Figure Subscription Service 2.0 - Desert Scorpion

I've been trying hard to get my head around the Desert Scorpion, but I'm giving myself some seriously mixed signals. I think the G.I. Joe Collectors Club was trying to kill several birds with one stone here. They're providing a pretty nice 90's army builder, but they're also trying to pay some homage to the unreleased Desert Scorpion that was supposed to be a Pursuit of Cobra release a few years back.

The end result is a figure that I kind of thought would be a disappointing mishmash, but actually manages to transcend both of these somewhat forced homages and end up as a very successful figure.

Don't get me wrong, I know the GIJCC isn't trying to do a 100% faithful recreation of that canceled Mech pilot Desert Scorpion from 2011. That much is perfectly clear, just by the parts use. But it does seem like they used that particular figure as an inspiration, which is sort of a shame, because I think it locks them into some decisions that don't necessarily work really well for a modern update of that character.

Above is an image of the CANCELED Desert Scorpion slated to come with the Cobra Minotour in the Pursuit of Cobra series, just for reference sake

As far as changes go, they used a different head sculpt this time around, and also glued the Night Creeper headress to the head which helps keep it firmly attached, much to my own satisfaction. The Resolute Snake Eyes head sculpt is amazingly successful here, and I think it was a great choice. The 25th Anniversary Zartan however, I'm not particularly engaged with, and I think they did that as a tribute to the canceled figure, which I could have done without. The Snake Eyes/HISS Driver legs are a good combination, even though the ankles aren't as movable as I'd like them to be. Much to my surprise, the 25th Anniversary Croc Master arms actually work really well for this figure, and the articulation isn't too limited by any stretch. I love the fact that they're slightly "bronze" in color to simulate the tanned look that a desert operative is likely to have.

Looking at color choices here, I'm not entirely sure why some of them were made the way they were. As I mentioned, I like the skin tone, but I'm not sure why an extra brown paint app wasn't applied to the leg pads to match the vintage look. Seems like a minor change that could have made a big difference. The lack of paint detail on the Zartan torso is also a bit jarring for a deluxe action figure like you might expect for a $25 price tag. The webgear breaks up that monotonous detail a bit, but the separation of yellow and brown doesn't make much sense from an aesthetic perspective.

ACCESSORIES

Desert Scorpion comes with a nice assortment of accessories. His submachine gun is an excellent one, the same weapon that we saw with Pursuit of Cobra Dusty a couple of years ago. He has the same spear as the crimson Neo-Viper, the webgear from Ultimate Snake Eyes, a knife, and quite possibly the coolest accessory of the bunch, the Valor Vs. Venom robotic scorpion. I love this thing, and let's face it, it makes a heck of a lot more sense than a huge, almost people sized real scorpion like we got in 1991, right?

It probably seems like I've been complaining about a lot of design decisions with this figure, and yes, I think I have been, but as I said at the beginning of the review, somehow the figure transcends those complaints and ends up being a very cool, well executed update to the classic Desert Scorpion, even with some of the identified faults. I love the bulky, muscular arms, the tan colored flesh, and impressive accessory compliment, and even with some off hand color choices, the end result is a terrific update to the figure with some great vintage tributes. I was hoping I wouldn't love this figure quite so much because I didn't want to be tempted to army build it, but as it stands now, I feel like I want a couple more, which could get expensive. We shall see.

GRADE: