If you’re into Gunpla and hobby kits, Blokees are a more budget friendly option and feature different characters outside of the usual mechas. One of the more unusual anime that is featured is the Saint Seiya line. Saint Seiya is a hugely popular anime that never gained a huge following in the United States but in other parts of the world, this hit manga/anime still has a cult following. It follows the adventures of Seiya and his half brothers as they prevent the death of Athena and fight fellow saints and gods along the way. As with any manga/anime, it is difficult to summarize in a brief sentence. The main characters (known as saints) wear armor, known as cloths, that are modelled after various constellations in the real sky, with different rankings as Bronze, Silver, Gold and a few others. It is a cheesy action anime that is rare to see in the United States so when we came across Blokees Saint Seiya line, we had to build a model.
Material Quality: Excellent. The Champion Class has a lot of crisp detail with minimal blemishes after assembling.
Assembly Complexity: Light, the Saint Seiya Aries Mi figure is pretty straightforward. It is a great place to start if you’re new to hobby kits and is still enjoyable if you’re an expert.
Cleaning/Prep: the model does not require any tools or glue (though we used glue to keep the model extra durable). If you’re tempted to clean up the sprue lines, make sure that you are extra cautious not to remove the gold paint on the armor pieces. I was expecting the actual plastic to be gold, but there is a layer of gold paint sitting atop a darker base so any scratches will expose the underlayers. The same goes for the skin on the face but it is more subtle. If you scratch the face a small, you will notice a change in depth as you scratch the paint off, but otherwise it is the same color.
Instructions: Excellent. Sprues are labeled clearly and each step in the booklet is very easy to follow. Arrows point out particular alignments and studs to make sure you put the model together correctly. It’s a tough kit to mess up, but as long as you take your time and dry fit everything before gluing (if you decide to glue), you will get it done without issue.
Sculpt Detail: Excellent. For the cost ($20USD), this model is excellent. The faces are painted on and the armor detail is clear and crisp. This requires little upgrading if any. We may at some point panel line the armor for extra detail but otherwise, the sculpt detail stands out. This feels like a premium model.
Scale Compatibility: Roughly 1/12 scale, which isn’t necessarily for wargaming, which is usually what we post about. But we had fun with this guy. Roughly the size of a standard action figure.
Pose Variety: Very high posing possibilities. Head, neck, shoulders, forearms, wrists, thighs, hips, knees, ankles, toes, waist and chest all move and rotate freely. You can pose this figure in pretty much any pose you can think of outside of extremes like Spider-Man. Spider-Man being extremely flexible and getting into weird positions makes him an unfair player though. Either way, the Aries figure is very customizable and you can easily recreate poses from the manga and anime.
Paint Accessibility: Very good. If you choose to repaint the figure, it is easily accessible and easy to take apart to get all the books and crannies for all you out there that like to subassemble and then combine.
Customization: Decent. You have the option of long hair, hair with helmet and 2 faces. So you can have 4 head options and there are 6 different hands. Outside of the hands and head/face, nothing is customizable.
Durability: Moderate. This is definitely a figure that is meant to be displayed. It’s great quality but in terms of durability, it’ll fall apart if you pull hard enough. We used Tamiya Super Thin plastic cement for pieces that are not meant to be mobile and it increased the durability a bit. This will stand up to light play, but would absolutely be destroyed in a matter of minutes with a toddler.
Readability: Amazing. You can recognize the legendary golden armor from afar and if you’re familiar with the series, the armor is extremely accurate to the manga and anime.
Basing: The model comes with a stand and base that is meant to be the flooring from the Sanctuary. It is tiled marble flooring with a decorative “Saint Seiya” Plate for display.
Price Per Mini: We paid $20USD for this figure. It is a single hobby kit and a single model but it feels like and looks like it could easily be $40-50USD based on the quality and detail.
Time to Table: You can build this model in 45-60 minutes with or without glue. If you decide to use glue, make sure you apply it only to areas that do not have any motion (unless you want your figure to permanently be in the same position and never want it to change).
Blokees Saint Seiya Aries Mu figure is a blast to build. It was a fun experience for a surprisingly affordable price for the quality. Bandai beginner level kits sell for around the same price but fall apart easily or do not have the same level of mobility or detail. Their selection may be a bit smaller than Bandai but they definitely are spending a bit more time on their models and keeping their prices lower to boot.
Sushiball Games 