Mine were fine; I'd only taken one out of the bag, but I opened up the second and it was good too. I wonder if blade-handle alignment issues might be part of the reason that Swamp Rat switched from Res-C, despite the fact that it has a lot of fans. If it wasn't an LE, the gap might not be so big a deal (of course, that's always easier to say when it's not mine), but since it is an LE, you should contact them about a return for repair -- I'm confident that they can either re-seat the blade or put a new handle on it.