Daily Shot 135 - Shogun Warrior Rocket Tops

One Sentence Review - These guys are awesome, but I don't know why it's always either very small or very large with Japanese toys.

TDJ030 - Deadly Ninja Monkey The Black as Night Edition

In the middle of the night, I awoke because of a sound coming from our back porch that seemed like someone was constantly tapping on the window. We don't have any trees really close to our window back there so I thought I should probably get out of bed and investigate. Liz was still sleeping but looking at the cats on the foot of the bed, it was obvious they heard it to. I walked out onto the back porch and turned on the lights, hoping not to find an intruder or something supernatural floating just outside the windows. I was relieved to find no one was there and that one of us (probably the smoker) had left the window slightly open which was now causing the wind to blow in and rock the blinds back and forth, hitting the window with each "breath". I closed the window turned around to walk back into the house and fell face down on my kitchen floor. I woke in the morning to find that I, along with Liz and both kitties had been drugged with tiny little darts in our necks. After all the confusion and freaking out had died down, we realized that we had been visited by a very elusive, and what some would consider "mythical", visitor.

Ninjas may be the things of legend, or maybe that's just what they want you to think...

The only things that were missing was a few bananas and my original carded TMNT Slash figure. Luckily none of us were harmed and we were able to report the bananas to the police and our insurance agency and they were quickly replaced. Unfortunately neither the police or insurance agency believed us when we said we had a MOC Slash figure so I've got a nemesis now. I will not rest until Deadly Ninja Monkey is brought to justice, or it's revealed that I made up the story about having that figure in the fist place...

Plastic baggies are the only known earthly substance that can contain Ninja Monkeys.

Deadly Ninja Monkey (Black as Night Edition) comes bagged with a header card that tells you all you need to know; he's 50% Monkey, 50% Ninja and 1,000,000% Deadly. The figure is manufactured by Mana Studios, Designed by Hyperactive Monkey and Sculpted by Squid Kids, Ink. He's roughly about 5 inches tall and comes with two identical katanas. He's also got an exclusive 4" x 6" print with some writing on it that I can only assume translates into "I took your fucking bananas, Sam - and you never had a Slash figure." His arms, tail and head are all removable, though not really modular, which would have made the photos a bit more interesting for this entry. :) As you'll see, I did try though, even with a couple items being able to swap in and out. He does have an unexplained hole in his back that's the same size as the one on his butt for his tail to fit into. I sort of like this, as it reminds me of classic toy companies setting out to do something but realizing that the cost is too much and scrapping the idea, or possibly setting up a figure for something bigger further down the line. (Possibly an add on accessory or something.) He also comes with a sticker sheet that has a different set of eyes to have him focus on what's right in front of him, instead of what's just over his shoulder.

Once I removed the eye stickers that came on him to switch with the other set, I realized how similar he was to another deadly ninja (or Ninja Commando) that is close to my heart, the 1982 version of Snake Eyes. Once I put these two together I couldn't figure out who was who. I'm not saying they're separated at birth, but I wouldn't be surprised to find a version of Deadly Ninja Monkey with an Arashikage tattoo on his lower arm...

The "Dark Master"

The figure is one of my favorites displayed now, he's always looking out for something (I put the "over the shoulder" eyes back on him) and I believe he's reason that no one else has tried to break in and steal my made-up collectibles. As for down sides to the toy, my only minor gripe would be it's poseability. There's a couple pictures where I didn't put his head all the way into it's body so that I could give him more of a range of poseability. Though it's not a huge deal, because once he's posed, I'm pretty afraid to touch him in fear of losing a finger or two. As far as I can tell, he's the first figure sculpted and designed by this crew, so if this is how high they hit right out of the gate, I'm sure any future figures and designs will be no doubt leaps and bounds above this one.

Look for Deadly Ninja Monkey here.
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Liz: This guy is the worst roommate. You never know when he comes into a room. My secret stash of fig newtons are constantly disappearing. And he only farts the silent ones.

Oh and speaking of roommates, don't even get me started on this Ninja guy Sam was talking about.


See what I did there?

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Plastic/Material – 4/5
Poseability – 2/5
Packaging – 3/5
Design – 5/5
Playability – 3/5
Price (value) – 4/5 ($30 for an extremely limited run)
Overall – 4/5