Saint Seiya Myth Cloth review #33: Shaina of Ophiuchus

So it`s been a while, with all the painting, MMO`ing and Magic tournamenting going on in the Casa Moi, but that doesn`t mean I stopped collecting. Far from it, and this time I`m going to show off my latest limited edition from Tamashi nations, the feisty lass Shaina, silver saint of Ophiuchus.

Shaina has a fearsome reputation, being considered the strongest of Athena`s female saints, and fights with a violent style. She trained Cassios, who would end up fighting Seiya to earn the right to don the Pegasus cloth, and later don his life for that same Seiya as he realised that his death would cause his beloved mistress to much grief.

After Seiya`s victory, he split her mask, resulting in a terrible choice: love or death, as the rules of Sanctuary dictate. Even though she vowed she would kill him, she actually had feelings towards the Pegasus saint and nearly lost her life twice to protect him. First against Leo Aiolia, and later in the battle against Poseidon when he kept returning the Sagitarrius Arrow.

In the Hades story-arc she leads the Bronze saints that did not go to the Underworld to protect Sanctuary in the meantime. She later seems to pledge loyalty to Artemis, but her true intentions to fight Seiya where to help him regain his cloth.



Now the model itself was highly anticipated, as this would mean the start of finally getting to see the female saints in production. Marin is already in the pipeline, so now it is only a waiting game to see if Thetis will follow suit.

The model itself is elegant and nice, though cloth wise there isn`t much to be assembled. The female cloth is very sparse, with only a chest / shoulder piece, a left arm armor and knee protectors, alongside a belt. The knees and chest are metal, the rest is plastic.
You do however get two options for the headpiece: the sleek anime style one or the more curled and ornate version from the manga, which is the one I chose to put on the model.
You also have the option of building her with or without her mask, I opted for the with version (even though she has a pretty, anime resembling face) because 1. we get to see her like that most of the time and 2. I can`t have her vow to kill of all the male models in my cabinet ;)

Cassios, who accompanies the model in the set, is basically a pvc statuette, with no articulation, and I ain`t to fond of his facial expression, and face on the whole. It is a kind of `stand along` like for example the Eurydice model, but it is a nice addition to a collection for completeness sake.

All in all, I`m rating the set 3.5 out of 5, with Cassios pulling it all a bit downwards, but it was worth the wait for sure!