S.I.C. Vol. 35 Kamen Rider Blade Part 1

My most favorite S.I.C. so far ^^
I like it so much I didn't even know who Kamen Rider Blade is beforehand. ^^;

That's right, just like my early days in collecting Gunplas, what I like the most about it is not the character, but the design instead.

Plenty to see even before opening the box: ^^


Placed nicely in its box, the action figure is good for display even without being taken out. Most of its King Form armors are clearly visible as well.


One side of the box is showing the Ace Form, while the other side is showing it as the King Form.


The actual box has an extra container for added protection maybe?
The design for the earlier is more dynamic and extravagant, while the container is more subtle and elegance (silver font on black background).


The actual box. Both the container and the box have the same design on the back.
And now, onto the content ^^


Blade, his armors and all the other accessories are placed on two layers of clear plastic trays.



The top tray, directly visible before opening the box, stores Blade and most of his heavily decorated King Form armors.
The two beautiful swords are also sitting on the top tray.


All the strings that bind the figure and most of the parts to the clear tray. The smaller parts has clear tape to hold them in place.
With all these "protective measures", the content are much more secure than Gunplas actually, for sometimes you might find parts being snapped off their runners before you open the box ^^;



The bottom tray stores smaller accessories, including all the King Form armors to be worn on the back, scabbard, extra hands, and other gimmick parts.


Also comes with a backdrop of a burning spade, which i used for some of the photos, ^^ and a booklet showing all the S.I.C. releases for Blade's series.
Done with the box, let's have a look at the action figure ^^

Very well designed with elaborate details for every part of the armors, plus realistic muscle-like structure for the body parts without armor makes Blade ideal for display without any action pose. But unlike Convoy in the previous review, I'm not willing to put those joints of this S.I.C. to waste. XD So you get to see more action poses for Blade and its King Form than Convoy.

By the way, the weighty feel of this action figure makes it quite exciting to hold as well ^^



Kneeling pose? No problem, and very human-like as well. Some basic poses without any weapon is fine too.




Spades can be found on many parts of Blade's armors, with the biggest one on the chest of course, which is surrounded by near-clear red base that runs down from the neck.


The kicking pose reveals a small spade printed beneath the boot ^^


Blade looks much better with his er, blade I suppose ^^;


The blade of the sword is made of real metal part, very shiny but quite heavy at the same time. The edge is totally blunt, so you face no risk of injuring yourself playing with.
But then again, it depends on how you play with it as well ^^;


All the options parts for Blade.


Swapping Blade's left thigh armor with the scabbard - not one for merely showing off, but a huge functional one to sheath the sword.




I haven't watch many episodes of the series, so I don't really know how he uses the sword most often. ^^;


Comes with the "sword in the stone" effect part XD
The metal blade part of the sword needs to be removed and swapped with the effect part.




One of the most attracting feature of this S.I.C. is the ability to flip out the cards inside the handle of the sword.

That's right, no part-swapping at all. ^^

All 12 cards, with 11 of them flipping out in a synchronized manner and circle the handle. The cards will stay in place for all your action poses with it until they are retracted. A magnificent sight ^^

You can find the same feature on S.I.C. Chalice's gun as well.



Also comes with optional parts for the visor - change from clear to clear red for extra hot-bloodiness ^^
Articulation design is awesome for this S.I.C., but the awesomeness turns out to be its flaw as well. ^^;


The leg has four points of articulation, three of them are ball-type joint, plus one arc-type. The issue is with the knee joint, the ball-type joint indicated in the left image above provides "too much" movement range for the lower leg. ^^; Blade can perform the "inhuman" move of rotating his lower leg right out of the knee, but is unable to sustain the pose because of the weight of his body. ^^; So, without the help of a display stand, bombastic action poses will definitely leave Blade lying on his face even before you can pick up your camera to snap the picture ^^;

Also, the huge shoulder armors aren't friendly to the articulation range of the arms as well. Lifting the arm proves harder than I imagined, as the shoulder armor would be in the way. As you'll see in Part 2, without all the armors, the frame of this S.I.C. can be just as articulate as Kaiyodo's Revoltech line, and is light enough to sustain those action poses too.

But stripping all the armors just for the articulation does no justice to those beautiful armors of Blade at all. :)


Stands a little taller than MG Char's Zaku II Ver. 2.0.
I always use Char's Zaku II for height comparison with various stuff for my reviews because it's the easiest Gunpla in my room to grab at the moment XD
Part 2, feauring the King (form) coming soon.