Finally! A 3.75 inch two pack set that has two members of the same team! In this case, of course, it's the X-Men.
While I'm really happy I've got these two to now add to my Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Gambit, I'm a little sad because this is the last Wave of the Secret Wars packs, meaning that there won't be a chance for ol' Prof Egghead...er..X, to be produced. On the bright side, Prof X doesn't move around in a wheelchair in this series, so perhaps Hasbro will do him in a more "iconic" look in the main Marvel Universe line.
So yes, I picked up these two to round out my ragtag all-costumes-go X-Men. But I had other reasons too: who wouldn't want Storm with a Mohawk? And how can you no want to buy a uniquely sculpted Nightcrawler? Well, I sure did, so let's see how it turned out!
You know it's coming when you watch them kung fu/ninja movies, and sometimes the way the plot gets you to it is crap, but what the hell, it gets you there anyway.
Staying on the topic of ninjas (see previous post), I managed to get my hands on this coveted Target Exclusive 3.75" Storm Shadow with Arashikage Cycle!
I must've said it a million times before but I just love the red and white colour scheme of Storm Shadow! So far in the Rise of Cobra line, they've only used the red sparingly on his outfits. Well, enter this Arashikage version! Check out the red piping on his pants and jacket, and how they match with the red and white of his bike!
And it's no wonder, since Target's colours are red and white that they made this Target Exclusive Stormie, well, more red and white.
So naturally, this set went straight on my Must-Have list.
But I didn't fly into a gotta-have-it-now frenzy and email friends/family in the US for them to DRIVE-DOWN-NOW--AND-BUY-THE-FIGURE-AND-SEND-IT-STRAIGHT-TO-ME-IN-SINGAPORE-EXPRESS-EXPRESS!
I waited.
I thought that if I waited long enough it would somehow come to Singapore sooner or later.
It did. And ironically it came the day right after I had shot the pictures to do a review for Arctic Assault Storm Shadow.
So thanks to asturedragon on Ebay.com.sg, I bagged this Arashikage Stormie and his bike along with Snake Eyes and his bike, which my cousin/confidant/wingman (;P) The Rangerlord so gladly decide to take off my hands since I had Snakesy already. Not only did I get a great deal, but I also got express service--within hours of Buying it Now! I had met the seller and gotten the goods.
Now, I have my signature Storm Shadow!...or at least until I find the next version more brilliant. :P
Doing this review reminds me of when I was a kid and we used watch ninja movies on TV. And if there was a sequel they would show it the following week on the same day and same time slot. How would we know those movies were sequels? Well, it's not too tough when they follow up American Ninja with American Ninja 2 in the newspaper TV guide.
Also, somehow at that age, every kungfu movie that had '2' on the end of it had to be better than the first one, cuz by the end of it, the protagonist has attained a higher level of skill and doubled his body count. And for every kid who wants to be a ninja, greater body count = greater ninja master = better movie. How simple things were back then.
So based on that principle, here's my sequel to New Year with Ninjas!--New Year with Ninjas 2!! Will we have a higher body count?
I know New Year's Day has come and gone for all of us, but for us Chinese or those of Chinese decent, February 14th was the first day of Chinese New Year! And the awesome part is that it lasts for 15 days. So you eat like it's Thanksgiving except for two weeks straight. Sweet. :P
But I'll take a break from stuffing myself to talk toys just for a bit. And since it's the Chinese New Year, what better way to celebrate than with the awesomest, stealthiest, Chinese warriors of them all: Ninjas!
What? Whaddaya mean...oh. Uh, yeah. Ninjas are Japanese. Right...
Well...so what?
That ain't gonna stop me from reviewing 3.75" Rise of Cobra Arctic Assault Storm Shadow!!!
What really attracted me to this figure is how gory it actually looks. I don't think we've ever gotten a Joe (or any other action figure for that matter) with bloody cuts all over. He comes as a maskless variant too, but I much prefer the masked Storm Shadow because he seems more uncompromising, as if he won't reveal his identity no matter how badly hurt he is. Nice.
He also captures the climactic moment of the movie where he dukes it out with Snake Eyes. He's more or less been sliced to ribbons and so has his shirt, which has fallen off of him. I guess it's just before the chick magnet moment where he tears of his mask and goes all Mardi Gras topless. Heh.
But we all know ol' trusty Storm Shadow doesn't die despite being run through by Snakey. Heck, actor Lee Byung-Hun has signed on for at least another movie and word is that they've offered him a bigger role in the sequel. Good work, Stormie! Could it be he acted so well that he not only wowed audiences but fooled Snake Eyes too? I mean, after all, he's a good guy spying on Cobra, right? So does that mean he kinda 'let' Snake Eyes win in that climactic fight? Storm Shadow fans like me would like to think so. (Yeah he did. For sure. ;P)
So let's see how his toy measures up to his oh so sneaky-but-skillful-enough-to-dodge-death character!
I used to be a huge Duke fan, but after GI Joe: Rise of Cobra, I'm now a Storm Shadow junkie! Well, at least as far as movie Joes go. And it's entirely because of this guy:
It's Korean drama serial "Auntie Killer" Lee Byung-Hun! Why the nickname? Because the housewives here in Asia loooove him. And because we call housewives, especially the old ones, aunties. (Not you, Wanz! :P) Yes, go ahead and YouTube him. 1630 hits, people. That's how big the guy is in Asia, and perhaps now the rest of the world, because of the movie and his toy!
Enter Paris Pursuit Storm Shadow, who bears a pretty good likeness to the actor.
Now I have to say that one the whole, the majority of the movie 3.75" range of movie Joes have great face sculpts that resemble the actors playing them. General Hawk, Ripcord, Zartan, and Duke (Marine uniform) come to mind. And you have to give Hasbro credit for at least trying.
What they did do really well, though, was the articulation on the figures. Storm Shadow here has 22 points of bendy parts.
He has a ball-jointed head and chest, pin-swivel shoulders and elbows, swivel wrists. legs are ball-jointed, with double-joint knees and swivel and ratchet ankles. His lower half articulation is excellent, with perhaps the end of his pants getting in the way of him pivoting his feet, but that really is a minor problem.
His upper half, though, is slightly more problematic. But only slightly. First off, his head can't rotate as far to the right as it can the left because of the slightly lopsided collar. Second, his vest doesn't allow his arms to come together in front of him. They do rotate all the way back but lack of frontal flexibility means he can't properly wield his katana two-handed. And he definitely can't hold the huge ass cannon that come with him on his shoulder with 2 hands. Speaking of which, PP Stormie comes with a variety of good stuff!
Two swords, two sai, a pistol, a stand and a big friggin' cannon/bazooka. He also comes with a double sword scabbard, and a suction cup-like thing that has handles on it. And what's a GI Joe figure is it doesn't come with good stuff? That's right, toys that come with toys for the toys are the best. ;P
Just look at how much you can arm him with!
And check out the nifty places he can store his arsenal:
But defeinitely no place for the BFG, which I might add, only Stormie gets to fire in the movie to take out the Eiffel tower. It would've been a super cool accesory if only Paris Pursuit Storm Shadow came with it, and not every figure in the movie line. I dunno, maybe Hasbro wanted to keep those of us who haven't seen the movie from guessing who actually gets to fire it. Or maybe they thought every kid in the world would wanna have a BFG after seeing what it can do. Hmm. But too bad Stormie here can't have two hands on it while he's holding the weapon.
Hey but check out the suction cup thingamajig, though. It's deinitely going to come in handy in a glass display cabinet. Finally, all the 3.75" figure height troubles in tall shelf space solved! It'll also make for a nice wall-climbing battle scene.
OK let's rate him!
Character accuracy: 9.5/10 - Great likeness, jumpsuit is nicely detailed and collar molded to look like the way LBH wears it in the movie.
Aesthetics: 9.6/10 - Gotta love the detail they put into this guy. The creases in his jacket and pants, his hair molded just like Stormie in the movie, his light smirk, and his eyes. When painted well, they look like he's actually looking at you. ;) But I have seen some where his eyes are painted too high and he looks like he's perpetually rolling them. Mine's painted slightly high, and looks like he's always looking up when his head's turned to the side--his collar gets in the way left and right. Also, I've seen some with worse painted hair than my Storm Shadow. Or you can just touch him up with a little paint if you're not fussy. :)
Sneakers!
Poseability: 9.7 - I really wanna give him a 10 here just for the double jointed knees--you can do so much with them!
But he loses points for the head and also for the vest getting in the way of his arms and hands coming closer in front of his chest.
And just for fun, here's Storm Shadow executing a side-kick (At least I hope that's what it is):
Overall: 9.6 - They could've gotten away with doing Storm Shadow with just his ninja mask on and that's it, but they didn't. They gave him a face, and a good one at that. And they're not stopping there. The next wave will see a bare-chested Storm Shadow with cuts all over ala the final battle with Snakeyes in the movie, and there'll be masked and unmasked versions. I'll probably get them both! Woohoo!
Hasbro have done a good job with this line, if Storm Shadow is anything to go by. Now I can't wait to crack open Snake Eyes, General Hawk, Pit Commando, and Accelerator Suit Ripcord, the latter 3 of which I got over the weekend. :) Yo Joe!
While I'm really happy I've got these two to now add to my Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Gambit, I'm a little sad because this is the last Wave of the Secret Wars packs, meaning that there won't be a chance for ol' Prof Egghead...er..X, to be produced. On the bright side, Prof X doesn't move around in a wheelchair in this series, so perhaps Hasbro will do him in a more "iconic" look in the main Marvel Universe line.
