Kamakura (2004)
Kamakura had quite a bit of exposure during the 2000s relaunch line. In just three years, he had three small figure releases, plus a 12 inch figure. His first version, the dreaded banana headed, Action Attack monstrosity, stands as one of the downright goofiest figures of the era. This one succeeded it, and improved upon its unfortunately masked predecessor.
Included in a two pack alongside another figure (Storm Shadow) previously equipped with Action Attack, Kamakura was significantly redesigned rather than just refitted sans action gimmick. While he’s wearing the same sort of belt and sash combo that he sported before, he’s returned to the armored boot, kneepads and gauntlets of the Devil’s Due comic design.
His accessory complement included a fairly unique looking sword and scabbard, a nice variation from the standard few ninja swords that seemed to permeate the 2002-2006 era. He also sported one of those strange and useless wrist communicators, along with a very familiar looking Uzi. I guess he borrowed it from his sensei. Kamakura hit shelves two more times in this same deco. In the later Valor vs. Venom discount store single packs, he was given recolored weapons. With the even cheaper 2008 single figures, he wasn’t given any accessories. Wow, a ninja without so much as a sword. Incredible.
This was a great version of Kamakura and the fact that it came with a great version of Storm Shadow made it a no-brainer for me. I liked this version even more than the straight-up DDP version from SpyTroops. Everything just really seemed to work really well on this version of Kamakura.
He is one of the few Spytroops characters which i eagerly looked for but could never find. He, Bombstrike, Barrolroll and Blackout all eluded me. But that was down to toy shops being too ploitical at the time 🙁
I love the character!
I used him at the time for a bit. As well as Tiger Paw (?)
And Shadow Strike (?)
All those almost “next generation” GIJoe characters that could have been worked into some fun stories while advancing the traditional Snake eyes/ Storm shadow saga we’ve been recycling for, what, 3 decades?
The “green power ranger” as the man said, but that was an interesting angle in the DDP book. I’ll have to see what happened to him in that series….
@Scott
It was Tiger Claw, and you’re right with the name Shadow Strike.
I got this Kamakura in the first single-card release, but it was a few years after they were originally on the shelves–the entire wave he was in was sold at Fred Meyer.