2000
At some point I picked up the original Ninja Spawn toy, and it had this awesome backpack that you could store all the weapons in. Plus a soft rubber hood to wear over the head. And it had these ninja stars that plugged into the legs. i liked all of that, but not so much the figure, and then I came across Shaft.
Shaft was made by the short-lived Awesome Toys, Rob Liefeld's answer to the Spawn toys. The WIP pic shows it with the Ninja Spawn head and hands put on it. Fun part about that was that I added articulation. To attach the hands, I put a screw post into the wrists and a hole in the hands and ta-da. Extra spin joint. At the time that was pretty unheard of.
Some sign vinyl for the white stripes, paint, add the backpack, the belt, the buckle, add the holes on the thigh to carry the ninja stars, and I made a staff out of wood for him too. It actually ended up pretty cool, although the head looks too small without the mask on. Eventually this was given away as a prize in some Spawn board contest.