 This is nun Chuck take one What's that? No, no, I'm not doing it. I said I'm not gonna do it I'm not gonna do that gag where I act like I'm talking to someone off-screen It's a cliche. It's a tired old trope, and I won't do it It doesn't even make any sense if someone were really interrupting me from off-screen There's no reason it would be in the video. I would just edit it out Look, I've I've written a really great bit for nun Chuck. It's probably the funniest bit I've ever done for this show, and you're interrupting me. Can I start now? Can I start now? Thank you. Thank you very much okay action on three One two three action. Hello everybody hooded cobra commander 788 here This is the show a re-review every vintage gi joe toy from 1982 to 1994 Ninja force. What is it? It's a force of ninjas That's what you call a group of ninjas like a school of fish or a murder of crows gi joe had a sub team called ninja force in 1992 and 1993 This was likely due to the popularity of teenage mutant ninja turtles in the 90s gi joe was searching for trends to maintain its relevance ninja force had its problems Many of the figures were brightly colored, which you wouldn't want for a ninja They had action feature gimmicks which limited articulation and took away the back screws So they couldn't have backpacks. They weren't all bad though And we're going to talk about one of the better ones today after ninja force There was another subset called shadow ninjas That set did away with any of the positive attributes of ninja force The shadow ninjas consisted entirely of reused figures and accessories And as if one gimmick wasn't enough, they also had a color change gimmick Nunchuck was in both ninja force and the shadow ninjas And we are going to look at both of those figures today HCC 788 presents nunchuck This is nunchuck version one the nunchaku ninja from gi joe's ninja force And nunchuck version two from the shadow ninjas Version one was introduced in 1992 and was available in 1992 only it was discontinued for 1993 Version two was introduced in 1994 and was available in 1994 only the vintage gi joe toy line ended in 1994 There were only the two versions of nunchuck in the vintage era. There were a few post vintage versions Nunchuck was in the ninja force subset Ninja force was a team of ninjas in gi joe introduced in 1992 led by storm shadow The third version of storm shadow was part of that ninja force set All ninja force figures had action feature gimmicks Like with many of these subsets the bad guys were released under the same name and logo In 1992 ninja force had slice and dice as the bad guys Ninja force was continued in 1993 with a new series of gi joe ninjas and bad guys There were some ninja force vehicles in 1993 the ninja lightning motorcycle the battle ax and the pile driver 1993 was the end of ninja force, but some of the figures were reincarnated in 1994's shadow ninjas Nunchuck was one of them the shadow ninjas were recast ninja force figures in temperature sensitive plastic A gimmick called inviso power. I will demonstrate how this works later The name nunchuck is a modified pronunciation of nunchaku, which is an okinawan flail weapon The nunchuck was popularized by bruce lee in the movie fist of fury It was also the weapon of choice for my favorite ninja turtle michael angelo Nunchuck of course does include nunchucks. It would be pretty silly to have nunchuck without nunchucks, right? Well, there is a problem with that. We'll get to it I have the full card back for nunchucks so we can take a look at how this figure was marketed back in 1992 It has a hot pink background, which was standard for ninja force figures It has the gi joe logo the ninja force logo This figure was sold at walmart for 283. That's not bad. The name is nunchuck. He is number three in this series It has this blurb down here describing his real ninja action samurai smash And there's a diagram behind where the figure would have been showing you how it works A lot of the artwork is covered up with this promotional sticker turning our attention to the back of the card We have the flag point a single flag point in the nineties style We have the cross cell. We have the general release figures Then we have this partition for ninja force. We even have a description of ninja force here It says these swift and silent commandos are the true elite forces for gi joe and cobra Each ninja warrior is fully capable of neutralizing an adversary in milliseconds. Yes milliseconds Well, a lot of milliseconds. It doesn't say how many milliseconds with his spring action martial arts moves and lethal weapons Nunchuck includes two lethal weapons and he has nicknamed them rigs and murtaugh watch the new tv adventures of gi joe We have the file card in the nineties style and we will read this later The file card has a numbered list of the accessories and features and i will refer to this when describing the figure I do not have the full card back for version two But all of the shadow ninjas figures had this same basic card back design With the same background artwork showing storm shadow and snake eyes Even if it was not storm shadow and snake eyes on the card So even though I don't have nunchuck version two's card back It would have looked very similar to this. Let's take a look at nunchuck's accessories starting with version one And let's look at nunchucks nunchucks. This is the weapon that gives the character his name So this makes perfect sense for this figure. It is in black plastic It's got the chain that goes between the two sticks. So, you know, it's pretty basic But that is his weapon of choice the file card calls this banzai oak nunchaku with non breakable chain Banzai as it is spelled here is a japanese battle cry What does that have to do with oak wood? Maybe they mean bonsai, but that still wouldn't make sense Regardless of what it's made of this is the weapon that gives nunchuck his name So it's pretty important that he include this nunchuck's second weapon is his sword This sword with an odd curved shape blade. It is in black plastic The final card calls this a double edged samurai warrior sword This is not a traditional shape for a samurai sword nunchuck's final accessory is his figure stand It is a standard figure stand in black plastic This was a helpful innovation of the 90s since 80s figures did not include figure stands That's all for accessories, but that's all he needs nunchuck can hold all his weapons at the same time Which I prefer now let's look at version twos accessories The shadow ninjas version did not include the same accessories as version one And as you can see it includes a lot more than two weapons Version twos accessories were attached to a plastic tree The purchaser would have to cut the accessories off the plastic frame. They were all in this pink translucent plastic They were all also reissued from earlier action figures. I am missing an accessory There should be two of these little knives and I only have one Since the only piece missing is just a copy of a piece I already have I consider this to be complete enough to review There is absolutely nothing new with these accessories The accessories tree issued with this figure was a reissue of the accessories tree From zartan version three the ninja force version from 1993 just in a different color plastic So the accessories for nunchuck version two are the same as with this zartan figure Let's take a look at those accessories and let's start with this compound bow This is quite a substantial bow weapon. It is in pink translucent plastic This bow was originally released in black plastic with storm shadow version two from 1988 It was issued in orange plastic in 1993 for zartan version two And it was issued in blue plastic for night creeper version two from 1993 The next accessory is this sickle. It was cast in that pink translucent plastic This accessory was originally issued with 1992 ninja force dojo It was originally meant to be connected with a separate handle piece with a black string This reissue does not include the black string or the separate piece But it still has the loop for the black string This accessory was also issued in orange plastic for zartan version two The next accessory is the sword again It's issued in that pink translucent plastic a pretty standard looking sword nothing too exciting here This sword was issued in blue plastic for 1993 night force night creeper version two And of course an orange plastic for zartan version two The next accessory is this large knife. It is once again in that pink translucent plastic It's sometimes referred to as a machete. This was originally issued with 1998 spearhead in gray plastic This is an odd-looking weapon. It doesn't look much like a machete. It looks more like a roman sword This knife or whatever you want to call it was issued in blue plastic for 1993 night creeper version two And of course an orange plastic for ninja force zartan. The next accessory is the small knife I only have one there should be two of them. I am missing one like with all the other accessories It is in that pink translucent plastic and this is a reissue from zartan version two from 1993 With zartan, he had these two handy holsters on the leg for both of the knives Of course, not so with nunchuk. Lastly, we have the figure stand It is a pink translucent issue of a standard figure stand again a 90s innovation And that's it for accessories nunchuk version two comes with a lot of accessories too many in fact But what is missing here nunchuk does not come with nunchuk's. Why not by 1993? GI joe was packaging figures with accessories trees with all reissued accessories They weren't going to give him the same accessories as version one Furthermore, they weren't going to create a new accessories tree for this figure They were only going to reuse one they had used before but there was an accessories tree that included nunchuk's ninja force snake eyes version five from 1993 Included nunchuk's so I wasn't this one used instead of the one from zartan So there was an accessories tree with nunchuk's in 1993 But maybe that particular accessories tree was not available in 1994 for the shadow ninjas Except it was because they used it for shadow ninja snake eyes. There it is right there It was available. They could have used it, but they didn't this is why I struggle to appreciate 90s figures I know they have a lot of fans and I try to give them a fair shake But there is a low effort quality to them that I just can't accept Someone at hasbro looked at this and thought it was fine and didn't care if it made any sense at all Is that good enough? Is that the kind of quality that should be acceptable for a toy line under the banner of gi joe? I don't think so. I think the kids in 1994 deserved better Let's take a look at nunchuk's articulation. Both version one and version two have the same articulation So let's just take a look at one of them. He did not have the articulation that was standard for gi joe figures by 1993 Because as a ninja force figure, he had an action feature gimmick. He could turn his head from left to right He could not look up and down. He did not have the ball jointed neck that was standard for gi joe figures starting in 1985 His left arm was pretty standard He'd lift his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around He had a hinge at the elbow so he could bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees And a swivel at the bicep so he could swivel his arm all the way around The right arm though had the spring loaded action feature He could still lift his arm at the shoulder and bend at the elbow about 90 degrees and swivel at the bicep But he had a spring in the shoulder. So if you push the arm forward it would spring back And that is it. That is the samurai smash action feature because of the internal mechanics of that action feature This figure could not move at the waist. He had no waist articulation A standard gi joe figure could move at the belt cut. This guy cannot He could move his legs apart about so far He could bend his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees Let's look at the sculpt design and color of nun chuck and I have to point out another ninja force figure Bushido from 1993 used exactly the same body as nun chuck but in different colors I think nun chuck wore it better looking at version one first. This is a camouflage ninja figure That's very impressive camouflage was becoming less common by 1992 It's a refreshing change from the bright colors of other ninja force figures on his head He has a black balaclava mask with the eyes uncovered He also has a black soft goods flap on the back The file card calls this ninja headgear with havaloc covering But havaloc is misspelled on his chest He has a karate gi style shirt in green plastic with black tiger stripe camouflage He has a black under shirt He has black straps that connect at the belt in the front and go over both shoulders And connect to the belt in the back on both straps at the top He has these circular objects the file card calls these cluster blast bombs in the artwork They look more like grenades. He has a pouch on the right strap The file card calls this a 0.9 millimeter ammo pouch Do they mean nine millimeter because 0.9 millimeter would be very tiny on the left side strap He has a knife the file card calls this a clean cut chest mounted combat knife This is a good time to point out this figure does not have a back hole for a back screw That's because of the internal mechanism for the spring loaded feature It also means he cannot carry a backpack and you can't take the screw out and replace the o-ring Like you could on a standard figure his arms feature long green sleeves with a black camouflage pattern He has black forearm wrappings and black gloves He has black pouches on each upper arm with black straps that go around each arm The file card calls these pouches throwing stars shoulder pouches his waist pieces in green plastic with black tiger stripe camouflage He has a black belt. That's pretty plain not a lot of detail on that belt He has a black strap on the right side of the belt that goes down to his pistol holster on the right leg His legs are green with black tiger stripe camouflage keeping with the overall theme of the figure The left leg is plain, but the right leg has a black pistol holster The file card calls this a 0.9 millimeter sidearm and blastproof holster Maybe they do mean 0.9 millimeter literally It's the size of the bullet that would fit in the tiny action figure gun We finish up the lower legs with some black leg wrappings and black boots This is a surprisingly practical uniform ninja force is known to be zany with impractical bright colors Nunchuk is well camouflaged with realistic equipment that would actually be useful in combat He even has a sidearm the sculpt and design of version two is the same as version one But it is cast a temperature sensitive plastic Inviso power is supposed to mimic the ninja's ability to turn invisible By placing the figure in warm water the plastic would turn white Placing the figure in cold water will turn it back to the original pink color. Let's demonstrate how this works I have a bowl of warm water and a bowl of cold water here I'm going to place nun chuk in the warm water first and we should see a color change on the plastic warm water first Let's just place him in there Make sure he's dunked really well for a few seconds Uh that is very warm water indeed So this should do the trick and I pull him out and he has turned all white Well, almost all white. This is the inviso power But I hope I'm not making a controversial statement when I say This is not invisible even if it was invisible the black bits including the soft goods flap on the back There's still black now. Let's place him in the cold water and he should turn back to his original color So that's icy cold water very cold water And uh, let's just dip him in there And pull him out And yeah, there we go. He is pink again This figure takes one of the best things about nun chuk his color and replaces it with a gimmick The first figure already had an action feature gimmick. So this one has a double gimmick Let's take a look at the file card starting with version one This file card does have a hot pink background yuck It has some artwork of nun chuk and a closer portrait His codename is nun chuk. He's the nun chaku ninja. His file name is ralph baducci missed opportunity not naming him charles His primary military specialty is self defense instructor at the local ymca His secondary military specialty is ordnance. His birthplace is brooklyn new york So this is your mysterious ninja ralph baducci from brooklyn Wasn't this guy on welcome back codder? His grade is e5 for some reason Even though his background does not indicate any military service before joining gi joe There's a one line quote here presumably from ralph. It says you take the two on the left I'll deal with the other 17 this paragraph says nun chuk studied mystic fighting forms at the school of a mysterious Blind master in denver because denver is where you go to study mystic fighting forms driven by the need to perfect his form nun chuk moved to san francisco and enrolled in a martial arts school where His distinctive style caught the eye of the sensei storm shadow And sensei has an asterisk before the word that should be after and the footnote says teacher So I I think we all know what sensei means there storm shadow personally supervised his instructions And when nun chuk was ready storm shadow made him a gi joe ninja force fighter nun chuk specializes in nun chaku attack styles Utilizing the terrifying form known as the samurai smash He enjoys taking on cobra while commanding the gi joe battle wagon here is nun chuk in his favorite vehicle the battle wagon He just likes to hang out the side and swing his nun chucks at people as they drive by that makes perfect sense Yes, it does shut up now Let's take a look at the version two file card by 1994 gi joe file cards had been reduced to baseball card size Which is a shame file cards are a great tradition in gi joe and it's kind of sad to see them reduced to this It's almost as bad as not having a file card at all. We have a portrait of nun chuk This is recolored from the version one card It says nun chuk here and codename nun chuk up here The text on this card is mostly the same as version one just modified a little bit This is number 41 in the 1994 series. He is still the nun chaku ninja file name ralph beduti Birthplace, brooklyn grade e5 primary military specially self-defense instructor secondary military specialty ordinance He still has this quote you take the two on the left. I'll take the other 17 This paragraph says nun chuk studied mystic fighting forms at a school run by a mysterious blind master in denver Driven by the need to perfect his form nun chuk moved to san francisco Where his distinctive style caught the eye of his new sensei storm shadow who accepted him into ninja force They still have the asterisk in the wrong place before the word sensei They didn't fix that it still refers to teacher now They fight cobra together as shadow ninjas as if cobra didn't have enough problems as if I didn't have enough problems Looking at how nun chuk was used in gi joe media. He wasn't used very much He appeared in only two episodes of the deke animated series and he had no lines He had a total of 36 seconds of screen time in the entire series He was more prominent in the comic book series published by marvel comics where ninja force was featured more often He first appeared in issue number 117 along with other members of ninja force He was often drawn without his havaloc although he appeared numerous times in the comic book He was mostly in the background looking at nun chuk overall. This is one of my favorite ninja force figures Surprisingly ninja force has some figures I like although the set includes some weirdos It also includes good versions of storm shadow and snake eyes and nun chuk the camouflage is impressive We would expect to see a ninja in black, but this is a good second option He is dressed to sneak around undetected. It's unfortunate This was a ninja force figure because that means it had an action feature gimmick and limited articulation This would have been a good standard issue figure. Not only does the figure look good. He is well equipped He even has a sculpted on pistol ninjas tend to stick with traditional silent weapons But there are times when a firearm is just more useful in combat. His accessories are minimal but appropriate He comes with two weapons that he can use in ninja fighting Both of them can be used with his action feature and he can hold all of his weapons There is very little to complain about on nun chuk version one version two is a different story Gone is the green and black camouflage Gone are the appropriate weapons gone are nun chuk's nun chuk's for me The inviso power gimmick is not worth it My play pattern did not include keeping a bowl of warm water around to dip a figure in and by the way He's not invisible. There is a laziness factor to these shadow ninjas figures that I find unpalatable Of course, there are fans of these figures. There are fans of all figures There's nothing wrong with that if you were a fan of the shadow ninjas I only wish you had gotten better figures with more effort and accessories that actually made sense That was my review of two versions of nun chuk. I hope you enjoyed it If you did, please give this video a thumbs up on youtube and subscribe to the youtube channel and share this video with your friends That's what helps this channel grow. You can find me on social media on facebook and twitter and I have a website HCC788.com I could not continue doing these videos without the support of my friends on patreon If you'd like to support the channel, that's a great way to do it You can even get your name in videos like the names you see scrolling on the screen right now Thank you for watching and thank you for your patience as we ramp up to cobra conversion six coming in july I will be back with you soon with another vintage gi joe toy review and until then remember only gi joe is gi joe