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.