So far, we have been pretty blessed with Rise of Cobra figures. Other than an overabundence of Neo-Vipers included with just about every multi-pack, even the figures we have gotten that were a mismash of repainted parts have still been at least pretty decent.
Until now, that is.
I can just see the Hasbro product planners sitting around the table on THIS one.
"We need another figure to fill out wave 5."
"Well, what do we have plenty of stock of?"
"Lots of MARS trooper bodies and Resolute Cobra trooper heads."
"Ok, we can make that work. But we don't want to spend a lot of money."
"Alright, minimal paint apps. Black, and what color did we get the discount on? Plum? Go with black and plum."
"We need something so it's not so plain. Lets throw in the goggles we have left over from that comic pack Firefly."
"Well, that's ok. But I still don't know if we can make him sell."
"Let's make him a NINJA!"
"BRILLIANT!"
Yup, sorry if you're a fan of him, but the Red Fang Ninja is the Mole Pod of figures to me. Just TERRIBLE. To start with, he's hindered right from the get-go by the Neo-Viper/Mars Trooper body. Kind of short and bow-legged to begin with, Hasbro has made some decent figures out of this body. I was a big fan of the Aero-Viper included with the Crimson Hydra.
But not here. Plain black can be beautiful...but coupled with the awful plum, this figure is BLEH. The Resolute trooper's head looks a little too big on the body, the webgear looks goofy, everything is just wrong, wrong, wrong. Not that I expect great things from the BFL's (Big, Freaking Launchers) included with the RoC figures, but the giant Frisbee launcher really doesn't do much for me. The only other included accessories are a double sheath and a long and short sword.
Even MOC collectors probably won't get much out of this guy. It doesn't help that Hasbro tried to put him in a dynamic action pose. Red Fang Ninja is just supposed to be jump kicking his way out of the package at you. Instead it looks like he's either doing the pee-pee dance with swords, or he's jumping and trying to push out a fart for extra lift. I can almost hear the overly exaggerated HI-YA! this guy would scream out.
If I hate this guy so much, why did I buy him? I'm sure many of you guys are asking that question. Well, right when Wal-Mart dropped their prices here to $5 a figure, I was at a small town Wal-Mart and ended up picking up all of wave 5, including this guy. I have been pleasantly surprised by RoC figures time and time again. This is the first one to really let me down. I mean, they might seriously pose a threat to Snake Eyes after all...because when the RFNs came pee-pee dancing into the room to confront him, Snakes would probably be laughing too hard to raise his swords.
Unless you have to have every RoC figure that comes out, you want an army of guys for Snake Eyes to slaughter, or you just want a bunch of pee-pee dancing wannabe ninjas on your shelf (or maybe you just like crappy figs) pass on this guy. BLEH!
Pics...
http://s635.photobucket.com/albums/uu71/olyeller01/Figure%20Reviews/?action=view¤t=IMG_0046.jpg
