Be aware!Saint seiya Toys

[Steven]

I don't have any info on that, but I'm guessing it'll be a mixture of both Hades and Sanctuary (Bandai has always mixed its series since the end of the Gold Saints). I think it's a safe bet that the following Hades figures will be primarily based on Elysion, so we can expect Hypnos, Hades and the other God Cloths.

And not to alarm anyone, but don't discount the movies either. Bandai included a survey with the Japanese edition of Aries Shion where customers could pick figures the would like to see in the future lineup, and two of the choices were Lucifer (from the 4th movie) and Icarus Touma (from the 5th movie).
Now, I'm not a fan of all of the movies (liked the 2nd, 3rd and the 5th), but if I would ever get my hands on a Myth Cloth of Hrungir (the giant Viking with the boomerang weapons from the Asgard movie), I'd be in heaven!

[Steven]

So, the Myth Cloths. It's been a long and great line of action figures, more than anyone could have hoped for when it first started 7 years ago. But how much lifedoes it have left. Recently many fans have noticed that it seems Bandai is slowly wrapping up the series, and the recently announced figures at the latest Tamashii Nation convention have started even more rumors about "the end of the line".
It certainly is a great variety of figures that was confirmed: a new Appendix for Sagittarius Aiolos, Hades in his full armor, the red Steel Saint, Shaina and the Black Saints. So where's the problem?

Well, the problem is this:

-Ask any Saint Seiya fan which figures should make up a collection, and you'll probably get the 5 Bronze Saints (in any of their incarnations), the Gold Saints, Athena, the Asgard God Warriors, the Poseidon Generals and the main players of the Hades arc. Thing is, with a few exceptions (come on Thetis!) all of these figures have already been released. And what remains of the true fan favorite characters have now been announced or are likely to be released over the next year. What you are left with after that is a large group of characters who are not necessarily "minor", but over whom opinions will be more sharply divided among fans, resulting in lower sales figures. Yes, there are a lot of Silver Saints, Specters or even movie characters left to release, but they will appeal to a smaller group of people. Case in poit: two of the more popular Silver Saints, Perseus Algol and Misty have been released, but their sales figures were disappointing to Bandai. So what would the sales figures be for a Dante, June or Pharaoh?
- The prices of the Myth Cloths have increased sharply in the past 3 years. A couple of years ago the average Gold Saint cost 4500 yen, now a Bronze Saint will set you back almost 5500 yen. Coupled with te all time high course of the yen, this has also scared away many buyers.
- Bandai's inexplicable decision to forbid any European shops to order the figures directly from Japan or China, forcing them to wait for Bandai France's slower releases and effectively controlling pricing policy.
- The lack of any media support now the Hades series is finished. Yes, the Lost Canvas tv series has been moderately successful, but the two Myth Cloths based on that series (Tenma and Kahago) were not. Don't forget these are high end toys mostly bought by adult collectors for nostalgic reasons. Yes, there are some persistent rumors about a Next Dimension tv series or movie, but so far nothing official.
- The endless stream of "special edition" repaints in the last 2 years to milk every existing mold to the last drop. And we thought the vintage series was bad in this respect!
- Conversely, there have been almost no reissues of previously released Myth Cloths except for the Gold Saints, and some rarer figures are already fetching high prices. Try finding Ban, Natchi or something as recent as the Pegasus God Cloth for a reasonable price now.

My opinion: I think the line still has life enough left in it to run at least another year, but it would really surprise me if it still continues with the same regularity after that. I think that after they've exhausted the "fan favorites" (Hades, Shaina, Marin & Thetis, the Steel Saints, the Black Saints, Athena in her armor), any remaining characters will be more likely released at ever longer intervals or perhaps as collector's club exclusives. Unless, of course, a new tv series brings a new revival.