Sideshow Collectibles

Sideshow Collectibles's second release in their popular "Live by the Sword" range is Vlad Dracula - the Impaler. The 15th century Romanian Vlad III was the inspiration for novelist Bram Stoker's vampire and Count Dracula of Translyvania. However, the name Dracula was not a fictitious name created by Stoker's immagination but had its origins in reality. Vlad's father, Vlad II, in 1412 was a member of a secret fraternal order formed by King Sigismund of Hungary to defend the Christian Hungarian Empire against the imminent Muslim Turk invasion, and chose as one of his heraldic symbols, a dragon. "Drac" in Romanian also means "devil" and "Dracul" can be translated to "the Devil". When Vlad III came to power he was named "Draculea", which means "son of Dracula".

Among the Romanian peasantry, Dracula is remembered as a just prince who defended his people from foreigners, be the Turkish invaders of the Ottoman Empire or German merchants. He is also remembered as somewhat of a champion of the common man against the oppression of the boyars (Romanian noblemen) whom he hated because they murdered his father. However, despite the more positive interpretation, the Romanian verbal tradition also remembers Dracula as an exceptionally cruel and often capricious ruler.

At a time of raging Muslim Turk invasion in Christian Europe, Vlad became a mortal enemy of the Turks or anyone else who would threaten the independence of his Wallachia (Wallachia is the Romanian province south of Transylvania. Romania today is formed of the provinces of Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldova).

He also started an internal campaign for the eradication of corruption, theft and treason in his realm, severely punishing any attempt to cheat, lie, steal or otherwise break the law with horrific tortures such like the hammering of nails into heads, dismemberment of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, boiling alive, cutting off of noses and ears, scalping, skinning, and exposure to the elements or to wild animals.

However, Vlad Dracula's favorite method of torture and execution was impalement. Wooden stakes of varying heights were made for his victims, the taller ones reserved for higher ranking victims. The leg of a victim were usually attached to a horse and a sharpened stake, the slightly blunted end of which was oiled so as to ensure the victim not dying too rapidly from shock, gradually forced into the body through the buttocks until it emerged from the mouth. There were however instances when victims were impaled through the chest or abdomen or at times impaled so that they hung upside down on the stake. Death was not instantaneous, as victims sometimes endured for hours or days.

Often the decaying bodies were left up for several months, as a part of Vlad Dracula's strategy to scare away invaders. Sultan Mahomet II, one of the most prominent Turkish rulers in history and a man not noted for his squeamishness, is said to have been once deterred from attacking Wallachia by the sight of twenty thousand bodies of Turkish prisoners executed by impalement near the capital city of Targoviste.

The headsculpt by Terry Wurmser was based on contemporary paintings and illustrations of Vlad and is by no means to be taken as an accurate depiction, rather more as a 3 dimensional representation or caricature, albeit as humanly as possible. The idea was to capture the essence of the character of the man, and here Wurmser has successfully done so with the menacing glaring eyes, the cheekbones and broad jawlines (which I think the sculptor took artistic licence, seeing that in contemporary portraits of Vlad, his eyes, nose and mustache but not his jaws were prominently highlighted!).

All in all, it is extremely well done, with good painted skintones and neatly painted black hair. A well sculpted "Wallachian Prince hat" embellished with a golden starburst, set with a brilliantly painted ruby and topped off with 3 sculptured "feathers" which sadly look as thought they are in need of serious dusting, adorns his head. Come to think of it, a bit of dry-brushing with white paint on the feathers will do the trick. An even better option would be to replace the plastic feathers with real feathers.

The Sideshow Collectible figure poses well and is dressed in a 15th century black tunic with maroon hosen, black belt/sash and black knee high boots. The crimson Wallachian fur coat is beautifully executed (okay, bad pun) with mock brown fur collar and trim with lining within.

Other accessories included with the set are a mace, a long spear - comes in two parts, a Turkish sword and scabbard (Why Turkish? Well, Vlad was once affiliated with the Turks before breaking off ties with the Ottoman Empire) and a "Chalice of Blood" thrown in for dramatic effect.

I particularly liked the way the scabbard is hung in the photograph of the prototype master displayed in the box art, the production model however seemed to have bypassed a couple of stages (impending production deadline?) with the result of a loose ring hanging within the threading attached to the scabbard. This can be reworked easily by getting an extremely long length of brown coloured thread.

There are two versions of this set, one is the one I described while the other, an exclusive with a production quantity of 500 sets, comes with a severed head that is meant to be inserted into the spearhead. Pretty gory for a display and definitely for scaring little kids to complete their homework.

All in all, a very interesting choice of figure for this genre, good production values complemented by the fine work on the box art and well researched data, although in real life, the man was a real pain in the butt.

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