Garo-Sho

Greetings my fellow brothers and sisters in toys collecting or whoever it is that is reading this. Ghost_XIII here, reporting in with another review. This time around, we gonna look at the new golden knight that is not from the Saejima bloodline, Garo-Sho. I have no idea what Sho means but whatever. This is the supposedly “final form” of Garo in season 3 before thing turns a bit anti-climatic at the end(go watch the show :p).

Makai Kado = exclusive Bandai stuff.

Inside the package, everything is served on two layers of plastic trays. You are getting:

First layer
-Garo
-Garoken
-splayed open hand(left & right)
-right holding things hand

Second layer

-Garo’s cape in 3 pieces

and of course, instruction manual.

Out of the box, the toy is good to go.

This is not the Garo that we know and love but I like the new take on the design. It feels a lot more modern but I wish it was more ornate because that’s what I like with the old design. Other than that, the paint apps and QC are great but somehow my copy has some sloppy paint job at Garo’s emblem at the waist armor. Oh well…..

Surprisingly, there are some metal on this figure other than the knee pads. They are at his forearm armor, chest, and the three removable bits at the back.

Despite being something from Garo, this figure has good articulation. Almost great actually.

The arm’s forward raise is not hindered at all by the shoulder and despite being on single-jointed joint, the elbow bend is pretty good. The leg raise is good but the knee…..OMG. This is the first time I am so pissed with a toy. I’ll get back to that in just a moment. The knee can bend a perfect 90 degrees. I wish it can go a bit further but it will suffice. Sadly, there is not toe joint as usual.

Now, why am I so mad with this figure? If you look in the picture above, the knees are actually PROPERLY DOUBLE-JOINTED. What the hell Bandai?? I don’t know what happened during production but the joint is pushed too deep into the thigh until the upper part of the joint is practically useless. No, my copy is not the only one with this setup. After some scouring through the net, apparently all Garo-Sho can only bend their knees 90 degrees despite being double-jointed. Zen can bend his knee properly, Gai, despite having a crappy leg raise can bend his knee properly and we are talking about the main character of the show which his name is the damn show title and this is how Bandai treat him? WHY?? I guess its an iron-clad rule at Bandai that a Garo figure can never have a double-jointed knee or it will trigger the end of the world. Somebody missed the memo and this is how they fix the mess. That’s the only reason I can think of.

Looking down is of no issue but looking up will need some help from the torso articulation. Sideways looking is pretty limited due to the collar around the neck.

Since this is a figure from Garo, the mouth can open.

Despite the knee “issue”, the figure can still pull off a decent Iron Man pose.

Moving on to the accessories department, we have the Garoken.

Unlike the one that came with the old Garo, this one is made from plastic.

You need to remove a little stub at the hilt and thread the handle in for the hand to hold it.

Although it did not appear in the show, a cape is included for this Garo.

The inner parts actually have a purplish tint if you look at it in person but my camera picks it up as blue.

The cape is in three pieces where you peg in the two on the side with the one at the center. The peg have a hinge too so you can raise or swivel them around if you so choose. The whole thing is quite heavy actually.

To attach this to Garo, you need to remove the three metal pieces from his back. Just the center one would suffice actually.

The cape is hilariously big(to me at least). I never liked Garo with cape. Be it old or this new one.

Just like with the old one, doing anything fancy with the cape on is borderline impossible.

So, should you buy this?

I need to get this out of my system first and foremost; the thing with the knee is inexcusable no matter how you slice it. I felt insulted actually. Even with the knee issue, as a whole package, I think Garo-Sho is worth it. This figure retailed at USD 100 or so and if you look around, you can still find him at that price(or even lower). For what you pay and what you gonna get, this Garo offers a bit more compare to the other knights mainly due to the cape inclusion. There is a slightly different version of this mold which is the Ryuga version(which sadly, I do not owned) with some color and sculpts differences but essentially just the same thing. If you like some black on your Garo, the Ryuga is the way to go but I prefer my golden knight fully gold so this is the one for me.

With that, it’s the end of this review. I hope you enjoy reading it and as usual, any comment and critics are always welcome to improve my review the next time around. This is Ghost_XIII reporting out :).