8FIGURES
4MAKERS
2006EARLIEST
2027LATEST
Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice-skate uphill.
THE LEGEND
They found him the way you find most things that go bump in the night: by accident, and too late to walk away. His mother went into labor in a London alley the same night a stranger sank his teeth into her throat, and whatever passed into her blood passed into his. She died bringing him into the world. He came out of it already half a monster, and spent the years since learning to master the other half alone.
They call him the Daywalker, because the sun that burns his kind to ash only warms his face. He carries every gift of the vampire and none of the curses: the strength, the speed, the healing, and the hunger. That last one he keeps chained with a serum and a discipline colder than any serum could buy. An old hunter named Whistler put a silver blade in his hand and pointed him at the dark, and Blade has been walking into it ever since, one grave at a time. The vampires have a name for him in the old tongues. Roughly, it means the thing their children fear.
OFF THE PAGE
Blade first stalked onto the page in The Tomb of Dracula #10 in 1973, dreamed up by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan as a supporting player in Dracula's own book: a hunter with a leather jacket and bandoliers of wooden knives. For twenty-five years he stayed a cult figure. Then, in 1998, Wesley Snipes strapped on the coat, drew the katana, slid on the shades, and everything changed. That first Blade picture was the film that proved a Marvel property could open big and mean it, quietly clearing the runway for every cinematic universe that came after. Snipes owned the role across a trilogy, with Guillermo del Toro directing the beloved middle chapter. These days the mantle is passing to Mahershala Ali, and a new generation waits to see the Daywalker step back into the sun. Not bad for a knife-throwing sidekick nobody expected to headline anything.
IN SIXTH SCALE
Marvel collectors have been chasing the Daywalker in the sixth scale longer than most people realize. Medicom Toy got there first, translating the leather-clad hunter onto a Real Action Heroes body back when a decent Snipes likeness was hard currency. Hot Toys followed with the version that earns the front of the shelf: the coat with the right weight to it, the sword rig, the serum kit, the works. Then the trail went cold for a good while, the way it does with a character the studios keep almost-rebooting.
Lately the third-party shops have picked the hunt back up. SooSooToys and Present Toys have each taken a swing at the coded Daywalker, offering fresh tailoring and sharper portraits while the big lines regroup. If you have been holding this slot open, the sword arm has never been deeper. Buy the coat, buy the katana, and keep the serum close.
THE SCOUTING REPORT
The Archivist's estimates, scribbled between shelf dustings. Not canon, not law, and absolutely worth arguing about in the Courtyard.
23OVR
AUGMENTED CLASS· ASSASSIN
LIFESPANCentennial (200–1,000 Years)
ORIGINDhampir
VITALITY22
STRENGTH20
DURABILITY24
SPEED24
BATTLE IQ20
POWER28
ABILITIES & WEAKNESSES
Daywalker PhysiologyRegenerative Healing FactorMaster Vampire Hunter
ARMS & ATTIRE
Titanium Sword
RELEASES BY YEAR
1
1
1
2
2
1
20062027
BY MANUFACTURER
Hot Toys
3
SooSooToys
2
Medicom Toy
2
Present Toys
1
FRANCHISES
APPEARS IN
EVERY BLADE FIGURE
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