Jason Blood is an expert in the occult and demonology from the 6th century. When the demon Etrigan was ravaging the area, Merlin bound the demon to Jason. From then on, Jason of the Blood has become an immortal being who can transform from man to demon upon uttering the rhyme:
Change! Change! O’ form of man!
Free the prince forever damned!Free the might from fleshy mire!
Boil the blood in the heart for fire!
Gone! Gone! O’ form of man!
Rise the demon Etrigan!
His human side curbs the evil malevolence of Etrigan and the end result is a bit of a bawdy antihero. Jason Blood is immortal to the effects of age, able to use a wide variety of magic, and has all the martial knowledge of 15 centuries...which is a lot! This particular iteration of Jason Blood is from the Demon Knights comics. This is set in the Medieval era of DCU's universe, where Etrigan is working with Madame Xanadu through an exciting storyline that involves Hell, undead knights of Arthur's court, Vandal Savage and the murder of Merlin. Cool stuff!
This figure was bought just out of a pure desire for a really cool-looking demon figure. I have no particular attachment to Etrigan, though I do love his rare appearances in DC animated movies (which is the only decent way DC can do shows or films, fight me!).
Sculpt/Paint: 2/3 Once again McFarlane nails a really good sculpt. All the scale mail armor is really well done, and all the designs on the plate mail shin guards, bracers and chestplate look intricate and defined. The actual skin tone areas (feet, hands head) are a bit plain but it works. The -1 here is once again for zero point on the parts that could use it. To name a few: armor spikes, pentagram belt design, plate mail whorls and ESPECIALLY shading for the scale mail.
Articulation: 2/3 (29 points) He has a lot of standard joints with some exceptions. Ratched joints at the hips, wrists and ankles (really don't like the ratcheted ankles). He has toe hinges (really don't like those either) and a pretty limited diaphragm and ab joint, neither of which moves him much except swivelling. The shoulders move super well but the elbows are stuck at an angle by the elbow design. To add to that, the elbows are double-hinged but hinge swivels which aren't great.
Accessories: 1/1 He comes with his card, stand and sword from the comics. I like the sword and at least the blade is painted? Well sculpted hilt too, kinda cool. The blade is a bit swoopy for my taste but seems comic acceptable.
Fun Factor: 1/3 I find this figure a bit static to pose. the way he holds the sword with his hand or hands does the split oddly...just doesn't make it as cool as I pictured it being! It looks generally cool as a demon knight figure though, so there's that! Terrible balance though. Those AWFUL toe hinges combined with an arched natural foot design that isn't quite flat make it unbalanced without a stand. Why do I not like stands for standing figures...well they take up display floor space, any sliding aggravates even more figures that will be dominoing onto each other and they don't look good.
Verdict: 6/10 This is fairly niche. This isn't Jason Blood's most classic look, and the character themselves may not be on everyone's list of priorities. I am impressed that McFarlane continues to produce these unique sculpts, though maybe they manage to offset some costs by not painting all the details they could. So skip it if you want, though I particularly like it especially to build a more medieval-looking team (I'm looking at you, Gladiator Batman).
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| Really nice face sculpt and I love the red they used for the front breastplate. |
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| Nice cape folds, and pretty flexible. |
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| Not bad for range of motion but not great with the shoulder blades. Really lament the lack of any ab crunch in these figures. |
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| What he comes with. Pretty basic, Definitely could use other hands considering he is a brawler as well. |
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| Was surprised he still balanced with the toe! They are often not useful. |
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