The Club Eternia figure for April 2014 is Blade! Blade is the first Masters of the Universe Classics figure based on a character from the 1987 movie, and, for my money, he’s the coolest of the new characters created for that film. He actually stood toe-to-toe with He-Man and looked to offer a real challenge for him, a rarity in most MOTU media. The prototype for Blade looked fantastic, but subsequent production samples have left me with concerns, including paint issues and ill-fitting armor. Fortunately some of my concerns were alleviated by the final figure.
Blade Bio
Real Name: Ritter
A pirate from the Kylax system, Blade arrived on Eternia® in a spell of light cast by Skeletor® to increase his forces. Agreeing to join the Overlord of Evil™ for the right price, Blade sold his services and took part in the Second Ultimate Battleground, fighting blade to blade with He-Man® himself at the top of Viper Tower. He later traveled with a small renegade party, paid to seek the Cosmic Key from its inventor. Although he failed in this mission, his deadly mastery of the sword left its mark, and he became one of the most wanted men in Eternian history. Blade uses his dual swords to battle heroic warriors – for the right price!
I like this bio as it lays out a little background on him in terms of his previous profession of piracy in the appropriately spacey-sounding Kylax system. Space pirate is always good in my book, and Blade is mentioned as a mercenary in the film, so it makes sense. I even like the real name this time around.
Accessories
Blade comes with two swords and his laser whip. One sword is based on the sword he uses in the film, and one is based on the sword from the original figure. Both swords seemed to have not made it through the production process as cool as you would like because they seem a little large and overly blunt, even by the toy safety standards usually applied to the line that blunts all edged weapons.
The lack of paint applications does not help, and, quite frankly, they remind me of weapons you would get in a Playmates ninja turtle figure rather than the usually nicer and sharper MOTUC sculpts. They both just feel clunky to me, and that’s a shame for a guy named “Blade” to have swords that are not quite up to par.
I may try and paint these to see if I like them better that way. Another odd thing is that the handle is pretty thick on the movie sword and stretches out the hands on the figure.
I actually would have preferred two matching swords since he used matching swords in the film and came with two matching swords in the vintage line, so I decided to order a couple of 3D-printed swords from Shapeways by sculptor DerWaffenmeister. These swords seem a little small to me and the handles do stretch the hands slightly, but I prefer the level of detail and the sharper blades.
The whip is pretty cool and was prominently featured in the film, so it’s great to have here. It’s made of some slightly gummy translucent plastic, but that’s not as much of an issue as it normally would be since the weapon doesn’t need to be straight.
Sculpt
Blade reuses a lot of the basic body parts with some newly sculpted forearms, thighs, boots, armor, head, and accessories. The head sculpt is the highlight of this figure for me. They have managed to capture the spirit of the actor Anthony DeLongis, but in the thicker, more exaggerated MOTUC style.
He doesn’t have quite the same look as the vintage figure in the face, but I think they’ve made the right choice to show more movie influence. The whole figure does seem to be more movie accurate than the vintage figure in detail while still maintaining the MOTUC proportions.
The armor is a bit loose and not formfitting, which does cause an issue with the overall profile of the figure. I think the shoulder pads make him look a little too squat as though he has no neck.
The nice thing about the looser-fitting armor is that you can move the figure’s ab articulation beneath the armor and still get good range of motion while mostly avoiding a peek-a-boo belly button. A solution to the armor issue I have employed is to not fully insert the head into the neck peg.
I have it sit higher on the neck, and, to me, this slight mod makes all the difference and corrects the odd, no-neck look to my satisfaction. For the pictures in this review the head is popped off the neck peg slightly.
Another feature of the sculpt that I absolutely love is the loops on his belts for his blades. Weapon storage ability is always nice.
Articulation
Blade has the standard MOTUC articulation and fortunately his chain mail skirt does allow for a decent range of leg motion since it is made a of a very soft plastic.
Paint
The lack of paint on the accessories was already mentioned, but beyond that paint is fine on this figure. I do like the shining silver used on his armor quite a bit. Blade does have a bit of a bland color pallet, but that’s the established design, so I can’t complain too much.
Overall
Blade is a good figure. He strikes a great profile on the shelf, he’s fun to pose and play with, and he gets us that much closer to finishing off the Evil Warriors faction in MOTUC. The only real downside for me is the weapons that seemed to be a little more dulled by production than I’m used to seeing.
Previous Features:
- Gorpo
- Dark Soldiers
- Strongarm
- Two Bad
- Plundor
- Articulated Draego-Man head sculpt
- General Sunder
- Hover Disc
- Battlelord
- Teckno Jackal
- Conan
- Horde Troopers
- Geldor
- Nepthu
- Mantenna
- Lord Dactus
- Karatti
- He-Mike Skeleton Warriors
- Duskfang Conversion Kit
- Castaspella
- Batros
- Sky High and Jet Sled
- Shokoti
- Fighting Foe Men
- Icer
- Octavia
- Snake Face
- King He-Man
- Fang Man
- Ram Man
- Jitsu
- Netossa
- Granamyr
- Eternos Palace Randor
- Snake Men Two Pack
- Sir Laser-Lot
- Vykron
- Snake Man-At-Arms
- Stinkor
- Spector
- Draego-Man
- Thunder Punch He-Man
- Kobra Khan
- Fisto
- Fearless Photog
- Demo-Man
- Battleground Evil-Lyn
- Star Sisters
- Class of 2011
- Class of 2009
- Icarius
- Hurricane Hordak
- Man-E-Faces
- Megator
- Queen Marlena
- Clawful
- The Faceless One
- Battleground Teela
- Catra
- Panthor
- Battle Armor Skeletor
- King Hssss
- Bow
- Palace Guards
- Vikor
- Class of 2010
- Buzz-Off
- Grizzlor
- Roboto
- Chief Carnivus
- Whiplash
- Count Marzo
- She-Ra
- Keldor
- Optikk
- Evil-Lynn
- Moss-Man
- Faker
- Stratos
where did you get those black troopers from the movie? did matty make them?
Great photos as usual. He looks like a really good figure but I completely agree about the weapons. I wish Mattel were still doing the Weapons Paks so we could get another couple of swords for him.