REVIEW: GI Joe: Resolute - GI Joe Battle Set Scarlett

Produced by Hasbro | Released 2010

A brilliant mind, outstanding martial arts skills, and lethal accuracy with her trademark crossbow - that's SCARLETT. The GI Joe team's counter-intelligence expert has the cerebral savvy to get inside the mind of her enemies and design a plot that'll outsmart them at their own game. She also has the combat skills to take on a squad of COBRA troopers and be the sole person left standing when the fight's over. She can make a HALO dive into hostile territory in the dead of night, then enter a heavily guarded COBRA missile silo and take it over as one-half of a two-person unit, and not even break a sweat. That's skill. That's training. That's SCARLETT.

Packaging

Scarlett is part of the seven-figure GI Joe: Resolute GI Joe Battle Set. Along with her six pack-mates she comes in a solid, clear-fronted package that's actually pretty cool. It may not be the most eye-catching of designs but it does a great job of both displaying the contents and keeping the figures protected.

Sculpt and Design

The radical overhaul of Scarlett's design seen in the GI Joe: Resolute cartoon is captured pretty well here. Gone is the one-piece bathing costume and bright gold coloring, replaced instead with an easier-on-the-eye cream and blue uniform. Whilst purists may be saddened to see these changes, I personally really like the new look.

Like most female GI Joes, Scarlett's sculpt does a good job of capturing the feminine form without falling into, shall we say, ''Powergirl Territory.'' The figure is slim and more slight than her male counterparts but without simply looking like a skinny man.

The sculpt itself also features some nice detail, such as kneepads and hip-pockets/pouches. It's a shame the shoulder-mounted knife sheath doesn't actually feature a removable knife but the GI Joe male figures seem to all sport equally non-functioning holsters, so it's not really a surprise to see it's only for cosmetic purposes.

Sadly whilst the body sculpt is good, the head has some problems. For starters, the facial expression is very odd. Scarlett is a determined woman-in-a-man's-world kind of character but the head details give her a somewhat confused look. There's also a weird asymmetric look to her features, with her entire expression and look changing completely depending which direction she's facing. And it may not be clear from these images, but Scarlett's head is somewhat disproportionate to her body. It's not noticeable all the time but it's definitely an issue.

Articulation

Scarlett's articulation rig is as you'd expect from a GI Joe figure - very good. There's a nice fluidity to the movement of the joints and I found no problems getting her to both reach and hold poses.

Scarlett's hands are pretty well sculpted and allow her to hold her gear with no real issues, although sometimes it can be a little awkward to get the pistol (see below) to sit properly in her hand and as a result the weapon sometimes seems to be pointing at an odd angle as she grips it.

That aside though, all is fine here.

Paint

As mentioned above, Scarlett's new look sees the figure ditching the pale blue/grey and gold combo for a more muted blue and cream look. But beyond that the figure also sports some very cool color detail on her thigh straps, boots and shoulders.

Despite the mix of blue, grey, cream, green, red and white, it all works surprisingly well, with none of the detail overpowering the design or looking out of place.

The app itself is pretty tight, although it is let down by a few sloppily-applied details such as the red, white and blue arm patch. And whilst I applaud Hasbro for applying a low-light wash to her hair, it doesn't really work as well as it should.

But minor points aside, this is a pretty cool app.

Extras and Accessories

Scarlett comes with her own display base and trademark crossbow. Yo Joe! also lists the pistol and sniper rifle - both of which are included in the seven-figure pack - as being part of her arsenal, so I'm not going to argue with that.

Overall the weapons are pretty neat. The crossbow comes in two pieces (the rubber restraining band is used to keep it in place during transit but it's worth leaving it on, as it stops the weapon coming apart) and is a pretty good fit in her hands, although it can take some wrangling to position properly. Similarly, the pistol also has a tendency to sit at a slightly odd angle. Of course, that's more to do with her hand sculpts than the weapons, but it's worth mentioning.

Scarlett's file card is included inside the packaging.

Final Thoughts

The GI Joe: Resolute Scarlett is probably best described as ''good but flawed.'' Whilst there's certainly a lot to like about the figure - the body sculpt is nicely detailed and proportioned, the accessories are cool and the paint app is pretty good - there's also a pretty major issue when it comes to the figure's head sculpt. With a more in-proportion head this would have been a great figure, as the body sculpt and range of movement it allows is great. She's fun to pose and I would imagine kids would really enjoy playing with her. But there's also a slightly toy-like aspect to her proportions that just throws the eye and I can imagine a lot of collectors wincing when they see how odd she looks in some poses.

But if you can get over the weird proportions of the figure or find a pose that minimizes the impact of her massive heed, then this is a pretty good figure and a great addition to the Resolute GI Joe Battle Set.

A good toy and nice-looking figure spoilt by the odd head proportions.

Final Score: B

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