yes Fatimus you are right in summarizing the origin of SE.

first of all, SE was scarred following a chopper crash in 'Nam while fleeing from VCs..SE suffered from severe face burns and that's how the iconic facemask comes in...the scars that developed from the crash and several surgeries that followed had almost disfigured him...he did wore a human mask complete with hair but ever since the crash,he lost his ability to speak.

SS recognized the fighting potential of SE and hence urged him to join his clan .He only did so upon returning to the States after the accident that left him scarred. And the main motivation for joining was him receiving the tragic news of the death of his parents and sister in a car accident.

AS for the death of Hard Master ,it was during the period that both SS and SE trained..FF was hired by CC to kill SE (CC's brother was involved in the accident that killed SE's family) and blames SE for it.
FF infiltrated Arashikage clan but upon witnessing the skills of SE,he knew he was no match...he then recommended Zartan for the job.

Zartan accidently killed Hard Master whom he mistaken for SE and he did this using SS's arrows.hence SS was blamed for Hard Master's death and he ran away from the clan but it was bcoz he was chasing after his uncle's killer.however in his mind ,SS blamed SE for his uncle's death.

SS was later recruited by CC as his right hand man ,performing deeds that CC entrusted to him .he clashed with the Joes on several occasion but later found out that it was Zartan who killed his uncle,under orders from CC and FF.

from there,SS joined the Joes but later was captured and was subjected to numerous brainwashing sessions courtesy of Dr. Mindbender's brainwashing machine..the reason for this is to maintain SS's loyalty to Cobra and specifically, CC.

SS did broke free from his brainwashed state by performind Arashikage's methods on meditation..even SE helped him during one of the issues of MArvel Comics where the entire Ninja Force was brainwashed by FF..

you have to read the comics for more details.

is it possible if any of you guys terserempak with city strike snake eyes, can buy for me first? will meet up with you guys and I will pay for the figure. haha. Again, those who 'terserempak' it. haha

as i mentioned earlier,there wont be new Joe shipments till march '10...you could try your luck at parkson as some collectors have spotted wave 5 there..

The thing I don't get it is that this is such a sought after figure, why not pack it 2 per case? They used to have some cases with 6 new figures, and 2 of each per case. Then everyone can get their fill of the fun...

Cheers for the update Dv8. TRU KLCC is completely out of Joes and nothing new around town. Don't think we will see anything until 3rd quarter of the year. 

today's TRU small haul.seems that only certain items are entitled to 50% discount ,including 12" Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow ,the Attack on Pit HQ ,MARS 3 pack and basic figures.the rest of the ROC stuff only enjoy 30% discount.

i think its 50%..forgot the sticker's color..Red is 50%.

all Iron MOnger, Mark 1 and WM kena sapu..i was there on the day the stock arrived and the cases weren't even opened. however,i was allowed to open any case that i want. 

i think there were 4 cases each for the comic and movie series.

Today's haul of the massive Pit .Bought the last unit left .Good thing I called TRU on yesterday evening to reserve it else it'll all be sold out .Despite the lack of available space ,i went ahead and bought it coz i know i'll regret if i didn't.

Sure..the measurement is not exactly accurate though.   
I wish the manual added more text description.. took me some time to figure which part attaches where.
Also, there's a huge 6 piece sticker sheets included..i'm gonna skip labelling them for a while.
PIT is worth buying as you get an exclusive Hawk figure not sold as carded.

before transformation scale
Depth - 11 1/2"
Length - 25"
Width - 13"

after transformation scale
Depth - 20"
Length - 29"
Width - 31"