Storm Shadow (2004)
It’s good to see a ninja not sticking to one rigorous color scheme over his career. After all, white can get pretty boring after a while. Just look at the movie Storm Shadow. After just one film, he started to add some color blocking to his outfit. You gotta love a ninja with a little style.
Released in the Ninja Cobra Strike Team–wait, ninja Cobra? Shouldn’t that read Cobra ninja? Was someone at Hasbro having Backwards Day or something? See, this is just the kind of strange screw-up that started popping up in the Toys R Us six packs. If it wasn’t a title glitch, it was odd accessory choices, and later, the replacement of characters that were pictured on the package.
Stormy goes green with this little number, a repaint of his second uniform. I’ve always liked the mold a lot, and seeing it in a single color without camo gives it new life. The paint wipe application brings out some depth, but I would have preferred a flat version. Too much of the paint wipe or wash technique makes a figure just look dirty.
The loose hood on the second Storm Shadow figure has made it a standout among the GI Joe ninja figures. Hooded ninja figures tend to bring to my mind the many cheapjack ninja flicks of the 1980s. One in particular, Ninja III: the Domination, featured a fairly nasty ninja in a hood, who after killing umpteen people on a golf course and being gunned down by police, possesses the body of a telephone lineman/fitness instructor (played by the same actress who essayed the role of the spunky Kelly in Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo). What was I saying again? Oh yeah, Storm Shadow. He’s also been given a decent weapon complement this time around, featuring the trusty Scarlett crossbow, a sword, backpack and his awesome 1988 claws. Not that we really know if these are meant for him specifically, as the weapons are just placed around the figures in the pack.
I’ve never seen this version of Storm Shadow before, but it’s a nice take on the second mold.
I recently got this figure in a Listia lot. I’m guessing he was given those accessories as a way of approximating his 1988 gear, of which the claw appears to be the only surviving mold.
I hadn’t seen this version of Stormy either. I kind of like the dirty looking paint wash. Makes him look nastier somehow.
Maybe he’s a desert ninja?
The coloring and dirtiness of his ninja outfit makes me envision Storm Shadow in the jungle during a torrential downpour.
Haven’t scene this version but I think it’s awesome, the color wash making it look dirty gives it that feel of he was in the trenches waiting hours to pop out on a soldier and slit away at the trachea. Man I would love to find this version.
Best figure in that pack. The rest were all tributes to exclusives, foreign and convention (Vypras = Cobra infiltrator Jinx), but this Storm Shadow was actually something new.
Awesome digression! This is a pretty good figure, useful as Jungle Ninja Viper or just a non-white Stormshadow. The lack of Arashikage tattoo bugs me, but it leaves the figure more flexible.
Best Stormy’s camo ever i.m.o.!
I agree with Anon-Viper. This was clearly the best figure in the set. I still like my original 1988 version, but had there been better pack-mates, I would have happily picked this set up. I’ve always loved the 1988 Storm Shadow mold, but the meh-ness of everything else in that set was just too overwhelming for me to bit on.
The old Marvel comic had a lot of influence on me, as did the file cards. Early on, Storm Shadow was the Cobra ninja introduced to me on the cartoon, but my first Storm Shadow was the “good” Storm Shadow.
Reading that file card at that time sort of confused me, as my only media and worldly knowledge of the ninja was old cartoon that was in reruns that I sometimes caught after school.
As I picked up comic back issues later in years, I started back-filling on the whole Marvel Storm Shadow/ Snake Eyes story.
On a personal level, this “dirty” ninja Storm Shadow figure out of this pack was actually very useful for my more modern imagination take on this flip-flopping ninja.
He was bad, then he was good, then bad, and then still bad for some reason. And then good…., but not as good, and still hanging with the bad side. Ya know? And then the movie came out, and he was bad.
And in Retaliation, he might be going back to good. Again.
Yeah, this “dirty” Storm Shadow figure was perfect because I put this figure out there as a true lone wolf.
The figure isn’t in camo, rather, to me this figure is in his 1988 gear but he is so drama and battle hounded that he is more of a nomadic warrior without a cause.