MORTAL KOMBAAAAT (robot ninjas)

 

Were you folks aware of the Mortal Kombat toyline?  If not, then you don't go to Toys R Us, 'cause that's the only place you can get it.  In fact, that's the place where you can get a lot of Jazwares products!  Anyway, I only bought a few things: One Scorpion, and this pack.

It's all one Mortal Kombat line, but the classic ones follow in the footsteps of genius because replacing a C with a K is as 90's as you can get without replacing the S's with Z's.  They made modern versions of a lot of the characters as well, but I only bothered with Scorpion.  And I don't think I took any pics of him...

Anyway, I bought this pack without question, 'cause I always wanted figures of these cyborgs.

Yellow is Cyrax, red is Sektor, and blueish-gray is Smoke (Smoke started out as a gray ninja, but this is his cyborgization-against-his-own-will form).  They're actually pretty impressive!  At the time, it made me want to get more of the standard classic ninjas, but they were fifteen bucks each, then down to ten, and totally NOT worth that price.  I mean, consider that Joes right now are ten bucks and they're packed with accessories, then look at the ten dollar Mortal Kombat ninja with NO accessories and often times a backwards limb, paint screwups, and two left feet or arms or just joints that look like they're gona fall off when you open the package. 

*ahem* But this pack was great!

They move well and come with enough articulation to put 'em in some dynamic poses without going overboard.  And if you're wondering about scale:

Standard 3.5 that's probably closer to 4 nowadays, but Joe scale; you know what I mean.

I don't think this pack is still out there, but it's pretty much the only thing I can suggest from this line.  The rest may actually be good now, 'cause although Jazwares makes some crap sometimes, they also do some REALLY cool stuff and they are on the ball when it comes to fixing mistakes.  The problem there is that the fixes come in later waves, so that means waiting for the trash to filter out (meaning that people are buying them, sadly) and hoping you can recognize the better version.  I never bothered with the ninjas - which sucks, because I was really looking forward to them - because I just couldn't pay the price for no accessories and constant, very visible screwups on the figures.

Anyway, final say on these figures is that Cyrax, the yellow one, is in the B.A.T. color scheme!  Oh wait - for those who don't buy G.I. Joes, a B.A.T. stands for Battle Android Trooper, and they're the standard robots in the Joe line.  Usually colored in black and yellow.

So in the end I certainly don't regret getting these guys, but I really wish the rest of the classic stuff had followed suit with the quality of these guys...unless I just got lucky with this set.  It just sucks that Jazwares is so black and white on the scale of quality.  There's no gray area - it's just great or trash.  I guess I should be thankful for the heads up at least - with any toyline you have a chance of getting a dud, but with Jazwares you can see the duds right in the package!

...alright alright I'll end this on a sweeter note.  Jazwares isn't terrible, but you can see that I'm constantly back and forth with these guys.  They keep getting the properties I've always wanted to see, and they keep making things either with quality or a stunning lack of it.  The Sonic the Hedgehog series, for instance, is fantastic!  Mega Man, on the other hand, was terrible and they STILL own the license and won't try again.  And if they did?  I wouldn't know if they would do something random or use the folks who make the Sonic line to at least assure some quality.  So I love Jazwares.  I just also don't understand how they can keep screwing things up and act as if they have no idea what else is going on in the world of action figures.  It's your business, folks!  Pay attention and don't reinvent the wheel when you don't have to.