I'm lucky enough to have owned an original Lile way back in the late 80's and the SLY II which I used loads until 1994. Sadly, and stupidly, I sold the former, and gave the latter away as I really knackered it with my uneducated sharpening in those days. The Hellion really does outperform that knife, as beautifully and quality made as it was.
The thing about the Hellion is the looks. It looks like it was designed by an idiot after he watched the American Ninja trilogy. I was fully expecting that. And getting it in my hands, I wasn't disapointed in those looks. It was only after using it and handling it for real, that I could see the mind behind the design and appreciate it as a really useful and quite well designed blade.
I have read a full-on huge thread about this knife on BCUSA this evening and they all condemn it on looks after the pictures were first published. The mockery and degredation of the knife are massive. They decree that anyone that would buy and use the knife would obviously be an idiot and know nothing of a real knife design. None of those people had ever handled one though. Now a week ago, I might have agreed upon looking at the pictures. But now, I see what many people complain about when they stand up to people who judge by looks. They know nothing, and the opinion expressed counts for nothing without handling the knife. Fair enough, this knife is certainly not for bushcrafters who mainly like carving spoons and other things like that. The blame for it's marketing is in Tops hands. They try to fluff around the combat and hard survival concepts by detailing those points with some BS bushcraft design. Which clearly is not correct. Myke Hawkes design I think is really well thought out, with his civilian survival and military mind in conflict. As such, this is a compromise, with weight on his military design side. As with all survival knives, it can never be perfect, as it tries to encompass all terrain and environment considerations into one blade. That is near impossible. I can see the design in this knife that would work as a help in snow and ice, jungle and desert, to urban combat and E&E behind enemy lines. It's what the best Leatherman is, compared to the home toolbox.
The only real thing daft about the knife I can really facepalm at, are the extras included and really really stupid divot in the scales designed for a firebow drill. Yeah, cos' we want to have a life threatening gash when it inevitably slips and the blade spins into our wrist, ankle or shin, or stabs the foot or forearm as we lose balance. It's even on the wrong side to cause maximum harm when it does happen. Brilliant.
Lesson learned though. Personally, as a survival/combat knife, I'd lose the saw on the spine, and instead, carry a locking Victorinox Soldier or larger version with added fireflash in the sheath pouch. That would add far more power to the survival combination of this package. People can mock this knife as much as they want. But before expressing wisdom and sage knife knowledge, please handle it first and look at Mr Hawkes background to see where he comes from. We've all mocked it in jest here, with a little tongue in cheek seriousness, but on other sites, it has become a "we know better, cos we know best" type of view. You can't do that just by looking at a picture. A lesson I learned before, but still failed to remember.