1994 Shadow Ninja Night Creeper

Shadow Ninjas are one of those ideas that seems great in a marketing room.  As a design challenge, it was probably a lot of fun to work on.  But, as an end product, the final result is a toy that's fun for about 5 minutes before you break it.  And, that's not a recipe for success.  And, collectors have responded to the Shadow Ninjas concept in kind.  As all other 1994 G.I. Joe figures see a strong uptick in popularity through the years, Shadow Ninjas remain the forgotten stepchild of the genre.  There is little content on them out there and the figures almost never appear in photos or dioramas.  Their backstory allows for some story telling.  But, it has never caught on with the community, even as concepts like Ninja Force have found more acceptance.  Of the figures in the subset, the Shadow Ninja Night Creeper probably makes the most sense.  

The 1993 Night Creeper sculpt is pretty solid.  It's a look that didn't really exist in the Cobra world prior to his appearance.  I have a soft spot for the 1993 debut of this figure.  I'll tell that story when I profile him.  This Shadow Ninja version, has less going for him.  But, the gimmick that gives the Shadow Ninja name is also the detail the deprives the 1994 release of the vibrant colors that spark the joy like the 1993 figure.  Still, the overall colors on the 1994 figure aren't terrible.  The purplish/pink torso and arms are bright.  But, they fit with the motif of the figure.  And, they are not too far removed from the 1993 colors and that allows a bit of cohesion between them.  The greyish-white pants can make the figure look dirty or discolored.  But, when in the right state, they are a nice complement for the torso.

The real issue with the Shadow Ninja figures is that they are overly brittle.  The figures' thumbs might as well be made of glass for how easily they will snap off.  All of the Shadow Ninjas suffer from this.  And, as their accessories are also made of incredibly hard plastic, it's even easier to snap a thumb just by putting the first accessory into the figure's hands.  It's becoming harder and harder to find unbroken, loose Shadow Ninja figures.  You'll often find nicely conditioned and complete figures, but with broken thumbs.  (Look carefully at the thumbs, too, as even intact pieces usually have cracks already forming due to accessory use.)  It's an affliction that's caused by the design and materials used to make the figures.  So, the only real solution is extreme care or simply not using accessories at all.

The main gimmick of the Shadow Ninjas is that they will turn color in heat and cold.  This was the selling point for the figures and justified the higher than normal price tag.  Today, the gimmick still works on most figures.  You will see large quantities of Shadow Ninjas, though, that are very white or a dull grey.  You'll even see it on carded figures.  You can often recharge the color by putting the figure in the freezer for a while.  But, even this tends to be fleeting.  (Note that the figure's elbows and shoulder joints will remain white, a function of them being designed for stress  when the figure moves.  All of these parts are meant to be white and are not discolored.)  Zartan's color changing as driven by the sun is a better gimmick.  And, it's likely the color change plastic that's the cause of the brittleness in the figures.  But, the differently colored figures you see out there aren't variants.  They're just figures stuck in various phases of their color change.

In speaking to the gimmick, though, the color changing schtick wasn't widely loved.  The Shadow Ninjas were among the last figures from the vintage run that you could find at retail: lasting well into 1996 in most areas.  The high price point wasn't enough to really justify the gimmick.  And, kids and parents bought up the alternate Joe choices long before the Shadow Ninjas were considered.  As the Shadow Ninjas hit clearance prices, many of the early toy store scalpers started buying them: hoping for future riches.  This is how you'd find large lots of them for nearly nothing at various comic book stores and scalp kiosks at the flea market during the 2000's.  Even then, though, collectors mostly ignored them and it took decades for the stock to finally be absorbed in any significant way.

Speaking of accessories, the Night Creeper is well equipped.  He includes the same weapons tree from 1993 figure.  It's a large complement of weapons, far more than he can hold.  But, all the weapons are well done.  The Shadow Ninja weapons are all made of a super brittle translucent plastic.  So, fine details like those on the Night Creeper's bow will snap with just a bit of pressure.  All told, the Night Creeper includes two swords, two knives, the aforementioned bow, a sickle and a stand.  It's good gear that works with the figure.  (If you look at the 1993 Night Creeper card art, though, it seems he was originally intended to include the accessory tree from the 1993 Slice.)  The swords work nicely without being too big and the Night Creeper's bow is a good call back to the debut of the character in 1990.  You can tie a string to the sickle.  I've done that with a 1993 version and used it like that since I acquired it back in the mid 1990's.

The real question is what do you do with Shadow Ninja figures?  For me, most of them are gimmicks.  But, the Night Creeper works within the context of the stealth idea.  I see Night Creepers exactly as advertised in terms of being an independent group who works for Cobra.  I though, see them as joining with Cobra Commander much earlier in the Cobra timeline.  Cobra likely started in the mid to late '70's in order to grow into the organization we were introduced to in 1982.  In the early days, Cobra Commander had to work with hired mercenaries.  But, he could not yet afford the best.  We saw some of these anonymous early Cobras in the first issues of the comic.  I also see, though, foreign characters like the Cobra De Aco and Cobra Mortal being part of these early days.  As Cobra grew and had greater resources, Cobra Commander could afford the services of Destro, Firefly, Zartan and others.  But, he had the problem of the early leaders who were still around.

As noted in the comic, it's likely that more than a few of these other Cobra leaders eliminated themselves through battlefield ineptitude as the Joe team got more involved.  But, as they were early members of the Cobra command, they likely had access to highly sensitive information about Cobra operations, funding and personnel.  So, the Commander had to have them all killed.  This is where I see the early incarnations of the Night Creepers coming aboard.  They would have been among those the Commander hired to take out some of the hangers-on from the organizations earliest days.  I see the Night Creepers of that era being pre-cursors to Zartan who possessed some advanced stealth technology.  The 1994 Night Creeper is the result.  And, with their suits obscuring them, they were able to specifically kill the Cobra Mortal.  

From here, I'm open to interpretation.  I could see the Commander hiring a young Zartan to take out the Night Creepers and this is where he got his holographic technology.  This would then leave open the possibility that the Night Creepers the Commander sought out nearly a decade later were a different group.  Perhaps one that found the remnants of the original group, re-organized it and turned it into something far bigger and more powerful.  Of course, this reeks of the over dependence upon a single event that revolves around the Snake Eyes story.  So, at some point, I'll have to refine the story down into something less derivative.  But, the notion of these Night Creepers disposing of the Cobra Mortal is one aspect I want to keep.  Someone had to kill all those early Cobra leaders who never appeared again.  These Night Creepers are as good as anyone to be responsible.

This Night Creeper sculpt debuted in 1993 and got the Shadow Ninja repaint in 1994.  It then permanently disappeared.  While many other Ninja Force parts returned in both the Street Fighter Movie and Mortal Kombat Movie lines, Night Creeper was not among them.  There are some foreign carded variants where you can get unique card art for the Shadow Ninja Night Creeper.  (The Shadow Ninjas are the only time that generic card art was used in the US and specific card art was used in other countries.  1993 Star Brigade got generic card artwork, but never got a foreign upgrade.)  In the 2000's, Hasbro dusted off the Ninja Force Stormshadow and Slice molds.  It would have been nice to see a repainted Night Creeper, too.  Done in original colors or some other design, the mold might have been well received.  But, the 1990 Night Creeper was a better choice and Hasbro only repainted it in 1998 and 2004.  So, you can't really fault them for the decision to go that route.

For years, Shadow Ninjas could be purchased in bulk.  Lots of 4-10 MOC figures would sell for a couple of bucks per figure.  You'd get random samplings and figures like Night Creeper were pretty easy to find.  Slowly, though, the dealers who bought those lots split them into single offerings.  The collectors who bought them sold off the doubles in either smaller lots or as individuals.  Even in 2016, you could buy most of the Shadow Ninjas for under $20 MOC and could find them with ease.  But, in the post 2018 Joe world, even carded Shadow Ninjas have started to disappear.  And, with them, the few high quality loose samples have followed.  The upside is that, when you find them, you'll pay about the same for a carded figure as a loose, mint and complete figure.  At around $25 for each, that's not a small outlay for a gimmick figure.  Left to open pricing, though, loose Shadow Ninja Night Creepers will sell for $12 or so.  But, it might take months before you see one that isn't discolored or broken.  

Like all 1993 and 1994 figures, the vast loose quantities of figures that sat unsold on Ebay for years are mostly gone.  If you're a completist, the hunt might be a challenge to keep you interested for a while.  As a collector, one Shadow Ninja is really all you need to understand the gimmick.  In this case, the 1993 Night Creeper is superior to the Shadow Ninja version.  But, the translucent figure has a bit of charm that is fun to mix with the original release.  In that vein, the figure has some value.  I'm far more forgiving of figures like this now than I was back when they were on retail pegs.  A big part of that is that, back then, they were all I had available to buy.  Now, as something different from the thousands of other Joe figures that have been released and are readily available, the Shadow Ninjas are a fun diversion.  Your mileage may vary.  But, I recommend looking into at least one of the figures for something to break the monotony of the standard Ninja Force designs.