Toyzinger
The Saint Cloth Series collection, launched by Bandai in 1987 to coincide with the anime’s premiere, laid the foundations for what we now know as the “Vintage” line.
These figures, measuring approximately 12 cm, stood out for their innovative design, which allowed the characters to be dressed in armor composed of numerous metal pieces, which could also be assembled independently to form the base or “Object” of the corresponding sign.
Although they were once the most coveted toys among children who were fans of Saint Seiya, their complex structure of small pieces meant that many were lost over time. This makes it extremely difficult for today’s collectors to find complete copies in good condition outside of their original boxes.
The bronze knights are the 5 main characters of the series: Seiya (Pegasus), Hyoga (Cygnus), Shu (Andromeda), Ikki (Phoenix) and Shiriu (Dragon). Two versions of these figures were released, v1 (version1) and v2 (version2). This is because at one point in the series the knights were able to upgrade their armor and it changed aesthetically.
In addition to the two versions with the armor of the series, we can also find other figures of the same knights, limited editions released exclusively in Japan. The “Memorial” version, with golden armor, and the version with black armor, both versions being the same figures as v1 but painted differently.
In addition to the 5 main characters, the Bronze Saints, there are also a number of secondary characters in the series that help them, in this case we have the Steel and Silver Saints, and as expected, figures of these characters were also released.
The Sanctuary saga is, without a doubt, the most mythical saga of Saint Seiya, it features the Golden Knights, protectors of the twelve houses and charged with protecting the Patriarch and Athena, are the adversaries the protagonists must face to save Saori. The armors of these golden knights represent the 12 symbols of the zodiac.
The figures of the twelve golden knights, went on sale in Japan in 1987 and later came to Europe and Latin America, making these 12 figures the most desired for the children of the time.
The Asgard saga was a series of filler episodes on The Knights of the Zodiac anime, where the bronze knights traveled to Asgard and faced the warrior gods. Even being filler chapters (invented story, not taken from the original manga), fans value very positively this saga, there are even voices that say it is the best filler of all anime.
Obviously, BANDAI released figures featuring characters from this saga, adding eight more figures to the vintage Saint Seiya collection. Of these eight figures, only four were released outside Japan, with the other four being exclusive to the Japanese market, which makes them a little more expensive and difficult to find.
The god Poseidon is awakened from his slumber and kidnaps Saori with the intention of killing her and then flooding the entire world. Fortunately, once again the knights of Athena are willing to go to the world of Poseidon and rescue her, but not before fighting all the guardians of the god of the seas.
In 1988 BANDAI released this wave of figures as part of the Saint Seiya, this wave included the figures of all the characters of Poseidon’s army.
At this point, we have seen all the figures released in the late 1980s from the vintage Saint Seiya collection (53 pieces), but there is more. As we can see on the back of the Japanese boxes, there was a coupon that served as proof of purchase for these figures.
For a limited time, anyone (in Japan) could cut out those vouchers, and send them to BANDAI by mail. These people were entered into a contest where they could win exclusive figurines or accessories, which they would receive by mail. This is the reason why so many boxes in this collection are mutilated with the voucher part cut off.
These pieces are known as Presento which comes from “present” with the Japanese pronunciation. All these pieces stand out for coming in a very minimalist white box with instructions on the back of the box. The following is a list of these parts:
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