6 INCH: GI JOE CLASSIFIED: STORM SHADOW

I'm not sure how to write about this guy's history. The dude has a sorted past and I think in a lot of ways, he is how the owner wants him to be. Sure, he'll be a ninja in everyone's eyes. To a majority, he's a former US soldier or at least, he served and had seen combat back in the day. To others, the guy is a mental case, having been put through a certain machine invented by Dr Mindbender that did whatever it was supposed to do to people. That latter part, I believe it was in a video game that Storm Shadow was written as liking to go into the machine to get his brain scrambled. Made him a focused, maniacal bad guy ninja. I thought it was a funny aspect to him and I'm not opposed to that writing as compared to the more down-to-earth, heavy drama version that Larry Hama (long-time GI Joe writer) came up with.

My childhood memory of this guy, and I think I've told this story before, I lived in a condo; the complex had 3 buildings. Most of the time, I was the only kid that lived there. At some point, a gal and her two kids moved in and we were buddies for a time. I don't remember the date of his birthday, but it was before mine. For that particular birthday, he got a bunch of Joes and candy; including Bubbletape. When he opened Storm Shadow, I remember him getting really excited. Like cocky excited. If it was his holy grail (not that he would have considered Storm Shadow like that), well, he sure acted like it. I do remember he got excited about getting a Crimson Guard at one point too. In the end, I think part of his excitement was that he received a figure I didn't have in my possession. What does Bubbletape have to do with it? It was just one of his candies he received and the residue was left on the figure (as well as smell).

In terms of large-scale Storm Shadow, he's a neat figure. Pretty faithful to the original. Hasbro didn't do anything weird to him. Really, he just feels like a standard figure to make; check him off the list. He's also an earlier model, when Hasbro was playing it safe with the choice of characters to make Classified. He was a standard purpose. Just gotta have him.

I was never invested in Storm Shadow. He was just a ninja; arch enemy of Snake Eyes. I use most of the early canon with him. The small version of Storm Shadow, after losing the Arashikage to Snake Eyes, he struck out on his own. He created the White Lotus Society; a mercenary ninja group (like the Arashikage Red Ninja who actually come in a rainbow of colors). The large scale version, the only story I wrote him in was a VS story where he squared off against Helix. He didn't fare well against her.