"paint her green, give her camo facepaint, a ghille suit, and swap the gas mask piece for one with a boonie hat"
-- 03/15/24
Way to predict, past-me!
2024 is the 60th anniversary of GI Joe as a brand, and Hasbro honored the occassion by releasing a line of generic military characters based on the original 12" figures: Infantry Soldier, Recon Diver, HALO Jumper, and the subject of today's review, Marine Sniper.
In 1964, GI Joe seized the "gung-ho" spirit of youths across America with the original GI Joe Action Marine. This fully poseable Marine Corps Commando came dressed in authentically styled camouflage fatigues with metal dog tags and a GI Joe Marine Training Manual. [...]
By the end of the decade, GI Joe had members from every branch of the United States military, as well as representatives from many foreign armed forces. Other GI Joe adventure teams were developed to expand GI Joe's theater of operations and help defend the world from a variety of villains. These teams laid the groundwork for today's heroes of military might as they continue the fight for freedom and justice around the world, battle the evil forces of Cobra and unrelenting determination.
That's taken from the 1994 "Commemorative Collection" Action Marine, because there's no info to be found about this one. There was also a note from then-CEO Alan G. Hassenfeld, talking about how all Hasbro ever wanted to do was fill children with an exciting sense of adventure and fun - quite the big difference from Chris Cocks, the greed-addled dumbass the company is stuck with today, who would sell you empty boxes if he thought he could get away with it. [they're caled NFTs and they're the future! --ed.]
Given the way GI Joe Classified figures are usually made,
I was expecting Action Marine Sniper to be made from existing parts. And the legs may be, but the top half of the figure is new. Because this is supposed to be slightly more "real world" than the GI Joe team is, her shirt is simply cloth, with no gauntlets or body armor or any of that. There's a harness with some pockets for ammo clips and a radio, but that isn't exactly the most protective thing ever. She has a holster on her right leg, and a pocket on her left. Depending on which head you choose to give her, you'll also have one of three different sorts of headgear.
Part of the gimmick of the 60th Anniversary figures is alternate heads to allow army-builders to really go to town with these. The head she's wearing in the package has dark skin and straight black hair held back by a green bandana. She also has camo paint on her face, streaks of green and black maroon smeared diagonally over her nose and cheeks to break up the recognizable lines of shadows on a human face.
The head pulls out at the bottom of the neck rather than the top, because the second head in this set is white. A bit of the collar comes along with it, helping hide the break in the sculpt. That's also how we can be sure the chest is a new sculpt - no one else has pop-off necks, even if they have alternate heads. The white girl even gets to have two different hats: a boonie hat with leaves sculpted on top, and a baseball cap with a microphone headset and shooting glasses.
The hair on the second head is red, like Scarlett is going through sniper recertifcation. On the ballcap head, her ponytail is pulled through
the hole in the back of the hat, while on the other the hair is shorter and just flips up a bit at the nape of the neck. Oddly, that second haircut matches the one on the headband head, despite not being the same color. It's sad that we can't also remove the hair on the first head, to really swap everything around; also, considering this is pretty clearly a non-Night-Force version of Shooter, why are the notches in this toy's head not compatible with hers? We could have had so many options!
Being a sniper, the Action Marine comes with a sniper rifle. It's the same Gnawgahyde came with, which means a separate bipod, suppressor, and scope that can all be stored inside a carrying case. That originally came with Low-Light, as did the machine pistol, knife, and the big, padded backpack.
Both those guns have removable magazines, too. She's also got an Uzi and a pistol with a silencer that can be used for either. One final accessory from Low-Light is the device that fits in the pocket on her left leg: at first I took it for a phone, thanks to the buttons on it, but the fan sculpted at the top reveals this is a handheld anemometer, so she can measure wind speed while calculating her shot! What a smart thing to include! The figure also has swappable hands, though it seems like it would have been easier to just not give her fingerless gloves? It's also kind of annoying that there's nowhere to put the knife when she's not using it.
As you recall, the difference between a marksman and a sniper is that a sniper specializes in concealment - that's why our Marine has her face painted. But to go even further, she includes a full ghillie suit!
We've had GI Joe ghillie suits before, but not in this scale. Ghillie suits are basically a net with fabric fed through it to create an undefined shape. That's a basic framework, and then the wearer is expected to collect foliage and debris local to wherever they're trying to hide, weaving it into the suit to better blend in. It was basically a portable hunting blind developed in the Scottish Highlands, and when men from that area were recruited to war, they brought the idea with them.
This is a softgoods cape that drapes over the figure. It has a hood with a hole for the face, and an irregular lower edge. The surface is covered in fuzzy fibers in green and white; it shed a few when I took it out of the tray, but now it's fine. It looks great in place, and will fit over any of the three hats, so you're not limited in how you want to display her.
I was interested in this set because, like I said, she was going to be my regular version of Shooter, and so I'm disappointed in the lack of compatibility between this figure and that one. But this is still a good offering even without being able to connect them so overtly, with fun accessories and cute alternate looks. In fact, if this set had included a spotter's scope, I'd probably get another to create a full two-woman sniper team. Since Jodie is Shooter, her partner could be... Spotter. Simple, straightforward... it works! Or would, if I had excuse to buy one.
-- 01/03/25
Can you come up with a better name than "Spotter"? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
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