Saint Cloth Myth - Limited Myth Cloth Campaign Set Grand Pope Shion

Series	Saint Cloth Myth
Title	Limited Myth Cloth Campaign Set Grand Pope Shion
Release Date	November 2005
Manufacturer	Bandai
Suggested Price (JPY)	3,600
Scale	1/11
Height (cm)	16.5 cm (approx. figure head height)
No. of Parts	1 figure + 8 parts + 1 mantel + 1 robe + 13 stand w/ base + 1 color instruction sheet (2-pages)
My Rating	Below Average

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Story
Athena, Goddess of War, has returned to Olympus and after 500 hundreds years, she will be reincarnated as human again to rule over the human world. In her absence, the strongest of her Saint will be elected as the Master of the Sanctuary seeing to the law and order of her sanctuary. At that era, Aries Shion is known to be one of the two strongest among all the Saints and only be evenly matched by Libra Dohko. Dohko is assigned to protect the Seal of Athena and left Shion to be the most suitable candidate to assume the role of the Master of Sanctuary.

However, the aged Shion is fragile and then assassinated by Saga whom possessed by Ares. Saga (Ares) impersonate him as the Master and rule over Athena's Sanctuary laying in wait for the chance to murder the reincarnated Athena.

Packaging
The hot selling Saint Cloth Myth series is nearing completion. As of to date 11 Gold Saints is out and only 1 gold and 1 final bronze is waiting for release. What is more for Bandai to squeeze more fans hard earn money? The answer is the usual limited edition marketing ploy. Thus, here we got a limited edition Grand Pope of the Sanctuary.

This limited edition comes packaged in a grayish box; a normal packaging deviating from the usual 'book box' style. It is separated into 3 layers of "trays".

Left: Middle tray with its mantel and robe. Right: The upper tray of its figure and accessories.

Upper Tray

1 figure
1 Shion's face plate
1 hair fringe (for posing w/o helmet)
1 hair sideburn (for donning Aries Cloth)
1 neck armor
1 full helm crown

Middle Tray

1 color instruction manual (2 pages)
1 cloth robe w/ gold embroidery
1 mantel (for replacing Sagittarius Aioros's wings)
1 beaded necklace
1 sticker sheet (Name of 12 constellation of Gold Saints and 5 Bronze Saints; for applying to the provided display base)

Lower Tray

13 adjustable display stand
13 display base
13 adjustable clips (for holding the figures)

For those who are looking forward to the usual metal die-cast, it is huge disappointment here. The only parts that are made of metal in this entire package is the figure's shoes. The rest are either pure plastic or fabric.

Figure
This is the standard well-articulated Saint Cloth Myth action figures. There is a lot of pose that could be done with it but due to The Grand Pope Shion never really does anything but standing majestically, the superb articulations is a complete waste. The figure is molded with a black anonymous face that is not that hard to sculpt. Bandai tried to spice this release up with a interchangeable head of Shion. You can put his head on Aries Cloth or with the Pope robe.

The robe is made of fabric with gold embroidery as linings. The costume is accompanied with golden neck armor and a golden full helm. A necklace of beads is included.

Accessories
I guess this release is entirely bet on it accessories to make this limited edition special. The package comes with 13 adjustable stands. I guess 13 means for the Grand Pope and the 12 Gold Saints. There is a sticker sheet come with names of 12 constellations and another 5 constellation of the bronze Saints.

The rest of its accessories include a mantel. Out of the 12 gold saints, Sagittarius Airoros does not come with a mantel. In order to display him on the provided display base, his wings have to be removed and replaced with it.

Conclusion
This is merely a nice to have release out of all Saint Cloth Myth series. This package comes with a price tag of 3600 yen, a similar price to a normal bronze saint. However, ever since Bandai slaps in a "Limited" tag to it, most retailer marked-up the price at about 50 to 100 percent. I have never intended to get one of this but I spotted this at one of the local retailer where the marked up price is not that unreasonable, I decided to get one of this to complete my collection.

I do not really recommend this. If you want to get a Pope, take Gemini Saga.

This item is purchased locally at Berjaya Times Square.