Arashikage Clan ninja brothers

Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow
15mm

The stars are burning bright 
like some mystery uncovered
I'll keep moving through the dark
with you in my heart
My blood brother

Working on the somewhat lacklustre ninjas featured in my last post gave me a few pretty decent ideas for follow-up projects. This is definitely the best of the lot.

Like a lot of people my age, I had a substantial collection of GI Joe toys as the child in the 80s. And these were by far the coolest. These two mysterious characters, one Joe and one Cobra, were created to tie in with the contemporary ninja craze. I was never familiar with a lot of the extensive background presented in the comic books, but the Coles' Notes version is that Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow were both adopted and trained by a clan of ninjas called the Arashikage. Storm Shadow was implicated in their master's murder and fled, joining Cobra, while Snake Eyes was recruited by GI Joe.

Storm Shadow's archery skill is a big part of his character so I was lucky the Rebel minis bow ninja is one of the best sculpts; I just added an arrow.  Snake Eyes is a conversion of a figure that I've painted before, I just gave him a sword and his signature mask and Uzi SMG.

And thanks to Doctor Merkury for always providing so, so much fantastic 80's toy theme inspiration :)

"I must complete Cobra's mission,
Snake Eyes.  Don't make me do this..."

Children of the 80's

As a kid in the 80s, I played with the classic 80's toys - especially GI Joe and Transformers - almost every day.  In the last while I've run into the blogs of a few hobbyists who are tabletop-gaming 28mm GI Joe...  It's a pretty cool idea, and presents the chance for lots of fun hobby projects.  From Katsuhiko Jinnai's "The Realm of Jinnai":

Wow... stunning work, and nostalgia overload :O  I am unsure where he gets all these amazing figures; some are clearly conversions but many seem to be custom sculpts?!

Now I've found a very cool new thing.:

For Cobraaaaa!

For Eterniaaaaa!

Like Jinnai, Doctor Merkury does a lot of converting to produce his Joes... and He-Man characters!  And my personal fave: he 3-D prints Transformers!  What?!

As a bonus, both these bloggers are fantastic photographers who use backdrops and terrain pieces to maximum effect showing off their work... which I can really appreciate :D