I dig him. But I'm not QUITE as enthralled with him as I was now that I have him in hand.Spy Troops Wave 2 (Wave 7) - Night Creeper
As I did with many of the other reviews I can't help but think back to first seeing these prototype figures on the web and letting the mind wander. If I remember correctly, Night Creeper was outfitted with his Spy Troops gear and labelled as "Wet Suit", but would end up something entirely different.
Now labelled the "Aqua Ninja" Night Creeper is quickly becoming the most sought after Wave 7 figure out there. An always popular COBRA army builder with a unique design and cool designation who can help but like this figure? I was blown away with first glimpse of the Night Creeper in full color and detail and he shot straight up to the top of my "most wanted" list for Wave 7, which is why, I'm sure, that he's one of the last figures that I found. :) But now that I have him, what are my thoughts on this infamous COBRA cyber-ninja?
I dig him. But I'm not QUITE as enthralled with him as I was now that I have him in hand.
Upon first glance, his sleek and stylish mold is executed very, very well. The wrinkled bodysuit combined with layered metallic armor just looks too cool. The way his facemask integrates...his mini-chestplate and elbowpads. It just all comes together pretty much perfectly. This is a COBRA cyber-ninja as he should be, and I LOVE the way the figure is designed.
The problem for me comes where it comes for a lot of Wave 7. Those messed up proportions. Destro must have been sculpted by a whole different person, because his proportions and body style are downright spot-on. But Widescope...Red Spot...Big Brawler all have those wide shoulders, narrow hips and long legs. Some of them suffer from it worse than others...Night Creeper, unfortunately suffers from it pretty badly. And not only are his legs ong, they are pretty skinny as well, which further screws up the measurements.
Unfortunately, he's also saddled with long arms, longer in appearence than the others, which adds to the problem.
But, the incredible thing is, despite all of these mis-proprotions I find myself very drawn to this figure. Even when, upon close glimpse, the figure looks horribly wrong, in play and execution I find him very fun and extremely interesting to use. His joints are loose and very flexible, like his packmate, Kamakura, and he is very fun to pose and move around. He can kick extremely high and stay balanced as he should and just looks sinister.
Amazingly enough as well, Hasbro has gone with a rather bright paint scheme, but pulled it off spectacularly. His blue is very bright, but mixed with the silver seamlessly, and the black trim just finishes off the color scheme to the utmost perfection. I never thought a baby blue ninja would look so appealing!
Then, combine all of this with his improved articulation...swivel wrists, ankle joints. It all adds great touches to the figure and enables a wealth of different poseability options for dioists like myself. At the moment I only have one of these (thanks to James Clifford...you're the best!) , but have more on the way and cannot wait to build a mini army of these figures. I think in groups of 5 or 6, these figures will look awesome!
Now, a lot of people are making fun of him for his Spy Troops gear...personally, I don't know why. I can easily see these guys slinking up to the beach, emerging from the water in their scuba gear, quickly discarding it and continuing on with their night mission of espionage or assassination. I think this Spy gear serves them perfectly and may try to put it to use at some point.
I have particular uses for the Night Creeper in my Joe universe (to be revealed soon...) and this version will fit into the mythos perfectly. In all honesty, I think this is the best version of the Night Creeper released yet, and bad proportions aside, he's an awesome addition to anyone's COBRA army!
