Pursuit of Cobra Temple Guardian Snake Eyes

Another wave of G.I. Joe figures, another Snake Eyes? Yeah, certainly seems that way.

Granted, the last Snake Eyes we received was an absolutely amazing combat Commando version, with incredible sculpting detail, astounding accessorization, and some of the coolest sculpting seen on a 4" action figure ever. What we're getting in this wave certainly isn't that, but I was surprisingly impressed with the final product.

Way back as the G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary line was ending, we were apparently going to be blessed with a nice assortment of Resolute figures. Included in one of those packs was going to be a Night Creeper vs. "Training Snake Eyes" comic pack. Night Creeper was repurposed into the Defense of Cobra Island 7-Pack, but the Training Snake Eyes never really made it out there. Sure, most of his parts appeared shared with Training Storm Shadow, but he had a great, unique head sculpt, some cool Slice-themed accessories, and a pretty cool deco that never was released.

Well, the deco is still lost in the ether, but this "Temple Guardian" version of Snake Eyes features all of the missing aspects of the lost Training version. Not only that, though, this figure also comes with a lot more. Not only does this Temple Guardian Snake Eyes come with the original Slice mask (and weapons), but also the Dice mask, a standard Commando Snake Eyes mask, as well as the somewhat unmasked head with removable head gear. You can pretty much set this figure to be whatever you want, and even having him portray a different character altogether. If you choose to equip him with the standard Snake Eyes mask, be prepared to have the scarf , too, or else you end up with a pencil-neck and pinhead look for the poor mute ninja commando.

I will say, I'm kind of confused as to the direction of Snake Eyes in the Pursuit of Cobra universe. Obviously the last version was very much a militarized version, but then this one goes decidedly "low tech". I do appreciate that the cool baggy tooling is intact, and am happy to have a foil for the Training Storm Shadow that has already been out for two years now. It's also curious to see this masked Snake Eyes... from everything we know about Snake Eyes' face, his whole head is burned, scarred, and wrecked. Well, in the Resolute Comic Pack, this was going to represent Snake Eyes back in his training days. Now, it's tough to rationalize this "pretty boy" blonde as a modern day Snake Eyes.

The most striking thing about this figure is the oriental deco on his armor...the bulk of the figure is pretty basic black, but these white markings really make the figure stand out nicely. You can see the Arashikage symbol within the ornate decorations which are not just on the torso, but also on each arm as well.

As we've come to expect in the Pursuit of Cobra line, accessories are where it is at, and this figure is no exception. Coming with all of these masks, helmets and spare heads, this figure is opened up for all sorts of possibilities. He comes with the cool Slice themed swords and mask, which you can partner up with your Dice parts from the Storm Shadow. As I said already, there is so much about this figure that is overly ornamental, it's tough to rationalize where he stands in the pseudo-futuristic world of the Pursuit of Cobra.

So, ultimately I'm not sure where this figure belongs in the lexicon of PoC, but from a pure construction point of view, it's a very cool figure, and surprisingly creative and flexible, given that he's another Snake Eyes and a somewhat bland figure detail-wise, in comparison to his Pursuit of Cobra brethren.

GRADE:

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Some easy custom potential...