Toy Review: ‘G.I. Joe’ Classified Ninja Force Zartan Is Cool As Hell … With A Small, Glaring Flaw

by Tony Thornley

You know a modern collector’s toy line has made it when it starts adapting some of the more insane characters and designs from the 1980s and 1990s. And that’s exactly what we are seeing with G.I Joe Classified’s newest retailer exclusive subline.

The Ninja Force was born out of the popularity of G.I. Joe’s two most popular characters: Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. The sword brothers had grown to become the faces of the franchise, as so as G.I. Joe began to wane somewhat in popularity in the ’90s, Hasbro leaned into gimmicks.

There were Joes with backpacks featuring sound effects (and later voice lines). There were the drug dealer-stomping DEA. There was Space Corps, Battle Corps 2000, and the Eco Warriors, all with oversized weapon gimmicks. But the one that stuck in the fans’ minds was Ninja Force, which introduced a team of new characters led by Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, and a redesigned Scarlett. The team even took top billing in Marvel’s G.I. Joe series starting with issue #135, after taking center stage in the series around #120.

The first wave of Ninja Force included Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, Scarlett, the Red Ninjas and Slice & Dice. As the subline grew, a few unexpected characters entered the picture, specifically Zartan. By modern standards, Zartan’s design was a little over the top — the dark and muted colors of the Dreadnoks’ leader and master of disguise were swapped for bright orange and green, including a mohawk. (As a side note, Super 7 recently announced several new Ninja Force designs for their Reaction+ line that actually has me interested for the first time ever.)

So, needless to say, this figure was a surprising first entry into the Ninja Force subline for G.I. Joe Classified, especially for a line that’s going to be exclusive to Target (replacing Tiger Force). Also, so any fans that complain about retailer exclusives, Target does better than most. He’ll be hard to find right now, but readily available within a month or so.

And legitimately, I really like it.

I’m going to get the biggest flaw of the figure out of the way. The accessories are mostly very good. There’s two swords, a couple throwing knives, a sheath, and a box and quiver. It’s a batch of great accessories, except for the bow. The bow itself is solid, but it comes with an accessory that looks like a nocked arrow and the bow string being drawn back … It would be really cool, if the bow string had any way to attach to the bow.

I spent five minutes going over the bow, trying to figure it out. There’s no clips. There’s no peg holes. It just simply will not connect to the bow. Now, that’s not as big a deal as it sounds, but I was disappointed that I couldn’t use one of the coolest accessories to come with the figure.

As far as design, this is very cool. They took the day-glo orange and green of the classic figure, and muted it just enough that it looks natural. The mohawk could have looked really silly, but by making Zartan’s clothing (particularly his belt and jacket) look like a mixture of punk and biker chic, it really works. I also loved little touches throughout, like his steel-toe boots. It’s silly and over the top, but in a way that heightens, not detracts.

Classified continues to be one of the best posing figures in the market right now. This mohawked punk looked genuinely intimidating, and I was able to get the poses to look incredibly natural. The jump kick was just about the only pose I didn’t love, and frankly, that’s just a hard one to get right.