Toy on a Budget: Ninja Hero of the Dark Fighter Play Set

Presenting a toy on a Budget - the Ninja Hero of the Dark Fighter Play Set. While it may be one of the gaudiest toys to ever come out of the People's Republic of China, with a little work, it should make a fine addition to anyone's G.I. Joe collection.

What is this infernal machine you may ask? Well in essence I do believe it's an attempt at a military-grade, heavily armed personal flying vehicle - except that, as the Chinese envisioned it, this devious device has fallen into the hands of an evil-demonic Samurai clan that can only be stopped by the Ninja Hero(s) of the Dark Team - who come with their own overly armed and just as gaudy vehicles.



I'm not sure why I even bothered running a google search on "Ninja Hero of the Dark." So no, don't bother googling it. It doesn't exist on google. There isn't much literature either on the packaging. I just assumed that this is the bad-guy's vehicle because.... well look at that ugly-mug. No way is he a hero. He has to be one of the evil-demonic Samurai.

The "Ninja Hero of the Dark Fighter Play Set" says that the vehicle has "power sound" and there's even a hole in the clear-plastic for you to reach in and press this button on-top of the vehicle for sound-effects.  The bad news is that mine doesn't work and the Chinese threw in these really weird triangular bolts that I can't open so I can't tell if it's just a battery problem.

The entire Ninja Hero of the Dark Fighter Play Set includes everything you see here - the Purple flying machine, the Evil-Demonic Samurai, a mini-gun with a removable ammo-belt, ammo canister and a freakin huge suit-case with a handle that Mr. Evil-Demonic Samurai probably can't carry because it's half his size.

Open up that crate and you'll find the resting place for the mini-gun et.al and a plethora of blades for Evil-Demonic Samurai can use.

Evil-Demonic Samurai guy can hold all of these weapons, but they look really, really big and awkward. He looks better with the mini-gun or on the Purple Flyer. He also has a small blade sheathed on his chest that he can pull out and use as well as two shuriken attached to studs on his chest that he can barely hold. Evil-Demonic Samurai guy also has an insanely large revolver with a scope that he can draw from his side-holster, and a set of spiked knuckles. 

But let's throw him away. Seriously, why would you keep Evil-Demonic Samurai guy? At best I'd keep the mini-gun, but there are no mounts for the ammo-case on the gun itself, so that's kinda a drag. The purple flyer fits one Joe - or Cobra - probably best if this was a Cobra thing - perfectly. It has two articulated control arms that go up and down so you can mimic flight control and the mounted mini-gun and missile launchers elevate up and down as well. 

The props do not rotate 360 degrees. They flip down like in the first picture of this article, and they level a shown here. That's about it.

You have to admire the detail behind the purple flyer which means that if you do get this, all that you need to is plan a date and time where you can repaint this with less.... royal.... colors.

The Ninja Hero of the Dark Fighter Play Set was purchased at Toys R'Us Philippines Galleria branch while trawling through the cheap side looking for bargains. There was only one set. It cost me PhP 399.75 (Roughly US$ 9.00). I highly doubt that it's available on Amazon. But the purple flyer alone makes this worth it.