1993 Snake Eyes

Posted on February 21, 2025 by mwnekoman

Snake Eyes is an odd character to me. I like him, I like thinking about the adventures he goes on. Though, there’s too much of him and honestly, any interpretation of him that disregards the goggles doesn’t appeal to me much. To me, the only real Snake Eyes designs are the original and the ’91 version. So with that out of the way, this Ninja Force version doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on, huh?

I should be sentimental and waxing nostalgia for him, as technically this was my first Snake Eyes and one of my first GI Joe toys. I was born right as GI Joe died, so most of the figures I had that weren’t my brothers were bought in ’96 and ’97 on clearance. Cheap left overs or not, I was delighted to have my own GI Joes as a kid, but the scenario somewhat oddly shaped my views on a few things. For me, almost the entirety of GI Joe was a blank slate, where I only knew a couple of characters, and the basic scenario of GI Joe vs Cobra. Over time an occasional Sunbow re-run, Street Fighter II, or a watching of our GI JOE:THE MOVIE recording would influence my world a bit. For the most part, I made up my own characters based on what figures interested me the most.

1993 Snake Eyes was not one of those figures I liked a lot; in fact, I barely remember playing with Spider-Spawn at all. So despite being baby’s-first Snake Eyes, I don’t really have any great memories of him. The Night Creeper and Bushido were far more captivating to me than this Snake Eyes ever was, probably because their sculpting made it a lot more clear what they were, whereas Ninja Force Snake Eyes doesn’t give someone much to go off of. Looking at him now, there’s a lot of detail here I can appreciate in the design, but as a kid the smooth mask and predominately black color didn’t make him very interesting.

Looking past that, the sculpt actually is fairly strong. There’s some nice texturing on his sweatshirt that highlights the body-armor he wears on top of it, without using paint. The smooth battle-mask is kind of an interesting riff on the original look… Though I still think it makes him look too much like Spawn. At a glance, he appears as though he’s covered in copious amounts of grenades like a stereotypical figure of his era, but most of those are small Nageteppo smoke grenades. His assortment of flares, smoke grenades and explosives seems a lot more natural and interesting, than something like Sonic Fighters Major Bludd. Of course, all of this is stifled by that fact that he has a spring-gimmick in both his hips and his arms. I try to look past these as highlighting them is repetitive, but Snake Eyes suffers a lot for how obtrusive his particular gimmick is.

Snake Eyes comes with three different swords (One from Ninja Force Storm Shadow, one from Dojo and a curved sword, which was new.), a knife (also new), two claws (’88 Stormie’s), nunchucks (from Nunchucks) and a figure stand, all cast in bright, powder blue plastic. Most weapons from the parts-tree era were just reused sculpts, so I find it odd that Snake Eyes came with two that were new. It’s not an amazing allotment of weapons either way; I wish he had a little blue pistol like the one holstered on his leg. The same set in yellow was included with Ninja Force Scarlet.

On a good day, you can still get 1993 Snake Eyes for around $5 loose, and $15 to $20 carded, with the carded examples proving to be the more common ones. “More common carded” is such a funny idiosyncrasy,as you really only see something like that happen with stuff people were hoarding in droves. In some ways this Snake Eyes is kind of an iconic figure, representing his last outfit in ARAH. Yet, he’s also a really bad figure for the action feature, so that’s probably reflected more in his pricing.

1993 Snake Eyes Links:

1992 Dice

Posted on January 22, 2024 by mwnekoman

1992 Dice

A minor quibble I have with 90‘s GI Joes, is the point where the majority of Cobras became somewhat redundant, faceless mooks. Don’t get me wrong, I like army-builders as much as the next guy, but the distinct personalities tend to stick in my head a bit more compared to some specialty oriented Viper. It’s mostly a ‘90 and ‘91 problem, but 1992 suffers a lot for it too, just because there were fewer figures released that year. Anyways, Dice stands out a lot just for being a unique 90‘s Cobra, at a point when the line needed a little more of that.

In many ways Dice could almost pass for one of the coolest Cobras made since the 80‘s, though he suffers a fatal flaw as a gimmick oriented Ninja Force figure. I’m not averse to gimmicks inherently and I think the designers at the time were being fairly wise to keep with trends and expand their audience a bit. Armor Tech for example, is usually viewed as an abomination to Joe’s classic construction, but as a very small child I actually liked those better, they struck me as something similar to Duplo blocks for their toddler friendly simplicity. So at face value the different construction is mildly respectable, but I think it’s aged poorly in a major way: There’s no way to change this figure’s o-ring besides cutting his torso in half, and thirty-two years later that makes all of these suck pretty hard.

Back to Slice- I mean DICE (Really, I’d never keep them straight if it weren’t for the orange Slice repaint.), he’s a fun character, and one that I find sad to have become an obscurity. His design is really solid, and on that front him and Slice probably are the best Cobra’s of the 90‘s. The dragon mask is interesting for the way that it hides most of his face but still shows a lot of skin around his mouth and exposes a nicely detailed bandana he wears under it. I like that since most of the Cobras by this point didn’t really show much of their faces, which is cool and all, but also makes a lot of them less memorable. His colors are nice too, being mostly dark purple and black with some silver.

It’s also nice that his gimmick doesn’t hamper him too much. He’s one where you twist his torso and then he slings back, like T’Jbang. Because of it, he has no waist joint, but comparatively that’s not so bad when you look at Snake Eyes or Scarlet’s t-crotches, or the Night Creepers who can barely do anything with their arms. The proportions also make it out nicely unscathed by his gimmick, Dice looks bulky and muscular but not exaggeratedly so. I think some people dislike the relative lack of a waist, but I think it looks like a combination of muscle and maybe some bulky protective gear.

For accessories, you get a simple silver axe and halberd (or bo-staff, as the filecard calls it). If you like living risky, you can get some fun two-handed poses with the staff, though I’m personally beyond testing what remaining plasticity his thumbs have left. Naturally, you don’t get any kind of backpack for him since none of the Ninja Force figures had peg-holes for them. It’s odd too, since Armor Tech figures still kinda had them, but I guess for the ninjas there just wan’t enough room. I like his little axe, but forgot to ever take a picture of him using it. His job is “Bo-Staff Ninja”, so it always feels weird to pose him with anything else.

As a random piece of trivia I thought I’d document, I have both a domestic American Dice and a Dice that was released in Mexico if I recall. The Mexican figure is no different as far as I can tell from the American one, and even the card back is the same, just with stickers placed over the English text. The only thing I can say is that figure came to me MOSC with some unusual wear: one elbow is cracked like an ’88 figure, and only one half of one thigh is slightly discolored. So it’s not an interesting foreign figure or something like that, just something that appeared cheap a decade or so ago. I only bother talking about it since I’ve not seen anyone even mention such a figure existing, so now you know.

The price on Dice might make you think twice… or not, just rhyming. Decent examples still go for less than $10, though on bad days he seems to run for a little more than that. It’s not a hard figure to find at all, and one that’s pretty durable with only two large parts to keep up with. Ninja Force lots tend to run pretty cheap too, though that’s probably because most of the lame-o’s like Dojo are just dead weight on a more desirable figure like Dice.

gi joe 1992 1993 ninja force snake eyes dice night creeper

American Dice

1992 Dice Links:

1992 T’Jbang

Posted on October 24, 2022 by mwnekoman

1992 T’Jbang

First, to make you feel old, I just realized that T’Jbang is thirty. That means if you’re older than T’Jbang, you’re a really old man now. Unlike you, I’m younger than T’Jbang, which might make you wonder why I run an 80‘s toy blog, but that’s another story for another time. Anyways, T’Jbang is an insane looking figure, and is simultaneously the best GI Joe and the worst GI Joe.

I’ve always been a pretty big fan of the Ninja Force. The gimmicks don’t bother me much, and a lot of them were some of my first GI Joe figures (I was born in ‘94, but my parents bought me Ninja Force and Star Brigade figures that were still floating around into ‘98). They put a bigger focus on the fun-factor, and as a kid, they could play out roles as anything from ordinary soldiers, to wrestlers and Power Rangers. I never read the comics or knew who any of these guys were supposed to be. I just made up my own adventures and had fun.

Recently, I’ve rectified my lack of media knowledge and have finally read through the later Marvel comics. The result of this is a better understanding of why grumpy older people hate Ninja Force. In the comics, they suck. They come out of no where, they’re goofy, and clearly are riffing too much off of the then popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Maybe it was something else, but colorful ninjas with attitude is a considerable leap from Storm Shadow or the Night Creepers.

Put that aside, T’Jbang is a fun figure. Although he’s a ninja, he definitely looks more like a wrestler to me, even now. I don’t mind that, he fits in well with Sgt. Slaughter, and it seems like a more appropriately colorful idea to have a ninja commando that moonlights as a masked wrestler. Visually, he comes off a lot stronger than Banzai or Dojo, which probably makes him one of the more memorable figures from the subset. There’s enough detail on him to make him stand out. My favorite part is his rather detailed yellow mask, with tiger print on it. Most of what you see on him is some more standard ninja aesthetics, with big shin-guards and arm gauntlets, but the mask is unique and looks pretty good.

Of course, like all Ninja Force figures, T’Jbang has an action feature. Similar to Dice and Zartan, you can twist him at the torso and he springs back into position, similar to a punch or a sword swing. Although it’s a shame that a ninja of all things loses some articulation, he’s not as harmed by the gimmick as figures like Snake Eyes. Of course, once his o-ring rots away, the figure has to be cracked in half or extensive mods have to be done to fix him. I really hate that, though as a toy it’s not a terrible concept, since most o-rings will outlive the amount of years a kid would spend playing with toys.

For added interest, his accessories are a sword, and a double-bladed hook sword. Hook swords are sometimes called hu tou gou, or tiger head hook, so there’s a tiger connection that goes with the mask. It’s also interesting that this weapon is Chinese in origin, so T’Jbang has learned Wushu to go with his ninja training. Oddly, hook swords are usually used akimbo, but T’Jbang’s is one weapon, combined. Because of that, I’m not sure if it’d really work the same, or all that well at all, but I suppose that’s all apart of his secret style. Sadly, it’s a little hard for him to hold because of it’s design. The other sword is plain and works better, but is also boring. Both parts are powder blue, but this figure already looks nuts, so he’s not any worse for that.

T’Jbang is worth about $5, complete. I’ve warmed up to this figure in a lot of ways, but I’m not blind to the ways he’s also an awful toy. He’s a nobody with a corny character, and his outlandish toy is doomed to eventually fall apart and require a dreadful repair. He’s practically worthless for a good reason, but I can’t find it in myself to hate this figure. He’s still fun in a very innocent, juvenile kind of way.

1992 T’Jbang Links:

Forgotten Figures

3D Joes

Half the Battle

Shadow Ninja Nunchuck, 1994

Posted on April 16, 2018 by mwnekoman

Shadow Ninja Nunchuck

I’m a big fan of Ninja Force figures. Their gimmicks don’t usually bother me much, and I usually find the figures to have sculpts that are strong with great colors. That doesn’t give everything Hasbro tried with the line a free pass however, and one subset I certainly don’t love is the Shadow Ninjas. Today I’m looking at Nunchuck, but most of my comments could likely be applied to this line as a whole.

The Shadow Ninjas were a single assortment from 1994, reusing the ’92 and ’93 Ninja Force molds. The figures now are cast largely in semi-translucent, color changing plastic for a new gimmick on top of their existing action features. This is entirely what ruins the Shadow Ninjas, including Nunchuck. This plastic is inherently fragile. Most of the ones from my childhood have broken or cracked thumbs, which is something I can’t say for any other GI Joe toys I owned as a kid. Of the entire subset, the only intact figures I have left are this Nunchuck and the Nightcreeper.

Another issue the plastic brings along is it’s appearance. Clear toys can sometimes get a pass for being stupid as long as they look good (Like the 2003 Firebat). The Shadow Ninjas weren’t totally clear however, only partially. What you end up with is a figure that looks like it was made out of soap. Additionally, the elbow joints were often not made of a color changing plastic at all, making certain figures look even uglier with miscolored joints.

On top of all that, Nunchuck is a huge visual down grade from his original figure. The colors on V1 Nunchuck make him one of the most appealing Ninja Force figures, but now that’s all gone for dull magenta. The paint is also much more simplistic and basic than V1 Nunchuck’s, further making this figure quite bland and ugly.

If there’s one thing I can’t say I hate about Shadow Ninjas, it’s their parts. The Shadow Ninjas all featured parts similar to the typical Ninja Force figures, but in completely translucent plastic. As a kid, I loved these weapons and would give them to various other figures. I often times would give them to Star Brigade figures or Iron Grenadiers who I thought looked pretty good with an energy sword/ light saber type thing. Mind you, the bows like the one Nunchuck here includes were always pretty difficult to get a figure to hold, but the swords and halberds saw frequent usage.

Shadow Ninjas as a whole aren’t as common as their Ninja Force counterparts. Often times Ninja Force figures can still be had for prices similar to their original retail, while these figure are a little harder to find. As a consequence, they often have more inconsistent prices. A loose complete Nunchuck will sometimes go for as much as $15, while a MOSC example might go for $12. Likely, this is just the general value of the figure and being sealed adds nothing to that.

Shadow Ninja Nunchuck, 1994 Links:

Yo Joe

(Note: There’s almost zero content about this figure on the internet. So here’s a fun 1993 commercial for all of the Joe products out at that time.)

1993 Scarlett, Ninja Force

Posted on February 26, 2018 by mwnekoman

Objectively speaking, the Ninja Force sub-line was one of ARAH’s lowest points, if not, perhaps it’s lowest. GI Joe was following trends, they sacrificed the figure construction for gimmicks, and in general the toys were very silly. But, I like some of them, and they were the first GI Joes I ever got as a kid, so I have a special respect for them in my collection. Of them, Scarlet is a figure I used a lot, and for a long time was the only Scarlett in my collection.

As a kid, female figures often served weird roles in my battles. They were usually spies, hostages, spies pretending to be hostages, and sometimes a GI Joe’s girlfriend who’d typically die. Sometimes some pretty weird stuff, but there was a long time where I never really saw Scarlet in the cartoon or anything, as this was the mid 90‘s and ARAH reruns were sparse. She often times would work in tandem with Chun-Li (her repaint), and on a few occasions I even rationalized that they could be suicide-bombers because of the grenade sculpted on the center of their chests. Some mildly strange ideas, but overtime she morphed into being a more ordinary Sunbow Scarlet once Cartoon Network started running GI Joe and I was able to watch more of it.

Like other Ninja Force figures, Scarlett features a non-standard construction to accommodate her kicking gimmick. As such, she has no o-ring, and no hip movement. Her leg joints are a t-crotch, so she also has no horizontal movement in them. In my eyes, this doesn’t necessarily ruin the figure, but it limits her uses and makes her cumbersome. In general, the gimmick is one of the less well done from this sub-line.

Despite that this figure features such an overbearing action feature, the sculpt and painted details on her are honestly fantastic. If this figure had been released with no action feature and a standard o-ring sculpt, she would have easily been the best ARAH female figure released. The sculpted details are very sharp on this mold, particularly the head. It’s more feminine looking and the scale is more appropriate than on the 80‘s female heads. I’m also really amazed they painted the irises and eyelashes separate colors. That’s something I don’t think I’ve seen on another figure.

The rest of the design is really nice. The original Scarlet has an iconic look, but the cowgirl-ninja in a leotard costume never really worked for me. This design at least makes her look more like a ninja of some sort, so for that alone I can appreciate it. I also really don’t mind the colors too bad, despite the fluorescent green being rather bright. It’s matched with dark green, black and gold for an overall detailed and strong palate of colors.

Her parts are the typical fair for a Ninja Force figure: random and bright. She includes three different swords, a knife, nunchucks, two claws and a figure stand. The parts are all bright yellow, which hinders their uses. I was also really stunned she didn’t include any sort of bow or crossbow, given it’s Scarlet’s trademark weapon and there were a few bows they were actively using at the time they could’ve included. None of these parts are very interesting and there’s a poor variety here, even for a mid-90‘s figure.

Overall, Ninja Force Scarlett would be an excellent figure, but the gimmick knocks her down to an interesting figure for those that can ignore it. Most cannot, and this is reflected in how collector’s value the figure. A full 25 years later and the figure can be acquired carded for as little a $5. None of the Ninja Force carded figures are worth a lot, but it’s kind of sad when you think about what could’ve been if only this figure was made without the gimmick.

1993 Ninja Force Scarlett Links:

Yo Joe

3D Joes

10 GI Joe Figures that are Surprisingly Bad

Posted on September 24, 2015 by mwnekoman

With how much fun collecting GI Joe can be, I sometimes forget about the little oddball figures that really just aren’t up to par. There’s some obvious choices that could be considered worse than these, but I wanted to avoid going for cheap-shots like Armor Tech figures. So without further ado, here’s ten figures I’ve acquired that are really bad.

10. Flaming M.O.T.H Chuckles

What a surprise, a figure from the official GI Joe collector’s club. Usually these guys are a little more on point, but this figure serves almost no purpose. It’s sad because a set of collectors have always mocked Chuckle’s classic attire and it would have been a great chance for them to release the character in a more grounded looking outfit. Instead, they chose to recreate his classic look, only from the very buff Heavy Duty mold. Really?

9. T’Jbang

I’m a fan of the outlandish side of GI Joe, but this guy does some things wrong. First, he suffers from the same obtrusive gimmicks many of the Ninja Force figures suffered, restricting his torso articulation. His color scheme is rather ugly and makes me think of Dr. Fate if he were a luchador. The tiger mask comes off as chintzy, as do his bright blue parts. His bio also mentions he’s taken a vow of silence … Because that’s very original when it comes to GI Joe, isn’t it?

8. Dr. Link Talbot

This one makes me pretty sad honestly. Link is actually a pretty decent character with a unique specialty as a veterinarian. Neither version of this figure includes any sort of animal however, which is a huge missed opportunity. The figure really doesn’t include any sort of nice parts. His sculpt and overall design are both extremely boring, featuring minimal gear and equipment. What you end up with is a cool character represented by two toys that are highly lackluster.

7. Funskool Barbecue

Funskool has been known for making a lot of cool and strange little variants during their run with GI Joe. With this one, I sadly can find no place for him. Normal Funskool Barbecue figures came with a yellow mask that was at least slightly more attractive looking, but this variant replaces that color with flesh-tone. It’s so ugly! It goes a long way to make a mediocre figure simply inferior. For added insult, some of these were shipped as random vehicle drivers with no parts, such as this figure.

6. Windmill

Aspects of Windmill seem like the makings of an average Joe pilot, but the execution on this one comes off so bad. I have no problem with bright colors, but the way this figure mixes orange with bright green makes him hard to look at. His head sculpt irritates me too, what’s up with the cat ears? To round it all off check the size of that revolver of his, that thing is HUGE.

5. Long Range

This figure might have made an alright Iron Grenadier in different colors, or with a little paint. As he is, this figure truly puzzles me with what he’s supposed to look like. He features almost no paint and is cast in an ugly, prototype gray color. His helmet is goofy looking, and even the small pistol he includes leaves much to be desired.

4. 1997 Duke

1997 was another strange time for GI Joe. While many nice repaints came out during this year, the figures were plagued with quality issues. This Duke has said issues as well, but is also just a terrible looking figure! Albeit, he does brandish a nice amount of paint applications, they’re all so random. Why is Duke’s hair brown? Why are his shoes red? And, of all things why would they paint his pockets and not the flesh colored watch on his wrist?

3. 1993 Muskrat

What on earth … this Muskrat is a strange and terrible figure that makes no sense at all. His colors are incohesive with a navy blue, orange and some sandy color. His sculpt has terrible proportions, just look how low his arms sit on his shoulders. He also features one of the most mind-boggling launcher accessories in the entire line. It’s a missile launcher that mounts on his helmet. Screw practicality, it’s not even cool looking.

2. Wild Card

Not only does Wild Card have a bizarre appearance for a Joe, he also offers very little as a figure. He brings little in terms of sculpted detail, and his head is extremely generic. He looks almost just like every other mustached GI Joe. Sadly his generic head sculpt is one of the better things about this figure, when the rest of him is both so random and bland at the same time. I think he looks like a homeless guy to be honest.

1. 25th Anniversary Gung-Ho

25th figures are easy to pick on because so many of them haven’t aged well, but let’s face it: Gung-Ho was bad even when the figure first came out and everyone was hyped for the new construction. That alone says a lot, but in my observation this is the worst Modern Era figure to date. First, the figure features a bland deco with a horrendous, zombified looking skin tone. As you can imagine, the figure is as narrowly articulated as the other original 25th figures, Gung-Ho’s arms barely bend 45 degrees at the elbows. He has an awkward neckline that looks awful at even the slightest profile view. His cap doesn’t feature a marine logo, but instead an anchor in its place. His legs had a universal problem of being extremely loose and flopping all over the place. Oh, and lastly I almost forgot his grenade launcher, the one almost no figure can hold and won’t stay together at all.

Disagree with my picks? Sound off @MW_Nekoman on twitter.

The Viper Pit

Tag Archives: Ninja Force

1993 Snake Eyes

1993 Snake Eyes Links:

1992 Dice

1992 Dice

1992 Dice Links:

1992 T’Jbang

1992 T’Jbang

1992 T’Jbang Links:

Shadow Ninja Nunchuck, 1994

Shadow Ninja Nunchuck

Shadow Ninja Nunchuck, 1994 Links:

1993 Scarlett, Ninja Force

1993 Ninja Force Scarlett Links:

10 GI Joe Figures that are Surprisingly Bad