GI Joe review: Arctic Trooper Snake Eyes
I found some of GI joe wave 8 on Friday. Alas, Tiger Force Flint and Roadblock as well as Major Bludd were already gone, but that happens when there's only one case of eight figures with one of each in every case every month. I did get my hands on Arctic Trooper Snake Eyes, which was one of the figures I was looking for. I left the two Python Officers, the Baroness, and the Cobra Commander from this wave, as I really couldn't afford such lameness.
First, the packaging. Gone are the foil accents in place of the white on the front of the card. I wasn't sure how it would look once I actually found these new cards, but it looks much better. In my opinion, it looks more like the vintage cards this way. Now, if they'd really go nutty and change the explosion background from the fireball to the digital pattern seen on the 1986-1989 lines, that'd be pretty neat too, but not necessary. Gone also is the 25th Anniversary logo, replaced with a blurb about where the figure came from, either the comic or cartoon.
The back of the card no longer features new and upcoming figures. Instead, it uses the wave 4 lineup of characters, which considering the effort Hasbro put into this wave isn't all that surprising. The filecard is pretty much the same as the v1 card, just with some added text about the events of issue #2 of the Marvel GI Joe comic book.
The figure itself is surprisingly fun, given that it's a kitbash with a new necklace accessory. The body is that of the Snow Serpent from the next wave with a v1 Snake Eyes head. Broken down like that, it doesn't sound all that great, but a hallmark of this line has always been its ability to use and reuse many of the same parts to make new toys and be creative about it, and this is one of the finest examples of that. Of course, this figure is a little taller than your other Snake Eyes figures from this line, but these are just toys.
The accessories are pretty standard- Snake comes with one (just one) katana, his Uzi, a pair of snowshoes, and a backpack that can also store the snowshoes when not in use.
The articulation is exactly what you've come to expect from this line, so I don't think I need to go into that.
It's a creative kitbash with the right accessories. If you like your Joe toys, or if you like anything to do with the Marvel comic and don't mind "yet another Snake Eyes", you could spend $7 on worse things. If you want something new, you're better off either buying the fantastic Snake Eyes from wave 7 or waiting until wave 9, which is looking great, and makes up for the general lack of anything exciting in this wave.
First, the packaging. Gone are the foil accents in place of the white on the front of the card. I wasn't sure how it would look once I actually found these new cards, but it looks much better. In my opinion, it looks more like the vintage cards this way. Now, if they'd really go nutty and change the explosion background from the fireball to the digital pattern seen on the 1986-1989 lines, that'd be pretty neat too, but not necessary. Gone also is the 25th Anniversary logo, replaced with a blurb about where the figure came from, either the comic or cartoon.
The back of the card no longer features new and upcoming figures. Instead, it uses the wave 4 lineup of characters, which considering the effort Hasbro put into this wave isn't all that surprising. The filecard is pretty much the same as the v1 card, just with some added text about the events of issue #2 of the Marvel GI Joe comic book.
The figure itself is surprisingly fun, given that it's a kitbash with a new necklace accessory. The body is that of the Snow Serpent from the next wave with a v1 Snake Eyes head. Broken down like that, it doesn't sound all that great, but a hallmark of this line has always been its ability to use and reuse many of the same parts to make new toys and be creative about it, and this is one of the finest examples of that. Of course, this figure is a little taller than your other Snake Eyes figures from this line, but these are just toys.
The accessories are pretty standard- Snake comes with one (just one) katana, his Uzi, a pair of snowshoes, and a backpack that can also store the snowshoes when not in use.
The articulation is exactly what you've come to expect from this line, so I don't think I need to go into that.
It's a creative kitbash with the right accessories. If you like your Joe toys, or if you like anything to do with the Marvel comic and don't mind "yet another Snake Eyes", you could spend $7 on worse things. If you want something new, you're better off either buying the fantastic Snake Eyes from wave 7 or waiting until wave 9, which is looking great, and makes up for the general lack of anything exciting in this wave.
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