G.I. Joe: 30th Anniversary - Snake Eyes (G.I. Joe: Renegades)

So... how about that Snake Eyes?

My first reaction upon opening the figure was that the plastic felt... different. I dare say... chinsy? I heard some similar comments about some of the Wave 1 30th Anniversary figures, but didn't really notice that first hand. With the Renegades figures, it feels pretty blatant.

Now, I'm not saying they feel like they're going to fall apart....no, not in the least. The plastic just feels a bit thinner and a bit different. Not quite as solid.

The second thing I noticed was that Snake Eyes reused a lot more parts than I really noticed before. In fact, that was going to kind of become a trend as I opened this first wave of Renegades toys. That's not necessarily a bad thing, really...if the parts are cool, by all means, use them. It was just something I noticed.

Snake Eyes borrows many elements from the G.I. Joe: Resolute version, which is cool by me, and he comes with the head from the Wave 3 Pursuit of Cobra version. Again, no problem with that. The figure moves well, retains a great level of articulation, and even with the reused parts bears a striking resemblance to the source material. One thing that was a bit disappointing was the re-use of the Torpedo/Wet Suit arms. Sure, it has a neat zippered look to compliment the rest of Snake Eyes' uniform, but the tooling is from back in the day when elbow range of motion wasn't such a priority, and the result is a figure that cannot bend his arms nearly as much as some of his fellow case-mates. His poseable wrists almost make up for it, but just almost.

Yes, it's another Snake Eyes. And we all have to admit it, after the Pursuit of Cobra Wave 3 version, every future Snake Eyes is going to be sub-standard...but for one of the core members of G.I. Joe: Renegades, this works okay. Certainly not spectacular, but okay.

Let the controversy begin... the accessories.

At various conventions and trade shows over the past 12 months, we have seen prototypes and test shots displayed, absolutely littered with cool gear. The retail versions, not so much.

Snake Eyes is lacking the sword rack that he was initially pictured with, which isn't a big deal necessarily, except it is a harbinger of things to come, with more missing weapons prevelant throughout the rest of the first wave.

His small daggers are extremely cool, I absolutely love his cartoon-accurate Laser Uzi, and the sword works nicely, too. His backpack holds his two daggers, his "fanny pack" (for lack of a better word) holds the blades, and his thigh holster handles the somewhat large laser pistol. All decked out, the figure looks very nice and pretty Renegades accurate. I do really like the sculpted simplicity of his shoulder-straps. They're very small, but crammed with great sculpted detail in the straps and the buckles. Nicely done.

All in all, this figure is fine. It won't blow your mind. It's not the best thing since sliced bread, and it certainly doesn't measure up to the PoC version. But for your G.I. Joe: Renegades display, it works. Renegades fans can buy it without hesitation, but I'm not sure fans who aren't attached to the Renegades aesthetic will care all that much. Hopefully the kids do.

GRADE:

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