Dave's Toy Rant:

     Blade with Anti-Vampire Weapons ("Trenchcoat Blade")

     After the movie came out and I was impressed enough to want to check
this toy out, suddenly all the trenchcoated versions vanished from the
shelves, no doubt into scalper hands.  But I finally found one this weekend,
because the box has just been put on the pegs.

CAPSULE

     Great poseability, excellent sculpt, very good coat, decent weapons,
good solid plastic.  And it even looks like Snipes.  Strongly recommended.
$7.99 at Toys R Us.

RANT

     I have exactly two complaints about this figure, so I'll get them out of
the way so I can spend the rest of this review praising the toy.
     1) There isn't storage for all his weapons.  A couple extra slots on his
belt to hold the spare crossbow bolts would have helped a lot.
     2) Hips aren't ball jointed, thighs don't have a swivel, so the nifty
ankle and toe joints don't get to do too much.

     Yes, ankle and toe joints.  Plus knee, hip, waist, shoulder (ball),
elbow, wrist and neck joints.  No "GIJoe" upper arm swivels either, but it's
not as big a problem as with the legs.  Yeah, Mystic Knights have spoiled me,
okay?  Still, 16 points of articulation is nice, especially since they're all
pretty sturdy.  Metal pins on the toe joints, so no need to worry about
losing the toes.
     Paintjob is a little lacking.  Most of the figure is dark grey with some
silver accents, plus shiny black boots and matte black hair and tattoos (and
correct skin color, of course).  A little airbrushed shading and highlighting
would have been nice, but not vital.
     As mentioned above, the face sculpt actually looks like Snipes.  It's
one of the most accurate faces I've ever seen on an action figure, if not THE
most accurate.  On the other hand, Frost looks completely wrong, so maybe
they just put more effort into the star.
     The trenchcoat is one of the best clothing accessories I've seen in a
while.  Soft, supple naugahyde (I think...it's leather-like on one side and
cloth on the other), it doesn't quite fall like a real leather coat (the
collar, as always, is a problem), but it flares dramatically and looks good.
And since the figure has ball jointed shoulders, it's fairly easy to put on
and take off.  Also, it has a slit in the back so that his katana can be
sheathed even when the coat is on.
     Blade's other two non-weapon accessories are his shades (which ride a
little low over his ears...the peg holes should have been about .3mm higher)
and weapons belt.  The belt is not easily removed, but since the holsters
clipped to it *are* easily removed, this isn't a big problem.
     Now the weapons.  The only real loser of the lot is the brace of stakes
clipped to his hip.  This piece really doesn't look good and you practically
need to use pliers to jam it on enough that it'll stay on.  The sword is very
nice, although it's not a katana (it's double-bladed, for one thing).  The
throwing blade was a noble effort, and even folds down like the one in the
movie, but it falls apart easily, stores poorly and is held loosely.  There's
two guns, but Blade can only hold one at a time, due to the way his hands are
molded (left hand holds only the sword).  One has a clip which slides in and
out, the other has an extending flame piece and can have the crossbow fit
onto it for your basic "Aliens"-style kitbashed weapon.  The crossbow is
pretty anemic, and when it's fitted onto his forearm you can't even pull the
bolt back all the way, because Blade's fist gets in the way (the notches on
the bolts are cut the wrong direction).
     Of course, the weapons are just gravy, the figure has enough meat that
it doesn't matter if the gravy's weak.  Ditch everything but the katana and
you're ready to rock...once you fill the hole in his leg where the stakes
go.  }->

     Dave Van Domelen, okay, had more than two complaints, but the rest were
all about the weapons, not the figure....