get the core body, two expressions (neutral, shocked), two front hair pieces (one for mounting the headgear), parts to the armour (all of which is die cast metal with the exception of the collar piece, wings, headgear, along with the chest and waist cover, and the pieces on the sides of the hands), two additional bracers with metal chains (main weapons), a formed plastic chain (Thunder Wave attack effect), 3 pairs of hands specifically for use with the armour (closed fists, chain gripping fists, posing hands), and the parts to turn the armour into an Object (think really ornate armour stand, which in the case of Andromeda is a kneeling figure) including some really intricate curved chains.
The armour itself consists of :
Headgear
Collar piece
Inner upper and lower torso frame
Chest piece
Waist piece
Pauldrons
Bicep guards
Forearm guards
Hip guards (both sides)
Thigh guards
Knee guards
Lower leg guards
Wings
As the photos show if it isn't on the core figure, it's either chromed plastic or it's coloured die cast metal parts. There's not a dull/unfinished piece on this gear whatsoever.
The main figure is larger than a modern day Figuarts - yes Nat is technically slightly smaller than the average male Figuarts, but its nothing that would change this statement. Very anorexic looking, which allowed for the equipping of less bulky looking accessories. The actual mobility isn't bad, as you get toe, ankles, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel, limited mobility waist and mid torso, shoulders with chest collapse, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, limited neck motion, and head articulation. The figure is also equipped with die cast clown shoes to improve balance both with and without the gear on. With the exception of the waist and torso, range of motion isn't too bad, and is definitely on par with the better offerings of 2009. Articulation of the various body parts is generally not further limited even after you equip the armour, with the sole exception being the upper body, which goes from limited movement to no movement due to the body armour harness effectively having no points of articulation whatsoever.
Equipping the armour is an incredibly painstaking activity, so much so that it took me almost 30 minutes the first time to put things on, mostly due to fear of scratching the finished surfaces. Even after realizing I had one of the leg armour pieces on backwards in my pictures, I decided that it's too much effort to put it back for a reshoot. You see, unlike the original Deluxe figures where you'd just clip on chromed plastic armour around the various limbs, this figure requires the removal of hands and legs to get the limb armour on. But, as much of a pain it is getting the parts on just right, and the limited range of motion overall, the finished product looks stunning, especially if you've got some bright lights on the figure. It's not quite Hot Toys die cast Iron Man, but it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless. As stated earlier, arms, legs, and head are generally unhindered even with the armour on.. that is to say it doesn't make it any worse. The pauldrons and hip guards have ball joints on the mounting parts to allow for more range of motion as to improve posing opportunities.
From an actual paint perspective, I honestly don't think there's much of it on the figure. There's the plastic hair, the hair, and the fleshtones. Everything else is pretty much chrome plating which looks glorious. There are some imperfections in the finish here and there, but those are rare to find. Overall, this is a one sharp looking figure. The chromed plastic parts blend in quite well due to excellent colour matching.
Build quality is picture perfect where it matters - the armour. Much like with the Hot Toys Iron Man line, the use of metal has allowed for thinner parts, which reduces the overall bulk of the figure, as well as permits for that fantastic metallic finish. Despite the general non linearity of the parts, everything fits together perfectly, which is saying a lot given how much assembly there is on this figure, and is a testament to the impressive QC that went into the manufacture of the armour parts, including the parts for Object. On the main figure, the only rough spot I could see was the finish on the waist section of the core figure wasn't great at all, but fortunately that section was effectively on the undercarriage, so it's not something that you'd normally notice. Based on my experience, joints will hold your desired pose, even with the additional weight of the die cast metal parts.
A few gripes before we adjourn. First off, by far the most annoying thing to do with this figure is to assemble Object mode. Not only do you need to keep track of the left and right parts (put on wrong the figure won't sit right), but putting the chains together is a major pain due to the small size of the connectors (both to the body and to each other) which is further exasperated by the fact if the forearms aren't lined up correctly you're going to have a hell of a time trying to actually get it right. If they (Tamashii Nations) designed the shoulders of the Object such that they would only point in one directly, why couldn't they do that with the forearms?
The second major issue I have goes back the usual gripe I have with Figuarts figures - the lack of a stand. While normally just annoying, the lack of a stand makes this figure a bit of a gamble to pose. You see, despite the giant metal clown feet, the figure can still fall over, especially when it's weighed down with all the armour pieces. Scratches is one thing, but my biggest fear is that it falls over backward, and either due to long exposure warps the plastic wings, or if you're really unlucky, falls over with a force that ends up snapping the wings. Neither of which are particularly attractive or desired, so until I can figure things out I'm leaving the Shun unarmoured.
Phew.. so there you have it. A long write up, but well worth it for a truly extraordinary action figure both from an aesthetic perspective as well as overall production values, a combination of which isn't really a thing these days unless you go one sixth scale or higher. I suspect "finishing the line", especially with my cheapness, is probably not something that is going to ever happen, but to be honest I say that about a lot of things. I guess at least I know what to look for, which is a good start.
With that said, it's off the next review, which I'm gonna flip a coin to decide on, but will be guaranteed to be less metal.
it took me a while, but I finally got around to cracking open this beauty - presenting the Tamashii Nations Saint Seiya: Andromeda Shun God Cloth - 10th Anniversary Edition figure set, which I picked up at a Flea Market for $60 CAD.
If you were around during the early 2000s, you may remember a little toy line from Bandai called Knights of the Zodiac. Much like Ultimate Muscle, Knights of the Zodiac was based on an incredibly popular Japanese property - in this case, it was known as Saint Seiya, which had been around since the mid 80s. The series revolves around the chosen warriors of the Goddess Athena, who are gifted with armour sets, or "cloths" that draw their power from various constellations. I have yet to actually watch anything from this series, Japanese or American, but I do remember watching a bit of the first American episode and noting that they censored the living crap out of it. Other than that, the only other exposure I had to the series was occasionally I'd see pictures as a kid of the one they call Dragon Shiryu, who had some admitted badass looking gear. I think the number of suits in the series could probably give MCU Iron Man a run for his money.
The main gimmick of each figure was that you'd have a generic core figure (with the head generally being the only difference), and you could gear up each figure with chromed armour pieces. The Bandai of America releases were very much based on the sets I'd seen while clomping around Market Village and Pacific Mall in Markham, as the series popularity over in Asia made it a no brainer for local import toy stores to bring it relatively cheap figures from Hong Kong and sell them here. But this was 2004 - I had already graduated from University and was working full time, well on my way to becoming a toy snob. Furthermore, it was Bandai of America.. you just knew that they'd cheap out on something just to make a buck.
So, as you can imagine with no time actually watch the series, and effectively nobody ever talking about it locally, I basically had no real reason to keep up with the property. Little did I know Saint Seiya was an ongoing thing - it never did die overseas. So much so that Bandai of Japan actually went ahead and had Tamashii Nations further refine the figure line eventually resulting in the Myth Cloth Revival line, where all the original character were rereleased as new action figures, having core bodies that weren't quite Figuarts good, but were much improved over the original toys by at the very least allowing for figures with the proper body proportions and vastly improved articulation.
Andromeda Shun, as the name implies, is a character named Shun who wields the cloth of Andromeda. According to my research, Shun is generally hesitant to use violence as a solution to matters, but when he does all sorts of wonderful things happen. Considered the strongest amongst the core five saints (known as the Bronze Saints). His character has some other deep dark secrets that I'm not going to touch on, but overall, I'm told he's one of the most popular characters in the series. The God Cloth in the title indicates that this is the most powerful form of the named Cloth, in this case the Andromeda cloth. The original appears to have been released in 2009 (this was a 2014 figure), with improvements being more accurate colouring, and the addition of an alternate shocked expression face to recreate a key scene.
With the background out of the way, lets move on the actual overview.
First off, lets talk contents. This set MSRPed for 8,250 yen back in 2014, and even if you added inflation to the price there is no way in you'd get anything even CLOSE to what you get in this box for the price. You get the core body, two expressions (neutral, shocked), two front hair pieces (one for mounting the headgear), parts to the armour (all of which is die cast metal with the exception of the collar piece, wings, headgear, along with the chest and waist cover, and the pieces on the sides of the hands), two additional bracers with metal chains (main weapons), a formed plastic chain (Thunder Wave attack effect), 3 pairs of hands specifically for use with the armour (closed fists, chain gripping fists, posing hands), and the parts to turn the armour into an Object (think really ornate armour stand, which in the case of Andromeda is a kneeling figure) including some really intricate curved chains.
The armour itself consists of :
Headgear
Collar piece
Inner upper and lower torso frame
Chest piece
Waist piece
Pauldrons
Bicep guards
Forearm guards
Hip guards (both sides)
Thigh guards
Knee guards
Lower leg guards
Wings
As the photos show if it isn't on the core figure, it's either chromed plastic or it's coloured die cast metal parts. There's not a dull/unfinished piece on this gear whatsoever.
The main figure is larger than a modern day Figuarts - yes Nat is technically slightly smaller than the average male Figuarts, but its nothing that would change this statement. Very anorexic looking, which allowed for the equipping of less bulky looking accessories. The actual mobility isn't bad, as you get toe, ankles, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel, limited mobility waist and mid torso, shoulders with chest collapse, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, limited neck motion, and head articulation. The figure is also equipped with die cast clown shoes to improve balance both with and without the gear on. With the exception of the waist and torso, range of motion isn't too bad, and is definitely on par with the better offerings of 2009. Articulation of the various body parts is generally not further limited even after you equip the armour, with the sole exception being the upper body, which goes from limited movement to no movement due to the body armour harness effectively having no points of articulation whatsoever.
Equipping the armour is an incredibly painstaking activity, so much so that it took me almost 30 minutes the first time to put things on, mostly due to fear of scratching the finished surfaces. Even after realizing I had one of the leg armour pieces on backwards in my pictures, I decided that it's too much effort to put it back for a reshoot. You see, unlike the original Deluxe figures where you'd just clip on chromed plastic armour around the various limbs, this figure requires the removal of hands and legs to get the limb armour on. But, as much of a pain it is getting the parts on just right, and the limited range of motion overall, the finished product looks stunning, especially if you've got some bright lights on the figure. It's not quite Hot Toys die cast Iron Man, but it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless. As stated earlier, arms, legs, and head are generally unhindered even with the armour on.. that is to say it doesn't make it any worse. The pauldrons and hip guards have ball joints on the mounting parts to allow for more range of motion as to improve posing opportunities.
From an actual paint perspective, I honestly don't think there's much of it on the figure. There's the plastic hair, the hair, and the fleshtones. Everything else is pretty much chrome plating which looks glorious. There are some imperfections in the finish here and there, but those are rare to find. Overall, this is a one sharp looking figure. The chromed plastic parts blend in quite well due to excellent colour matching.
Build quality is picture perfect where it matters - the armour. Much like with the Hot Toys Iron Man line, the use of metal has allowed for thinner parts, which reduces the overall bulk of the figure, as well as permits for that fantastic metallic finish. Despite the general non linearity of the parts, everything fits together perfectly, which is saying a lot given how much assembly there is on this figure, and is a testament to the impressive QC that went into the manufacture of the armour parts, including the parts for Object. On the main figure, the only rough spot I could see was the finish on the waist section of the core figure wasn't great at all, but fortunately that section was effectively on the undercarriage, so it's not something that you'd normally notice. Based on my experience, joints will hold your desired pose, even with the additional weight of the die cast metal parts.
A few gripes before we adjourn. First off, by far the most annoying thing to do with this figure is to assemble Object mode. Not only do you need to keep track of the left and right parts (put on wrong the figure won't sit right), but putting the chains together is a major pain due to the small size of the connectors (both to the body and to each other) which is further exasperated by the fact if the forearms aren't lined up correctly you're going to have a hell of a time trying to actually get it right. If they (Tamashii Nations) designed the shoulders of the Object such that they would only point in one directly, why couldn't they do that with the forearms?
The second major issue I have goes back the usual gripe I have with Figuarts figures - the lack of a stand. While normally just annoying, the lack of a stand makes this figure a bit of a gamble to pose. You see, despite the giant metal clown feet, the figure can still fall over, especially when it's weighed down with all the armour pieces. Scratches is one thing, but my biggest fear is that it falls over backward, and either due to long exposure warps the plastic wings, or if you're really unlucky, falls over with a force that ends up snapping the wings. Neither of which are particularly attractive or desired, so until I can figure things out I'm leaving the Shun unarmoured.
Phew.. so there you have it. A long write up, but well worth it for a truly extraordinary action figure both from an aesthetic perspective as well as overall production values, a combination of which isn't really a thing these days unless you go one sixth scale or higher. I suspect "finishing the line", especially with my cheapness, is probably not something that is going to ever happen, but to be honest I say that about a lot of things. I guess at least I know what to look for, which is a good start.
With that said, it's off the next review, which I'm gonna flip a coin to decide on, but will be guaranteed to be less metal.
it took me a while, but I finally got around to cracking open this beauty - presenting the Tamashii Nations Saint Seiya: Andromeda Shun God Cloth - 10th Anniversary Edition figure set, which I picked up at a Flea Market for $60 CAD.
If you were around during the early 2000s, you may remember a little toy line from Bandai called Knights of the Zodiac. Much like Ultimate Muscle, Knights of the Zodiac was based on an incredibly popular Japanese property - in this case, it was known as Saint Seiya, which had been around since the mid 80s. The series revolves around the chosen warriors of the Goddess Athena, who are gifted with armour sets, or "cloths" that draw their power from various constellations. I have yet to actually watch anything from this series, Japanese or American, but I do remember watching a bit of the first American episode and noting that they censored the living crap out of it. Other than that, the only other exposure I had to the series was occasionally I'd see pictures as a kid of the one they call Dragon Shiryu, who had some admitted badass looking gear. I think the number of suits in the series could probably give MCU Iron Man a run for his money.
The main gimmick of each figure was that you'd have a generic core figure (with the head generally being the only difference), and you could gear up each figure with chromed armour pieces. The Bandai of America releases were very much based on the sets I'd seen while clomping around Market Village and Pacific Mall in Markham, as the series popularity over in Asia made it a no brainer for local import toy stores to bring it relatively cheap figures from Hong Kong and sell them here. But this was 2004 - I had already graduated from University and was working full time, well on my way to becoming a toy snob. Furthermore, it was Bandai of America.. you just knew that they'd cheap out on something just to make a buck.
So, as you can imagine with no time actually watch the series, and effectively nobody ever talking about it locally, I basically had no real reason to keep up with the property. Little did I know Saint Seiya was an ongoing thing - it never did die overseas. So much so that Bandai of Japan actually went ahead and had Tamashii Nations further refine the figure line eventually resulting in the Myth Cloth Revival line, where all the original character were rereleased as new action figures, having core bodies that weren't quite Figuarts good, but were much improved over the original toys by at the very least allowing for figures with the proper body proportions and vastly improved articulation.
Andromeda Shun, as the name implies, is a character named Shun who wields the cloth of Andromeda. According to my research, Shun is generally hesitant to use violence as a solution to matters, but when he does all sorts of wonderful things happen. Considered the strongest amongst the core five saints (known as the Bronze Saints). His character has some other deep dark secrets that I'm not going to touch on, but overall, I'm told he's one of the most popular characters in the series. The God Cloth in the title indicates that this is the most powerful form of the named Cloth, in this case the Andromeda cloth. The original appears to have been released in 2009 (this was a 2014 figure), with improvements being more accurate colouring, and the addition of an alternate shocked expression face to recreate a key scene.
With the background out of the way, lets move on the actual overview.
First off, lets talk contents. This set MSRPed for 8,250 yen back in 2014, and even if you added inflation to the price there is no way in you'd get anything even CLOSE to what you get in this box for the price. You get the core body, two expressions (neutral, shocked), two front hair pieces (one for mounting the headgear), parts to the armour (all of which is die cast metal with the exception of the collar piece, wings, headgear, along with the chest and waist cover, and the pieces on the sides of the hands), two additional bracers with metal chains (main weapons), a formed plastic chain (Thunder Wave attack effect), 3 pairs of hands specifically for use with the armour (closed fists, chain gripping fists, posing hands), and the parts to turn the armour into an Object (think really ornate armour stand, which in the case of Andromeda is a kneeling figure) including some really intricate curved chains.
The armour itself consists of :
Headgear
Collar piece
Inner upper and lower torso frame
Chest piece
Waist piece
Pauldrons
Bicep guards
Forearm guards
Hip guards (both sides)
Thigh guards
Knee guards
Lower leg guards
Wings
As the photos show if it isn't on the core figure, it's either chromed plastic or it's coloured die cast metal parts. There's not a dull/unfinished piece on this gear whatsoever.
The main figure is larger than a modern day Figuarts - yes Nat is technically slightly smaller than the average male Figuarts, but its nothing that would change this statement. Very anorexic looking, which allowed for the equipping of less bulky looking accessories. The actual mobility isn't bad, as you get toe, ankles, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel, limited mobility waist and mid torso, shoulders with chest collapse, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, limited neck motion, and head articulation. The figure is also equipped with die cast clown shoes to improve balance both with and without the gear on. With the exception of the waist and torso, range of motion isn't too bad, and is definitely on par with the better offerings of 2009. Articulation of the various body parts is generally not further limited even after you equip the armour, with the sole exception being the upper body, which goes from limited movement to no movement due to the body armour harness effectively having no points of articulation whatsoever.
Equipping the armour is an incredibly painstaking activity, so much so that it took me almost 30 minutes the first time to put things on, mostly due to fear of scratching the finished surfaces. Even after realizing I had one of the leg armour pieces on backwards in my pictures, I decided that it's too much effort to put it back for a reshoot. You see, unlike the original Deluxe figures where you'd just clip on chromed plastic armour around the various limbs, this figure requires the removal of hands and legs to get the limb armour on. But, as much of a pain it is getting the parts on just right, and the limited range of motion overall, the finished product looks stunning, especially if you've got some bright lights on the figure. It's not quite Hot Toys die cast Iron Man, but it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless. As stated earlier, arms, legs, and head are generally unhindered even with the armour on.. that is to say it doesn't make it any worse. The pauldrons and hip guards have ball joints on the mounting parts to allow for more range of motion as to improve posing opportunities.
From an actual paint perspective, I honestly don't think there's much of it on the figure. There's the plastic hair, the hair, and the fleshtones. Everything else is pretty much chrome plating which looks glorious. There are some imperfections in the finish here and there, but those are rare to find. Overall, this is a one sharp looking figure. The chromed plastic parts blend in quite well due to excellent colour matching.
Build quality is picture perfect where it matters - the armour. Much like with the Hot Toys Iron Man line, the use of metal has allowed for thinner parts, which reduces the overall bulk of the figure, as well as permits for that fantastic metallic finish. Despite the general non linearity of the parts, everything fits together perfectly, which is saying a lot given how much assembly there is on this figure, and is a testament to the impressive QC that went into the manufacture of the armour parts, including the parts for Object. On the main figure, the only rough spot I could see was the finish on the waist section of the core figure wasn't great at all, but fortunately that section was effectively on the undercarriage, so it's not something that you'd normally notice. Based on my experience, joints will hold your desired pose, even with the additional weight of the die cast metal parts.
A few gripes before we adjourn. First off, by far the most annoying thing to do with this figure is to assemble Object mode. Not only do you need to keep track of the left and right parts (put on wrong the figure won't sit right), but putting the chains together is a major pain due to the small size of the connectors (both to the body and to each other) which is further exasperated by the fact if the forearms aren't lined up correctly you're going to have a hell of a time trying to actually get it right. If they (Tamashii Nations) designed the shoulders of the Object such that they would only point in one directly, why couldn't they do that with the forearms?
The second major issue I have goes back the usual gripe I have with Figuarts figures - the lack of a stand. While normally just annoying, the lack of a stand makes this figure a bit of a gamble to pose. You see, despite the giant metal clown feet, the figure can still fall over, especially when it's weighed down with all the armour pieces. Scratches is one thing, but my biggest fear is that it falls over backward, and either due to long exposure warps the plastic wings, or if you're really unlucky, falls over with a force that ends up snapping the wings. Neither of which are particularly attractive or desired, so until I can figure things out I'm leaving the Shun unarmoured.
Phew.. so there you have it. A long write up, but well worth it for a truly extraordinary action figure both from an aesthetic perspective as well as overall production values, a combination of which isn't really a thing these days unless you go one sixth scale or higher. I suspect "finishing the line", especially with my cheapness, is probably not something that is going to ever happen, but to be honest I say that about a lot of things. I guess at least I know what to look for, which is a good start.
With that said, it's off the next review, which I'm gonna flip a coin to decide on, but will be guaranteed to be less metal.
Images of BERNINA trolleys with golden embrodery, offered with the BERNINA Anniversary Edition machines. For more information please visit www.bernina.com/125years.
it took me a while, but I finally got around to cracking open this beauty - presenting the Tamashii Nations Saint Seiya: Andromeda Shun God Cloth - 10th Anniversary Edition figure set, which I picked up at a Flea Market for $60 CAD.
If you were around during the early 2000s, you may remember a little toy line from Bandai called Knights of the Zodiac. Much like Ultimate Muscle, Knights of the Zodiac was based on an incredibly popular Japanese property - in this case, it was known as Saint Seiya, which had been around since the mid 80s. The series revolves around the chosen warriors of the Goddess Athena, who are gifted with armour sets, or "cloths" that draw their power from various constellations. I have yet to actually watch anything from this series, Japanese or American, but I do remember watching a bit of the first American episode and noting that they censored the living crap out of it. Other than that, the only other exposure I had to the series was occasionally I'd see pictures as a kid of the one they call Dragon Shiryu, who had some admitted badass looking gear. I think the number of suits in the series could probably give MCU Iron Man a run for his money.
The main gimmick of each figure was that you'd have a generic core figure (with the head generally being the only difference), and you could gear up each figure with chromed armour pieces. The Bandai of America releases were very much based on the sets I'd seen while clomping around Market Village and Pacific Mall in Markham, as the series popularity over in Asia made it a no brainer for local import toy stores to bring it relatively cheap figures from Hong Kong and sell them here. But this was 2004 - I had already graduated from University and was working full time, well on my way to becoming a toy snob. Furthermore, it was Bandai of America.. you just knew that they'd cheap out on something just to make a buck.
So, as you can imagine with no time actually watch the series, and effectively nobody ever talking about it locally, I basically had no real reason to keep up with the property. Little did I know Saint Seiya was an ongoing thing - it never did die overseas. So much so that Bandai of Japan actually went ahead and had Tamashii Nations further refine the figure line eventually resulting in the Myth Cloth Revival line, where all the original character were rereleased as new action figures, having core bodies that weren't quite Figuarts good, but were much improved over the original toys by at the very least allowing for figures with the proper body proportions and vastly improved articulation.
Andromeda Shun, as the name implies, is a character named Shun who wields the cloth of Andromeda. According to my research, Shun is generally hesitant to use violence as a solution to matters, but when he does all sorts of wonderful things happen. Considered the strongest amongst the core five saints (known as the Bronze Saints). His character has some other deep dark secrets that I'm not going to touch on, but overall, I'm told he's one of the most popular characters in the series. The God Cloth in the title indicates that this is the most powerful form of the named Cloth, in this case the Andromeda cloth. The original appears to have been released in 2009 (this was a 2014 figure), with improvements being more accurate colouring, and the addition of an alternate shocked expression face to recreate a key scene.
With the background out of the way, lets move on the actual overview.
First off, lets talk contents. This set MSRPed for 8,250 yen back in 2014, and even if you added inflation to the price there is no way in you'd get anything even CLOSE to what you get in this box for the price. You get the core body, two expressions (neutral, shocked), two front hair pieces (one for mounting the headgear), parts to the armour (all of which is die cast metal with the exception of the collar piece, wings, headgear, along with the chest and waist cover, and the pieces on the sides of the hands), two additional bracers with metal chains (main weapons), a formed plastic chain (Thunder Wave attack effect), 3 pairs of hands specifically for use with the armour (closed fists, chain gripping fists, posing hands), and the parts to turn the armour into an Object (think really ornate armour stand, which in the case of Andromeda is a kneeling figure) including some really intricate curved chains.
The armour itself consists of :
Headgear
Collar piece
Inner upper and lower torso frame
Chest piece
Waist piece
Pauldrons
Bicep guards
Forearm guards
Hip guards (both sides)
Thigh guards
Knee guards
Lower leg guards
Wings
As the photos show if it isn't on the core figure, it's either chromed plastic or it's coloured die cast metal parts. There's not a dull/unfinished piece on this gear whatsoever.
The main figure is larger than a modern day Figuarts - yes Nat is technically slightly smaller than the average male Figuarts, but its nothing that would change this statement. Very anorexic looking, which allowed for the equipping of less bulky looking accessories. The actual mobility isn't bad, as you get toe, ankles, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel, limited mobility waist and mid torso, shoulders with chest collapse, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, limited neck motion, and head articulation. The figure is also equipped with die cast clown shoes to improve balance both with and without the gear on. With the exception of the waist and torso, range of motion isn't too bad, and is definitely on par with the better offerings of 2009. Articulation of the various body parts is generally not further limited even after you equip the armour, with the sole exception being the upper body, which goes from limited movement to no movement due to the body armour harness effectively having no points of articulation whatsoever.
Equipping the armour is an incredibly painstaking activity, so much so that it took me almost 30 minutes the first time to put things on, mostly due to fear of scratching the finished surfaces. Even after realizing I had one of the leg armour pieces on backwards in my pictures, I decided that it's too much effort to put it back for a reshoot. You see, unlike the original Deluxe figures where you'd just clip on chromed plastic armour around the various limbs, this figure requires the removal of hands and legs to get the limb armour on. But, as much of a pain it is getting the parts on just right, and the limited range of motion overall, the finished product looks stunning, especially if you've got some bright lights on the figure. It's not quite Hot Toys die cast Iron Man, but it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless. As stated earlier, arms, legs, and head are generally unhindered even with the armour on.. that is to say it doesn't make it any worse. The pauldrons and hip guards have ball joints on the mounting parts to allow for more range of motion as to improve posing opportunities.
From an actual paint perspective, I honestly don't think there's much of it on the figure. There's the plastic hair, the hair, and the fleshtones. Everything else is pretty much chrome plating which looks glorious. There are some imperfections in the finish here and there, but those are rare to find. Overall, this is a one sharp looking figure. The chromed plastic parts blend in quite well due to excellent colour matching.
Build quality is picture perfect where it matters - the armour. Much like with the Hot Toys Iron Man line, the use of metal has allowed for thinner parts, which reduces the overall bulk of the figure, as well as permits for that fantastic metallic finish. Despite the general non linearity of the parts, everything fits together perfectly, which is saying a lot given how much assembly there is on this figure, and is a testament to the impressive QC that went into the manufacture of the armour parts, including the parts for Object. On the main figure, the only rough spot I could see was the finish on the waist section of the core figure wasn't great at all, but fortunately that section was effectively on the undercarriage, so it's not something that you'd normally notice. Based on my experience, joints will hold your desired pose, even with the additional weight of the die cast metal parts.
A few gripes before we adjourn. First off, by far the most annoying thing to do with this figure is to assemble Object mode. Not only do you need to keep track of the left and right parts (put on wrong the figure won't sit right), but putting the chains together is a major pain due to the small size of the connectors (both to the body and to each other) which is further exasperated by the fact if the forearms aren't lined up correctly you're going to have a hell of a time trying to actually get it right. If they (Tamashii Nations) designed the shoulders of the Object such that they would only point in one directly, why couldn't they do that with the forearms?
The second major issue I have goes back the usual gripe I have with Figuarts figures - the lack of a stand. While normally just annoying, the lack of a stand makes this figure a bit of a gamble to pose. You see, despite the giant metal clown feet, the figure can still fall over, especially when it's weighed down with all the armour pieces. Scratches is one thing, but my biggest fear is that it falls over backward, and either due to long exposure warps the plastic wings, or if you're really unlucky, falls over with a force that ends up snapping the wings. Neither of which are particularly attractive or desired, so until I can figure things out I'm leaving the Shun unarmoured.
Phew.. so there you have it. A long write up, but well worth it for a truly extraordinary action figure both from an aesthetic perspective as well as overall production values, a combination of which isn't really a thing these days unless you go one sixth scale or higher. I suspect "finishing the line", especially with my cheapness, is probably not something that is going to ever happen, but to be honest I say that about a lot of things. I guess at least I know what to look for, which is a good start.
With that said, it's off the next review, which I'm gonna flip a coin to decide on, but will be guaranteed to be less metal.
it took me a while, but I finally got around to cracking open this beauty - presenting the Tamashii Nations Saint Seiya: Andromeda Shun God Cloth - 10th Anniversary Edition figure set, which I picked up at a Flea Market for $60 CAD.
If you were around during the early 2000s, you may remember a little toy line from Bandai called Knights of the Zodiac. Much like Ultimate Muscle, Knights of the Zodiac was based on an incredibly popular Japanese property - in this case, it was known as Saint Seiya, which had been around since the mid 80s. The series revolves around the chosen warriors of the Goddess Athena, who are gifted with armour sets, or "cloths" that draw their power from various constellations. I have yet to actually watch anything from this series, Japanese or American, but I do remember watching a bit of the first American episode and noting that they censored the living crap out of it. Other than that, the only other exposure I had to the series was occasionally I'd see pictures as a kid of the one they call Dragon Shiryu, who had some admitted badass looking gear. I think the number of suits in the series could probably give MCU Iron Man a run for his money.
The main gimmick of each figure was that you'd have a generic core figure (with the head generally being the only difference), and you could gear up each figure with chromed armour pieces. The Bandai of America releases were very much based on the sets I'd seen while clomping around Market Village and Pacific Mall in Markham, as the series popularity over in Asia made it a no brainer for local import toy stores to bring it relatively cheap figures from Hong Kong and sell them here. But this was 2004 - I had already graduated from University and was working full time, well on my way to becoming a toy snob. Furthermore, it was Bandai of America.. you just knew that they'd cheap out on something just to make a buck.
So, as you can imagine with no time actually watch the series, and effectively nobody ever talking about it locally, I basically had no real reason to keep up with the property. Little did I know Saint Seiya was an ongoing thing - it never did die overseas. So much so that Bandai of Japan actually went ahead and had Tamashii Nations further refine the figure line eventually resulting in the Myth Cloth Revival line, where all the original character were rereleased as new action figures, having core bodies that weren't quite Figuarts good, but were much improved over the original toys by at the very least allowing for figures with the proper body proportions and vastly improved articulation.
Andromeda Shun, as the name implies, is a character named Shun who wields the cloth of Andromeda. According to my research, Shun is generally hesitant to use violence as a solution to matters, but when he does all sorts of wonderful things happen. Considered the strongest amongst the core five saints (known as the Bronze Saints). His character has some other deep dark secrets that I'm not going to touch on, but overall, I'm told he's one of the most popular characters in the series. The God Cloth in the title indicates that this is the most powerful form of the named Cloth, in this case the Andromeda cloth. The original appears to have been released in 2009 (this was a 2014 figure), with improvements being more accurate colouring, and the addition of an alternate shocked expression face to recreate a key scene.
With the background out of the way, lets move on the actual overview.
First off, lets talk contents. This set MSRPed for 8,250 yen back in 2014, and even if you added inflation to the price there is no way in you'd get anything even CLOSE to what you get in this box for the price. You get the core body, two expressions (neutral, shocked), two front hair pieces (one for mounting the headgear), parts to the armour (all of which is die cast metal with the exception of the collar piece, wings, headgear, along with the chest and waist cover, and the pieces on the sides of the hands), two additional bracers with metal chains (main weapons), a formed plastic chain (Thunder Wave attack effect), 3 pairs of hands specifically for use with the armour (closed fists, chain gripping fists, posing hands), and the parts to turn the armour into an Object (think really ornate armour stand, which in the case of Andromeda is a kneeling figure) including some really intricate curved chains.
The armour itself consists of :
Headgear
Collar piece
Inner upper and lower torso frame
Chest piece
Waist piece
Pauldrons
Bicep guards
Forearm guards
Hip guards (both sides)
Thigh guards
Knee guards
Lower leg guards
Wings
As the photos show if it isn't on the core figure, it's either chromed plastic or it's coloured die cast metal parts. There's not a dull/unfinished piece on this gear whatsoever.
The main figure is larger than a modern day Figuarts - yes Nat is technically slightly smaller than the average male Figuarts, but its nothing that would change this statement. Very anorexic looking, which allowed for the equipping of less bulky looking accessories. The actual mobility isn't bad, as you get toe, ankles, double jointed knees, hips with thigh swivel, limited mobility waist and mid torso, shoulders with chest collapse, bicep swivel, double jointed elbows, wrists, limited neck motion, and head articulation. The figure is also equipped with die cast clown shoes to improve balance both with and without the gear on. With the exception of the waist and torso, range of motion isn't too bad, and is definitely on par with the better offerings of 2009. Articulation of the various body parts is generally not further limited even after you equip the armour, with the sole exception being the upper body, which goes from limited movement to no movement due to the body armour harness effectively having no points of articulation whatsoever.
Equipping the armour is an incredibly painstaking activity, so much so that it took me almost 30 minutes the first time to put things on, mostly due to fear of scratching the finished surfaces. Even after realizing I had one of the leg armour pieces on backwards in my pictures, I decided that it's too much effort to put it back for a reshoot. You see, unlike the original Deluxe figures where you'd just clip on chromed plastic armour around the various limbs, this figure requires the removal of hands and legs to get the limb armour on. But, as much of a pain it is getting the parts on just right, and the limited range of motion overall, the finished product looks stunning, especially if you've got some bright lights on the figure. It's not quite Hot Toys die cast Iron Man, but it's pretty damn impressive nonetheless. As stated earlier, arms, legs, and head are generally unhindered even with the armour on.. that is to say it doesn't make it any worse. The pauldrons and hip guards have ball joints on the mounting parts to allow for more range of motion as to improve posing opportunities.
From an actual paint perspective, I honestly don't think there's much of it on the figure. There's the plastic hair, the hair, and the fleshtones. Everything else is pretty much chrome plating which looks glorious. There are some imperfections in the finish here and there, but those are rare to find. Overall, this is a one sharp looking figure. The chromed plastic parts blend in quite well due to excellent colour matching.
Build quality is picture perfect where it matters - the armour. Much like with the Hot Toys Iron Man line, the use of metal has allowed for thinner parts, which reduces the overall bulk of the figure, as well as permits for that fantastic metallic finish. Despite the general non linearity of the parts, everything fits together perfectly, which is saying a lot given how much assembly there is on this figure, and is a testament to the impressive QC that went into the manufacture of the armour parts, including the parts for Object. On the main figure, the only rough spot I could see was the finish on the waist section of the core figure wasn't great at all, but fortunately that section was effectively on the undercarriage, so it's not something that you'd normally notice. Based on my experience, joints will hold your desired pose, even with the additional weight of the die cast metal parts.
A few gripes before we adjourn. First off, by far the most annoying thing to do with this figure is to assemble Object mode. Not only do you need to keep track of the left and right parts (put on wrong the figure won't sit right), but putting the chains together is a major pain due to the small size of the connectors (both to the body and to each other) which is further exasperated by the fact if the forearms aren't lined up correctly you're going to have a hell of a time trying to actually get it right. If they (Tamashii Nations) designed the shoulders of the Object such that they would only point in one directly, why couldn't they do that with the forearms?
The second major issue I have goes back the usual gripe I have with Figuarts figures - the lack of a stand. While normally just annoying, the lack of a stand makes this figure a bit of a gamble to pose. You see, despite the giant metal clown feet, the figure can still fall over, especially when it's weighed down with all the armour pieces. Scratches is one thing, but my biggest fear is that it falls over backward, and either due to long exposure warps the plastic wings, or if you're really unlucky, falls over with a force that ends up snapping the wings. Neither of which are particularly attractive or desired, so until I can figure things out I'm leaving the Shun unarmoured.
Phew.. so there you have it. A long write up, but well worth it for a truly extraordinary action figure both from an aesthetic perspective as well as overall production values, a combination of which isn't really a thing these days unless you go one sixth scale or higher. I suspect "finishing the line", especially with my cheapness, is probably not something that is going to ever happen, but to be honest I say that about a lot of things. I guess at least I know what to look for, which is a good start.
With that said, it's off the next review, which I'm gonna flip a coin to decide on, but will be guaranteed to be less metal.