Zarana just flat out bugs me. Not the figure necessarily, but the character. She bugs me in all sorts of ways. I hated her voice and personality in the Sunbow cartoon…I hated that she was included in the Dic cartoon…I hated that she earned such a top position in the COBRA hierarchy in later issues of the comic. I just plain hated her, and I thought her original figure was..well…pretty horrible. I could find no redeeming qualities to her at all, which is why I wasn’t especially looking forward to her release in Wave 8.
In general, I am not a Dreadnok fan. I like Zartan a lot…and I like Zandar as well. But the rest of them just seemed like unintelligent dolts mostly used as comic relief and never really serving a whole lot of purpose other than falling down and screwing up. While Zarana didn’t necessarily have that problem, she really didn’t have any other real purposes either. She was Zartan’s sister. That’s it. And with a substandard figure in the line, well it was almost a guarantee she wouldn’t get much airtime in my Joeverse…but that may have to change.
It’s a rare occurrence when my enjoyment of a character is purely fueled by the sculpt or design of the figure. It’s even rarer when I don’t like a character and a figure comes out that changes my mind. Zarana has somehow done both, much in the same way that the Wave 4 (and then Wave 6) Ripper made me like the Dreadnoks a little more. First of all, this figure is, without a doubt, the most realistically scaled JvC female figure to date. She has accurate proportions and isn’t overly… “busty” so to speak. Her face and head sculpt also work very well, and Hasbro did a terrific job with her hair…sculpting it very realistically and making it a pretty neat shade of bubble gum pink! She nicely enough retains her look of “biker chic”, but with a great update to the new century.
Her leather jacket makes more sense than the belly button length torn pink shirt of old, yet she still wears the short shirt underneath. Her legs are nice and bukly, but slim enough for her female build, and the arms are very realistically scaled. She looks like a big girl, but a big girl who works out, not one who has shape altering surgery. ;)
The little touches all make a huge difference here as well…look at the gloves. That pattern is very reminiscent of her ’86 version, yet looks cool enough and fits her current design scheme as well. Her leather pants are designed with near perfection and have a great assortment of pouches running down them, which you can actually seen sewn into the fabric of the pants…a great little attention to detail. Add that to her metal plates on her shins, and the cool little application of black lipstick and this figure really looks like the tough-as-nails biker girl that she’s supposed to be. She also greatly resembles the Devil’s Due version as well and all in all is a pretty great addition to COBRA’s ranks.
I’ve never been a real Dreadnok fan up until this point…but updates to Ripper and Zarana, as well as the addition of a cool character in Burnout are quickly making me a fan…although if the Dreadnoks do appear in my little Joe world, expect some differences in attitude and capabilities.
All in all, even when packaged with an only okay Joe figure, Zarana is definitely a keeper…pick her up for sure when you see her.
In general, I am not a Dreadnok fan. I like Zartan a lot…and I like Zandar as well. But the rest of them just seemed like unintelligent dolts mostly used as comic relief and never really serving a whole lot of purpose other than falling down and screwing up. While Zarana didn’t necessarily have that problem, she really didn’t have any other real purposes either. She was Zartan’s sister. That’s it. And with a substandard figure in the line, well it was almost a guarantee she wouldn’t get much airtime in my Joeverse…but that may have to change.
