Cyber Ninja (Retaliation)
One odd bit of marketing for the G.I. Joe Retaliation toy line is that apparently everyone in the Joe Team was a full-fledged ninja, according to the text printed on the cardback for several characters. Following suit, the Cobra guys also had their own brand of star-chucking goons, but being Cobra, they also had to be “Cyber” because, you know those Facebook statuses are not going to update themselves.
The Cobra Cyber Ninja is not a terrible concept, but execution leaves something to be desired. The Cyber ninja wears bulky armored vests over a very generic body sculpt. In fact, the whole figure is kitbashed from various sources, most notably the Rise of Cobra EliteViper, with a head taken from some vehicle driver and the legs from the wave 1 version of Storm Shadow.
The end result looks rather clunky, neither plausibly technologically advanced nor particularly ninja-like, but as a toy he turned out to be rather a decent addition to my shelf. For a start, articulation is quite good, consisting of:
• Ball jointed neck.
• Pegged hinge shoulders.
• Pegged hinge elbows.
• Swivel wrists.
• Floating torso.
• Ball jointed hips.
• Double hinged knees.
• Pegged hinge ankles.
• Rocker feet.
As you’d expect, the vest accessory does limit the usefulness of the torso joint, but the rest of the articulation functions without a problem.
The Cyber Ninja comes with quite a number of accessories, besides the vest. He comes armed with a pair of blades that use the same mold as the ones we got with Zartan, as well as a double sheath for them. Also included are a couple of pistols and a large, blocky assault rifle, as well as a big backpack with a functional flap to store stuff inside.
The zip line accessory that comes with the Cyber Ninja is a length of cord tied to a couple of disks that attach to rubber suckers, so you can slide the figure on it using the included handle/runner thingy. Overall, this seems like a rather well thought out accessory, even if I don’t really plan to use it that much.
The paint application on the Cyber Ninja is extremely sparse. The body received some drybrushing with silver, just barely enough to accentuate the edges of the sculpture, but on the limbs, vest and accessories there are bright blue lines painted to kind of tie all the pieces together with a TRON-like aesthetic.
In the end, even though the figure displays sound construction and has good functionality, the fact is that the Cyber Ninja is a very dull-looking character.
Errex Score: 77/100
Category: Featured, GI Joe, Toy Reviews
About the Author (Author Profile)
I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.Subscribe
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I kind of dig him. Not sure why, but I like that blue color.
Almost hypnotic, Isn’t it? That is probably why I bought it in the first place. 😉