I
was really stoked about Ninjor.
Okay,
first – this is Ninjor. He’s called “Ninja Warrior” due to
some of the legal copyright nonsense that sometimes causes such
things to happen. The same thing happened with Flipshot (called
Icarius in the MOTUC line) and Double Trouble (called Double
Mischief). “Ninja Warrior” is just a couple of words on a box, so
I’ll be referring to this guy as “Ninjor” for this review.
This
is one of the characters I was anticipating the most in the MOTUC
line. Ninjas were huge
in the 80s and I was all-in for Ninjamania, perhaps even more so than
Hulkamania. I don’t really know the origins of 80s Ninja Madness,
but I just decided we’re going to record an episode of the Needless
Things Podcast about it.
I
thought that Ninjor was one of the coolest He-Man figures I had ever
seen. Partially because he was a ninja, but partially because he had
actual fabric parts. I had a much different view of soft goods when I
was a kid. I loved
it when action figures had cloth parts – the later Jawas, the Endor
Rebels, Dr. Mindbender – there was something that felt so deluxe
about the little guys that had capes and robes and stuff. And Ninjor
had a mask and
a shirt. Plus a bunch of ninja weapons. His nunchaku had an actual
chain on them! I was also huge into nunchuks (as we all called them
prior to the internet) back then.
My
dad made me a set out of a couple of wooden dowels and a short length
of chain because, for one time in my life, he severely overestimated
my hand-eye coordination. Or maybe he just wanted to see me bust my
nose open. Fortunately for me, I was stupid enough to take them to
school and they were confiscated before I had a chance to do myself
harm.
Nowadays
they’d probably sentence a kid to life in prison.
I
was very excited to see how the 4 Horsemen would handle a MOTUC-style
Ninjor. I wasn’t expecting – or wanting – soft goods. I was
curious to see the sculpt of the analogous pieces and how other
aspects of the design would be sculpted.
First
Glance
This
guy looks absolutely fantastic in the package. Then you take him out
and everything falls apart.
Not
literally.
Okay,
maybe that was exaggerating, but as soon as I had all of the pieces
separated out of the tray I could see all kinds of things I didn’t
like. Ninjor was not making me as happy as I thought he would.
Packaging
Big
blister card, consistent packaging, attractive design, blah, blah,
blah. Love it.
I
am shocked and pleased that they (Toy Guru) didn’t make up some
stupid name for Ninjor.
I
am irritated that the bio specifically says “longbow” when the
accessory included clearly is not.
This
bio is a little more vague than some. Rather than detailing specific
events like “Ninjor cut Snout Spout’s snout off at the Last
Ultimate Final Ground of Sacrificial Battle of Forever” (which I
think is also the name of a TNA Wrestling pay-per-view), this is more
of a description of the character. The revelation that Ninjor is
actually an agent of Hordak and not loyal to Skeletor just shows that
he’s smarter than the average bear-headed man. Or man-headed-bear.
Whatever.
Looks
Ninjor’s
head looks great. The visible portion of his face is the most
evil-looking visible face portion I’ve ever seen. His eyebrows
would whip Peter Capaldi’s like a government mule. The detail on
the hood are great additions. I love the degree of separation between
the different parts and the seams sculpted into the top portion. His
black eyes with red irises look awesome, as well.
The
body is just a regular human Masters body in black, but it works
because Ninjor is a ninja.
The
torso piece looks a bit too wide like most of these sorts of things
do in the MOTUC line, but surprisingly it’s possible to pose Ninjor
with his arms hanging straight down. The details look great, though.
The way that the glossier black belts attach to the piece on the back
and thread through the shoulder pads is very cool. The crest on the
front looks great, but I was actually surprised that the dagger isn’t
removable. For some reason I was sure that it would be. The paint on
all of these parts is great and for some reason feels a bit tighter
than I expect from this line. Not that we’ve seen bad paint lately,
but Ninjor just seems particularly good.
Matty
chose to use the textured “evil warrior” pieces for Ninjor’s
forearms and calves and I do not approve. I get that they were
probably trying to make the figure seem a little more interesting and
perhaps demonic (given the red eyes), but this look just doesn’t
work for me.
The forearms aren’t quite
as bad, but those feet:
They
look like bird feet. I had reconciled the fact that Ninjor has the
weird, three-toed feet that many Eternian villains seem to be cursed
with, but the scaling on those calves just looks too odd. I’m
seriously considering stealing Mo-Larr’s feet for this guy. I think
I’d be a lot happier with him.
Of
course, there are other problems…
Accessories
Ninjor
comes with an extra head, a quiver, a bow, a katana, nunchaku, and a
loin cloth thing that is actually for Jitsu.
The
piece for Jitsu looks great, though to my eye it doesn’t quite
match his colors. But it looks okay. It is a huge pain in the ass to
get fastened on a figure, though. I’m just impressed that Matty
continues to do neat things like include other characters’
accessories with figures when it fits in the budget.
Ninjor’s
extra head, or “unmasked” head, is a very cool update of the
original figure’s head. It’s terribly similar to Jitsu’s, but
different. The sculpt is great and I love the expression. I hate the
position that the ponytail is sculpted in. It’s silly. That thing
really should have been a separate piece plugged into a hole so that
you could position it. The masked head pops off and on easily enough,
but the extra head takes some work.
The
quiver is cool, though I would have preferred it in black. It really
screws up Ninjor’s nice red and black color scheme. It plugs into a
hole in the figure’s back and has clips for the katana and bow.
These could have looked a lot nicer. There’s a definite cheap toy
look to this thing.
The
nunchaku are pretty bad. Unlike the original toy, these are one solid
piece rather than having a chain in the middle. This makes the figure
look immensely stupid when it is holding them. The sculpt is good and
so is the paint, but they are not functional to the point where I can
display them with the figure.
The
katana is a piece of crap. It’s made of rubber so soft that I don’t
even want to bother straightening the badly bent blade out because I
honesatly think it will just droop in the figure’s hand. The sculpt
and paint are nice, but due to construction it is useless.
The
bow is the worst and most embarrassing piece of Ninjor’s arsenal.
It looks almost exactly like the original figure’s which is not
okay. For something that is described as a “longbow” it is
laughably tiny. I also hate that there is an arrow sculpted onto it
and that the string is a thick piece of plastic. And there’s no
paint. This thing just looks terrible, which is surprising given how
great Bow’s
bow was. Maybe they can repaint that one for Ninjor in a future
Weapons Pack. Unless they’re not doing any more Weapons Packs.
As
excited as I was about all of Ninjor’s gear, most of it sucks. The
quiver and the bow are far too toy-like for the line and the sword
and nunchaku are functionally deficient.
Fun
Ninjor
is, however, fun. He has all of the great articulation that the rest
of the Masters of the Universe Classics figures have and can be posed
in plenty of ninja-ish ways.
Multiple
heads are always a fun thing to have, and even though the accessories
suck they’re still there and a add a ton of play value. Especially
with how they interact with the figure. I may hate the bow, nunchaku,
and katana, but they can all be stored on the figure at once
(although in admittedly crappy ways).
If
I wasn’t so disappointed with the execution of certain aspects of
Ninjor, he would almost certainly be hanging around my desk for quite
some time for me to play with.
Overall
I’m
mostly disappointed with this guy. As things stand I just want him
away from my sight ASAP. He isn’t terrible, but the things I don’t
like are so significant and apparent that I just can’t overlook
them.
It
could be said that the calves and forearms are more personal
preference, though the original figure didn’t have textures. But I
feel like Matty just blew it with the weapons. I can find another
sword to give him and I might even take it upon myself to put a chain
on those nunchaku, but that bow is just embarrassing. There’s
nothing to be done about that.
3
out of 5
I
hate to say it, but I can’t recommend this guy. If you like what
you see, then that’s great. But I don’t have an enthusiastic
endorsement like I do for a lot of the MOTUC guys.
If
you do
for some reason like what you see, then you can pay way too much for
one from Amazon and help out Needless Things!:
Perhaps Skeletor knew about his spying and therefor supplied him with a plethora of shitty weaponry.
ReplyDeleteGood call. I'll go with that.
DeleteGreat review, honest and to the point without the @$$ missing that other reviewers do.
ReplyDeleteThanks, man. I try to keep it as honest as I can. I do let enthusiasm color things sometimes, though. Not this guy.
DeleteI am not nearly as disappointed with Ninjor as you are. Actually, I really like him. The bow is stupid, yes. I don't know why Mattel insists on sculpting arrows to their bows. As far as the nunchaku go, they don't look good, but putting a real chain on there is a real easy modification.
ReplyDeleteThe sword that came with mine is no where near as soft as your described. Maybe I lucked out. Mine was warped, but the plastic feels nice and firm, like most swords in the motuc line, and it was easy to straighten out with a hair dryer.
Sorry you didn't like him, but your review really lowered my expectations; which ultimately was good because he far exceeded what I was expecting.
Eh, you know how I feel about making aftermarket changes to get a figure to look right. It should never have to happen. But this guy is currently on the operating table. I'll share the results, uh... once I have results.
Delete