By KansasBrawler Sometimes when you want a certain character when you’re a kid, you wind up buying some pretty subpar figures. By the time 1993 rolled around, KansasBrother had had his version of Snake-Eyes for a while and I kind of wanted my own version. While at the Toys ‘R’ Us near my grandparents’ in the south suburbs of Chicago,
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Let’s keep the Toy Fair catalog streak rolling with a few ninjas.
Read moreIs it bad marketing to create a character with a name that’s unpronounceable for most westerners? It’s almost as crazy as something from a Star Wars novel. Anyway, I can’t figure out how to say the name, so I’ll just call him TJ from here on out. Sounds cool, and it reminds of TJ Hooker. Man, that was a great
Read moreIt seems no major Cobra player was safe from the swift pen of redesign and sub-team reallocation at the end of the first Real American Hero line. If they weren’t being placed into robotic spacesuits, they were painted in bright hues or transplanted as ninjas. Such is the case with Zartan. I really can’t fault them for sticking to the
Read moreOh brother, another New York ninja. Banzai is the team’s Rising Sun ninja. I have no earthly idea what that is, but he is wearing a mask that incorporates rising sun iconography, so maybe that’s it. Probably not-it just looks badass. I do wish the mask had been painted red and white, but I digress. The file card refers to him
Read moreIn 1992, the sub-group mania begun the previous year continued, as two new groups appeared on toy shelves, the Drug Elimination Force and Ninja Force. Like the other groups, each one featured both packaging and action features different from the main line releases. The Ninja Force burst on the GI Joe scene with shockingly bright hot pink packaging, “real ninja action” and soft
Read moreAh yes, the Red Ninja. The cobra ninja cannon fodder that made their first appearance in the classic issue 21 of the Marvel Joe comic. I remember reading that issue and hoping I would see them in toy form some day. Little did I know that Hasbro would make that hope a reality with the 1993 Red Ninja fig–wait.
Read moreHave you ever seen a snow ninja? How about a snow ninja who wears a samurai helmet? How about a snow ninja who hails from Hollis, Queens, NY? How about a snow ninja from Hollis, Queens, NY who also wears high top sneakers? Well, you’ve seen it now. This is Bushido, the Ninja Force’s snow ninja. Why does the Joe
Read moreWhat’s in a name? In this case, a bad pun related to a famous TV infomercial. This is T’Gin-Zu, the driver of the Ninja Raider Pile Driver vehicle. The GI Joe line’s loathed ninja sub-group had just three vehicles to its name, two of which were strange four-wheeled rotating affairs with an upright pilot compartment in the center. Not exactly
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