Saturday, April 5, 2008

Devil Ninja by TAO

The exact origins of the ninja are still unknown, probably because of the way they operated - in secrecy. As Bushido, “The way of the warrior” - the Samurai Code - forbade guerrilla warfare and assassination as dishonorable, a daimyo (warlord) might have hired a ninja to do his dirty work as a ninja was specially trained in a variety of unorthodox arts of war, such as selective strikes, espionage, assassination, and infiltration of enemy strongholds. This same tactic is now employed by modern special forces, in essence modern day ninjas.

I remembered watching Sho Kosugi who starred in quite a number of ninja films during the 1980s until things got out of hand when “American Ninja” came out. Frank Miller also introduced ninjas into the Daredevil canon, bringing a greater focus on the martial arts aspect of Daredevil's fighting skills, and creating Stick and the Hand in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were supposed to be a spoof of Daredevil's origins as well as his fight with the Hand (in TMNT, the ninjas belonged to the Foot) but they have since garnered a cult following of their own.

This Devil Ninja was released by Tao way back when. He had his bag of tricks, die-cast metal ninja throwing stars and sword, die-cast metal grappling hook, telescope, blow stick and classic Devil mask.







Ninja with grappling hook

All ready for some climbing action although with such a short rope, he probably can't go very far

Ninja unmasked - check out his netted vest - ha! ha!


The classic devil mask - to put fear into the enemy - last thing they see before they meet their maker, if the ninja succeeds in his task.


Grappling hook, telescope and blow stick

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