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Saint Cloth Myth - Dragon Shiryu Final Bronze |
| Series | Saint Cloth Myth |
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| Title | Dragon Shiryu Final Bronze | |
| Release Date | September 2005 | |
| Manufacturer | Bandai | |
| Suggested Price (JPY) | 3,800 | |
| Scale | 1/11 | |
| Height (cm) | 16.8 cm (approx) | |
| No. of Parts | 1 figure + 23 armor parts + 1 color instruction sheet (6-page) | |
| My Rating | Excellent |
Related Items:
Introduction
Dragon
Shiryu Final Bronze is the seventeenth release of Saint Cloth Myth series and the second
figure that feature the improved body as first seen in Pegasus Final Bronze.
In Chapter Hades, Athena revives her own cloth through her blood. Her blood was also used to upgrade the five Bronze Saint's armors, giving them divine armor characteristics. Combined with a maximized level of cosmos, their armor changed into Divine Cloths (a.k.a. Final Bronze) in Hades battle.
Pegasus Seiya is the first to be granted the Final Bronze by Shion who sprinkle Athena blood onto his cloth. I have not read the manga but I believe, Shiryu somehow follow suit and granted the Final Bronze suit later in Hades.
This cloth design is never before seen in the anime and only featured in the manga. This is owe to the second part of Chapter Hades is never animated. However, the successful release of Pegasus Seiya Final Bronze, I am not surprise that an opportunist like Bandai will not make a complete release of Final Bronze figures. I am expecting Cygnus Hyoga Final Bronze and whoever Final Bronze will be somehow somewhere dropped in Bandai's Product Roadmap.
Packaging
Dragon Shiryu is the second release of Final Bronze in the Saint Cloth Myth Series, comes packaged
in a blue ‘book box’. It opens to reveal two window boxes; in one window box is a new figure of
Shiryu, along with some of his cloth parts while the other half contains the rest of his Cloth and
Dragon Object parts.
The following are the parts count and items in bold are of metal (bold underline is for partially made of metal):
Left Tray
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Right Tray
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Object
The constructed Dragon Object is measure at 14.5 cm x 6 cm x 12.9 cm in height. The first thing
that you will notice is that now you get a full dragon rather a half dragon in Shiryu's prior
release. The design now is much more elegant now. The full dragon is resting on a provided round
base with 2 movable fore-claws.
A surprise that comes with this release is the metallic paint it uses. In Dragon Shiryu, the cloth colored in metallic green, but this release features a metallic greenish blue. The paint it used is extremely shiny and glossy. Bandai use the same paint in Wyvern Rhadamanthys, with the same greasy feel to touch and similarly plague with the same problem. That is easily susceptible to scratches. While I am putting on the Object, I believe I have made a few scratches here and there. This is not entirely bad and in comparison to Pegasus Final Bronze, the aesthetic value is like heaven and earth.
Building the Object is not too easy. Since the design is much more complicated and with the paint scratch problem added on top, it took me quite a long time to construct.
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Figure
The figure stand at about 16.8 cm in height. The main highlight for a Final Bronze figure is its
articulations. Since this is the same as in Pegasus Seiya, I will not delve into this area. The
difference on this figure in comparison with Pegasus Final Bronze is its color scheme and head
sculpt. The figure body is colored in dark gray and Shiryu's armband is colored in white.
The head sculpt here is and interesting one. Firstly, Shiryu comes with 2 faces. One is with his eye opened and the other is with his eye close. This relates to the story where the blind Shiryu get to open his eyes while in Hades. The next point will be his hair. Previously, his long hair comes with articulations to pose with his wind blown hair. It is unrealistic and gratefully Bandai throw away that idea. His long hair now comes in a single piece. In order to replicate the mentioned pose, it utilizes another slice of hair that spread open. This piece simply attached to the neck and when the pose for a shampoo commercial is not needed, it can be removed.
The next point is a bad one. There is an ugly dividing line on his head. This is to remove the fringe to swap with another but there is an obvious gap on it. I tried to replicate the cool pose as shown in its rear cover box art for photo shooting. The result is I cannot replicate the clean hair as shown no matter what I try. I realize then it is a dirty Photoshop job.
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| Shiryu with added hair | 2 layer of hair here for extra volume | Note the ugly gap on head |
Armored Figure
Shiryu in armor is 2 notches better than Pegasus Final Bronze. Firstly, it will be its metallic
paint on its armor surface. The gleam is much brighter than on Pegasus Final. (I think Athena uses
more blood on this cloth than the 2 drop in Seiya’s ^_^)
Secondly, it will be the re-design armor. In Pegasus Final Bronze, Seiya’s armor is slightly modified. Places that are not round are rounded and places that are not curved become curved.
In this release, Shiryu’s armor is re-vamped with tons of details. His left arm guard is of a dragonhead and a standard dragon shield on the right. The skirt armor has changed to something akin to Saint Seiya TV series. It come in a single piece with tiny movable flaps and secure via a belt buckle. His leg armors are change with better design and kneecaps that are smaller. The shoulder armor is redesigned, from a simple cover to double-layered shoulder armor secure to the body via the dragon claws. I see more design effort is put into this than in Pegasus Final.
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| Shiryu's accesorries: old armor circlet, face, gauntlets and hair |
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| Chest armor that fold differently | Side skirt with movable flaps | Dragon claws to hold shoulder armor via ball joints on armor |
Conclusion
This release clearly had shown a major improvement over previously released Saint Cloth Myth
figure. It comes with a super-articulated figure plus a redesign Dragon cloth plus a paint job that
kill, this is definitely an item that worth getting. Moreover, everybody loves Shiryu more than
Seiya. Highly recommended.
This item is bought via preorder online from HLJ.
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| Need photoshop to rub the gap on his hair | Rozan! Sho Ryu Ha!!! |
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| Rozan! Hyaku Ryu Ha!!! |
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| The legendary Dragon Shield and the sharpest blade, Excalibur |
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Document Date : 2005-11-27 |
Responses to this page:
Thanks it really helped me on my decision and I cant conplain about it. Nice revew.
These are some awesome pics. I recently bought this item and Iwanted to know if you had problems with the skirt pieces coming off.
Hi, I am having problems finding this item and would appreciate any help at all in locating it... please help.