Cobra Slash (2005)

According to his bio, Slash is inhumanly evil. This mercenary ninja is an apprentice to Storm Shadow, who has a grudging respect for him, only for his skill. This begs the question why a basically honorable character like Storm Shadow would associate with such a cruel and heartless individual.

Slash was part of a two pack which also included the ninja called Slice, who was a new version of a vintage Ninja Force chracter. It’s possible that Slash was meant to represent Dice, another Ninja Force character who was often partnered with Slice. He had a similarly evil aspect to his personality, and was also a master of the bo staff, a weapon also included with Slash.

The mold is one of the nicer of the new sculpt line of the 2000’s. The proportions are good, and this is one of the figures that I think can also work well within the vintage line. The head is particularly interesting, as you can make out hints of the shape of the face underneath. The goggles on the head are a nice added detail, but its unfortunate that they weren’t designed to be removable. The leg articulation suffers from the soft plastic tunic, but it’s not too bad due to the placement of the split.

The sword included with Slash is also worth noting because it not only fits into a scabbard (which does not have a backpack peg but a carrying handle) but also splits in two. The sword with a case somehow makes me think of the Sword of Destiny episode from the DIC cartoon. It was a memorable episode in that it was chock full o’ ninjas (including Slice and Dice) and actually had some (intentionally) funny bits of dialogue. Believe it or not.