Saint Seiya Myth Cloth review # 14: Dohko of Libra

One of two survivors of the previous Holy War, Dohko became the Watcher at Rozan falls, sitting on Mount Lu to watch the Seal of Hades.

Respected by all Gold saints for his great age, he has mastered the technique of Misopheta-menos: A gift from Athena herself. It slows down Dohko's metabolism in order to extend his life span for various generations, meaning the 243 years passed since the end of the previous war are in fact only 243 days as his heart beats only 100000 times a year instead of a day.

The Libra cloth is the one cloth permitted to use convention weapons in a Saint`s battle, and if the old roshi permits it, they are granted to other Saints in order to achieve their goals, as is first seen when his pupil Shiryu, who often is allowed to use the Gold cloth, uses it to free Hyoga from the Ice Coffin Camus had entombed him in during the Sanctuary arc. Later, the cloth is used to bring down Poseidon`s pillars and to try and breach the Wailing Wall.

Unlike most of the Saints, none of the attacks he uses takes the form of his constellation, but instead take on the form of a dragon, similar to Shiryu. Even more unusual is that his symbolic creature, seen when his draws his full power, is neither the Libra nor a dragon, but a tiger.

Masami Kurumada used in his manga the Chinese concept of the duality of the tiger and dragon, in his characters Dohko and Shiryu. That's the reason for tiger and dragon images that appear on their backs when they burn their Cosmo.



So on to the model then. I got it from Archonia as one of the four sets in a cheaper price class then usually they knock me back on shipping from the other side of the world, due to this one being `french import`.

For me, this is the Saint of `More is Less`. It is a very cool gimmick in itself that all weapons are in the box in both `closed` version as they fit unto the armour, and `open` version as they can be used, but this also means that not only you have a gazillion pieces left over after assembling, it also means balancing the model in such a way that the smaller weapons like those in the gloves don`t fall out of their holsters all the time.

The sculpting of the hair is as Dohko is seen in the latter series of the Hades arc, not the shorter style hair from the Lost Canvas series. Not the greatest of sculpts though for the hair, but it is one of the older ones in the Myth cloth series.

Another extra worth mentioning in the box, is the addition of a Shiryu head, you can exchange as such Dohko`s for his pupil to represent the various times he allowed the young Dragon saint use of his cloth. Thats a nice little touch!

It also offers the chance to construct the placement of the shields in both ways they have been seen on TV, namely the right shield on the lower arm, like it was seen originally, or on the right shoulder as later appearances tend to wear it. I went for the second option, not for any particular reason actually perhaps then that it cover up the `hole` in the shoulder, where the arm plug in has a small `lid` that can be put in. I like my gold armours hole free thank you very much ;)

So, to rate this model is very subjective. People are going to like this set due to all the extras that come with it, while others like myself think it all a tat just too much. I`m going to grant it only a 2 out of 5, I`m not really a fan of the whole model and sculpt personally, and for me as I started with, this is a case where More is Less in my humble opinion.

Next time I`m going to try something special, going for a duo review, so till laters and ciao ciao.