I’ve said repeatedly here that the wild and unknown territory that is generic and bootleg figure collecting affords a lot more joy of discovery and amazing mutated finds than tracking down better known and licensed collectibles from the past. The stuff sold on blankets outside of southwest swap meets, tables in midwest flea markets and dirt malls, shady Chinatown junk shops and even shadier ‘vendors’ hawking crap outside of subway terminals may be plentiful at the time of any boom, but decades later that cheap crap is nigh-impossible to find.
This astoundingly rare 8″ kunoichi was produced by ABC Toys at some point in the mid-80s, and came in black and white variants, at least from what I’ve found. Wouldn’t be surprised if a red version existed, too…
The most peculiar thing about Lady Ninja is she’s in packaging more consistent with boys’ toys. There’s no “pink aisle” Barbie look here. But what boy would have wanted what was clearly a girl’s doll, regardless of how it was garbed or how well-armed she was? Weird choices on top of weird choices…
Tags: Generic toys
Little known fact – American Ninja is the only 80s boom film to have properly licensed mass-produced merchandise.
These grocery store / pharmacy register tchotchkes were obviously for kids, despite being branded with the an R-rated film’s imagery. A “two-penny-toy” manufacturer called Fleetwood produced these in 1985, along with a blowgun target set and a Masters of the Universe-scale generic ninja figure with similar card art.
Interesting that they carry the logo of the decidedly non-kid-friendly film studio Cannon, meaning Fleetwood actually paid to use the American Ninja monicker. Can’t think that they sold any more of the these than they would have by saving those fees and going with simple generic ninja art.
I dig the sketchy brush art used on the decals of the rubber suction shuriken. The hollow cheap plastic knife was molded off a popular piece of training equipment common to dojos in heavy rubber form.
This rubber stamp set shows more of the above art, influenced by both Enter the Ninja and GI Joe‘s Storm Shadow I imagine.
Think they paid Michael Dudikoff anything for his name and likeness?
Tags: AMERICAN NINJA, generic merch, Generic toys, Michael Dudikoff
One small… small… step above the generic 80′s rack figure would be this line of Remco and Norris Kommando compatible figures from the Lanard company. Dragon Force Ninja Dragonmaster figures came in at least three colors — black, white and red — and there was even a female version of at least the red scheme. Besides the ninja, Dragon Force also included Karate and Kung-Fu heroes.
I would give my left nut for that female figure…
In the realm of bargain and generic figures, the Lanard’s were actually pretty well put together, although lean on accessories. A single sword is all they had, no oversized shuriken or outre chain weapons here.
The ninja had two headsculpts with varying hair paint. The Norris-knock-offs just looked like bear-porn stars. Note the bare feet hastily painted over in place of properly sculpted tabi.
Tags: Dragon Force, Dragonmaster, Generic toys, Lanard, Remco
This 5″ generic figure, re-cast from something in the Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos scale, is nothing to write home about, however the card it came on…
…is absolutely off the chain! Love this illo and the savagely 80′s green star glow left in the assassin’s path.
Clearly an unauthorized re-purposing of a manga illo from somewhere, or maybe from an old Hatsumi book?
Tags: Generic toys
They line the fronts of department stores, supermarkets and pharmacies to this day. Capsule-dispensing machines can cost upward of $2.00 nowadays for their near-worthless plastic junk, illustrated hologram stickers and granite-like gobstoppers half the size of a kid’s head, but during the 80s ninja craze, they plinked-out quality crap-ola like the above for a mere quarter.
Produced under the universal cheap generic merchandise law that anything with a loop attached or hole drilled into it qualifies as “jewelry,” such fine inch-high figurines and miniature plastic shuriken placated many a screaming kid back in the day.
I miss the all-ninja-themed machines from the 80s (which in some areas lasted into the 90s). All we really have left at this point is the immortal cockroach of cheap ninja toys – these super-deformed SOMA knock-offs you can still find in various colors of transparent gel vinyl (with and without parachutes).
But give me the 80s style of this stuff all day…
Tags: generic merch, Generic toys
More vintage 80s toy crap! These were 5″ solid plastic pencil toppers, made of some truly toxic low-grade junk with paint jobs to match. Awesome!
Best/worst thing about these are they’re SOLID and heavy, and there’s no way in hell a kid could do any writing with one in place. It’s like they’re waging a shadowy war on education…
And hey, there’s a knock-off of one of these bootlegs (or a bootleg of one of these knock-offs, or maybe these are the bootlegged knock-offs???) on eBay right now!
Tags: Generic toys
Some choice 80′s toy crap here, folks! These Mighty Ninja 2.5″ figurines were actually knock-offs of the already somewhat knock-off-ish Ninja Warriors: Enemies of Evil line that somehow oozed out of Hasbro late in the craze era.
Sadly, the Chinese manufacturer picked some of the worst designs of that line to shrink and remold. All the Medieval European-looking figures made the cut, while the more stock-in-trade masked ninja didn’t.
Especially frustrating seeing the pretty damn nice package art promises the back-clad assassins we were all looking for.
But hey, at least they’re “Martial Posted!”
Tags: Generic toys, Hasbro, Mighty Ninja, Ninja Warriors: Enemies of Evil
These showed up on eBay recently. LOVE that knock-0ff illo of karate champ Joe Lewis (Jaguar Lives, Force Five) on the package.
Oh for the days of He-Man recast bodies on figures so vaguely and poorly designed they could be kung-fu expert and/or pro-wrestler with a mere change in card art.
Tags: Generic toys
During the 80s craze, there were tons of generic ninja toys positively INFESTING grocery stores, souvenir shacks, flea markets, blanket vendors outside subway stations, etc. You had to rake the stuff off your lawn in the Fall it was so omnipresent.
How EVERYWHERE were these punching puppets back in the day?
But it’s the cheap, non-branded, often knock-off stuff that tends not to survive into subsequent decades. No one socked these away back then like they did Star Wars figures, so collecting the stuff 30 years later can be challenging.
Tags: Generic toys, punching puppets
Manufacturer: UNKNOWN
Date of Production: UNKNOWN
Lone Marking: “CHINA”
Gotta think he came with a few gold-colored plastic weapons of ludicrous design and scale, and possibly a cloth cape, plastic parachute or some other type of trendy 80′s mode of transport like a crotch rocket or hang glider.
I love these random, unlicensed ninja toys from the 80′s craze. This particular 4″ jointed figure isn’t a relic from from my developmentally-stunted early teens, but it might as well have been.
Tags: Generic toys
