Action Figure News Wrapper

[Scrapper6]

Early Morning Review Time, and while not technically a single card item, I felt keeping everything to one Thread would be a good idea.

Ninja Showdown:

a) Packaging: I think I've made my stance on the Retaliation packaging pretty clear by now, however let's bring up a few things Hasbro managed to do right here.

The three packs are packaged in open window boxes with diorama set pieces, these are great for two reasons, one the packing doesn't look as generic when you can see a dynamic looking cardboard diorama piece in the background to help showcase the figures.

And two, you have the chance to see everything in the set to make sure there are no QC issues with the figures. It could still stand to look less like a Nerf Gun design though, seriously I hadn't noticed this until just recently, but Hasbro's Nerf Gun toyline has packaging with a very similar orange background on it. It's so similar in fact that my mind was tricked a few times while checking out a store thinking they were actually Retaliation items. Could this be why Hasbro chose this route? To trick Nerf Gun collectors into buying Retaliation? Or more than likely is it because the same guy made up both packaging designs and just lost the creativity that day?

b) The Figures:

We'll start with who I feel is the weakest of the three, not because of any design or sculpting flaws, but because Hasbro loaded him down with way too many accessories and didn't give him even a scabbard for his sword.

Storm Shadow. The sculpt of this figure reminds me of some of the SS figures we got during the VvV days, which isn't all together a bad thing as many have pointed out the similarities between Retaliation SE and the VvV SE who shares similar sculpt and design elements.

He's got all of the standard points of articulation we've come to expect in our Modern Joe figures, the full range of motion with 16 points, head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles. The paint job is pretty meh though. I mean he's white, with gray to accentuate some of the molded details, and he does have a huge Cobra Symbol on his chest, so yay he's showing his allegiance. In fact there's a less noticeable symbol on his mask too, Hasbro couldn't have made it harder to see if they tried. Red on Gray, that is not going to work unless the red used is either neon or a really bright almost pink tone.

Accessories wise Storm Shadow is packaged in a way that he seems to be intended for the following, two silve kunai, a silver sword that looks too short and kind of reminds me of the swords I used to have with my Ninja Force figures, a collapsible bow of some type, some have said compound bow and a large bladed staff weapon.

The accessories are a nice step up from the lackluster single card approach, however, first of all he doesn't have a scabbard, so he can't keep his sword on his back while he's wielding the bow or staff weapon. Secondly, his hands are a bit soft and like to let go of the thicker weapons easily, I'm afraid the hands might warp because of how soft they are. Then he doesn't come with any arrows for the bow, which apparently originally came with Spirit. And lastly, while the kunai are definitely impressive they can't be stored anywhere, if his belt had, had a little notch or something to hang them off of by the hoops on the end that would have been great, but there's nothing.

All in all it makes this character come off as one where Hasbro was just like, people want the weapons, the fans are telling us they don't like the lack of accessories, so throw some of our ninja staples in with this set and they'll be happy. It's as if no actual thought was used in giving us these weapons with this figure.

This is why Storm Shadow, in my opinion, is the weakest of the three.

Moving on, we'll go to Snake-Eyes next. A strong contender for the best looking movie version of SE out there so far.

Snake-Eyes has sixteen points of articulation, due to the rubber vest thing his waist... or ab or whatever you want to call it, I mean it isn't exactly at the waistline on the figure, but it's easier to just call it wast articulation and be done with it... Anyway it is surprisingly not hindered.

All the joints work nicely and mine didn't seem to be too tight or loose, except for the ankles. His feet are a little bit looser than the other two ninjas in the set, which is a real shame, so far though he hasn't toppled over or anything so it isn't affecting his balance too much.

Snake-Eyes' sculpt is awesome, when I first got him out of the package I said there was something familiar about him, and for good reason, he's based on an older VvV sculpt I used to own.

Accessory wise Hasbro put a little more thought into this one, he's got the same two swords and scabbard that Zartan came with, these are in a more traditional black colored plastic as opposed to the blue and dark gray of Zartan's accessories though.

He also comes with two guns, I have no idea what type they are because I never really memorized gun types, all I know is that one of them has a silencer that is removeable, which extends the barrel. It looks cool and that's really all I care about. He can pretty much hold all of his accessories at once, with his swords on his back and both guns in each hand he's fully capable of keeping all of his accessories while on display/the shelf.

Coming back to the sculpt for a moment, I am just seriously blown away by how impressive looking he is, compared to the single carded version this SE is just so much better, the single carded figure I keep looking at on the shelf, debating with myself whether I should get him or not, he's just so bland looking though. And here we have one that looks not only better, but is even a much better version than the original RoC SE I have.

If Storm Shadow is the weakest of the bunch than Snake-Eyes is easily the strongest and well worth a pick-up, even if you don't want the other figures in the set, I'm certain there are some out there selling him loose already on E-Bay at ridiculous prices. Do yourself a favor and get him any way you can, if you're a fan of SE then he's a must own version.

One minor note, while he can hold the swords his hands look more like they were sculpted with the guns in mind, and with the hilts of these swords being so much thiner than the one that comes with Storm Shadow they may have a tendency to slip out. A minor issue for an other wise great figure.

Finally we come to a personal favorite of many, the Red Ninja.

But wait, Red you say? He's more black than red?

Yes, while this is basically just a repaint of the single carded Red Ninja with a mostly reverse color scheme, all the black is red and all the red is black except for the arms, it is still called a Red Ninja.

Hasbro really made him different, you can have two Red Ninja from the Single Cards and this one and you'd have a pretty interesting trio of ninjas, two grunts and one squad leader. Or... Well we'll get to that in a moment.

Articulation is all the same, accessories however are not. This Red Ninja still has the same zip line, once again in reverse colors, it's all black not silver like the back of the packaging indicates. And it's still the same length of rope, 7ft. (I originally said 2ft, but I got the measurements for feet and meters mixed up, it's actually 2 meters worth of string, it's really a lot of string.)

Now, the back of the packaging says he should come with one of the sai, while Snake-Eyes get's the other, but I really think he's better off with both. As he can hold one in his hand while the other slides quite nicely into the bandolier allowing for complete storage of the accessories.

He's also got a claw, which is a lot nicer than the ones I have with RoC Storm Shadow and Kamakura, I'm not sure on the technical name of this weapon, but this version clips on over the arm and then has a bar for him to hold. His hand doesn't actually want to hold the bar though, not in any ordinary way at any rate. The weapon still fits snuggly over the arm and stays in place though.

As for the sai, well I'm glad they included them with this mold, because of the way the fingers are sculpted he can either hold it by the handle, or like Raphael, you can have him hold the weapon with his fingers sort of looking like they're wrapped around the three blades, which doubles the cool factor.

Hasbro introduces a new type of accessory with this set, one I've never seen before, it's an overtly large Chinese styled hat, the kind worn by rice pickers to keep the sun off. It looks unique and adds a bit of real world autheticity to the figure. I don't think I'm explaining it right, it's a cool looking hat is all I can say with very impressive sculpting details. And it's a very durable hard plastic.

Ok, almost done, bear with me folks. Red Ninja also includes the same mask that Temple Guardian Snake-Eyes from PoC had. This accessory takes an ordinary looking Red Ninja and transforms him into the Cobra Ninja Slice, at least that is what a lot of fans are repurposing this figure as because of this accessory. I'm pretty torn between this idea, on the one hand it's cool because I always loved the look of Slice, I remember the Ninja Force figure I had and played with many times in my youth quite fondly.

On the other hand, I really like Red Ninjas too, so if I repurpose him then I lose out on having a Red Ninja Leader to command my Red Ninja army. Decisions, decisions.

Overall, this three-pack is a damn fine set and well worth picking up. It includes three ninjas, with a large array of accessories, weapons and the packaging looks some what better with that awesome diorama piece that, as a bonus, won't get damaged by removing the plastic figure holding thing because Hasbro knew some of us would want to keep it intact for our displays and packaged it a certain way as to not damage the look of the artwork on the front of the carboard.

There is only one real issue I have with the set, Canadian Retail Price. It's 29.99 normally (32.99 apparently when TRU wants to have a % off sale, damn bastards.) which is a huge dissapointment. We're talking no value at all. These three-packs are 20$ in the states, esentially it's like buying two figures and getting one free. But in Canada it's like buying three figures all at once and paying the exact same price as three figures on individual cards.

Definitely wait for a sale if you can, right now they are 25% off at TRU, which due to the price increase mentioned above, doesn't really give you as much value as I calculated it would based on the actual price of 29.99 it should have been, f'ing TRU! But it is still a deal, and less than thirty dollars after taxes, so well worth the pick up.

You get a great Snake-Eyes, a versatile Red Ninja/Slice (If you want to repurpose him as such) and an ok Storm Shadow. Plus loads of ninja accessories and a nifty looking cardboard diorama with the image of a snow topped dojo/temple somewhere on a mountain. Definitely worth the sale price.

Rating, forgot the rating...

Three Pack Rating: 4 out of 5
Storm Shadow Rating: 3 out of 5
Red Ninja Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (I know same as the single card version, but I really don't think he warrants a full 5 out 5, he's got a bit better accessories and all that, but he is a repaint.)
Snake-Eyes Rating: 5 out of 5 (Yes he is just that good in my opinion, his sculpt is excellent, his accessories are great and he's the stand out seller from this set.)