LEILA MARCUS

 Again, lets stay in 2001 a little longer since it was quiet an interesting time frame to be for multiple enterpirses like anime and videogames or even toy collecting, since back in that moment McFarlane Toys was changing the public perseption over "toys are only for children" and with it, multiple new studios arised with the same concept of adult collecting, like ReSarus, Palisades or NECA but there was also the japanese toys studio like MobyDick and Epoch, Fewture or Marmit.

Figures under this brands used to be very rare and very expensive too since they were imports and they felt totally different to those of western brands. Bandai, Kotobukiya and Kayodo even had a sticker on the blister marked with "JAPANESE PRODUCT". But focusing on today´s subject, Epoch was mostly doing action figures based on fight games, like Tekken 3, Dead or Alive, Samurai Shodown 64, Guilty Gear X or even Soul Calibur but they also released an action figures set for Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, one of the best anime movies in history.

Aside of Tekken they only released a single set for each series soo the Vmpire Hunter D set had only two figures: D and Leila. Seen the amazing artwork of the movie on the card with all the text in bloody red and the figures displayed in full glory in front was very exciting, at least for me. Leila is exactly the same heigh as D soo she can fits to modern NECA or Storm figures perfectly tough she cant stand on her own at all given her long lehs and loose ankle articulations and sadly, they didnt include a base this time unlike D.

She is very articulated...like a lot and thats quiet unusual for figures from 2001. This is probablly the most articulated figure in the entire Epoch production since she have an articulation on her head that not only let move it it from left to rigth but also up and down and since she dont have long hair or a cape, her ehad have a huge range of movement. Her shoulders have ball joints but they cna be open thanks to her shoulderpads but they have a very good up and down movement range.

The biceps can rotate and the elbows have that wrid diagonal cut that let them rotate to make them looks like they are bent but doing it is tricky since a bad ajustment can make them looks like broken arms. The wrists cna rotate as well and the legs have exactly the same diagonal cut that let them move and open at the same time. Thighs have a rotating cut in the middle that cut the entire asculpt and knees have two articulations that gives them a pretty deep bend option. Near the ankles there another roation articulation while the ankles themselve have a hinge that let them move up and down.

This ankles hinge along side the high heels and the loooong legs dont let Leila stand on her own at all tough given the reasonable movement of her legs is posible to keep her in balance in certain poses. Unlike D she is not pre-posed soo she have more chances to have different poses to display in a more natural way. The articulation system is weird for now day standar but backn in 2001 this was super dynamic.

Just like D the sculpt is really good and it follows the character design perfectly, with the long neck and ling legs and thin waist, Leila´s shape is very stylish and the futuristic corse, jacket and very tigth pants looks really good tough the roating articulations on the legs broke the sculpted line on the pants, uot the hips all articulations are pretty well hidden. The corse in the center as well as the opening in her chest revealing the bandages D use to heal her are particulary well sculpted and i really like her hands as well since they have long fingers and a pretty delicate and femenine manierism.

The head follows the character design too with the long face, nose, small moth and huge eyes and the short hair looks good as well with a blond color, a dark brush on the borrom and white accents on top to give it a very anime hair style. The eyes have a sad look on them with many eyelaches and big blue pupils as well as a purple shade on the upper lid but the rest of the face is not painted and this makes the face features got lost with the shiny skin color plastic and thats a shame.

The rest of the bdy is dark red with a darker air brush randomly used just like with D´s body suit with the inside of her jacket painted in gret and the corse details in black as well as the bandage sin qhite. Aroudn her wrists theres a lot of very colorfull and almost childish looking bands painted in silver colors and she is wearing a big belt with the hoslter of her gun at the left side. The holster is HUGE but since this belt is made of soft plastic it dosnt get in the way of the arms or legs and it just hangs from her hips pretty nicelly.

Spekaing of her gun, this weapons have the same odd shape as in the movie veing extremelly thick with four bullets at the sides. Its pretty hard to explain it since is a totally futuristic gun that looks like a revolver. The paint job is ok with some gun metal aribrush on it as some silver and brown accents on the handle and it fits perfecly on the holster on her hips or on her rigth hand.

She comes with two extra hands for hold stuff as well. Both hands have the same colorfull rings around the wrists and they can be swap pretty easy despite the hard material used. Both hands have her fingers posed in a different way soo they are not holding an item in a generic way and i like that, just like the relaxed hands, this hands have an awfull lot of personality for such a tiny sculpt.

Leila also comes with her googles when she is on her bike and they are dark green with the center painted in silver soo you cant see her eyes once on her eyes but sadly, theres no way to put the googles on her beacues theres no clip  or peg or anythign to keep them in place and Leila´s hair also get in the way. Is almost like they didnt designed them to be used.

She also comes with her grenade launcher she use to attack Mayer Link´s carriage once out of his hidden spot. This launcher thingy looks almost like dandomly make because it have sections that looks from differentweapons but at the same time dont look like an specific weapon either (like her revolver) and is cast on grey plastic. Despite looking pretty cheap and generic, both sides can extend soo it can fit on her bike holster tough is not possible for her to hold this weapon in a confortable way thanks to her awkard articulations.

And lastly is Leila´s bike. Yes, Epoch added her fucking bike along side her, like a normal accesory when this vehicles is actually heavyer than her. Its heavy and big  and looks exactly the same as in the movie. The design of course is very industrial and militaristic, simple and cool with a single wheel and a cross shaed design in front as a lanthern (tough its only sculpted in here). The machine is painted in military green with a darker airbrush to give it fake shadows. The seat and handlebars are painted in black while the controls in front and behind the metal plate are painted with fuel markers and theres a red and orange light in the back.

The two pedals in the back are articulated and move up and down since Leila´s heels fits perfectly on them. The wheel is ain independent sculpt and while made with black hard plastic, it actually moves and spins perfecly!! How to make such vehicle to stand? Well, theres a base included that consist on a black clamp like stricture that holds the back from the sides of the wheel and keep it "levitating". This lets you rest the bike on the ground of move it to the front to make it looks is moving.

Theres a couple of post on the rigth side to rest the rocket launcher thingy on it and thanks to Leila´s fully articulated body she can sit on the bike perfectly. Its tricky, deffinetly, open her legs enough soo her heels fits the pedals and the holding hands must be used in the handlebars and thanks to the artuclation on her neck that lets her mvoe her head up, she can be displayed riding the bike perfectly or just standing with it between her legs soo the bike works as a base.

While the figure is good enough, the addition of the vehicle made this figure the coolest thing to own and really help to elevate the display much more. D is realy good and looks nice on the pillar but Leila is much fun to play with deffinetly and while i am sure many people would find this figures dated and dissapointing, for me they are the coolest things around because in 25 years theres no other figure produced making them unique and even more special. Sure they can be much better with modern standars but this are products of theyr time, and back in theyr time this collection was more than perfect.

D

 After the last post lets stay in 2001 a little bit. Aside of McFarlane releasing its Tortured Souls we had amazing games in the Playstation 2 like Silent Hill 2 and Metal Gear Solid 2 and in cinema we had the start of the J-Horror fever with The Ring. Anime was getting stronger and stronger and we had a particular anime movie that put the standar into an imposible to reach height: Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust. A movie based in Hideyuki Kikuchi´s second Vampire Hunter D novel that demanded to be seen in the big screen because not only it was glorious visuals, but it had one of the most amazing soundtracks to be hear to follow the exciting journey of the dumpeal vamire hunter D in a futuristic and yet gothic and veautifull decadent world.

Its been 25 years and Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust looks as magnificent and perfect as it looked back in 2001 and back then we didnt had too much merch based on it aside of t-hisrts, posters, the DVD and other small details but we actually ahd action figures and i cant explain how exciting it was to see the figures on display on its blister with the card on the back featuring the amazing poster of the movie, all black and white with the text in bloody red, they lookes soo cool and edgy.

The studio that made them was Epoch soo they were pretty rare and expensive since this figures were a Japan import. D is made in the same scale as modern action figures soo he was quiet big for most figures back then but now day he fits perfectly with anything NECA, McFarlane of even Storm soo he have the perfect size to have presence on the shelve.

This man cant stand on hos own given of the shape of his legs and how weak are the articulations but he does comes with a base that keeps him in balance perfectly thanks to two pegs for each of his feet. His head can rotate but very subtly since the long hair and the cape block the movement quiet a lot. His right shoulder have a ball joint soo he can move it up and down and to the side tough his left shulder is static. 

He have a cut joint on each biceps to rotate the arms tough this really mess with the sculpt and he have double articulation on each elbow for a pretty deep bend and he can rotate both wrists. The legs have a cut joint in diagonal soo while he can move his legs to the front and the back he does it in a very awkard diagonal way and both thighs have a cut joint in the midle that let him rotate the leg and help him pose his legs a little bit more natural but this cut the sculpt of the thigh and he have double articulation on his knees to bend them pretty deep. The top of the boots rotate and he have articulations on the ankles.

This figure was very different since back then standar was almost only a few articulations but D is very very articulated and yet, many of this articulations are useless because the sculpt have an specific pose in mind. He is standing in a very femenine way with the right arm rised with his sword and the left arm down, soo the whole body follows this pose as well as the cape soo the left shoulder is rised and the legs cant be opened too much.

With certain exploration he can achive a few good looking poses but is very tricky and also, after 25 years i must be very carefull with the articulations since the material used dosnt looks too strong. The material its a little bit soft (and maybe thats why it hasnt broke in 25 years) while the plastic used on his cape, hair and hat are much more softy and gummy while the sword sheath on his back is made with very hard plastic.

The sculpt is very clean and have no textures at all, the muscle structure is good, very lean and aerodynamic and the lines of the legs and other parts of the body suit are perfecly sculpted (tough i still dont know waths D´s outfit is supposed to be...). There is a soft plastic belt hnging from his hips and a pendant hanging from his neck with a real chain (yeessss a real golden tiny chain, not sculpted!!). The gauntlets have a very Amano style patthern sculpted and the cape fillows the shape of the arms perfectly soo both arms can come out and be moved without being blocked. The cape sculpt flows good and it culrs on the rigth side on a very dramatic way.

The head is not very well defined. I mean it have a mouth and an sculpted nose  but they have a blanck expression but thats the base face expression of D and also the while head is pale white, wth no paint at all aside of the eyes painted in black in a shoujo manga style. Is VERY basic but in the end, 90% of the face is covered by the hat soo is imposible to notice this without taking the figure in hand and take a look under the hat.

The hat and cape are sculpted in a soft grey while the body is sculpted in a darker grey tone and the gantlets and boots are painted in black. Both the cape and body have airtbrush of darker grey soo the figure dosnt looks that plain and theres very small golden accents around the entire body suit, following D muscles and around his boots and gauntlets. Also the pendant is perfectly painted in blue while theres a white scarf under the body suit with blue lines. All this details are covered by both the hair and cpae but i find very amazing Epoch add them.

I am not sure i like the inside side of the cape tough....yellow? Is not a color i ssociate with D and while it contrasts with the figure, i am not sure it suits him. Also the hair is very well ainted with multiple tones of brown in a inconsistent patther that makes it looks real and the giant sword sheat is painted to make it look like real wood.

Theres not many accesorys here tough, typical from the 2001. He have an extra rigth hand with his palm open and the parasite in full display. The sculpt is good for such a tiny size and both the eyes and nose are actually painted in black while the mouth have a red bloody paint job that contrast a lot with the white color of the hand. Swap hands is very easy tough for my surprise.

Theres D sword too that fits perfectly in its sheat and on his hand as well. the sword is huge and very thin and that makes it very delicate. The handle is also very very thin ad delicate and i already broke it and glued it back but this is the design of the sword on the books soo theres no alternative. The paint of the handle is very delictae mix of browns that makes it looks like ancient bronce while the blade is just silver but this peice is the section that must be handle with the most care.

And finally theres the base. Back then they used to make bases to work as dioramas for the figures and this is not ecception since we have a column here like those seen on the rest place where D face Caroline in the movie. The sculpt is very basic while the paint mix really good white with soft grey to makes it looks like stone and mixed with all the crakcs looks detailed enough and given its nature it makes D looks like the statue of a dark good on top of it.

This figure is such a mixed bag. For some the lack of deffinition of the face as wel as the materials and articulations may this looks like a very dated toy but for others this figure is extremelly good looking despite its limitations and more importantly....after 25 years we didnt get any other Vamprie Hunter D action figure soo this was the first and pretty much the only one as well. Wish this D was more complex? Sute, but back in 2001 this is the best we could ask for a figure.

JUN KAZAMA

After 3 pretty awesome serires of figures of Tekken 3 i was actually expecting a 4th serires tough the blister didnt anounce anything like that in serires 3. Instead, Epoch restarted the collection based on Tekken Tag Tournament and changed the figures a lot.

Still sculpted by Hiroki Hayashi and in scale 1/10, the line included Kazuya Mishima, Lei Wulong, Eddy Gordo and Jun Kazama, but sadly this serires was very rare and i was never able to see them more than a couple of times. I really wanted Kazuya but istead i only got Jun Kazama.

Jun is thing....really tiny figure...as small and Xiaoyu but without the fluffy outfit, she is pretty light and delicate and can stand on her own tough they also included a base, but this time the base didnt had the Tekken logo and only had a piece of rocky floor with a black arm to hold the figure. I lost the arm at some point but Jun can stand on her own soo i am not worryed.

If the Tekken 3 character were mostly statues, Jun is fully articulated on the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, legs, knes and ankles and this is the biggest change deffinetly. She have a huge pose range but....all articulations are cut joints, soo they only move in one direction and this mean you need to rotate her elbows 180° to simulate bent elbows. Her legs have the same system soo its really tricky to give her a nice looking pose....she cant even close her legs at all...

The sculpt is good like always, with her face looking really delicate and femenine, with the ribbon on her hair and her short and vest, her outfit is really simple and overall...she is kinda simple looking too...i mean, compared to the Tekken 3 characters.

The paint is totally clean, specially on her face and this time around the strands of hair on her forehead are not slopy at all. Her outfit is a very pale blue, wich makes her looks almost totally white and the only strong colors in here are her black hair and a red handkierchef on the pocket of her chest.

Her accesorys are 3 extra hands: two open hands and one pointing hand that can be exchanged really easy and help to imporve her look. The ther accesoryes are a pair of bent legs. Yes..this is soo weird but she have a extra pair of legs that can be exchanged in the knes section. Its easy to do it but is not easy to pose this legs correctly to make her stand.

It seems Epoch was really aming for dynamic posing with this lasts erires of Tekken, but the complex articulation system was a big let down for me and kinda makes her looks like a robot. She is pretty for sure and for years this was the only Jun figure on the market, but the Play Arts Kai really surpassed this figure on all sences.

KING

At the end of the last century, when videogames started to change into something more cinematic, we also got a huge wave of figures based on game characters. One of the most active brand was Epoch, dedicated mostly to fighing games they released a pretty long and succesfull line for Tekken, a line that is until now the most complete one.

Series 3 opened with Hwoarang and Anna Williams and closed with King and Forest Law, but King was my favorite by a long shot, he is one of my favorite figures of the series rivaling with Anna Williams. The "Anger of Beast" King is sculpted again by Hiroki Hayashi and is on scale 1/10 and he is actually the tallest and bulkyest figure of the entire collection, he is really heavy as well, a huge hunk of plastic.

He can stand on his own perfectly and again, he have limited articulation in very specific points: right shoulder, ebow and wrist, left bicep and wrist, waist and both knes and thats it and is sculpted on a single pose but with the help of this articulations he can achive a couple of different poses as well.

The sculpt is really really good, his musculature is soo amazing and impresive, Hiroki Hayashi really knows about anatomy both male and female and he shows it here. Animal anatomy is also included here thanks to the leopard mask and the boots have a lot of intrincate details, even a cat paw the shoe sole.

The fur texture is well done and is also included in the tail. They give him his tail!! It can be removed with a peg and a hole on his ass but it can rotate too soo is included in the articulation department.

The paint on his outfit is very simple and clean and most of the paint work is on his musculature, different tones of brown and pink to high light his already impresive body and looks really really good since his skin tone is softly brown. The leopard pattern on the mask is good tough for some reason the fangs are not painted and this is the only inconvinient.

Aside of the traditional black with logo base all Tekken characters have, he also comes with an extra set of hands, a closed fist and a thumbs up fist (or thumbs down), bot hands can be exchanged pretty easy and the third and last accesory is the wrestling champion belt made with soft plastic. The sculpt on the big coin belt have an eagle with a crown and is painted in golden and since the plastic is soft, it can be wrapped around King´s waist.

I was pretty happy with this figure and 20 years later i am still happy with him since he is one of the coolest and best looking figures of the series and this is pretty much the only action figure of King. Forest Law didnt looked bad at all but for some reason i didnt buy him soo this one was the close piece for the series for me.

ANNA WILLIAMS

At the begining of the century Epoch was on a wave of release with many obscure toys lines and a lot based on videogames, but theyr longest line was Tekken for sure and theyr serires 3 was really impresive. It took them a long time but they finally released my favorite female from Tekken, Anna Williams.

The "Lightning Scarlet", Anna Williams is sculpted by Hiroki Hayashi and in scale 1/10, pretty much the same scale as her sister Nina. but unlike her, Anna can stand on her own perfectly and is not on a battle stance, instead she have a pretty sensual and fluid pose, perfectly for her and her beautifull red dress.

She is articulated on her head, long gloves and waits soo she is the more statuesque of the entire line. Galdly, her pose have enough attitud and personality to not make her look stiff, quiet the opposite. The sculpt is really good, with a very realistic anatomy and some sculpted designs on her chest, her face is really beautifull and her bob haircut is longer than how she use it now.

The paint is really good, with some soft golden shines on her brown hair and metalic golden tones in the inside of her dress, her dress is vibrant and have some black details tough the best part is the bird on its rigth side. I really wish the Kotobukiya statue had this level of detailing on the dress. My only complaign is her eyebrows, for some reason they are mostly blonde.

Her accesoryes aside of her black base with the lego are a bunch of weapons and an extra arm to hold them, just like Nina. The arm can be exchanged much more easy than Nina´s and like her, Anna comes with a gun and two knifes: a machine gun, a sword and a huge knife that looks like a saw. Is like the same arsenal of Nina but much more hardcore.

Is weird giving Anna such weapons since she never use them on the game but they looks really good on her and make sense given we even see her using a rocket launcher. Overall, this is one of my favorite figures from the series, not only this is the only action figure of Anna but she is exceptionally good looking.

HWOARANG

It was the 2000 when we got a huge wave of videogame action figures like Final Fnatasy VIII, Resident Evil, Crahs Bandicot, Tomb Raider as well as Tekken from the japanese brand Epoch. It was like we were actually going to get every Tekken 3 character back then, even those characters that were not playable (like Devil Jin).

Serires 3 started with the "Blood Talon" Hwoarang, Jin´s eternal rival. Sculpted by Hiroki Hayashi and in 1/10 scale, Hwoarang is the same size as Jin and can stand on his own perfectly and is articulated on the neck, waits, left shoulder, rigth elbow and left wrist.

And unlike the characters in the first serires, the figures from serires 3 are sculpted in a more casual pose, not battle stance. Hwoarang is standing calling someone in front of him, mostly Jin i guess because they loosk really good one in front of the other, with Jin ready to battle and Hwoarang calling him with a smirk.

The relaxed pose dosnt make him easyer to move around tough since thanks to the limited articulations (one arm can move, the other cannot) he looks kinda stiff in most poses aside of the basic one. He is not using his Tae Kwan Do outfit but his more complex motorcycle outfit with boots, chaps, jeans and a tigth and very sesy short and his goggles on his forehead.

The sculpt is good, with a very sexy musculature and a lot of fine details on his gloves and hair, his face is very simple but expresive (he is very simple on the game too) and the paint match the sculpt really nicelly. There is not slopynes in here at all, every section is perfecly painted and clean with his chaps even having a blue paint deco that makes them looks like used leather.

The skull on his back is also really good looking, such a cool design! But the best part is his head, or more preciselly, his hair. The paint on his hair is really vibrant and full of different tones, reds and orange to make shine a really good sculpt.

Aside of his black base with the Tekken 3 logo, Howarang also comes with the King of Iron Fist Tournament trophy since he was the winner of the thrid tournament, a pretty ugly thing with Heihachi´s grining head on it painted in golden. The other accesory is an electric guitar that we never saw on the game but fits him perfectly Is kinda difficult to make him hold it naturally (i cannot be done actually) but the guitar have a black rubber band soo it can rest on Hwoarang´s back or shoulder.

While i am not sure wath to think about the change of pose, it was evident Epoch wanted to expand the serires to something else by adding more accesoryes and articulations and while this is not the best figure of the series, is still the only action figure of Hwoarang.

DEVIL JIN

After a succesfull serires 1 of Tekken action figures, Epoch closelly followed with a second serires based on Tekken 3. Back then it was very exciting to see soo many toys based on videogames like resident Evil, Tomb Raider and Street Figther soo Tekken added some changes to serires two to add more excitment.

The serires two opened with Heihachi Mishima and Yoshimitsu and despite the cool design Yoshimitsu had back then, i wasnt too much of a fan of both characters at all. But the next two figures were something else, laveled as "SPECIAL" editions they were monsters, bigger, more expensive and rare to find: True Ogre and Devil Jin. I was never able to get the final boss of Tekken 3 but i was able to find Devil Jin later....like...10 years later or more...

Still sculpted by Hiroki Hayashi and in scale 1/10, Devil Jin is the same size the regular Jin Kazama but looked damn spectacular and epic thanks to his huge wings. He is articulated on his neck, shoulders, gloves and legs as well as a middle articulation on his wings wich can be removed thanks to a peg system.

This character wasnt on Tekken 3 at all, he actually was only on Jin´s ending video soo he dosnt have an actual battle pose to match the other characters and this helps him to be a little bit more dynamic tough he is still hunched. And they didnt use any parts of the very first Jin figure, he is a totally new sculpt and have a totally different musculature to match this new pose.

Also, this time his body is cast on flesh color plastic soo hhis skin looks more natural with some ligth shadows and tones to help. The paint is perfect this time, with no slopynes anywhere, his 3 red eyes, the strands of hair, his tattoe on the chest, pretty much everyting is perfectly nd clean painted and while his wings have no paint at all, they have a pretty nice feather sculpt.

He has no accesoryes at all but only the black base with the logo on it but this time around, the base is not enough thanks to his pose and how heavy are his wings, he keeps falling back over and over again. I think this is the only issue i have with this figure, the lack of stability.

This is deffinetly one of the most spectacular looking Tekken figures and like most character, the only one of this character. I wish i had True Ogre as well but i am very happy with this Devil Jin and this guy really uped the hype for serires 3.

LING XIAOYU

Epoch was a japanese toys manufacturer that made figures of a lot of very obscure japanese serires (like Vampire Hunter D) but also made the very first figures of fighting game characters and theyr logest line was for sure Tekken. Sculpted by Hiroki Hayashi and in 1/10 scale the figures were really good looking and cool back then.

Series one started with Jin and Nina and closed with Paul and Xiaoyu. I regret not getting Paul since he is one of my husbandos by now, but i got Ling Xiaoyu instead. I really love how Epoch was soo aware of scale because Xiaoyu is soo small compared to the other characters, soo small and stocky and like the other figures, she is only articulated on the neck, shulders and legs.

She is on her ready to battle pose, to fit the rest of the characters, looking to the rigth and thanks to the position of her arms is mor difficult to achive a different and natural pose aside of the battle stance. She was soo different back then....with the poffy pants and big yellow ribbon on her back, thanks to her piffy tails and face sculpt she looks like a little chinese girls intead of a super model...like she looks now.

The colors are pretty brigth but kinda sloppy in some parts, like the strands of hair and yellow details tough her face looks perfect, with very childish looking eyes, very different to Nina´s. But my favorite detailing is the rabbit on her back, She was soo cute back then.

Thanks to the position of her feet, she cant stand on her own soo the oval black base with the Tekken 3 logo is vital in here, but she comes with another accesory as well: Panda. A really tiny figurine of Panda standing in a kind of chibi style. This little figure is a nice addition i guess but dosnt fit too well with her and the other characters.

She was the last figure of serires one and like the rest of the characters, this is the only action figure of her in existance. Series two was much more rare and come with many difference over serires one but i was only able to get one of them.