Saint Cloth Myth - Sagittarius Aioros

Series	Saint Cloth Myth
Title	Sagittarius Aioros
Release Date	October 2004
Manufacturer	Bandai
Suggested Price (JPY)	4,000
Scale	1/11
Height (cm)	16.6 cm (approx.)
No. of Parts	1 figure + 43 parts + 1 6-pages color manual
My Rating	Very Good

Related Items:

Story
Aioros, Gold Saint of Sagittarius, is the shortest live character in Saint Seiya TV Series as he died in the very first episode itself but his demise is a major starter for the series.

Saint Seiya's story opens with Graude Foundation sponsoring a tournament, known as the "Galaxian Wars", in search for the Saint that is able to wear the Gold Cloth of Sagittarius. Mitsumasa Kiddo, the leader of the Graude Foundation, arranged this tournament but due to his sudden death, his granddaughter, Saori Kiddo, carried on the tournament.

Aioros appears thirteen years ago when an infant is born in Greece as reincarnation of Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom. Shion was master of Sanctuary at the time and supposedly leading the Saints until the Athena is ready to rule.

However, Aioros rescued the infant Athena from an attempt of murder by the Master of Sanctuary. He by chance discovered that Master of Sanctuary is not Shion and ran away with the infant. During his get away, his pursuer, Capricorn Shura, mortally wounded him. He managed to escape and while dying, he was found by Mitsumasa Kiddo. Mitsumasa adopted the infant and received the Gold Cloth of Sagittarius from Aioros. Aioros died and branded as a traitor to the Sanctuary.

Packaging
Sagittarius Aioros is the fourth rendition of Gold Saint in the Saint Cloth Myth Series, comes packaged in a yellow ‘book box’. It opens to reveal two window boxes; in one window box is a really well articulated figure of Aioros, along with some of his cloth parts while the other half contains the rest of his Gold Cloth and Sagittarius Object parts.

The following are the parts count and items in bold are of metal:

Left Tray: 1 Aioros PVC figure 4x extra hands in gauntlet; 2x fist and 2x other for arrow pose chest armor 2x thigh armor 2x leg armor 2x arm armor 2x bracers (for upper arm) 2x inner shoulder pad 2x armor pad attachable to arm armor 1 back armor pad for concealing pins located at the back of chest armor 2x winged feet attachable to boots 1 extra Seiya’s figure head	Right Tray: front skirt rear skirt 2x side skirt 2x waist armor (front + back) 2x shoulder armor belt buckler circlet 2x hand for object’s arrow pose body frame horse body frame with 4 detachable legs 2x arms for Sagittarius object Bow Arrow

The left tray has a lower tier, which stores two large foldable wings with 2 point of articulations each. This release does not come with a mantel or a cloak.	Note: The 4 Sagittarius legs comes with a mixture of metal; 2x front hooves, 2x rear hooves and 2x rear lower legs are of metal.


The 'book-box' opens to reveal that it consists of two window boxes.	Box Packaging

Figure
All Saint Cloth Myth series of PVC figures comes with a fully articulated body and Bandai did not include any improvement on the superb articulated body since Pegasus Seiya. Aioros is of no exception and came in the standard body. The only difference here is that the body is in maroon and has a different head sculpt. The figure hair at the fringe portion is removable to wear its circlet.

I could not comment much on Aioros head sculpt whether it is anime like or not since I barely remember his face. However, he does share some similarity with Aioria since both of them are brothers. As a fan of Saint Seiya, I had been suckers for the countless release of Saint Seiya OVA where the grand finale is always Seiya donning the Sagittarius Armor firing its God piercing arrow. I will say that the inclusion of an extra Seiya’s head is a necessity since we will be more comfortable with Seiya in Sagittarius armor compare to Aioros. The Seiya’s head is well sculpted with similar removable fringe to put on the circlet.

Sagittarius Object
The construction of the Sagittarius Object is straight forward as it retains its partial humanoid form. Putting on the armor on the upper torso is similar to putting it on a figure and whereas the rest of its armor are attached to the lower horse body.

The crown adorned by attaching it to the provided extension on the object frame. Two extra arms with moveable joints and two extra hands provided for the object to pose with its bow and arrow. The joints at the Sagittarius legs and arms to its body are non-plated in gold meaning a more durable life span.

Conclusion
In my opinion, the Sagittarius Object is by far the best-looking object among the 12 constellations, where it represents an elegant four-legged Sagittarius with majestically spread out golden wings drawing an arrow on its bow. The object by itself is well enough reason for any Saint Seiya fans to make this a must have collectibles.

This item is pre-ordered and purchased from HLJ.