Ninja All-Stars Arrives!

According to last week's update on Kickstarter, Ninja All-Stars was all set to ship out by last Friday. I have been waiting anxiously this entire week, hoping it would arrive before this weekend. Now I can finally say, Soda Pop Miniature's Ninja All-Stars has landed at my doorstep! The box was fairly heavy as well, clocking in over 11 pounds!

I knew when the Kickstarter launched that I'd be needing to get everything available. Especially since it's a league based arena game and what fun is it to only have options for 2-3 of the teams? Luckily Soda Pop made it easy with this Kickstarter and gave us the option of The Easy Pledge.

The Easy Pledge
- 1 Set of Game Components
- All 6 Shrine Teams
- All 6 Ninja Clans
- 1 Set of all Backer Bonus Unlocks
- 1 Moonlight Tournament Trophy

Then there was Shojo's Shop, which was like the Blacksmith Shop for Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King. Here they had all of the extra unlocks. But they luckily had a package deal for them which saved you $15. Obviously, that was the correct choice.

I did a quick count after unpacking everything, this baby is jam packed with minis, totally up to 188 (including the Moonlight Tournament Trophy, which I ended up with two of).

Get ready for a picture overload, it's time for chibi ninja goodness of epic proportions!

I was really pleased with the packaging, the box was nicely secured inside the shipping box and protected from outside dings. 

Front of the special Kickstarter edition box. According to Soda Pop, this box was enlarged to allow all of the KS content to fit into it nicely. I like it a lot. The box has a matte finish, while the logo and ninja are glossy.

Back of the box, featuring a Donkey Kong inspired graphic. DK is one of my favorite arcade games, so I fully approve. 

Inside we find a flyer for more Soda Pop products. Featuring Relic Knights, Super Dungeon Explore, Ninja All-Stars and then the card games, Tentacle Bento, Karate Fight and Deadfellas.

Under that, we have the score sheets. Man, I'm going to need to make copies... I have a bad habit of not wanting to use up sheets that come with games... It's not a super thick pad either, containing only 12 sheets. Oh the quandary! 

The rulebook is next up in the pile. Its a nice soft cover booklet, not just stapled together. it's also pretty impressively thick at 80 pages total! I expect to be reading the crap out of it before game night this weekend.

Tokens! There's two sheets of tokens for Ninja All-Stars.

Look at all those tokens! I'll be making a token box for them soon. From the looks of it I need something with about 20 slots in it. It'll also need to fit inside the box. I'm not having another panic attack, like the time I thought I lost SDE's tokens.

And finally, there's this. A box filled with, what we hope is tons of little chibi ninja, ready to assassinate the competition.

Why yes! Look at all those baggies, it's like a plastic crack addict's dream come true.

That's a lot of stuff! But we'll get back to the minis in a minute. Let's continue looking at the paper stuffs, first.

The sideboards. They have a nice Ninja All-Stars graphics on the one side, and the game content on the other. They fold in half for storage, but I worry about how long they'll hold up after opening and closing them for a while.

Side one of the game board, features a temple garden, with was I assume is cherry blossoms. The artwork is just what I'd expect from Soda Pop, based on their SDE boards.

Side two, features a peaceful village at night time.... peaceful until full on ninja havok comes to town! 

A better look at the team scroll pad. It's a lot larger than I was expecting. 

Shrine team info cards. These are double sided and cover all the stats for each type of ninja on the team. The back side show info explaining keywords pertaining to that teams abilities and a list of how many of each mini are need to play. 

Ninja Clan info cards. Basically the same thing as the Shine cards, but with Oni abilities and stats on them. The clans have a lot more variation in their stats than the shrine teams do, since they are for advanced play. 

Moon deck, featuring 52 cards which will affect game play. Each as different effects and play off of the phases of the moon. Each player may only have 3 in their hand at a time. 

Clan Ninja hero cards, Basically, these are just like the larger team cards, but each pertains to only one specific hero ninja. 

The 26 Ronin cards, again basically the same as the Hero cards. But these guys aren't tied to a specific clan and can be bought during league play to help out for a game. 

Super Dungeon: Ninja All-Stars! This bonus set allows you to use your Shrines as Spawning Points in Super Dungeon Explore. There's 3 new Heroes, Kunoichi  Candy and Ninja Cola, along with the Classic and Arcade mode cards, so you can use an Oni and shrine ninja as monsters in SDE.

I also want to note that this Ninja Cola card is different from the original. This one does not feature a ranged attack value on it's DEX stat. Which means Ninja Cola doesn't get to stack DEX for Attack and Defense, but they did add a new potion to his card to give him a little bonus.

Ninja Dice! This part of the game worried me, as learning to read the symbols and how they interact with each other might take some time. Especially with new groups. 

That's it! Ninja All-Stars looks like it'll be a really fun game and I'm hoping I might be able to get a bit of league play going with my gaming group.

I'm really digging all of the minis, but now that I've seen them all in person I think my favorite looking one is Clan Tanchyo.

Hopefully it doesn't take too long to... huh? I didn't show off all the minis up close? I should probably do that, yeah?

Oh all right... Prepare yourself for the meat and potatoes of the picture marathon. There's literally 100 pics coming your way!

First up we have the Shrine Ninja. These are all generic, but are in colors that match the other Ninja Clans, so you have the option of having Chunin, Kaiken, Yajiri, Kunoichi and Madouchi that look differently in your team.

Shine Team Chunin

Shrine Team Kaiken

Shrine Team Kunoichi

Shrine Team Yajiri

Shrine Team Madoushi

After that, lets take a look at the Samurai Sentries. These fellas act as guards in some scenarios and are an obstacle for your team to overcome while trying to best the other teams. There's 6 total, with three different poses. I like them a lot.

Samurai Sentries

Next up we have Shines and Lanterns, which both have in game effects. Shrines radiate Status Effects, helpful or harmful. While Lanterns remove a ninja that moves within range of it from stealth.

Left: Shrine, Right: Lantern

Now let's introduce you to the Ninja Clans! There are 6 Clans in Ninja All-Stars. Kitsune, Ijin, Ika, Tora, Tanchyo and Yamazaru. 

Each clan has their own version of the Chunin, Kaiken, Yajiri, Kunoichi and Madoushi. But they also feature their own clan heroes, who can join you in your contests.

Clan Kitsune's theme is the fox and their element is Spirit. All of their minis feature masks and fox like tales. It's also worth noting, the Chunin looks an awful lot like Kakashi from Naruto and one of their Heroes is even named Uzumaki. Their Oni is a sweet Fox Demon, which I think he's my favorite of the Oni.

Clan Kitsune Chunin

Clan Kitsune Kaiken

Clan Kitsune Yajiri

Clan Kitsune Kunoichi

Clan Kitsune Madoushi

Clan Kitsune Oni

Kitsune Hero, Uzumaki

Kitsune Hero, Tamamo No Mae

Clan Ijin's theme is a demon. They are aligned with the Void element. Many of their minis feature demon features and classic Oni style face masks or horns on their headbands. Their Oni is especially bad ass and reminds me a lot of the Relic Knights faction.

Clan Ijin Chunin

Clan Ijin Kaiken

Clan Ijin Kunoichi

Clan Ijin Yajiri

Clan Ijin Madoushi

Clan Ijin Oni

Clan Ijin Hero, Yobuko

Clan Ijin Hero, Bomechan

Clan Ika's theme is sea animals and their are aligned with the Water element, naturally. The have crabs, octopi and squids featured on their minis and their Oni is a humanoid Octopus. Their Kaiken is probably my favorite of all the Kaiken.

Clan Ika Chunin

Clan Ika Kaiken

Clan Ika Kunoichi

Clan Ika Yajiri

Clan Ika Madoushi

Clan Ika Oni

Clan Ika Hero, Mizuchi

Clan Ika Hero, Akkorokamui

Clan Tanchyo's theme are birds and their element is Air. They feature the most ranged ninja of the entire game. Originally, I wasn't keen on them, but they've grown to be one of my favorite clans now. Their Oni is also pretty sweet, a bird-like demon. 

Clan Tanchyo Chunin

Clan Tanchyo Kaiken

Clan Tanchyo Kunoichi

Clan Tanchyo Yajiri

Clan Tanchyo Madoushi

Clan Tanchyo Oni

Clan Tanchyo Hero, Zenyo Ryu

Clan Tanchyo Hero, Karura

Clan Tora's theme is the tiger and they are aligned with Fire. They are supposedly the most offensive of the Clans as well. I'm not really a fan of their Oni tho, which seems kinda plain compared to the others. I would have loved to see a Tiger demon themed Oni, especially after seeing all the other animal based ones.

Clan Tora Chunin

Clan Tora Kaiken

Clan Tora Kunoichi

Clan Tora Yajiri

Clan Tora Madoushi

Clan Tora Oni

Clan Tora Hero, Byakko

Clan Tora Hero, Ryu

Clan Yamazaru's theme is the monkey and their element is Earth. Originally they were my favorite Clan and they are still right up there. Plus their Chunin is really cool and who doesn't like ninja with barrels on their heads?

Clan Yamazaru Chunin

Clan Yamazaru Kaiken

Clan Yamazaru Kunoichi

Clan Yamazaru Yajiri

Clan Yamazaru Madoushi

Clan Yamazaru Oni

Clan Yamazaru Hero, Mizaru

Clan Yamazaru Hero, Son Goku

That's it for the clans!

Now it's time to show off all of the ronin. These fearsome fighters are ready to work for you, as long as your pockets are deep enough that is...

Howl & Yip

Arashikage

Hanzo

Tengu

Benkei

Dark Kitsune

Moon Princess

Mochizuki

Shojo

Blind Swordsman

Inu Clan Kaiken

Onryo

Bakusho Mondai

Miyamoto Musashi

Kunoichi Candy

Yokozuna

Goemon

Komuso

Yagyu Jubei

Sun Empire Wandering Samurai

Momotaro

Onibaba

Stealth Cola

Jorogumo

Kappa

Onidori Clan Kaiken

That's all the minis, but there is one more thing. The Moonlight Tournament Trophy! Soda Pop actually produced a 4" tall ninja trophy. It's pretty sweet and originally I thought I was only getting one.

But I found 2 in the box! So now I have one for show and one to take with me to games to act as a initiative marker (because we all know I'm not giving the winner one of them, ever).

The Moonlight Tournament Trophy!

All righty! That's it, everything that came in the Ninja All-Stars Kickstarter! There's a lot of sweet minis here and I can't wait to get painting them all. But damn, that's a lot of unpainted plastic... 2016 is shaping up to be a busy year, what with painting NAS, SDE and my 40k stuff. Not to mention, diorama projects I want to do... where will I find the time.

Which mini is your favorite?