 What a great day. The sun is shining, the birds are singing. I hate sunshine and bird song, so I'm happy to be indoors. It's a fantastic day. I feel like minding my own business and not hurting anyone. This may just be the best day of my life. Here, it's time for another vintage GI Joe toy review, but before we get started, I'm happy to announce the finest GI Joe costume club has started their charity campaign benefiting canines for warriors. This is a cause that's dear to my heart. I support the campaign. If you are able to make a charitable contribution, I encourage you to do so. Their Indiegogo page is live right now, so check it out. A link will be in the description of this video. You can get some perks like calendars and t-shirts and coins and patches. Let's help them reach their goal. This week, we are looking at a 90s vehicle, a Ninja Force vehicle no less. This vehicle has a notorious reputation. Two YouTubers, Sanitarian Productions and GI Joe Berg, have attempted to assemble this vehicle straight out of sealed boxes and both resulted in breakage of the front suspension fork. Is it possible to assemble a vintage Ninja Lightning motorcycle without breaking the front fork? I took this challenge. If I could assemble it without breaking it, I would be the Ninja Lightning World Champion. I purchased a Ninja Lightning at Joe Fest. It was in an open box, but the interior contents were sealed. It had never been assembled. It had never been touched by human hands. I cut the bag open and broke the seal. I attempted to assemble it. I used techniques that have worked for me in the past when I needed plastic to flex a little more than it wanted to. I was very careful and I broke it. I broke the Ninja Lightning. It broke at the front fork exactly the same way it broke for Sanitarian Productions and Joe Berg. I am not the Ninja Lightning World Champion. That title still hasn't been claimed. The disaster was caught on camera and you will see it in a video on my channel later this week. In this video you will see two Ninja Lightnings. I repaired the broken example and it will be the main vehicle reviewed. It is fresh out of the box and it is in otherwise good condition. I also purchased a loose intact example and I used that to demonstrate the drive function which I am afraid my repair job may not have survived. I will also show you the unbroken front fork so you can see what it should look like. HCC788 presents the first toy I have broken on camera. The Ninja Lightning. This is the 1993 GI Joe Ninja Force Ninja Lightning Cycle. It was introduced in 1993 and it was available in 1993 only. It was discontinued for 1994. It did not come with an action figure. This is the only version of the Ninja Lightning in the vintage era. There were later versions in 2004 and 2005. The Ninja Lightning was a vehicle in the Ninja Force sub-series of GI Joe toys. Ninja Force ran for two years, 1992 and 1993. The Ninjas in Ninja Force were not black clad invisible assassins as they were in history. Instead they were colorful figures with action gimmicks and they were very, very visible. In 1994 Ninja Force was replaced by the Shadow Ninjas. The Shadow Ninjas were reissues of Ninja Force figures that changed colors in warm or cold water. This was supposed to be their Inviso power but they weren't invisible either. Ninjas were real at one time. They were mercenaries and assassins in feudal Japan. In period artwork they are often depicted wearing black which would aid them in night camouflage. Ninjas didn't always wear black. They could dress quite colorfully if the mission required it. For instance if they were in disguise. No word on whether they rode motorcycles. There is a motorcycle called a Ninja but you do not have to be a Ninja to ride it. The various GI Joe collector guides don't have a lot to say about the Ninja Lightning. The GI Joe collectors book just calls it a fast attack street cycle. The ultimate guide to GI Joe by Mark Belomo just kind of lists its features and that's about it. GI Joe had a number of motorcycles or motorcycle-like vehicles in the vintage era. In 1982 there was the Ram. In 1984 there was the Scout Bike that came with the Killer Whale. That was just a sub vehicle. In 1985 there was the Silver Mirage. In 1986 there was the LCV Recon sled. Also in 1986 there was the Dreadnock Ground Assault motorcycle. That was a reissue of the Ram in different colors and that was a Sears Exclusive. In 1987 there was the Battle Force 2000 Marauder. That was a motorcycle tank. There were a few non-motorcycles like the 1985 Cobra Ferret ATV and the 1988 Tiger Force Re-Release of that vehicle. The 1987 Dreadnock cycle. 1989 Dark Lawn Zivator. I'm surprised they didn't make more motorcycles. They would have been good small vehicles and kids-like motorcycles. I have the box for the Ninja Lightning so let's take a look at it. The front of the box has some decent artwork. It shows Ninja Force snake eyes riding the cycle even though this vehicle did not come with that figure. It says it's the Ninja Lightning Fast Attack Ninja cycle with detachable sidecar. The same basic artwork is on the sides and the bottom. On the top we have our flag points. This was worth two flag points. Everything is sort of bathed in that hot pink color that was the signature of Ninja Force. Looking at the back of the box we see a photograph of the Ninja Lightning and we can see right away there are some differences between this photograph and the production toy. The stickers have a white background instead of the pink or salmon color background of the production toy. Also, the missiles are quite different than the missiles that came with the toy. I do have the instruction sheet and the blueprints for the Ninja Lightning. I will be referring to this when I talk about some of the features. I noticed nowhere on this instruction sheet does it actually show an action figure riding on the vehicle. I wonder why that would be. The Ninja Lightning did appear in the catalog for 1993 that was packaged with GI Joe vehicles that year and you can see its picture on the catalog has the same missiles as the photograph on the back of the box but the background color of the stickers has been updated. Let's look at the parts and the features of the Ninja Lightning and let's start in the front as we always do. We have a wheel. It is bright green. It is almost yellow but the instruction sheet specifically refers to this color as green so that's what I'm going to call it. The front wheel rolls freely and this is where we get to a problem on the vehicle. The front wheel connects to the main body of the vehicle on this front fork and this is where I broke the vehicle while attempting to assemble it. You can see the brake right there. I did repair the front fork and it should be pretty sturdy. It has a nail in there so it has some metal support in there. However, that will never be as sturdy as an unbroken piece so I will be cautious with it. This front fork was broken in assembly by Sanitarium Productions and GI Joberg and me so I think it's fair to say this is a flaw design. I would suggest being cautious if you decide to use the zip cord feature. If it runs into a wall it could shatter. Here is my unbroken Ninja Lightning so you can see what the front fork looks like without the brake. There are plenty of these assembled and unbroken that's what makes me think this plastic used to be more flexible and has perhaps become more brittle over time. The front wheel is fixed. It does not steer like the Ram or the Silver Mirage but on this vehicle that's a good thing because it does have the zip cord feature which we will look at later so this really will go and if the front wheel were to turn it could spin off in any direction. This will keep it going straight. This very bright green color is the worst possible color for an invisible assassin. If you ride this motorcycle you're then just an assassin. If that next we get to the main body of the vehicle. The main body of the Ninja Lightning is in a dark blue. To my eye it has a slight purplish hue. It's a very simple construction on the outside anyway. It's basically just two halves that are sonic welded or glued together. You can very clearly see the seam. The detail on this body is acceptable if not exceptional. We have some GI Joe logos and some Ninja Force logos. There are a couple pegs for handlebars. They stick straight up and that makes it a little easier to put in the action figure's hand. However these I think are a bit too thick to completely put the hand on these handlebars. You can rest the figure's hands on them but if you press the hands on them I would be concerned about stretching or breaking the thumb. It has a molded in seat. It has foot rests on each side. It looks like the action figure is supposed to fit on in a seated position. The TV commercial shows the Ninja Lightning being ridden by Ninja Force snake eyes but there's just one problem with that. The figure doesn't fit. Because of the limited articulation and the action gimmick on this figure the legs won't slide apart enough to fit on the cycle. In preparation for this video for the last two days I've tried to figure out how to make this work but I just can't do it. The Ninja Lightning is not made for the action figure that has shown riding it on the TV commercial. Snake eyes can kind of ride side saddle. That's the best I can do. It works a little better with a figure that has standard leg articulation but it's not perfect and there's no back peg or any other way to secure the figure on. Not that a back peg would do any good on Ninja Force figures anyway because they didn't have holes for back pegs but a seat belt or something really would have helped. A figure just is not secure on here so when I test the features on this vehicle I will not have an action figure on it. In the molding there's some kind of bundle strapped behind the seat. Maybe that's Snake Eyes' laundry. The rear suspension fork that holds the rear wheels is much more robust than the front fork. Removing the side car for a moment we can see on the port side in the engine section it actually says Ninja. In the back there are two wheels not just one and they have real rubber tires which is fantastic. It looks great and of course this would need rubber tires in the back because it does have the zip cord feature and it needs the rubber tires to get traction. The back tires do have printing on the outside that's a nice touch. It looks like just parts number because it is double wheeled in the back it can stand without the side car and without a kickstand. Next we have what the blueprints call the detachable spring fire missile launching side car with silencer. It has details on both sides and on one side it has a couple pegs to connect it to the cycle. It rolls on a single purple wheel and it connects to the cycle much in the same way the Ram's side gun did with a couple pegs that go into a couple holes here on the port side of the motorcycle and it pegs in pretty securely it does not fall out too easily. When attached to the cycle it is angled up so you can get a little more distance out of the spring firing missile. There are two missiles on here but it only has one firing mechanism. This top slot is for storage of the extra missile and I do like that if you're going to give us an extra missile give us a place on the vehicle to put it so it doesn't get lost. The instruction sheet refers to this color as purple it looks more like a burgundy to me but fine we'll go with purple. The missiles both have a slot where they could peg onto a dumbbell shaped peg but this vehicle doesn't have any such pegs so I guess you could peg these missiles on a different vehicle. These missiles that came with the ninja lightning are different from the missiles that appeared on the back of the box. These missiles are very similar to the missiles that came with the 1993 invader and the 1993 starfighter but there are some slight molding differences. If you look at these missiles they are almost exactly the same but you can see the head of the missiles are slightly different. As far as the spring loaded missile launchers though the missiles are interchangeable. I have noticed on the back of the box for the invader the missiles match the missiles for the ninja lightning they just changed the color. As noted earlier there are two slots for two missiles. This lower slot is for the spring loaded launcher mechanism. To use the launcher just press the missile into the launcher back first it doesn't have to be oriented to any particular position just push it back until it clicks. The trigger is this purple button here in the back. Let's test it using our favorite target Dr. Meinbender. Just take aim and fire. This has a pretty powerful spring. I'm not too partial to these spring loaded missile launching gimmicks but if you do like that kind of thing this has a pretty good launcher. That brings us to the very back to what the blueprints call the zip cord activated motorized lightning engine with steel caged noise suppressor. It's not really motorized but the zip cord does allow the cycle to move under its own power. To activate just pull back this purple zip cord internally there is a spring that will pull the zip cord back in and spin the back wheels. Zip cord powered vehicles like this have been around since at least the early 70s and probably longer. What makes the ninja lightning more innovative is that the zip cord is internal. It's attached to the vehicle whereas on most zip cord powered vehicles the zip cord is a separate piece that you thread in the vehicle and then pull out to activate. GI Joe had other zip cord vehicles and accessories such as the battle copters and fireflies spinner blade but they had zip cords as separate pieces. Whenever you have separate pieces like that there's always a risk that they could be lost. The ninja lightning is an upgrade. The ninja lightning can roll without using the zip cord. I like this if you give me a gimmick don't force me to use it. I have noticed an odd coincidence the colors are similar to the colors of the 1986 Sears exclusive dreadnock aerosalt set not the ground assault set but do you want to imagine this as a dreadnock cycle? It could work. All right we're outdoors to test the zip cord feature on the ninja lightning. We've got a pretty good straight away here so I will pull the cord and watch it go. It does not go very fast or far. Looking at how the ninja lightning was used in GI Joe media it wasn't used very much. It made no appearances in the animated series. It also made no appearances in the GI Joe comic book published by Marvel Comics. At least not that I could find. I went through all the ninja force issues that I had and I didn't see it. The ninja lightning did appear in a TV commercial. It was in a live action commercial but it was not in the live action segment. In the live action part Snake Eyes does ride a motorcycle but it's just a standard motorcycle not the ninja lightning. Looking at the ninja lightning overall this vehicle has a lot of problems. It has some good points but the problems far outweigh them. The construction is extremely simple. I understand the need to cut costs but in earlier eras of GI Joe we would have gotten a few more pieces maybe in different color plastic to add a little more color variety. I am indifferent to the spring firing missile launcher. It's fine but those gimmicks are not my kind of thing. Action figures do not sit well on it and there's no way to secure the figure on. Go ahead and try to put ninja force snake eyes on it. He'll have to ride side saddle. I can't ignore the fragile front fork. Maybe the plastic had more flex when it was first issued in 1993. I don't know but if you have an unopened example and you're thinking of assembling it I advise against it. The only possible way to do it is to grind down the knobs on the front wheel so they don't stress the plastic as the wheel is put on. But if you grind them down too much the front wheel will not snap into place. Just leave this one in the box. A vehicle that is incompatible with the figures that are supposed to ride it and is so prone to breakage straight out of the box is a very flawed vehicle. It isn't all bad. The colors other than the bright green are not bad and the zip cord gimmick that's not bad either. Despite the few good points the flaws are so egregious I can't recommend it. 90s GI Joe fans take note. It's been a long time since I've put a 90s toy in the bottom tier but alas I must do so today. That was my review of the 1993 Ninja Force Ninja Lightning. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did consider giving this video a thumbs up on YouTube and subscribing to the YouTube channel hitting the notification bell and sharing this video with your friends. Don't forget the finest charity campaign benefiting canines for warriors. Check the link in the description of this video. Also check out the sanitarium productions and GI Joe Burke videos where they try to assemble this and you will get my assembly and breakage video this Wednesday on this channel. You can find me on social media on Facebook and Twitter and I have a website hcc788.com. Thanks as always to my patrons. They make these videos possible. If you like these videos and you'd like to help me make more of them please consider checking out my Patreon. You can get some special perks and find out how to decode the secret messages you see in these videos. That's all I have for you this week. I'll be back next week with another vintage GI Joe toy review. Next week we'll be staying in the 90s but we'll be looking at something good. I'll see you then and always remember only GI Joe is GI Joe. It's kind of hard to tell because there's a thing in the middle. This may just be the best day of my life. This may just be the best day of my life.