HomeBlade Liger (Hasbro Red)
For a review geared more toward the Blade Liger frame itself, see the blue one. I'll mainly focus on the differences here.
The Hasbro version of this ohsopopular critter is similar to its expensive Japanese counterpart, but has a few key differences. First are the feet and fangs: instead of diecast metal, you get gold plastic. It isn't even metallic, bah. This may have been for safety reasons, however, so I wouldn't blame Hasbro too much. The red is a bit lighter and pinker as well, though even the Japanese Red Blade Liger is a far cry from Leon's dark red one despite bearing his name. The worst change, in my opinion? The legs are grey plastic, the same shade as the body. This ruins the contrast the black ones afforded the Liger and makes it look rather crappy stock. To add insult to injury, the Liger is shown with black-looking legs on the box...
My solution? I had a spare Shield Liger, so after giving its dark blue legs to my Bladey BI to make it more anime-style, I put the Bladey BI's black legs on my Hasbro Bladey. Add in some spare metal feet kindly sent to me by a ZoidFans member, and hey presto - I had a red Bladey that wasn't quite Japanese and wasn't quite Hasbro.
As one could guess by my "salmon" nickname for this flavor of Blade Liger, the red is also not quite red. In some light it's more an orangey or coral-y red, in others, it looks positively pink. It's no Fire Phoenix, but it sure ain't pure red either.
I wouldn't bother with this thing at current high prices unless you have some spare darker legs for it, or you simply must have something Blade Liger that's...sort of red. Blue, BI, and Minty are all much cheaper right now. It's a nice variant after a bit of parts-swapping, though, and a lot cheaper than an actual Japanese Red Bladey.
Rewritten November 5th, 2006
Old review appears to be missing. I'll find it later.