Toy Review: ‘G.I. Joe Classified X Tomb Raider’ Lara Croft Is A Great Tribute With A Glaring Issue

In 1996, the world met a spelunking adventurer in a green tank top and shorts, and pop culture gained an icon. As Tomb Raider celebrates thirty years, Hasbro brings Lara Croft into the world of G.I. Joe with a special G.I. Joe Classified figure.

Lara first appeared in 1996’s Tomb Raider. Her adventures were an instant hit (for better and worse). The character has gone on to become one of the most iconic video game characters in pop culture. She has 25 different games to her name, three movies, three animated series, and multiple comics, novels, board games, TTRPGs, and more.

I honestly wasn’t a huge Tomb Raider player. I definitely spent time with the franchise, off and on, but really not tons on the games themselves. I have always liked the comics and other tie-in media more than anything. I grabbed this figure, though, out of interest in the crossover and the just how cool it looked. Generally, I was pleased, but with a big caveat…

I don’t usually talk about price points in my reviews. I look at design, accessories, and posing. But there’s also a reason that I don’t review higher-end figures like Mezco and Mafex — they’re expensive. My absolute limit on figures is about $40, with the only exceptions being the three Maximum Marvel Legends I’ve purchased.

There’s no other way to say it: even with the premium foil accented packaging and such, this figure is overpriced at about $45. Outside of the packaging, this is a standard figure with a few more accessories than normal. Considering Classified usually has a few more accessories than most other lines, that’s not enough for me to say that’s worth it. Legitimately, if I didn’t have an Amazon giftcard, I would not have purchased this figure. I might say that it’s worth it at $35-ish, but over $40 is too much.

And it feels very funny to pivot from there to say that I really like this figure.

Except for the Joe-branded cross-body belt (which is easily removable), this is classic Lara Croft through-and-through. There’s enough in this package to see Lara as the high tech globetrotter and as the scrappy younger adventurer. Take off the cross-body belt and her holsters (which I left because I didn’t want to chance breaking them), she fits the 2013 “survival” Lara, but leave it, and she’s mission ready in a more classic mold.

As much as I criticize the figure, it does have a ton of great accessories. They range from a simple bow, arrow, and quiver to her classic twin pistols to climbing gear and even an ancient dagger. For the price point, a couple more “artifacts” really would be great (aka necessary), but taking it as it is, I really like it.

The figure posed great, though. I really like the newer female body molds Hasbro developed. The joints were clean and moved easily. There really wasn’t anything hindering posing her, outside maybe her necklace. There was a lot I was able to do, and I was generally really happy with it.

This is definitely a great figure. The issue — without a doubt — is the price. It’s only been out a couple weeks, but even its already high price is headed towards scalper level prices quickly. I don’t know that I can say that it is worth it, but I can say I really like it, and she’s going to have a great place on my Joe shelf.