Toy
name: Night Creeper Assortment: Valor vs. Venom
Wave 4 Price: MSRP $7.99 Availability: September/October
2004
How
many Night Creeper fans in the house? Anyone? Hello? Maybe I'm imagining it,
but it doesn't seem like the Night Creeper clan gets much love from the Joe
community. I don't see a whole lot of Night Creeper fanfiction, Night Creeper
customs, or Night Creeper...well...anything. Ever since I was a kid, the idea
of techno-ninjas just really made me smile. The prospect of these insanely well-trained
martial artist/catburglars enhanced with state of the art technology sounded
really cool to me.
I mean these
guys are so well-trained they could go toe-to-toe with most Joes out there...add
in to this the fact that they have these armored uniforms and highly advanced
tech systems throughout their arsenal, and you have a very formidable fighting
force...one not give quite enough credit in my mind. I've always wanted to work
the world of the Night Creepers into my Joeverse and perhaps soon I'll get a
chance to do that. Will it include these new Night Creepers? Yeah, it probably
will...
Figure Mold
Wave 7....ahhh,
good old Wave 7. The wave that took figures that were some of the best conceptually
that Hasbro had worked up, and then crammed horrible proportions into them and
almost ruined the Wave. Wide Scope, Lady Jaye, and Night Creeper were three
really great looking figures, until you actually saw them released. Then the
short, squat torsos, insanely long, lanky legs and odd fat forearms took over
and just made you shake your head a little bit. Hasbro seemed so close, but
so far away.
Unfortunately,
this figure maintains the proportion problems of the original Wave 7 Night Creeper,
but had the potential to be okay with the possiblity of being a Venom-trooper.
Similar to how Hasbro turned the almost rediculous looking Snow Serpent from
Wave 3 into an almost respectible Snow Wolf in Wave 3, I figured maybe they
added some strange DNA to Night Creeper to make him long and lanky, and possibly
make him cooler. His green tinted eyes really seemed to confirm that.
However...nothing
on the package and nothing on the filecard admit to it. :/ Unfortunately, I
think Hasbro really missed an opportunity here, because I can see no reason
now why Night Creeper has green glowing eyes...he looks pretty darn cool, I
must admit, but it would have been nice to get a reason for it...as it is, it
looks like some pretty excellent night vision equipment...But none of this really
talks about the overall mold.
Proportion problems
aside, the mold looks cool as it did back in Wave 7. The combination of nicely
detailed wrinkled cloth and layered metallic body armor works well here as it
did then, and I love how they can incorporate typical ninja motifs and technological
wizardry into one figure. Night Creeper has the classic ninja splt-toe shoes
and familiar pattern mask, yet with the angled body armor and metallic colors,
really looks like a futuristic COBRA trooper. All of this would be a LOT more
effective had his legs been about 3/4 as long and his torso about 1/4 longer,
but still, the figure has some great design elements.
Some of the
cooler aspects of this figure are also the improved articulation; something
that seems a no-brainer when you're talking about characters with advanced martial
arts abilities. His swivel wrists and pivoting ankles are all present in this
figure and they continue to work well, providing some great poses for him to
be placed in. And I must admit it, even with the issues with his body shape,
this figure is just plain fun to play with and put in different fighting positions
without any parts to hamper his poseability. What a potentially terrific figure
this could have been, and it is instead, just okay.
Paint Applications/Color Choices
This is a toughie...one
the one hand, I love the bright blue and silver paint apps of the original,
but realize that such a dynamic color scheme is not very befitting a stealth-oriented
ninja trooper. The colors here are a dull gray and almost rusted metal armor
and, while a little drab, work very well for a night ops ninja trooper. This
Night Creeper being a night ops stealth infiltrator works pretty well, actually,
with the green paint on the eyes, as well. It's really nicely applied, giving
them an eerie, glowing effect that could just be his mask-built night vision,
or could be some venom-induced animal wackiness. Either way, the effect is very,
very cool, and really brings some life to what could have easily been an uninspired
figure.
Accessories
Night Creeper
comes with a sniper rifle previously released with Tunnel Rat, but more importantly,
also comes with the infamous Spy Drone from the Valor Vs. Venom movie. This
is that little flying critter that snags the DNA from the animals to inject
into human "volunteers" to turn them into V-Troops. It's a very cool
little robot with neat rubber tentacles (that are a pain to put in...). Perhaps
the coolest part of the little spy drone is the winch with footpeg on it! That's
right. COBRA troops can use these little things as insert craft or mini-escape
vehicles. Very cool, I think. An awesome little accessory, and one that I am
considering stockpiling on.
Final Comments
Overall the
figure is okay, but is set back by the familiar proportion issues that a lot
of last years' figures suffered from. It's not really a worthwhile update either,
in my mind, since I like the crisp blue and silver paintjob more than this somewhat
dirty one. I do like the drone he comes with, and the glowing eyes move the
figure up a few notches in my book, but over all, I can't heartily recommend
this pack as much as I would some others. It just doesn't have the same bang.
How
many Night Creeper fans in the house? Anyone? Hello? Maybe I'm imagining it,
but it doesn't seem like the Night Creeper clan gets much love from the Joe
community. I don't see a whole lot of Night Creeper fanfiction, Night Creeper
customs, or Night Creeper...well...anything. Ever since I was a kid, the idea
of techno-ninjas just really made me smile. The prospect of these insanely well-trained
martial artist/catburglars enhanced with state of the art technology sounded
really cool to me.
