Hot Toys MMS113 1/6 Blade Collectible Figure REVIEW I

The character Blade was created in 1973 for Marvel Comics by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan as a supporting character in the 1970s comic "The Tomb of Dracula".

In 1998, the New Line Cinema film "Blade" starred Wesley Snipes in the title role with Kris Kristofferson as Abraham Whistler, Blade's mentor and weaponsmith, and Stephen Dorff as Deacon Frost. The film diverges almost entirely from prior comic representations of Blade, completely revamping the character's demeanor, powers and weaknesses. Rather than a normal human with immunity to vampirism and vampire hypnosis solely reliant on skill and ruthlessness, he is a superhuman with vampiric powers but none of the inherent weaknesses, with the exception of their thirst. To suppress his thirst, Whistler developed a serum, the original version being implied to be based on garlic and silver. The movie Blade is portrayed as an African American born in Detroit, Michigan, whereas the comic-books placed his birth in England.

And now from Hot Toys comes this MMS (Movie Masterpiece Series) 1/6th scale BLADE Limited Edition Collectible Figurine from the "Blade II (2002)" movie. "Blade (1998)" grossed $70 million at the US box office and over $131 million worldwide. Two sequels, "Blade II" and "Blade: Trinity" were subsequently produced.

The packaging is similar to their recent Marvel release, the "X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)" 1/6th scale Wolverine Limited Edition Collectible Figurine (pictures HERE). Think of it as a shoe box but instead of a pair of shoes when you lift up the lid/cover, you get the action figure.

Very nice visuals and design overall

Just like the card that had a description of Wolverine in the previous Marvel release, this one has one for Blade as well: "When the world is threatened by a new and deadlier breed of super vampire, the legendary Blade and his mentor Whistler must join forces with the Bloodpack, an elite team of vampire warriors made up of Blade's sworn enemies. These ravenous fiends must be destroyed at all costs in this high-voltage adventure."

The card insert shows the Blade prototype head sculpt picture instead of the re-worked and much improved Wesley Snipes HS

Hidden under the lid is the accessories pack. It's almost impossible not to damage the box cover when removing the accessories tray but this is like hidden treasure because I did not expect the tray hidden under the lid and the amount of accessories provided.

In the past, there had been the Toy Biz/Marvel Studios Blade Action Figure as well as Medicom Blade figures released (Medicom even released two versions!) but they all fall below par when compared with this latest Hot Toys 1:6 scale Blade collectible figure. This is the EXCELLENT Blade just out of the box dressed in the Daywalker’s movie-accurate costume of an overcoat, vest, shirt, pants and boots.

Wesley Snipes as Blade. Blade is depicted as having all of a vampire's strengths and none of the weaknesses except for blood-thirst. Blade has superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes and senses. He also has a healing factor. He can walk in sunlight as well, hence "Daywalker".

This FANTASTIC lifelike head sculpt of Wesley Snipes as Blade was sculpted by Lee So Young (nice name - Lee will always be "So Young") under the guidance of Ko Jun. When the first prototype pictures were released (see my post HERE) I was already sold as it was definitely Snipes from most angles BUT Hot Toys, being the perfectionist that they are, tweaked it even further and this end result BLOWS the mind!! Forget the supposedly laser-scanned likeness of Wesley Snipes as Blade from Marvel Studios by Toy Biz (and let's not even talk about Medicom's versions), Hot Toys most definitely knocked this one right out of the park! It's WOW! WOW!! WOW!!!

The authentic likeness and facial features of Wesley Snipes as Blade are all there, down to the characteristic hair style and tattoos. AWESOME!




The accessories and weapons that come with this 1:6 Blade figure blows the mind. With the motherload of accessories this figure comes with, I almost thought this was a Hot Toys DX figure. It seems that the only reason for a Hot Toys figure to be called DX is because of the P.E.R.S. (Parallel Eyeball Rolling System) and IMHO, the P.E.R.S. while being innovative and unique doesn't add much to the figure. A lot of the painted eyes look better than the translucent iris feature that Hot Toys produced to counter Enterbay's rolling eyes.

Back to the accessories. Being a 1:6 scale military figure collector and having gotten used to the truckload of accessories the military guys come with as compared to movie licensed figures, I must say Hot Toys Blade comes fully loaded for war.

Hot Toys MMS113 1/6th scale BLADE Limited Edition Collectible Figure comes with Sunglasses (oops, in my haste I forgot to include it), Double shoulder holster, Short padded bomber jacket, Interchangeable sword handle with blades, Sword, Scabbard, Two Custom Handguns (Heckler & Koch USP Matchs modified with laser sights and rail-like attachment), Machine Gun (a heavily modified Ingram MAC-10 sub-machine gun), Two extendable hand blades, Two foldable glaives, Five silver stakes, Two UV bombs, Four sets of interchangeable gloved hands (eight in total) and Figure stand with "Blade II" movie logo and Blade nameplate.

Close-ups of the foldable glaives and UV bombs. Be jealous, Batman, be very jealous coz Blade is much better armed than you

The very COOL Interchangeable sword handle with blades and two Handguns (Heckler & Koch USP Matchs modified with laser sights and rail-like attachment)

The stakes are really good with this one (pun intended). I'm really very pleased with this figure and cannot seem to find any fault with it :)

Close-ups of the Machine Gun (a heavily modified Ingram MAC-10 sub-machine gun) and extendable hand blades - all accurately and beautifully produced. The extendable injector spikes were worn on the back of the hand.

Close-ups of the Double shoulder holster, Short padded bomber jacket, Sword and Scabbard. With the bomber jacket and black overcoat with red inner lining plus all his weapons and accessories, there are just so many options that can be had with this ULTIMATE 1:6 Blade figure.

Blade uses the stylized double edge sword with an acid-etched titanium blade which has a security feature that will release blades into the wielder's hand after a set time. This is aborted by Blade by pushing a hidden switch in the sword's hilt.

The customary figure display stand and a total of eight gloved hands. There are 2 fists, 2 gun grip, 2 tight grip (for his pair of foldable glaives), 1 right sword grip and 1 left gesturing (much like when one uses the Force).

"Blade" was one of the first successful comic book based films to be released after the disastrous performance of "Batman & Robin". Its success convinced Marvel to develop the "X-Men" film series as well as the "Spider-Man" film series.

Review II - Blade wearing the short padded bomber jacket
Review III - Even more pictures of Hot Toys 12-inch 1/6 scale Marvel Blade action figure