Kano (1994 Mortal Kombat)
From time to time, I like to venture off the beaten path a bit as far as the blog’s premise. The Mortal Kombat action figure line used GI Joe molds extensively, and to this point I’ve used that as a tenuous connection to cover a few figures here and there. With Kano, I’ve got another foot in the door to Joe; it’s the background of the character itself.
Kano was noted in the video game and his bio card as belonging to the Black Dragon organization, a criminal syndicate that shares a name with a criminal group first introduced at GI Joe con in 2003. Is this the same Black Dragon cartel? Most likely not, but hey, I can do what I want with my GI Joe universe, and it’s fun to spot these little things and point them out.
Kano looks a lot like his original Mortal Kombat appearance, with a white sleeveless outfit featuring chest straps and black arm bracers. The giant knee pads weren’t part of the video game outfit, and they’re probably just here because the whole thing, minus the head, came from Ninja Force Dice. I like the look, and would totally make an arctic Dice custom with it, if the head were easily removed.
I would say Kano would be the second MK figure I would get. Give him the Dice weapons that were included with a few of the other MK figures, and you have a sense of completion, don’t you think? Like giving the Slice accessories to the ‘ninjas’, or the fact that Raiden and Shang Tsung came with the respective weapons for the Nunchuck and Dojo molds they used, respectively.
These figures came out during a year when I had quit all aspects of collecting: Action figures, comic books, and what have you. I didn’t even play video games. All my attention was 100% focused on attending university overseas, in England.
Still, I remember flipping through an issue of Lee’s or Tomart’s and checking out the G.I. Joe molds used for the Mortal Kombat line. It almost made me interested in Joes again, if only for a few minutes.
Too bad about the head not being an easy removal. It’s got a lot of character and would make for an excellent custom. KInda reminds me of Travis from Blake’s 7. Lots of untapped potential to be found in this line.
Know what i did to my Lu Kang [not sure if thats spelt properly] I used his torso as the base for an Indiana Jones airfeild mechanic custom
I’d forgotten how violent the 90’s were. I remeber at primary school about twenty or more years ago, we werent allowed to bring Joes to play with as they supposedly encouraged violaence. Then the day after power rangers first aired down here, one kid cut both his knees open trying to do a flying side kick and another had to be rushed to the emergency room after he attempted to do a backflip of a stair well.That terrible show and all those violent games made the teachers realise that Joes werent all that violent.
I know almost nothing about this video game but with the movies. Do people hate them because they have little to do with games or are they just bad movies in general?
On a completely different subject Isnt it the 4th of July over in the US. I noticed a girl the other day wearing stars and stripes pants ala Uncle Sam. If there were seven Joe figures wearing simmilar clothes you could have “Nice patriotic pants week”
Amazing mold! Bad thing that ARAH line died in 1994: the 1995 Ninja Force’d have been almost perfect!
@Neopolitan jor
Wasnt that cancelled 1995 Ninja force line going to inlcude a Baroness, Road pig and Flint? Certainly would have been good to see them again
The only Baroness i had [which was technically my sisters] was peiced together from several different figures. For years she was convinced she possessed this rare unreleased 1995 Baroness but no. It was just a Frankenjoe
A great figure with a lot of character.
@Clutch – never thought of that before but there is a hint of Travis in there, especially if you painted the parch black…
Ninja Commandos wave would’ve had Flint (masked), Storm Shadow (very different look for what we are used to), Budo, Roadpig And Knock-Out (a new character, presuambly a Cobra). Carded samples exist, but those who have them are stingy with sharing even pictures.
Baroness was planned for 1995’s Battle Corps Rangers, other figures would’ve been new versions of Flint (a popular guy), Footloose and some recolors of them as different characters (Flint would’ve been Sureshot). A new Dr. Mindbender was planned either for that group or maybe Star Brigade.