Just about every Asian fantasy movie I have seen and story I have read revolves around one or more martial arts masters who's skills rise to the level of super powers. Asians love to mix fantasy with martial arts, and who can blame them. Martial arts and fantasy are a natural fit. Part 1 of this post is about ninjas. Part 2 will be about other martial arts figures.
Japan's supernaturally sneaky ninjas exploded into the world's culture in the 1980s and were quickly paid tribute in the form of cheap plastic ninja toy soldiers. The first ones to show up in the USA were made in Hong Kong and China. Some very nice ninja figures have also come out of Russia more recently. I see no reason not to include ninjas in any fantasy world. Having trouble with pesky orcs? Sick the ninjas on 'em.
UPDATE 4/1/19
I found a bag of ninjas from 1997 made by Boley that I had never seen before. They must be fairly rare. Ego aside, if I miss something like this for 20 plus years, it has to be hard to find. I also found a few of the unknown 54mm ninja that come with separate weapons that are very similar to the Marty Toy Galaxy Warriors figures.
Hong Kong/China Ninjas
Boley 1997 50mm
These guys are about 54mm if you consider that they are all bent at the knees. They actually stand at about 50mm. Four poses.
Hing Fat 45mm.
The first ninja toy soliders I found were made by Hing Fat, but were distributed by lots of different companies. These figures are about 45mm.
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| Photo from an ebay auction. |
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| Photo from an ebay auction. |
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Photo from an ebay auction. |
The red guys are copies made by Sopla of Greese.
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| Photo form an ebay auction. |
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| Photo from an ebay auction. |
Unknown 54mm.
These 54mm Ninjas are just about as common as the Hing Fat figures, but I don't have any idea who made them.
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| Photo from an ebay auction. |
Separate Weapons Variation
Redbox Return of the Ninja Playset.
This is the only Ninja playset I know of. The figures are only about 35-40mm and are a little cartoonish, but the playset is very cool.
GI Joe Copy Modern Ninjas.
These are 54-60mm copies of 3.75 inch GI Joe figures. I have no idea who actually made them.
Other Ninjas.
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| These are 40mm from Blip, LLC's Ninjas v. Robots set. |
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| These were vending and prize figures. About 45mm. |
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| These come apart the the waste. About 45mm. |
Unknown
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| Don''t know a thing about these guys other than I want some. Photo from an ebay auction. |
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| Photo from an ebay auction. |
Russian Made Ninjas
Russia is a little late jumping on the ninja bandwagon but they have made some exceptional figures.
Oritet.
Tehnolog.
Unknown (because I can't read Russian). 90mm.
Warhansa 54mm
Mattel Guts Akido Force - Close Enough.
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| Mattel called these guys the Akido Force, but they look enough like ninjas to me. |
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| Greek copies. |
I had almost forgotten about Ninjas. Nice find!
ReplyDeleteI got to get my hands on those GIJoe knock-offs (recasts).
ReplyDeleteImperial recently released tubs of Pirates vs. Ninjas. These were available in Walmart and other places for $5 and had about 90 figures, 45 pirates and 45 ninjas. The pirates were yellow downsized (about 50mm) versions of the Hing Fat pirates. The ninjas were new sculpts to me - slender but nice and in a good quality soft red plastic.
ReplyDeleteLook for those guys in part 2. Imperial calls them ninjas, but they look a lot more like Chinese monks to me. I'm putting them in part 2 because non-ninja martial arts figures are so much harder to find.
DeleteGiven their look - especially around the head - that makes sense. Looking forward to part 2!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Shaun. Miniature ninjas, what's not to like! When I was a kid the Kung Fu craze burst onto into my sleepy world circa 1972 when Kwai Chang Caine was on the telly and Bruce Lee made Enter The Dragon. There were Kung Fu 'action men' type figures suddenly allover and I got mine from Zodiac Toys toyshop. The closest we got to Ninja miniatures were the Japanese soldiers in the Airfix plastic soldier range that was massive at the time. I think Britians issued a Kung Fu or Karate set of small plastic figures in their Deetail range - two fighters sparring on a small die-cast base. Anyways, happy new year! This is one of my favourite blogs!
ReplyDeleteMPC put out a Kung Fu playset with painted figures of Kwai Chang Caine and the his master, but the Caine figure sits on a horse and is hard even identify as being Asian let alone a martial artist (not that David Carridine was Asian). The master figures is much nicer. I saw the playset on ebay a few years ago and I wish I had saved the picture.
DeleteOne of the guys has either a giant can opener or a huge spanner, just the thing to use against knights in plate armour.
ReplyDeleteI remember those black, grey and white ninjas!
ReplyDeleteI also had versions that were modded to (poorly) hold red weapons instead of having them permanently molded in-hand.
Also those GI Joe Ninja Force bootlegs are amazing.
Very cool!What better way to collect Ninja then by the handful ;)
ReplyDeleteRegarding Kungfu Swoppets the mounted ones appear to be on Indian bottoms. I have some figures that seem to be from this series with blue lower halves but different poses.
ReplyDeleteShaun, the dollar section of one of my local Targets has bags of 20 Ninja from Toysmith. These are kind of kiddish looking with large heads and not a lot of detail and are meant to stand on their feet instead of bases. For your martial artists, there is also a bag of similarly styled figures labeled Super Hero from Toysmith, but to me these masked and shirtless men look more like Mexican wrestlers than anything from DC or Marvel.
ReplyDeleteI've seen those bags of figures, they are a little too cartoonish for my taste. Still, you can't beat the price.
DeleteUnknown 90 mm set is called "Ninjas - warriors of the night" and was made by Moscow company High Standard LTC.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alex.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome.
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DeleteThere are also the 90mm Dollar Tree Ninjas. Might be hard to find now, but I got some a couple of years ago. https://www.dollartree.com/ccstore/v1/images/?source=/file/v377309175101280781/products/252300.jpg&height=475&width=475
ReplyDeleteI thought about including those guys but they are just too big.
DeleteThe ninjas unknown are made in japan since 70s as gashapon ,sold in capsules,bags else and part of fantasy manga movies and video game ,there much more poses .They been import here to few stores like NYC japanese toy stores else .Made in all type glow or semi clear colors .The clear color often come in bags with paint to be paint as kits.Best Erwin
ReplyDeleteThanks.
DeleteTo attack the enemy with sword, you must press the D button. The sword attack is quick but less powerful than the kick move. Ninja Name
ReplyDeleteIts funny that you say that . . . .
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