KAMAKURA
G.I. JOE: CLASSIFIED SERIES (HASBRO)
Wow, two G.I. Joe reviews, just a week apart? And they’re both Classified even? How’d that happen? Well, I sat one the first one long enough before reviewing it that I’d wound up with another in the mean time, that’s how. Also other reasons, but I’ll get to them in a bit.
When Hasbro re-launched the 3 3/4-inch Joes in 2002, they also got a tie-in comic, courtesy of Devil’s Due publishing. It was largely using the established characters, but since the premise of the comic was that they were progressing in real time from the end of the Marvel run, and they wanted to show some change, they gave Snake Eyes an apprentice, who he’d been training while the Joe team had been disbanded. Sean “Kamakura” Collins was the son of a former Crimson Guard, who had briefly appeared during the Marvel series. Kamakura came with Snake Eyes to join the re-banded Joes, and in turn became the era’s most enduring character, gaining not only a handful of figures, but also a role as a recurring character in the *next* notable Joe project, Sigma 6. And now he’s even joined the Classified Series. How about that?
THE FIGURE ITSELF
Kamakura is figure 61 in the G.I. Joe: Classified Series line-up. He was released at the beginning of the year as an Amazon-exclusive, and is at the slightly heightened deluxe price point that we also saw with Sgt. Slaughter. The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 37 points of articulation. He’s sporting all the standard articulation for the line, and he’s totally pinless, so it all looks pretty good. The sculpt here is an all-new one, courtesy of Fred Aczon, and it’s a pretty solid one. Kamukura is very definitely based on that initial comics design, which really makes him the first figure of him to truly do so, since all of the others have done some sort of compromise on the look. I do really think it’s a strong look, and it manages to adapt pretty well to this particular aesthetic. There’s some fantastic texturing going on, and I really like how similar yet different the masked head is from the classic 
Storm Shadow release. It shows commitment to keeping the different characters unique, which I appreciate, since Kamakura so frequently gets stuck as just a re-use figure. Kamakura’s paint work is overall pretty basic. There’s more involved work on what we can see of the face, and he gets his proper clan tattoo, but other than that, it’s base work. Some of the base stuff is a little off-set on mine, but nothing too crazy out of the ordinary. In order to justify his higher price point, Kamakura gets a slightly upgraded accessory selection. He’s got an alternate unmasked head, two styles of hood (re-used from Storm Shadow), two swords, a backpack, a knife, and uzi, a handgun, a bladed staff, and two shorter blades.
THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION
While I had been familiar with G.I. Joe as a brand since a very young age due to the vintage 12-inch Joes my dad had owned, my first introduction to the Real American Hero incarnation of the franchise was the 2002 relaunch. As an avid comics reader, I of course followed the Devil’s Due series, and Kamakura was always a favorite of mine. I’m always glad to see him show up in the toy line (even though most of his figures have been kinda rough), and I had my fingers crossed that he’d get the Classified treatment. However, with him winding up as an Amazon-exclusive, and me becoming a bit disenchanted with the line overall, I wound up waiting on this one. It worked out in my favor, because I was able to catch him during a Prime Day sale, which greatly incentivized the whole thing. I really do like this figure. Since he comes from a different era, he’s not slavishly modelled on a vintage figure, and is instead a more general adaptation of his DDP appearances, which I really feel works to his favor. I’m glad I finally got one, and I’m on one hand kicking myself for waiting this long, while also kind of glad I did. The point is, I have one now, and he’s very cool, and honestly the best figure Kamakura’s ever gotten…well, except for maybe his Sigma 6 figure.
The Figure In Question 