Toybox REVIEW: G.I. Joe Classified Series Zartan

Release Date: February 2021

RRP: $19.99/£19.99

The G.I. Joe Classified Series is a line I've only showed a passing interest in so far (and even then I'm only really interested in the Cobra characters), but the quality Hasbro have shown on these figures so far has been exception. If only the same could be said of the distribution, with many collectors in the US (the place the franchise has always been most prominent) often struggling to get a hold of them. Nevertheless the line has continued on relatively stronger, with mercenary and Cobra affiliate Zartan among its latest releases. Leader of the militarised biker gang the Dreadnoks and a master of disguise, Zartan is often found working alongside Cobra and is arguably one of its most prominent and well-known agents.

Zartan is the 23rd release in the G.I. Joe Classified Series line, and a mass release figure rather than part of the exclusive Cobra Island range. This means he comes in the line's standard packaging, which features comic style artwork of Zartan on the front and spine as well as some gorgeous artwork of all the G.I. Joe characters on the back. The artwork is of course of the updated design the figure uses, however there are a few minor colour discrepancies as the art's costume has a much lighter palette. Honestly I think I slightly prefer it to the colour of the figure itself, but there isn't that much difference between them. The other spine features a number of infographics presumably listing Zartan's skills, however there is some level of deciphering required to know just exactly what each one means. Inside the figure and accessories are stored on a moulded plastic tray, backed by a rather nice card insert of the Dreadnoks emblem.

The G.I. Joe Classified Series has done a great job so far of taking these classic 80s character designs and modernising them without taking away what made them work so well in the first place, and Zartan is no exception. Zartan retains that hooded crop-top armour look, and boy does it look good. While the clothing may have all been done in dark coloured plastic with very little paint application, there is a lot of fantastic detailing to take in on this toy. You've got all the usual fabric folding on the legs, but all of the armoured parts also have their own different bits of moulding and texture. Even the fingers have textured glove detailing! The hood also gets in on the action, with sections sporting a leathery snake-skin pattern that's very befitting to Zartan's Cobra affiliation. I do wish there was at least a little paint on the figure (or alternatively the lighter colours shown off in the packaging artwork) to really bring out that detailing, but in the right lighting it's still awfully impressive. The head sculpt also looks great, with both the black eye makeup and the evil grin giving Zartan an appropriately menacing look. 

One disappointment however comes from early solicitations for the figure providing incorrect information, suggesting that Zartan would feature a colour changing gimmick that would turn his skin blue (when placed under ultraviolet light), just like the original toy had. This was eventually proven false, and so sadly Zartan is stuck with a regular caucasian skin tone. It still looks great, but imagine how great the figure would have been if Hasbro had found a way to implement that gimmick? The perfect combination of a modern highly articulated action figure AND a classic gimmicky one? That's the kind of stuff many collectors dream of.

The hood and scarf are both removable, allowing you to display Zartan in all his bald-headed glory. Both pieces of clothing are separate pieces of plastic that just fix onto the body, so you don’t need to pop the head off or anything complicated like that. There’s also a peg hole on Zartan’s back to affix the backpack, which can store all of the figure’s other accessories. The gun can fix onto either side, the monkey’s paw and snake head can peg onto the bottom and the face disguise actually fits inside the backpack itself. The monkey’s paw and snake head can also clip onto the belt, however those holes to be a little tight compared to the ones on the backpack. We’ll discuss the accessories themselves a little further down in the review, but I love that most of these Classified Series figures are able to hold all of their accessories at the same time. It’s such a little detail, but makes them feel so much more complete even when they aren’t necessarily being posed wielding all of them.

The Classified Series body continues to impress when it comes to articulation, with Zartan altogether featuring;

- Ball jointed head, neck and waist

- Swivel hinge shoulders, wrists and ankles

- Butterfly joint shoulders

- Double hinge elbows and knees

- "Drop down" ball jointed hips

- Single hinge ab crunch

- Bicep and thigh swivels

The main talking point on these figures continues to the implementation of drop-down hips, which sees Hasbro really upping their game and taking them into S.H. Figuarts territory when it comes to articulation.  While Hasbro haven't quite refined it to the same level just yet (they always seem to either be tight or loose on these figures), the use of them in itself is definitely worthy of commendation. Everything else is to the usual Hasbro high quality, both the double hinged elbows/knees and swivel hinge ankles showing off a great range of motion for posing. The latter is especially important when attaching that rather large backpack to the figure. The one issue I did notice on my copy is that the waist joint is extremely stiff and offered a lot of resistance when trying to turn it - most of the time it would just quickly move back into the centre. A bit of lubrication might be able to fix that, but even if you leave the figure as it is there's enough going on in the figure elsewhere to get by without it.

As has come to be expected with the Classified Series, Zartan is pretty well armed when it comes to accessories. Altogether he has his knife, gun, backpack, facial disguise, snake head and monkey’s paw. The latter two accessories are a little confusing since they don’t directly reference anything previously known about Zartan (please correct me if I’m wrong though - I’m not a G.I. Joe expert by any means!), but it’s assumed that since Zartan comes from the swamp it’s to give him a sort of Voodoo-vibe. Both pieces can fit into the figure’s hands should you so wish, but with the large peg pieces hanging off them they tend to look better either on the belt or backpack. The knife and gun are both moulded in black plastic and feature some moulded detail, but are completely unpainted. They can fit into either hand, both of which have moulded trigger fingers. The real prize here is the face disguise, which doesn’t just look cool as hell fitted into the backpack but can also fit onto Zartan himself. It isn’t an especially secure fit as it doesn’t clip on or anything like that, but when attached seems to stay on reasonably well (putting the hood over the top adds further security). The creepy skin mask look works really well, and while no one is really going to be fooled given Zartan’s unique choice of wardrobe it’s pretty great gimmick for the master of disguise. Not quite as great as the original toy’s colour changing skin gimmick, but very cool nonetheless.

Even for the most casual G.I. Joe fan this line has proved to be a big hit so far and Classified Series Zartan definitely isn't changing anything there. Even without the colour changing gimmick this is a brilliant update to Cobra's master of disguise, loading with features and exceptional detailing. The line might be detouring into the new Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins film for a little while but hopefully it comes back to these classic versions soon, because there are still plenty of characters I can't wait to add to my collection.