Review – Combat Heroes Snake Eyes and Zartan

It’s obvious that Hasbro has struck gold with their various “Heroes” lines. With such lines as Star Wars Galactic Heroes, Transformers Robot Heroes, and the G.I. Joe Combat Heroes, there’s a huge variety of geek-related characters who we can find in “cute” versions.

Even though there are several packs on the market, my first purchase in the G.I. Joe Combat Heroes line had to be Snake Eyes and Zartan for three reasons:

1. It’s Snake Eyes . . .
   
2. . . . with Zartan . . .
   
3. . . . and Timber!

Since the eighties, Snakes has had a wolf companion; there was even an issue of the comic in which Snake Eyes spent time with a wolf, “vacationing” in his mountain cabin until Destro, Firefly, and “Fred” attacked and ruined all of his fun.

Snake Eyes

First up is Snake Eyes himself, the ultimate G.I. Joe ninja who started life as a commando and then, as the comic and cartoon series progressed, eventually turned into the ultimate bad-ass ninja who — because he was cool — soon transformed G.I. Joe into the laughable “Ninja Force” line (check Wikipedia for Ninja Force info). I know I shouldn’t blame Snake Eyes for what happened, but it’s hard not to when you look at the various toy lines and story lines. Sorry, Snakes, but it’s all your fault.

As a cute toy, Snake Eyes works fairly well. He has three points of articulation — each arm and his waist — though his “action” pose and gear limits just how far you can twist each point (the waist is very bad, since the scabbard on Snake Eyes’ back prevents him from moving more than just a minor, almost unnoticable distance). The Combat Heroes Snake Eyes, as with every toy in the various “Heroes” lines, isn’t going to go into many poses beyond what you see here. He’s solely regulated to sitting on the shelf looking cute. Which he does.

Timber

As cute as Snake Eyes is, his pet wolf — Timber — blows him away. Timber looks more like a dog than a wolf, but his blue eyes and the dagger clutched between his teeth is adorable. Timber is a statue, and not a figure, since he doesn’t move at all, but as an extra character in the pack (most packs include only two figures), I think we can overlook his “statueness.”

Zartan

The final figure in the pack, Zartan also has three points of articulation — his two arms and his neck — and, as with Snake Eyes, has some serious movement problems (his neck moves a couple of degrees). Cobra’s awesome chameleon/spy, Zartan, looks great as a cute character, but his bow causes one major problem with the toy: the bow only looks good when the arms are posed together which seriously limits your options when setting Zartan up. I am glad they included a bow, though, since (as we all know) is was a bow that Zartan used to kill the Hard Master.

Closing Thoughts

Even though they’re cute toys, I’m not very likely to buy many more (if any) releases in the G.I. Joe Combat Heroes. As little desk statues they work fine, but I like to have toys around that either look really cool — like Wi-Fi — or remind me of my youth — like Loadorr. There’s nothing wrong with this pack, and Timber is very cute, but overall — at the end of the day — I’m not all that attached or excited by the toys.

Philip Reed is probably not going to buy any more of these, but he’ll keep Snake Eyes and Zartan around (after all, they are cute).