Identify the Toy > Purple Ninja

CW sends along this request to crowdsource the collective knowledge of the Poester community to identify a toy he once had. (Jitsu shown solely for size reference.)

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Hi Poe,

I’m hoping your readers can help me. I’m trying to find out the name of a Ninja action figure toyline from the early nineties. From what I remember, the figures stood 7-8″ tall, and had the big five articulation points (I think they may have had a kicking action feature too, but not sure). They all shared the same body, but had unique heads. They also all shared the same accessories, which included a crossbow, sword, possibly a knife or two; which were molded in a bronze color plastic and could be stored in their soft black plastic belt with incorporated quiver.

Their pants and boots were painted to match the color of their fabric masks and shirts. I personally owned three of these guys, but I think there was a whole bunch of them.

I had a purple ninja with a skull for a head (his shirt is in the pic), a green ninja with a snake-themed head and I think a scale design on the shirt. The good guy I had was a red ninja, with an american flag shirt and he was a white guy with a blonde flat top. I included Jitsu in the pic just for a size reference.

I remember only finding these figures in a toy store in Arlington TX that looked like a castle from the outside, but I can’t be sure if it was Child World or not. I remember as a kid thinking inside the store was pretty much just like Toys R Us, but I thought they had a better selection.

I hope I gave a good enough description that someone could tell me what these were, because endless google searches aren’t helping.

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9 Comments

  1. Amalgam-X

    I had the Werewolf one growing up, though I completely forgot these guys came with masks. I always associated them with the Chuck Norris Karate Commandos line, probably because they were out at roughly the same time. Bought at a drug store in rural Virginia, if I remember correctly. I'm pretty sure I lost all of the accessories right off the bat, though I think the figure itself is still at my parents' house somewhere…

  2. clark

    Awesome! Thanks for the help guys. Man I loved these figures. Obviously the red ninja didn't have an american flag, but I know where my confusion came from. When I was a kid his outfit reminded me of the confederate naval jack, or maybe I thought it was supposed to be a flag; and then because of blurry memories I assumed it was the american flag.
    Thanks for helping me out by posting this Poe, I knew I would get my answer.

  3. That was quick!

  4. Baltan II

    The figures were from two series of action figures by Select. The good guys were the Ninja Defenders, while the villains were the Ninja Assassins. The skull guy was the leader of the Assassins, Reaper.

    • clark

      Thanks for providing the link, Ben. I figured I would find out what these were, see some pics and realize they were terrible toys. However, after looking over the assassins, these are so much cooler than I even remembered. I know that I wanted Terminator and Pincer, but whatever the toy store was that carried these, we almost never went there; so I didn't have many opportunities to complete the team. Maybe my fond memories of the toy store is solely based on them carrying these figures.

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