As I mentioned in the Stealth Wolverine article, its a toss up as to which one I like better: Stealth or Ninja Strike. I really do love Ninja Strike Wolvie and when I bought him I had every intention of customizing him into a new Deadpool. The costume, colors and build were perfect. He just needed a new headsculpt and everything would be rocking and rolling. He comes with a knife and ninja chain killing thing and even a 3 bladed Rob Liefield type sword! This figure was made to be Deadpool! I even cut of his claws. Ninja strike Wolvie/Deadpool has no need of claws, he has a 3 bladed sword! Hi-YA!
In the wake of Metal Gear Solid and Cyber Ninja this was a welcome design for many a person. Coupled with the soldier design of Stealth, these 2 figures were starting to make a really cool design. Some of the designs from the X-Men Classics were also hip in the way they were incorporating some futuristic military designs, Beast for example had some cool looks and the villains like Juggernaut were really cool takes on existing characters. I’m not certain that Ninja Strike here is what I’d call a cool new take on an existing wolverine costume but it is definitely worthy of someone. Like Deadpool.
The articulation is once again pretty standard. But it’s loose. The knees flop like an NBA player during the playoffs. That bad. You can see I tried some superglue methodology with no success, the white film on the knees is the give away folks. It really sucks as this is a figure that needs to pose and be posed, he screams for it; floppy knees are no good for this purpose. Here’s the breakdown:
- hinged toes
- rocker ankles
- hinge ankles
- swivel shins
- double jointed knees
- ball jointed hips
- swivel waist
- hinged abs
- rocker shoulders
- ball shoulders
- bicep swivel
- double jointed elbows
- wrist swivel
- hinged fingers
- hinged neck
- swivel head
As I wind down the review of these three figures I find less and less to say that isn’t a repeat of what’s been said already. This figure is another variation of Dave Cortes’s Marvel Legends Black Panther and another fine paint job by master painter that was: Ed Wires. I use the term variation loosely as really it looks like all three figures started from the same buck, more than likely one that Cortes used as a base for each figure. The headsculpt is what sells this figure for me, while it doesn’t have the iconic Dave Cockrum/John Byrne look to it, it is still a damn fine sculpt and very Wolverine. I’m not in the market for an unmasked Wolverine but if I was I think this would be my favorite version.
This is another great toy, even with loose knees. There is customizing potential and a fun. If you were team building some kind of super soldier team and wanted to use these figures as individuals, you’d just need to do a quick head switch with the head of choice and off you go. Guns, knives and swords, these Wolverines are ready to kick ass.
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