In 2008, right when NECA produced their version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which were some of the greatest action figures known to humanity, there also came a double-punch of good news/bad news. The good news? NECA would be producing super-articulated action figures based on popular Shaw Brothers Movies. For those who don’t know, the Shaw Brothers studios produced (among other things) outstanding martial arts movies featuring some of the best kung-fu actors of their day.
The bad news would come only a little bit later, as the line was quietly euthanized. Apparently there was a lack of retailer interest in this line.
The world grew a little less awesome that day.
What stings even more is going to a site like BBTS and seeing a graveyard page featuring the three figures that made up the first wave, forever locked in stasis, that angry red “sold out” symbol signifying the fact that they were never put up for sale in the first place. Mocking. Haunting. Depressing.
Back in 2008, NECA was just starting to put out super-articulated toys. The Turtles were an early sign of things to come. They featured all the articulation one could possibly need for kung-fu fighting. It was easy to imagine how awesome a line of actual kung-fu warriors from the silver screen could be. Shaw Brothers movies were not low on cool characters, and the first two waves only scratched the surface of the wacky concepts that poured out of their studios back then.
The first wave led off strong, featuring characters from such classics as the 36th Chamber of the Shaolin, The 8-Diagram Pole Fighter, and Kid with the Golden Arm. Getting a Gordon Liu in the first wave was icing on a karate-chopping cake.
All you have to do is take a look at those figures and imagine how awesome they would have been. Look at the articulation. I hear a lot of nonsensical defenses of the lack of articulation of certain figures where the statement “they’re not a ninja” comes up, but these guys are about as close as it gets (more or less, work with me on this), so the insane articulation meant they’d be able to pull off every pose you’d want. And each would come with their signature weapon as well. Lack of retailer interest? You’re killing me here!
Wave 2 built on wave 1 by featuring more characters from the 36th Chamber of the Shaolin and Kid with the Golden Arm, in addition to opening up a new movie with a character from Crippled Avengers.
Would wave 3 have the one-Armed Swordsman? What about a dude with a certain Flying Guillotine, a weapon so infamous it was the star of its own movie series and even transcended the Shaw Brothers Brand? We’ll never know. Gah! The humanity!
If you take a look at the list of Shaw movies, you start realizing everything we lost when this line died before it got off the ground. Any fan of kung-fu cinema of the ’60s and ’70s knows the inherent potential in a toy line that digs deep into all of this classic insanity. And with the knowledge of all that NECA has pumped out recently, it makes the sting of the loss even more palpable.
What if a Predator attacked a Shaolin temple looking for the greatest warrior?
I know!
Great toys never die, but these never got a chance to live. I know I’m not alone with this thorn in my paw. If you miss the potential of this toy line as much as I do, drop a comment and maybe NECA will realize that this is a potential goldmine of a line, especially with all of the great figures they’ve been doing recently. Aliens versus Pole Fighters. Predators versus the One Armed Swordsman. Dutch versus everyone. Jason Voorhees against kung-fu masters. And so forth. This was a toy tragedy.