MASTER OF NINJA shinobi ‘army guys’
Little toy soldiers. 54mm-scale figurines. Plastic army men. Whatever the formal term of the ubiquitous two-inch-high static soldiers that companies like Marx belched out by the millions, we always called them “army guys” (Actually, being in central Massachusetts as a … Continued
SHINSO: SHINOBI NO MONO Thai press stills
More of the amazing hand-tinted, one-of-a-kind press photos from Thai cinemas, this time to the franchise prequel/reboot Shinso Shinobi no mono, sadly Raizo Ichikawa‘s last time under the hood. These individually colored photos are on a different paper stock than … Continued
Back-to-school shinobi
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 … Continued
And now, some plugs…
• If you’re a stinky old fart with bad eyes like me then you hate watching stuff on portable devices and tiny screens. Fortunately for us luddites, Ninja: The Mission Force is now available on DVD. • I’m not sure … Continued
More shadowy marketing
Here’s a vintage theater flyer sport an ad on the back for the 1979/1980 Eichi Kudo strangeness Kage no Gundan: Hattori Hanzo. I’d have been more convinced to see this film by this flyer image than I would have been by … Continued
MIGHTY NINJA Figurines
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 … Continued
OCTAGON press stills
Bought some press glossies from The Octagon blind, with the promise there was a lot of ‘the big red and blue ninja guy’ in them. SCORE! Richard Norton‘s “Kyo the Enforcer” was perhaps my single favorite ninja in an 80s … Continued
Ninja Yashiki board game
Up on eBay right now from vendor susi-sumo-jpn, this vintage board game is to die for! No year specified, but I’m thinking 80’s from the art and the way it’s colored. Looks like shuriken and ninja figurine tokens. The black box … Continued
Masked swordsmen from the 1920s
This 1926 promotional flyer from the Nishiki-za movie theater in Kobe, Japan features some sweet hooded misadventure! From the text, this Nikkatsu production was called Teru Hi Kumoru Hi: Zenpen, (roughly Sunny Day, Cloudy Day: Chapter 1) based on a novel by Kurama … Continued
80s Ninja Hoods
Is it just me, or did the two piece hood common to North American merchandisers completely suck? A mainstay of retailers like Asian World of Martial Arts, the common American ninja head gear was made of a heavy duty outer … Continued