G.I.JOE's NINJA FORCE (II)
The story
behind these figures is that they appeared sometime in ebay: I decided to buy them since
they were MOC (Mint On Card), and the card was in Spanish, which is something I
always value a lot. They were for sale in China, and even today can be bought
at very low prices. It surprises me that they are still available… Were so
many of those made? (they were packed in a village near Valencia called
Quart de Poblet for the Spanish market, although the figures were produced in
China.
From the first two or three I bought, some came with a bent card, so I had to order the same again.
From the first two or three I bought, some came with a bent card, so I had to order the same again.
I also have
the figures loose, since they are cheap and easy to get in lots. I will soon
post pictures of the loose figures too.
T'Jbang v1 (Spanish Card)
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| T'Jbang v1 (Spanish Filecard) |
I include
pictures of the cards, plus a bigger picture of the filecards. If you can
understand Spanish, it is a great exercise to read the cards and to compare it
with the original (American) cards you can find at yojoe.com. As it happened
with the Talking Battle Commanders and many other figures from the 90s, the
card was “revisited” by some person in Spain, who invented a hell of new
facts in the biography of G.I.Joe and Cobra members. This is something that
annoys quite a lot hard-core collectors, but that I find completely amusing.
SLICE v1:
Slice v1 (Spanish Card)
 |
| Slice v1 (Spanish Filecard) |
Something surprising about this series, is that Hasbro created 5 new characters and names, when it was common to reuse names and release new versions of old characters. In this series, only Storm Shadow is not a “v1”. There were not so many ninjas to pick from: Snake Eyes, Jinx (well Jinx is a woman, maybe it wouldn’t fit any cast), Night Creeper, maybe Quick Kick…
Snake Eyes and
Night Creeper would be released in the mentioned second “Ninja Force” wave,
together with old characters like Zartan and Scarlett, a second version of
Slice and two new characters Banzai and Bushido (also two vehicle drivers with reused
casts from Storm Shadow v3 and Dice, but other names – T’Gin-Zu and Red Ninja,
relatively difficult to find nowadays). The third Ninja Force (Shadow Ninjas)
wave are all reused characters from the first two Ninja Force waves.
Some of
these new characters never got to see a second version.
DICE v1:
Dice v1 (Spanish Card)
 |
| Dice v1 (Spanish Filecard) |
FACTS and FIGURES:
- Name: T'Jbang , Slice and Dice
- Alternate Names: Bang Jo, Afilado and Dado (Spa)
- Toy Line: G.I.Joe (Wave 11)
- Year: 1992
- Company: Hasbro (U.S.A.)
- Size of the figures: 3¾’’ or 9,5 cm
Ya know I have contemplated buying these on ebay because they are so cheap. I do not know why that is. I feel like the line was popular, but they may not be as old yet for a lot of people to be buying them. Maybe. I am not sure, but really great post and pics!
ReplyDeleteI don't know either... I think it could have two reasons: 1. Americans collect figures in american cards only, a Spanish card is only interesting when the figure is an Euro-Exclusive or some very rare. 2. Ninja Force is quite an "exotic" concept within the G.I.Joe team, and the figures have flashy colours, action moves and a few things that many collectors find annoying. I know many G.I.Joe collectors that are only interested in 1982-1990 (instead of 1994).
ReplyDeleteIf you can grab one of these figures cheap, it would make a nice fight-partner to your Scarlett.
Thanks for the comment!