SCARLETT

G.I. JOE: CORE NINJA SERIES (HASBRO)

“Scarlett is a high-ranking member of G.I. Joe, an elite global special operations unit that fights to keep the world safe from Cobra”

Snake Eyes is, as I’ve elaborated on before here, not a good movie.  And it’s not really even a bad movie that’s particularly fun to watch.  It’s just kind of painful and dull for the most part.  Not every single thing about it sucks, though, and in particular I did like the film’s versions of mainstays Baroness and Scarlett.  On top of that, Hasbro did at least take advantage of the film to have a push on a wider variety of toys.  In addition to the portion of the Classified Series that was devoted to the film, there are also some more basic offerings, geared towards a lower price point, and focusing more on the characters featured within the film.  Generally, I don’t *need* to start collecting yet another Joe line, but I’m a sucker for a decent looking Scarlett figure, so here we are.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Scarlett is technically part of the second assortment of…well, it’s a little hard to track what this line is officially called.  It was solicited to retailers as “G.I. Joe: Core Series”, it’s billed “G.I. Joe Origins: Core Ninja Series” on the cases, and the figures themselves have “Ninja Strike” listed on the front of the box.  I’m going with “Core Ninja Series,” because that seems to be how retailers are referring to it.  The second assortment re-packs the standard Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow from the first, alongside Scarlett, a Red Ninja, and a Night Creeper.  As of right now, only ninja-related stuff has been featured, which I guess makes sense.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and she has 16 points of articulation.  The waist joint is slightly impeded by the presence of a spring feature, but you can still ratchet into different spots, so it does still add mobility.  Otherwise, she’s pretty decently articulated.  If she maybe had wrist movement, she’d be pretty much perfect, but wrists have never been standard for Joes, especially at the more basic level, so I guess this works out just fine.  Though this whole line is clearly running off the momentum of the movie, and the included Snake Eyes is undoubtedly movie based, Scarlett herself seems to lean much more heavily on a more evergreen design for the character, rather than trying to directly adapt the movie design.  Her design in the film is honestly one of the best things, but at the same time, I really don’t mind the look they’ve got here.  It feels a lot like her Resolute design, which I always really liked.  It’s just generally a good modernization of her original look, and I like that it’s distinctly different from the Classified design.  The figure’s paint work is rather on the basic side, as is expected for a basic level figure.  The colors are bright and the application is rather thick.  It’s not a bad look, all things considered.  There are details in the sculpt that wind up unpainted, but there are still a surprising number of things that *don’t* go unpainted, given other lines of comparable price levels from Hasbro.  The fact that the overhanging belt strap that goes onto the leg actually gets painted the whole way stands out to me in particular.  Scarlett is packed with a wonky sci-fi rifle, a bow, and two knives.  All of these elements can be combined into a crossbow of sorts, replicating her usual choice of weapon.  It’s a fun gimmick, which gives her a little bit more range of play.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was initially curious about this line when all we had to go by was a price-point, but by the time we actually saw them, and then I actually saw the movie, I kind of had backed off a bit.  That said, we had a couple of cases come into All Time, and I honestly liked Scarlett a lot when I saw her in hand, so I figured I might as well snag her.  She’s honestly a lot of fun, and gives me hope that Hasbro might be able to keep this lower cost line concept going, though perhaps without the movie tie-in.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure for review.  If you’re looking for toys both old and new, please check out their website.