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GalactiReviews: Sideshow Collectibles Storm Shadow Assassin
GI-Joe is about as iconic as it you can get when it come to 80’s cartoons, toys and comics. As a 1/6 collector it was painful seeing the toyish 12 offerings from Hasbro while other licenses were getting great figures from Sideshow, Hot Toys and others. But 6 years ago (yeah really, it’s been 6 years) Sideshow acquired the license to make 1/6 GI Joe figures. And now the line is far enough along that we’re getting a v2 of some of the earlier releases.
This time around Storm Shadow is getting the v2 treatment and Sideshow has gone with a snow-camo assassin look. He’s reminiscent of the RAH v2 figure, but with some modern and Devil’s Due inspired features that seem to divide collectors. Although I suppose most people will just want to know how he looks in hand and most importantly how the body is holding up.
*All scores are out of a possible five stars
Packaging: ☆☆☆☆☆
Sideshow has kept a very consistent style of packaging throughout the GI Joe series. The packaging has magnetic closures for the wrap around box flap, clear images of the figure on the front and back and a very cool painted image of the figure in the inner tray. They are using a matte finish on the packaging now that I prefer over the glossy ones of the past. Storm Shadow and all the accessories are held in two stacked plastic trays and most of the accessories have a plastic film covering to prevent scuffing or damage. Because of the coverings he’s not particularly pretty looking in the package, but everything should arrive to you safe and sound.
Sculpting: ☆☆☆☆1/2
There is not a lot of fine detail sculpting at least in terms of the head on Storm Shadow. The head is sculpted in a balacalava as you’d expect with only the eyes being visible. The work on the head done well and Sideshow is continuing to use a multi-piece head to give a sense of depth and realism the previously heads could not achieve. I’ve seen complaints that the face looks too round, but in person this did not seem to be the case. The only nit I have on the head is the seam between the front and back of the head is a bit too obvious, it is intended to look like a fabric seam, but the edges are a bit too blunt.
As for the sculpting on the hands, shoes, accessories and armor everything looks clean, is well scaled and up the level you’d expect for a high-end 1/6 figure.
Paint: ☆☆☆☆
There is not a lot of paint on this figure, and to be honest I’m not even sure the face and eyes are even painted… but the overall appearance is clean and done well. As mentioned before the eyes are a separate piece and look incredible. Sideshow has really upped their game when it comes to eyes; these are both glossy and very realistic looking w/o a hint of the dreaded doll-dot. I’d say they are easily as good as the eye work we’re getting from Hot Toys. The tone of the visible skin of the face and the forearms is both lifelike and matches one another, although the face looks a touch darker than I’d like.
The paint work on the hands and accessories is also very well done. There’s a bit of weathering to help give everything more of a used/lived in look.
Body: ☆☆☆☆
I am very happy and relieved to report that the body on Storm Shadow is good, maybe even bordering on great. Sideshow has a very well designed body in the Prometheus, but they have struggled with loose joints, or knees that just won’t budge. However, for this release the joints are both useable and able to hold poses.
Sideshow is using what I believe is a 1.2 Prometheus body (taller and broader shoulders) with the muscular arm sculpts we’ve seen used for Zartan and Rock ‘N Roll. You do loose a bit of articulation with these arms, but the aesthetic trade off is well worth it. The only thing I don’t really care for on the body is the design of the ankle joints and would prefer if they’d adopt the barbell style Hot Toys and other companies use.
Outfit: ☆☆☆☆
Storm Shadow is wearing a snow camouflage outfit that consists of a pair of tapered ninja camo pants, thermal undershirt, hooded camo jacket and matching vest as well as a grey assault vest. The thermal undershirt is a white elastic turtleneck, it has some webbing on the sides; it’s a nice detail one you’re unlikely to ever see. The main outfit is 3 pieces and they are all made using the same grey and white camo material. The tailoring is very nicely done on all of the pieces with and the choice of material is thin and scaled well. The only issue I have with the outfit is it’s just too clean looking… I’d expect him to have some weathering, but it looks like all of this just came off the rack. So either this is his first “assassin” mission or he’s got a closet full of the same outfit he breaks out when there’s a new target. One final piece of the outfit is the grey assault vest; I don’t really like him in the vest, but it’s a nicely made piece that I’ll probably use on someone else.
Accessories: ☆☆☆☆☆
One area that Sideshow has never skimped on with the Joe series is accessories… every figure is loaded down with extra hands, a vast array of weaponry and often times a second head. In total Storm Shadow comes with 8 hands (one with claws, another permanently holding a shuriken) a compound bow with 4 arrows, 2 katanas (if you got the exclusive), one sheath, 2 Ninja Tonfas (those billy-club looking things) a climbing rope (that’s wired for posing), shin and arm guards as well as an assault pack. One fun aspect of this release is Shadow can hold almost all of the accessories at one time, a quality I always appreciated in toys when I was a kid.
The stand-outs of the set are the katanas and compound bow. The katanas both sport the same etched metal blades and are easily some of the finest 1/6 scale swords I’ve seen. The regular katana has a simple hilt and guard, while the exclusive has a more ornate cobra and snake theme. Even if we’ve seen it before with Zartan, the compound bow is another excellent accessory. This time it doesn’t have the attached quiver for the arrows, but it’s well done and features cams that move when you draw the string.
Last but not least Storm Shadow also comes with a Sideshow stand with Cobra Logo. Now this may upset a few since the RAH v2 Storm Shadow this seems to be inspired by was a member of the Joes, not Cobra. You can’t fix that on the figures box, but if you have an extra GI Joe stand you can swap it out and no one has to be the wiser.
Storm Shadow does great in this category, but it’s surprising he does not have a pair of “sneaking” feet which are so common to the Joe figures and it would have been nice if he came with a second head. Just with what he has he still get's full marks, but I can't say I'd turn my nose up at getting even more.
Price: ☆☆☆
Storm Shadow comes in at $179.99 if you bought him directly from Sideshow, maybe $165ish if you went through a retailer. The benefit of a direct purchase is the option to get the exclusive sword… and in this case due to the interesting design and metal blade I think it’s worth it. At retail Storm Shadow feels like a solid value considering the body design and amount of accessories, but certainly not a steal. Had the aforementioned second head or extra feet been included he’d have fared better.
Overall: ☆☆☆☆1/2
Storm Shadow is part of a nice trend from Sideshow of continuing to push towards better and better releases. Aside from wishing he cost less or wanting a few more accessories there is little else to find fault with the on the execution of this figure. This is certainly not Storm Shadow’s most iconic look, nor is it purely a RAH or modern take on him which may not work for everyone, but on his own merits he’s a great looking figure and definitely a worthy addition to a 1/6 collection. And really at the end of the day can we really have too many ninjas? I think not.
Customizing Suggestions
1) Less is more, at least when it comes to Ninja’s. While I like the vest and even arm guards… I think he looks a bit better without them. And I don’t have a set of hands I’m happy with yet, but swapping out the gloved hands for some bare ones will also get you a step closer to the RAH figure.
2) I would highly recommend a water treatment to help get the clothing to hang a bit more naturally on Storm Shadow. The material will definitely take the treatment and it will get rid of the initial poofyness. I didn’t do that for the review, but plan to soon once I choose a final pose for him.
3) If you’re really big and brave, go for light weathering (either with a weathering kit, or some watered down paints) to the outfit. That should help him look a little more lived-in and realistic. I’d been considering a tea bath, but I think that will end up looking too dingy and while Storm Shadow might not stay 100% clean, I do think he should still be predominantly white
**Please feel free to suggest any other customizing suggestions and I’ll add them to the list**
Sideshow Collectibles
Storm Shadow Assassin
(exclusive)
Storm Shadow Assassin
(exclusive)
GI-Joe is about as iconic as it you can get when it come to 80’s cartoons, toys and comics. As a 1/6 collector it was painful seeing the toyish 12 offerings from Hasbro while other licenses were getting great figures from Sideshow, Hot Toys and others. But 6 years ago (yeah really, it’s been 6 years) Sideshow acquired the license to make 1/6 GI Joe figures. And now the line is far enough along that we’re getting a v2 of some of the earlier releases.
This time around Storm Shadow is getting the v2 treatment and Sideshow has gone with a snow-camo assassin look. He’s reminiscent of the RAH v2 figure, but with some modern and Devil’s Due inspired features that seem to divide collectors. Although I suppose most people will just want to know how he looks in hand and most importantly how the body is holding up.
*All scores are out of a possible five stars
Packaging: ☆☆☆☆☆
Sideshow has kept a very consistent style of packaging throughout the GI Joe series. The packaging has magnetic closures for the wrap around box flap, clear images of the figure on the front and back and a very cool painted image of the figure in the inner tray. They are using a matte finish on the packaging now that I prefer over the glossy ones of the past. Storm Shadow and all the accessories are held in two stacked plastic trays and most of the accessories have a plastic film covering to prevent scuffing or damage. Because of the coverings he’s not particularly pretty looking in the package, but everything should arrive to you safe and sound.
Sculpting: ☆☆☆☆1/2
There is not a lot of fine detail sculpting at least in terms of the head on Storm Shadow. The head is sculpted in a balacalava as you’d expect with only the eyes being visible. The work on the head done well and Sideshow is continuing to use a multi-piece head to give a sense of depth and realism the previously heads could not achieve. I’ve seen complaints that the face looks too round, but in person this did not seem to be the case. The only nit I have on the head is the seam between the front and back of the head is a bit too obvious, it is intended to look like a fabric seam, but the edges are a bit too blunt.
As for the sculpting on the hands, shoes, accessories and armor everything looks clean, is well scaled and up the level you’d expect for a high-end 1/6 figure.
Paint: ☆☆☆☆
There is not a lot of paint on this figure, and to be honest I’m not even sure the face and eyes are even painted… but the overall appearance is clean and done well. As mentioned before the eyes are a separate piece and look incredible. Sideshow has really upped their game when it comes to eyes; these are both glossy and very realistic looking w/o a hint of the dreaded doll-dot. I’d say they are easily as good as the eye work we’re getting from Hot Toys. The tone of the visible skin of the face and the forearms is both lifelike and matches one another, although the face looks a touch darker than I’d like.
The paint work on the hands and accessories is also very well done. There’s a bit of weathering to help give everything more of a used/lived in look.
Body: ☆☆☆☆
I am very happy and relieved to report that the body on Storm Shadow is good, maybe even bordering on great. Sideshow has a very well designed body in the Prometheus, but they have struggled with loose joints, or knees that just won’t budge. However, for this release the joints are both useable and able to hold poses.
Sideshow is using what I believe is a 1.2 Prometheus body (taller and broader shoulders) with the muscular arm sculpts we’ve seen used for Zartan and Rock ‘N Roll. You do loose a bit of articulation with these arms, but the aesthetic trade off is well worth it. The only thing I don’t really care for on the body is the design of the ankle joints and would prefer if they’d adopt the barbell style Hot Toys and other companies use.
Outfit: ☆☆☆☆
Storm Shadow is wearing a snow camouflage outfit that consists of a pair of tapered ninja camo pants, thermal undershirt, hooded camo jacket and matching vest as well as a grey assault vest. The thermal undershirt is a white elastic turtleneck, it has some webbing on the sides; it’s a nice detail one you’re unlikely to ever see. The main outfit is 3 pieces and they are all made using the same grey and white camo material. The tailoring is very nicely done on all of the pieces with and the choice of material is thin and scaled well. The only issue I have with the outfit is it’s just too clean looking… I’d expect him to have some weathering, but it looks like all of this just came off the rack. So either this is his first “assassin” mission or he’s got a closet full of the same outfit he breaks out when there’s a new target. One final piece of the outfit is the grey assault vest; I don’t really like him in the vest, but it’s a nicely made piece that I’ll probably use on someone else.
Accessories: ☆☆☆☆☆
One area that Sideshow has never skimped on with the Joe series is accessories… every figure is loaded down with extra hands, a vast array of weaponry and often times a second head. In total Storm Shadow comes with 8 hands (one with claws, another permanently holding a shuriken) a compound bow with 4 arrows, 2 katanas (if you got the exclusive), one sheath, 2 Ninja Tonfas (those billy-club looking things) a climbing rope (that’s wired for posing), shin and arm guards as well as an assault pack. One fun aspect of this release is Shadow can hold almost all of the accessories at one time, a quality I always appreciated in toys when I was a kid.
The stand-outs of the set are the katanas and compound bow. The katanas both sport the same etched metal blades and are easily some of the finest 1/6 scale swords I’ve seen. The regular katana has a simple hilt and guard, while the exclusive has a more ornate cobra and snake theme. Even if we’ve seen it before with Zartan, the compound bow is another excellent accessory. This time it doesn’t have the attached quiver for the arrows, but it’s well done and features cams that move when you draw the string.
Last but not least Storm Shadow also comes with a Sideshow stand with Cobra Logo. Now this may upset a few since the RAH v2 Storm Shadow this seems to be inspired by was a member of the Joes, not Cobra. You can’t fix that on the figures box, but if you have an extra GI Joe stand you can swap it out and no one has to be the wiser.
Storm Shadow does great in this category, but it’s surprising he does not have a pair of “sneaking” feet which are so common to the Joe figures and it would have been nice if he came with a second head. Just with what he has he still get's full marks, but I can't say I'd turn my nose up at getting even more.
Price: ☆☆☆
Storm Shadow comes in at $179.99 if you bought him directly from Sideshow, maybe $165ish if you went through a retailer. The benefit of a direct purchase is the option to get the exclusive sword… and in this case due to the interesting design and metal blade I think it’s worth it. At retail Storm Shadow feels like a solid value considering the body design and amount of accessories, but certainly not a steal. Had the aforementioned second head or extra feet been included he’d have fared better.
Overall: ☆☆☆☆1/2
Storm Shadow is part of a nice trend from Sideshow of continuing to push towards better and better releases. Aside from wishing he cost less or wanting a few more accessories there is little else to find fault with the on the execution of this figure. This is certainly not Storm Shadow’s most iconic look, nor is it purely a RAH or modern take on him which may not work for everyone, but on his own merits he’s a great looking figure and definitely a worthy addition to a 1/6 collection. And really at the end of the day can we really have too many ninjas? I think not.
Customizing Suggestions
1) Less is more, at least when it comes to Ninja’s. While I like the vest and even arm guards… I think he looks a bit better without them. And I don’t have a set of hands I’m happy with yet, but swapping out the gloved hands for some bare ones will also get you a step closer to the RAH figure.
2) I would highly recommend a water treatment to help get the clothing to hang a bit more naturally on Storm Shadow. The material will definitely take the treatment and it will get rid of the initial poofyness. I didn’t do that for the review, but plan to soon once I choose a final pose for him.
3) If you’re really big and brave, go for light weathering (either with a weathering kit, or some watered down paints) to the outfit. That should help him look a little more lived-in and realistic. I’d been considering a tea bath, but I think that will end up looking too dingy and while Storm Shadow might not stay 100% clean, I do think he should still be predominantly white
**Please feel free to suggest any other customizing suggestions and I’ll add them to the list**
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^^^ Everything Evil said. This figure looks nothing like the '88 Storm Shadow. I would have bought THIS:
