Reptile (1994 Mortal Kombat)
It’s easy to forget the the Street Fighter sub-line was actually branded as part of the GI Joe line. Considering that the popular fighting game characters simply jumped into Joe’s universe unchanged, the confusion is warranted. Hasbro was obviously a bit sheepish about connecting the two as well, since the packages minimized the Real American Hero’s logo. They weren’t shy however about reusing molds whenever possible.
It’s also easy to think that the Hasbro Mortal Kombat series was officially connected to GI Joe. After all, the series also borrowed heavily from the figures and vehicles that preceded it. Given the prevalence of ninja-esque characters in the MK franchise, it would seem to be an even more natural fit in a Joe mythos populated with an abundance of pajama-clad warriors. Four-armed half-dragon men and walking gods notwithstanding, I find some of the figures to be a good fit within my Joeverse.
Reptile arrived as one of the few drivers in the line, piloting the MK-1 Dragon speedboat. The Dragon began life as the 1990 Piranha, one of the meaner looking and underrated Cobra vehicles of the 90s. Why Reptile was driving it, I have no idea. I’m just glad we got another flavor in our fruity rainbow of Outworld fighters. Getting him together with Sub-Zero, Smoke, and Scorpion is like assembling a weird parallel world Power Ranger team–or opening up a bag of Skittles.
From what i understand; Hasbro made these figures to try and boost the lines popularity as it was doing badly against power ranger, the last years of TMNT and most of all; video games. I never noticed kids buying these as they prefered to play the video game instead.
In 1995 and 1996, there were basically three types of Joe figures that were still at retail: Shadow Ninjas, Armor Tech Star Brigade and the Street Fighter figures. They hung around forever. So, their appeal was definitely limited, especially when you consider that a lot of standard Battle Corps figures from ’93 and ’94 sold around them.
The Mortal Combat line is definitely underrated. Aside from the strong Guile repaints, you get these ninjas. The Rayden figure is really cool. Plus, there are tons of other repaints using old Joe molds (and some unproduced ones!) that blend excellently with a Joe collection. For a while, a lot of these figures were fairly pricey. Don’t know if that’s still the case. But, they’re not the easiest figures in the world to find. Though, they are worth the search.
I dont remember seeing that muck MK stuff in the discount bins. But i definatly remember seeing the street fughter, battle corps and star brigade stuff. Makes me wish i’d bought more of it than those fugly POTF2 figures.
There were at least two Raiden figures that I know of. The one from the movie with a removable hat, which I had and got stolen, and another one with a non removable hat which I got about a year ago. I believe that one has the body of the 1992 Ninja Force Nunchuk.
Love those MK ninja, even the weird blown up 5 1/2″ Toy Island Scorpion. Would really love to collect about 20 of them and paint up a real rainbow ninja clan.
Looks like someone could use an eyebrow appointment.
I’m not ninja crazy, but I really like the MK ninjas. I was able to mod the head to fit a Storm Shadow body and the resulting Red Ninjas are nice. Kinda wish they’d used a freakier head on Reptile, though.
Maybe he was a driver because he was a hidden character in the original Mortal Kombat and not a selectable fighter?
I wondered about Smoke, how the timing worked if people realized there might be a hidden opponent in Mortal Kombat 2 through this gray ninja on the shelves or assumed if Hasbro might just be making up a new ninja.
Back in 2005 I got lucky, and I found this figure at a flea market. I wasn’t sure who it was, or if it was from Mortal Kombat at all. A friend of mine who saw the figure that same day told me who it was. He knew a lot about video games, and most likely he was a fan of Mortal Kombat just like most people that were teenagers in the 1990’s. As far as I’m concerned, I do not consider these Hasbro Mortal Kombat figures to be in the same universe of G.I. Joe. I’m cool with the Street Fighter figures been part of G.I. Joe and that’s it. Mortal Kombat and all of it’s super extremely violent weirdness, do not belong with any of the parallel, or alternate universes of G.I. Joe.
Lol, you said”fruity rainbow of our world fighters”
None of these should be considered part of Gi Joe in my opinion. Noob Saibot anyone?