All are excellent, but I'm not wild about Bazooka. Never cared for his original fig either. Its like Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force joined GI Joe....no.

I like Ninja Ku but Im tired of the Storm Shadow mold, and at this rate, they'll wreck the mold. I guess Ninja Force Stormy will be the next use this mold sees.

The rest are mountains of win. Now Hasbro please ship the damn things to stores. I've seen 2 or 3 hooded CC's at every single store I visit for the last 4 months.

They could, maybe, but they aren't.

This is Steeler: http://i.toynewsi.com/g/index.php?mode= ... 00&start=0

So I think a lot of us will be swapping some parts around to get a good Steeler.

Because this 25th line is aimed at both collectors AND at the casual American toy buyer. It's deliberately nostalgic to appeal to those kind of buyers who had Joes when they were kids and now want to buy them for THEIR kids.

So the paint job is for people like you who know who Ninja-Ku is, but the name Storm Shadow is for the casual people who have no earthly idea who Ninja-Ku is.

And for the record... I have no earthly idea who Ninja-Ku is. I assume he's an Argentinian variant based on what has been posted.

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Nah, I don't buy that. Your reasoning implies that kids would shy away from buying the exact same fig if it were named Ninja-Ku instead of Storm Shadow. They may well buy it more because of being named Storm Shadow; but I doubt there'd be an actual dearth of sales if named Ninja-Ku. If Hasbro used that reasoning, the Red Ninjas should have been named Storm Shadow as well.j

I'm guessing that they're selling him as SS this time around simply to leave open the option of selling him as NK down the road a bit.

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I still think they could have made him "Black Dragon Ninja" instead...it's not like there's a shortage of 25th Storm Shadows out there for people to buy their kids. Doesn't bother me that much, though. Hell, this is Joecustoms; I have paint.

And yeah, Ninja-Ku is an Argentinian variant, and part of what was cool about him was that he brought some much-needed diversity to Cobra's ranks.

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I wasn't talking about kids.

I was talking about people our age who had GI Joes as a kid themselves, and are now buying it for THEIR kids. They recognize the name Storm Shadow. They won't recognize the name Ninja-Ku. This way, Hasbro can cater to both groups. It's good marketing, IMHO.

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I second the "black and yellow alley-vipers" thought. That kinda "camo" might only work in the alleys behind obnoxiously neon-lit Tokyo entertainment districts, but it's still easier to explain than orange and blue. Where are they trying to hide, in Teletubby-land?!?

Vegas Baby, Vegas.

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I also hope they don't do orange and blue on an Alley-Viper.

Because I love that wacky color scheme and I'd have to break my "no army-building 25th stuff" rule.

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Who says AlleyVipers are actually trying to hide? Their color schemes are obviously meant to show they've no fear of being shot at, because them bad-ass MFers can take everything them pathetic Joes can give, biatch!

And I'd think the number of people that recognize Ninja-Ku is roughly the same number of people that recognize Crankcase; and the proportion of other people that'd refuse to buy either one simply because they don't recognize them is even smaller than either of those groups.

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So...

The number of people that recognize the name of an obscure variation sold in Argentina in 1984 or 1985 (not even yojoe is sure) is equal to the number of people that recognize the name of the driver of the AWE Striker, one of the biggest Joe vehicles ever, that sold probably millions of units from 1985-1987, was available as a mail-in bonus in 1989, and was one of the Joes killed in the infamous GI Joe #109, which sold several hundred thousand copies.

Sorry. Don't see it.

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I've heard the name Ninja-Ku mentioned on these boards before and may have even seen the international figure on yojoe's database, but like Tim, the character is pretty obscure to me in joe mythos.

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Isn't that a good reason for causal or new fans to pick the figure up? Because he's a "new" character they haven't seen or heard of before instead of a character that has been released half a dozen times already?

I think naming the figure Ninja Ku will actually generate more interest than naming it Storm Shadow.

- JM

Yeah, and so far in the 25th line we've had...

-5-pack v1 Storm Shadow
-GI Joe Storm Shadow
-Cobra Legions Storm Shadow
-Repack 5-pack Storm Shadow
-Issue 21 Comic Pack Storm Shadow
-Comic Pack Storm Shadow w/ Bow and Arrow

So it's not like there haven't been tons and tons of opportunities to pick up a figure of that particular character. And Red Ninja seemed to sell fine.

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But does it really HURT anything to call it Storm Shadow? We all know it's supposed to be Black Dragon Ninja whose actually supposed to be Ninja Ku. What difference does it make if the name on the package says something else.

And kids LOVE Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow. At least all the kids I've seen play with GI Joe. So if I were Hasbro I'd throw their names on any figure I could.

I just hope we see "Undercover Snake-Eyes" in black with a Silver Cobra logo.

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