Kids love ninjas. Hasbro loves ninjas. GI Joe fans… sort of love ninjas. If there’s one thing that the GI Joe figure line has had more than its share of for the past decade-plus, it’s ninjas. Yeah, everybody loves a good ninja–but not everybody loves dozens and dozens of ninjas. So, though the GI Joe Kre-O Series 1 Blind Bag figure set is largely composed of ninjas, Hasbro has thankfully limited the larger GI Joe Kre-O sets just one: the subject of today’s review, the GI Joe Kre-O Ninja Temple Battle (AKA The set you have to buy if you want the G.I. Joe Kre-O Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow figures)….

The Right:

You can’t have a G.I. Joe toy line without Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow. You just can’t. So it was an absolute certainty that they’d make themselves known in G.I. Joe Kreo Series 1 from the moment that the line was announced. Hasbro could have been real jerks and withheld these figures by packaging them only in some huge and expensive set, but they decided to have mercy on our collecting souls by not only putting them in a cheap $15 set, but making it an outstanding set for army-builders!

The G.I. Joe Ninja Temple Battle set contains four G.I. Joe Kreons figures: Snake-Eyes, Storm Shadow, and two Ninja Vipers (AKA Red Ninjas). Snake-Eyes is in his version 2 look, with visor, from when the character really started to come out as a ninja and not just a commando. The visor can be raised and lowered, and his backpack can sheathe up to three swords. In addition, Kre-O Snake-Eyes includes his trademark Uzi and has his strap of grenades printed on his chest.

Meanwhile, Storm Shadow and the Red Ninja Viper Kre-O figures all have removable hoods. I’m grateful for that, because I much prefer their masked, non-hooded classic look to their “more realistic” hooded appearance. Just like in the old days, the Kre-O Red Ninjas are just palette-swaps of Storm Shadow, which is a great throwback. These Red Ninja Vipers are some of the few generic figures I’d truly want to army-build, and I love that you can differentiate them with all the different included weapons. (And for those who are interested, I posted a review of the G.I. Joe Kre-O Jinx figure over on my toy reviews blog, and she’s vastly different-looking from the standard Red Ninjas.)

And man, does this set ever come with a buttload of weapons. No, really–there are a ton of weapons with this set. If you’re disappointed that your Jinx or Scarlet or Kamakura Kre-O figures didn’t include some ninja weapon that you want, it’s probably right here. The set includes a variety of swords, a large spear, shuriken throwing stars, and bows and arrows. There’s way more weapons here than the four G.I. Joe Kreons included can hold, so you really can arm many of the G.I. Joe Kre-O blind bag figures with this set’s weapons as well.

Last, but certainly not least, we come to the four diorama pieces included with the set. While they’re not the most thrilling set pieces ever, the Ninja Temple Battle terrain pieces definitely add a little something as a backdrop for a GI Joe Kre-O ninja duel. The training dummy and “hidden secrets scroll area” are cute ideas, the armory makes a superb place to store some of the multitude of weapons the set includes, and the Temple archway is great for setting up figures on for a surprise attack. I wouldn’t buy the set just for these components, but they only add about $3 to the cost of the set, which they’re well-worth.

The Wrong:

Come on, Hasbro! How can you give us this version of Snake-Eyes and not include Timber?! I could understand if Hasbro wasn’t doing canine figures in the GI Joe Kre-O sets at all, but Kre-o Order the German Shepherd comes with Law, so obviously Hasbro could have done a Timber wolf figure. I would have happily forsaken a couple of swords or hoods to make it cost out so Timber could be included in this set. As it is, we’re going to have to wait a long time now to get a Timber figure (if one is ever released at all). Thumbs down.

Also, the plastic quality used for the figures and pieces in this set in general isn’t the best. My Snake-Eyes figure came out of the bag with a very obvious and annoying scratch on his chest, despite being packaged in a plastic bag separate from all the other pieces. The diorama pieces don’t always stay together that well either–if you touch (or breath on) the Ninja Temple archway the wrong way it breaks off of its base. The quality of these blocks just isn’t equivalent to that of LEGOs, and it really shows.

Overall: The Kre-O GI Joe Ninja Temple Battle set has its faults (such as cheap plastic quality and no Timber wolf figure), but there’s another feature that makes me forget all about them–this toy is fun. Fun in a way that no G.I. Joe toy has been for me in over a decade. Hasbro has put together an affordable line of beloved G.I. Joe characters in their most classic attires, and it’s resulted in me loving concepts I really thought I was sick of (like ninjas). If you’re a GI Joe fan you’re probably buying this set anyway just to get the Kre-O Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow figures, but this set has so much more to offer. I legitimately want to buy a second set to army-build Red Ninja Vipers and ninja weapons–that’s how much I like this toy. I feared the GI Joe Kre-O Ninja Temple Battle might be a throwaway set, but it far exceeded my expectations. Highly recommended.