Toy Review: G.I. Joe Classified Dawn Moreno Snake Eyes Shows The Line’s Strengths

Every once in a while, you take a chance on a figure for a character you don’t know well. It’s always a gamble, and it’s nice when it pays off.

G.I. Joe has a massive catalog of characters, and Hasbro’s G.I. Joe Classified line has been working its way through them for years now. Most are classics, like Duke and Snake-Eyes, who both have multiple figures. Others are unique designs, like the minions of Cobra-La or some of the more weird Cobra agents.

But then we get Dawn Moreno.

Now, yes, getting it out of the way, she is a version of Snake Eyes, the franchise’s most popular character. But she’s also so much more.

Dawn made her debut in G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #226, as a resident of Springfield, the town that was entirely a front for Cobra. She gained the attention of Cobra Commander through her athletic prowess, and was mentored by the Baroness. Eventually she was strapped into the Brainwave Scanner, a tool used for teaching and “conditioning” and was accidentally uploaded a copy of Snake Eyes’ skills, memories and training. After fighting her dual nature, she eventually became an invaluable member of the Joes as Snake Eyes.

This is Dawn’s first ever action figure (wild for a ten year old character in a toy-centered franchise, no?). Right away this is a hit out of the park.

The figure right away has a great design. Comic book designs don’t always translate into the real world. Dawn’s uniform — which has elements of Cobra armor, Arashakage equipment and military gear — looks like it would work and exist in the real world, while essentially also looking like a superhero-spy-ninja. Both head sculpts, unmasked with hair down and masked with hair up, looked great with the rest of the figure too.

Classified continues to be Hasbro’s best line for accessories. There isn’t tons here: an alternate head, two guns and a pair of swords with their sheathes. It’s exactly enough though; one of the guns is a silenced pistol for her ninja/assassin side, the other is Snake Eyes’ trademark uzi, the swords look great, and the dual heads balance her dual nature as Dawn and Snake Eyes.

For posing, this is the best posing female Hasbro figure since the Marvel Legends She-Hulk. I was able to get a variety of museum and action poses out of her. The statue style museum poses look striking, while I was able to get pretty much any action pose I wanted outside of Dawn holding a sword in both hands, which isn’t really possible with the shoulder joints she has (a common problem for Hasbro’s female action figure body molds).

Over all though, this is a great G.I. Joe figure that’s representative of the strengths of the line, and with that last point, the weakness of some of Hasbro’s body molds for female characters.