Red Ninja Viper was a bit of a conundrum to make, in that he was the first 12" Real American Hero subset character which had no 3 3/4" counterpart. Once I bought the figure and used him as my base, I needed to decide how to make him fit my theme. One option was the 1993 Red Ninja figure, but that figure had such a garish costume, I winced at the thought of recreating it. There was also the comic book version of the Red Ninjas, who looked nothing like their figure. There was also the 1992 Ninja Viper, but he was turquoise, and to properly make this character, I would have to create the entire costume from scratch. I just don't have that talent. I finally decided to make it simply a red version of the Ninja Viper, which was in turn a repaint of the 1984 Stom Shadow. I thought it fitting, since the head was a repaint of a Storm Shadow sculpt. Luckily, I covered up this figure's molded-on t-shirt, kneepads, and lower pants. I left the feet as they were, since it would be impossible to force boots on them, and I'm not very good a making wrappings.

And then Hasbro went and made a few Cobra Ninja Vipers. Some weren't too different from mine, though.