Rarities - 2005 Red Ninja Viper Pre Production Color Variant

Back in the mid and late 2000's, there were tons of alternate figures coming from Asian sources.  Some were unpainted prototypes.  Others were color tests.  Some were early paint samples.  Some featured slightly different colors in specific areas.  And, others featured entirely different paint masks or parts from the production figure.  There were so many of them coming out, though, that documentation was sparse.  And, the fact that there was so much misinformation about the figures contributed to many people not wanting what was known about them to be published.  Lost in the Tiger Force Steel Brigade and Night Force Tracker figures, though, are obscure and often missed variants like this Red Ninja Viper.

Released in 2005 as part of a Comic Pack, the Red Ninja Viper used the 1988 Stormshadow mold that had been recently returned to Hasbro by Funskool.  Hasbro painted it red and meant it to represent the fan favorite Red Ninja who appeared in the infamous G.I.  Joe #21 issue.  The figure worked well enough.  But, the Joe world was so jaded by the time of its release that the figure didn't really make a splash in the collecting world.  The production figure features a pale, brown coloring on the mask and boots.  But, some of the early figures from Asia changed that color to black.  It's a small change.  But, it's probably better than then production brown.  You'll also note that the pre-production figure has a painted sash on his waist.  Again, this is a substantial upgrade over the production figure where this was left unpainted.  

It's an odd juxtaposition.  And, it suggests that Hasbro was cost cutting on paint applications for the 2005 figures.  (There is a pre-production variant of the Stormshadow from the pack that has painted sleeves instead of bare arms, too.)  But, Hasbro knew the line was in trouble by the time this pack debuted.  It saw a solid production run.  But, much of that run went to clearance and discount outlets where you could buy the retail pack for $5 for over a year after its release.

Most collectors missed this pre-production figure because the change was so slight and there were so many better and more drastic pre-production figures available from Asia at the time.  It's pretty likely that, if you bought cheap army builders from Asian sellers in the early 2000's, you could have some of these pre-production color variants interspersed among your production figures.  These more minor paint changes often went unnoticed and were overlooked in many cheap lots of the day.  And, since the black paint seems like a logical production choice over a light brown, you might not even realize that you're missing the production version since you have this one available.

Sadly, both the swarm of cheap army builder lots and stream of alternately colored figures have dried up.  While it's likely that there are still a lot of them in Asia, they're not readily available.  And, modern collectors who snatched up the bulk of them back in the mid 2000's are holding onto them.  You see some of the big hitters switch hands and even go on public sale with a bit of frequency.  But, the more obscure figures like this Red Ninja Viper are often ignored and are nearly impossible to find outside of a few, enterprising collectors of the day who managed to buy them in bulk when they were just a couple of bucks each.

2004 Red Ninja Viper - Around The Web

At the time of his release, the Red Ninja Viper seemed overly derivative of the common Satan figure from Argentina.  And, the poor quality of the set really helped to limit the figures.  But, with time comes perspective.  And, 17 years later, the Red Ninja Viper fills a void, even if his gear is garbage and the figures tend to develop loose joints before you even move them.  Factory customs have negated much of the value of this figure.  But, he still has some uses and, if you got a bunch of them back in 2004, it's good to have them lying around in case you finally want to make up that Castle Destro diorama you've been putting off for the past 20 years.

Red Ninja Viper Profile

Red Ninja Viper by purplecobra75

Red Ninja Viper by Lava Boss

Red Ninja Viper by gen_liederkranz

Red Ninja Viper by Flatline

Red Ninja Viper by Stormer

Red Ninja Viper by bruxovigo

Red Ninja Viper by hellabaytoyz

Red Ninja Viper by gen_liederkranz

Red Ninja Viper by lordraven

Red Ninja Viper by TitusLester32

Red Ninja Viper by instachampa

Rarities - Alternate Comic Pack Figures

The Comic Packs were a collector hit in 2004.  Unfortunately, the rest of the market didn't agree and they were clearance fodder within a year.  But, the packs endured for a while and gave collectors some really nice figures.  Like most products from that era, though, there were alternate and unproduced variants of many of the figures that were available from Asia.  Most were relatively small changes like missing production dates, or slight color differences.  Some of them, though, are awesome.  Others are mundane.  And a select few are...just...weird.

First up are some basic figures that don't have much in the way of differences.  Destro and Duke are baically the same as their production releases.

The following figures all have smaller, but still full production heads.  It seems that Hasbro had two different sized heads for their new, comic pack head sculpts.  Clutch is the most obvious as the smaller head is drastically smaller.  (There are actually three Clutch head sizes.  Here you see the smallest and the largest.  There is a third size in between these two.)  But, both the Baroness and Cobra Commander also feature different sized domes.  You will also note the different head insignia on Cobra Commander.

We now come to the very odd.  When the comic packs debuted in the summer of 2004, pack #3 was delayed.  While it ultimately pegwarmed around the country and found it's way to clearance and discount stores, this delay lead to rampant speculation on the pack when it first appeared.  A few weeks later, though, an alternate pack showed up in Asia.  Along with the small head Clutch figure, this new pack featured heads with reversed races for Stalker and General Hawk.  Unfortunately, the bodies still retained the correct skin color.  So, the figures had a mismatch.  But, the Caucasian Stalker head and African American Hawk head were an interesting release.  (I've long used the Hawk head for my Skeres figure.)

You will also see two Destro figures below.  One with a chromed head and another with a charcoal colored head.  It's possible that Hasbro planned for this Destro release to have an actual chromed head.  The figure is greatly improved with it.  The charcoal head is different and gives the figure an alternate look.  I'd have preffered either of these variants to the actual figure we saw at retail.

Finally, we see a comic pack Hawk with a green chest.  If he had green arms, too, the figure would somewhat useful, especially with a simple leg swap.  But, the production release with a brown chest was far superior.

This brings us to the final figure: a green haired Serpentor figure.  Frankly, this green hair makes no sense.  Green eyebrows and eyes are very Joker.  But, when you consider the overall oddness of the Serpentor character, the green hair actually kind of works.  I greatly wanted this figure.  But, put him off to acquire other, more desirable variants.  By the time this guy's number came up, though, the figure was sold out and I never got around to picking him up.  It's just another odd example of what collectors could find in 2003 - 2005.  But, stuff like this Serpentor was more fun than anything Hasbro was doing at the time.

2004 Red Ninja Viper

In the time I have been profiling figures, I have actually examined very few ninjas. Sure, I've reviewed a few versions of Snake Eyes and Stormshadow and even went to far to dust off T'gin-Zu. But, for as strong a role as ninjas play in the Joe mythos, I have not really explored their overall role in my collection. In the past, this has been primarily due to the fact that most of the ninja figures from 1992-1994 were very poor molds who were saddled with action features, different construction methods and poor color choices. In recent years, though, Hasbro has offered collectors some better ninja alternatives: especially if you are collector of the new sculpt figures. One such ninja uses a good mold in collector demanded colors. Even though it is a blatant rip off of an obscure South American figure, the 2004 Red Ninja Viper has filled an important niche in the Joe collecting world.

First and foremost, this figure is just a rip-off of the Argentine Satan figure. Only, Satan was a vibrant shade of blood red and is actually superior in design to this figure. When I first saw the early pics of the Ninja Strike set, the only thing I could see was two unimaginative attempts to capitalize on superior foreign designs from 16 years earlier. As such, I didn't have a lot of enthusiasm for the set. While I do not personally own a Satan or Ninja Ku figure, they are both very common and easy to get. Granted, they will cost you a lot, but it's not like they aren't available. As such, I would have rather seen this figure in Cobra blue, a deep green, or a shadowy grey. Those would have been colors that fit the nature of the set and offered collectors something they could not get anywhere else. I am the type of collector who would rather see something completely new than see a cheaper version of something already done. I think that's why the more recent comic packs have been such disappointments to me. Basically, they are the same molds in the same colors as what was previously released. The one or two new parts aren't enough to get me interested in those figures over their original versions. Whereas, figures like Clutch and Steeler were somewhat interesting because they were completely new takes on the character. That's they way I think all the figures Hasbro releases should be done. But, I digress....

After I actually acquired a few of the sets, though, I did find myself warming up the Red Ninja. I had long wanted an army of red ninja figures and figured that, some day, I would be able to make a foray into Argentina and build my ninja forces that way. Now, though, I don't have to wait. This set did offer the best way for ARAH figure collectors to quickly accumulate the nameless, faceless Red Ninjas in army building numbers. So, I took advantage of that and built up a decent little force of the Red Ninjas with the thought that they would likely not ever be as cheap or easy to get as they were in this set.   The figure itself is decent enough. The deep red hues and long sleeves make them different enough from Satan that they can stand apart from him. The figure does suffer from an overabundance of paint wipes, though. The entire figure is washed in dark paint that gives the uniforms a more worn look. Paint wipes are always an issue of strong opinion in the collecting world. In this case, I think they neither enhance nor hinder the figure. It would be a good figure without them and a is a good figure with them. The figure definitely has the look of the Red Ninja (even if the uniform is a deviation from their comic appearances) and is useful either as a stand alone character or an army builder.

In the early days of Joe collecting, there were a few staples among the customizers of the day. Everyone had their own take on the Oktober Guard, Dr. Venom, Kwinn and, the red ninja. The idea of the red ninja was ingrained from issue #21 and was one of the easiest repaints to do, especially when you consider that in the mid '90's you could easily find non-mint, discolored V1 Storm Shadow figures for ridiculously cheap prices. As such, there has long been fan demand for this figure and even the large supply of overstock Argentine Satan figures did little to sate it. As such, after some reflection, it is difficult to fault Hasbro too much for this choice. If anything, they should be faulted for the absolutely TERRIBLE Vypra figures that were forced into the set.

For some reason, the Ninja Strike sets suffered from spotty quality. Many sets featured brittle figures and poor paint masks. The Red Ninja Viper was especially susceptible to this and is the figure who is most often cited as breaking right out of the package. I can feel a noticeable difference in quality between the ninjas and the Desert Patrol which was released at the same time. It is unknown if the poor quality was the result of a cost cutting attempt or if the V1 Storm Shadow mold is just finally wearing out. But, if you do purchase after market Red Ninja Vipers, be aware their original quality was poor and you need to be on the lookout for the better samples.

The other area where the Ninja Strike set failed was with the accessories. While it did include a few swords and knives, it also included an M-16, a front bar and an arrow for a crossbow (without the actual crossbow) and a duffel bag. In an of themselves, some of the superfluous weapons aren't bad. But, most really didn't fit with the Ninja theme. Plus, when you see a V1 Storm Shadow mold, you expect V1 Storm Shadow accessories to accompany it. As this set did not include any of the original Storm Shadow's accessories, there was no way that any accessory complement could be anything other than a disappointment. The Red Ninja Vipers themselves included swords that at least made sense with the figures. But, they are very large sword molds that don't really seem to fit the scale of the V1 Storm Shadow mold. Unfortunately, V1 Storm Shadow accessories aren't exactly common or cheap on today's second hand market. So, if you army built this set at all, you are going to be hard pressed to find cheaply available quality accessories to re-outfit your figures with. What is especially infuriating, though, is that the reason for the lame accessories was the depth of paint masks used on the Vypra figures. Had the set included only one Vypra (rather than ruining her characterization by making her an army builder) and another Red Ninja Viper, then we might have actually seen quality accessories in the set as well. But, the design money was wasted on the Vypra paint masks and the entire set suffered for it.

While the Ninja Strike sets hung on the pegs during their release period: their overall time on the shelves was very short. The set was released just before Christmas and very few of them were left after the holiday shopping season was finished. As such, if you took a few months off, it's likely you missed the set at retail. However, as collectors had plenty of advance notice on the set and it wasn't the type of set that was hoarded by army builders, if you went looking for it in November and December of 2004, you were going to find it. Hasbro produced roughly 20,000 of these sets (compared to about 16,000 Desert sets) and that number, except in the case of the Cobra Infantry, has historically proven to sell out without being scarce at retail. This pretty much sated collector demand for the set and now you can buy sets on the second hand market for just slightly above the original retail price. Of the figures in the set, though, the Red Ninjas are the most popular. Individually, they will set you back about $8 each. As such, if you are looking to army build then, I'd just buy full sets, keep the red and black ninjas and sell off the Vypras and Stormshadow. You'll save a little money in the long run. Personally, I have found the idea of having an army of Red Ninjas to have been more exciting than actually having one. The lack of decent accessories and the frantic number of other figure releases that were sandwiched around this figure has pretty much dropped these guys from my collection. They are cool to have around and do come in handy once in a while. But, for the most part, they stay packed away. I have a feeling that, in a few years, I might have more appreciation for this figure. Until then, I'll just sit on my small army of ninjas and use them in the rare cases where their specialty is required.