When people talk about comic movies and their current Renaissance, it always strikes me as unusual how often the daywalker somehow misses the cut off.
I can tell you from being there, back in 1998, what a huge deal Blade was, comic book-wise, movie-wise, and culture-wise. It hasn’t been since 1992 in Batman Returns we had a comic book movie that was dark,scary, imposing – – you know, the stuff that made comic book characters cool to us punk kids. And blade had that going for him in spades. It’s a testament to the movie, and the soundtrack, that I can hear Mystikaal or KRS One and instantly be transported back to the first time I saw wesley Snipes in his trademark black leather coat, kicking suck-head ass.
So when it comes to getting a Mezco 1/12 figure, this one is coming in hot- the only trouble of course being not getting a Wesley Snipes Blade figure per se. We’re getting Blade here most definitely, but this Blade is more of a mix of comic, movie, and TV elements; a sort of a “Blade for All Seasons” if you want. And if you do want, then let’s proceed.
And not content just to do one version, mezco gave us two. Sadly, one was only available at Toy Fair, or if you have really good friends like me (thanks VeeBee!). This is nothing new for the line, and usually involves some paint deco change, maybe a couple unique accessories, and so on, but in this case there’s essentially two distinct versions of Blade to be had, sigh….which is good and bad.
I have a feeling thanks to his popularity and just how good a figure he is, we may see a third one– that could kind of helps soothe over some of those missing parts. But with both in hand, I felt like I should go more into what makes them different than reviewing them individually.
When to start that, of course, by talking about what they have in common. Both figures come with the same crew-cut head sculpts, one stoic and one teeth bared, and obviously both share the same base body. This base is a little slimmer then say the Punisher build, but obviously a little taller and broader than the Daredevil body. Really it’s a perfect medium, and I kind of wonder if this is where Cyclops is going. Both bodies have a really nice tampograph tattoo effect up the arms and back of the neck, and both figures have faux leather pants and black t-shirts. There are some common weapons; We’ll get into those a little bit later.
The two main differences are the inclusion of two bald heads– evocative of the Spike TV series– with the toy Fair exclusive, and the inclusion of his trademark black and red lined leather jacket with the standard version. Is this a fair trade? It’s a tough call. There are some smaller bonuses on Toy Fair side as well, such as a nice sidearm, loosely based on the FN five-seven, and a second Katana with sheath. These honestly wouldn’t be deal-breakers but as a whole package, it’s completely understandable people would feel a little bit jilted.
Back to the uniforms, the Toy Fair version has a vinyl plate armor effect on the shirt, and the pleather material on the pants has a slightly different texture. The armor look is awesome, but honestly both are very appropriate for the character and look fantastic.
And both come with a sizable amount of weapons and accessories. Each has three stakes, a pump shotgun, and a B&T-style submachine gun. Both get a myriad of hands to hold the swords, stakes, and the guns, as well as two blast effects, one for the SMG or pistol, and one for the shotgun. And other than the stakes, the hands and weapons are all pretty much identical, near as I can tell. Again, it’s a shame that both versions aren’t as readily available, because having a pair of makes for one hell of an arsenal. The sheathes work on both, other than the obvious pairing for the Toy Fair, by a decent little magnet that attaches to the figure’s back, even with the jacket. They’ve got great detailing, but I have to say the red is just classy.c
Much like The Punisher, either version is going to be a crowd-pleaser. The head sculpts are on point with great paint applications, the base body has great articulation, and the clothing flows very fluidly with the range of motion. Both versions have a pretty sizable amount of accessories, and both feel a good bang for your buck. Honestly, other than the release options, I can’t think of a thing I would have done differently or better on either figure. Once again Mezco shows its aptitude for street-level characters, and this one fits right up there with Punisher in terms of overall badassness. Since I wanted to go over the differences between the two figures I don’t know if I stressed this enough– either figure could make a run for Mezco’s best of the year. If you have any opportunity to get the Toy Fair exclusive absolutely do it, but don’t feel bad if you have to settle for the standard version because you aren’t settling much at all.
