Capricorn Shura (Surplice)
Capricorn Shura is one of several Gold Saints that dies in battle against our heroes, the Bronze Saints during the early story arc “The Twelve Temples of the Zodiac”. I’m not going to recount his entire Saga but if you would like to know more you can head over to Wikipedia for more.
During “The Hades Chapter – Sanctuary” Shura along with 5 other former, dead Gold Saints are resurrected and given new life by Hades. The price for this new life, bring Hades Athena’s head.
Capricorn Shura, Gemini Saga and Aquarius Camus battle with Gold Saint Virgo which leaves them deaf, blind and speechless. They ultimately resort to combining their power and performing the forbidden technique, Athena’s Exclamation. A sin they repeat again later in the heart of Sanctuary when battling Leo Aiolos, Aries Mu and Scorpio Milo.
From Wikipedia:
“After fighting against Aries Mu, Leo Aiolia and Scorpio Milo it is revealed that they were attempting to fool Hades in order to warn Athena of his ambitions, as well as grant the goddess her Holy God Cloth and survive the upcoming Holy War.”
The box is standard Saint Cloth Myth fare, a book style package that opens to reveal 2 windows too see all the bits and pieces neatly arranged. The box features both art from the anime and pictures of the actual product.
The body of Shura is the newer Type 3 body. Bandai over the past few years has added more and more pose-ability to their figures. A type 3 has more joints in the torso. Ironically all of the extra pose-ability goes out the window when you put on their armor. Armor tends to form fit the torso section so joints there do not get used.
The body is made of plastic and the feet are die-cast metal (designed to match the armor.)
The figure is highly poseable…
… as are his feet.
All the armor’s in the Saint Seiya universe form an object/statue when they are not being worn. Originally being the Capricorn Gold Saint his object is a darker restyling of the Capricorn goat.
Each Cloth/armor in this universe is aligned to a constellation.
Like I mentioned above the surplice version of Capricorn is colored differently and while it looks the same it is subtly restyled and an all-new sculpt (I don’t own the original Capricorn so no comparison photo – sorry.)
This surplice does offer the extra hinges in the shoulder and thigh plates allowing a much wider range of motion.
Die-cast content is very high with this release. Only the torso armor and headpiece are plastic.
Bandai again does a great job bringing this cloth to three-dimensional life. The addition of the extra hinges allows you to pose the figures in their Athena Exclamation, attention to detail that I as a collector really appreciate.
I think that the coloring on this one may have a very broad appeal to Chogokin collectors and of course fans of Saint Seiya should pick Shura up without hesitation, especially if you want your very own Athena Exclamation on your shelf. Bandai is always consistent with quality and attention to detail with this line. Been curious to check one out, pick a design you like and get it. I don’t think you will be disappointed.