Ed Boon reveals his favorite piece of Mortal Kombat memorabilia after all these years
And it's not for any of the games
There's so much history across the 30+ years of Mortal Kombat's existence, and so much of it comes from outside the games but is not nearly as often talked about.
During his recent appearance on Hot Ones with First We Feast, MK Co-creator Ed Boon is asked what his favorite piece of Mortal Kombat memorabilia is from these past decades, and he's got a pretty interesting answer.
Instead of something tied to any of the video games he's worked on, Boon states that it actually comes from the 1995 original Mortal Kombat film days.
"I didn't know it existed, but when they made the first Mortal Kombat movie, for some dangerous reason, they made a Kano knife," answered the NetherRealm Studios Creative Director. "This gigantic, not safe knife. And they branded it, and they sent me one, and I'm the opposite of somebody who uses knives, but it's really cool-looking. That's my favorite one."
Kano used this Raptor knife during his fight against Sonya Blade, but that apparently wasn't originally going to be the blade meant to be sold to the public.
United Cutlery was first brought on to design a film prop knife with a mermaid handle meant to appear in a different fight scene that ended up being cut, so they ended up going with the Raptor that made it in.
You can learn more about the Kano knife's interesting history and take a look at the original Blade magazine advertisements for its limited edition production on their website, including the original mermaid knife too.
To make this Raptor more special and collectible, United Cutlery etched the MK movie logo onto the blade itself along with the dragon emblem embossed on the sheath.
Even after all this time, you can still find this knife with the box and sheath online.
At the time of reporting, there's only one eBay listing for the limited MK Raptor with an asking price of $275, but other recent complete sets have sold on the website for around $100.
We know it's not exactly memorabilia, but we also have to mention some of the awesome MK items the team still has in their possession at NetherRealm Studios in Chicago too.
Also, meet the Original Stop Motion Shokans from MK1,2,3! We were told they have to be encased in the display otherwise they would basically fall apart. Same for original movie Goro, he's too delicate for the outsid world now pic.twitter.com/PrJj38qAVp
— Rooflemonger 🦍🦧🐵 (@Rooflemonger) August 23, 2023
Rooflemonger recently shared some photos from the office where they had the original Goro, Sheeva and Kintaro stop motion figures from the first three MK titles as well as the head of Goro from the film — although they're all apparently too delicate to remove from their cases now.
Mortal Kombat 1 is scheduled to release in early access on September 14 for those who pre-order the Premium or Kollector's Editions while the full launch is coming Sept. 19 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC.
You can watch Ed Boon sweat trying to finish his plate of chicken wings and answer questions about Mortal Kombat and his life in the latest Hot Ones episode below.
Images via Mortal Kombat (1995).
