Welcome to another toy review! This week we're looking at the fantastic job Sideshow Collectibles did with an item from their newly aquired G.I.Joe properties... Snake Eyes!!
Front of box and attractive 5 panel packaging design.
Upon first glance when opening the 5 panel box, you get the idea that Sideshow were going for a realistic enterpretation of a military soldier, if Snake Eyes were real that is. One end of the packaging is devoted to the ordinance and equiptment Snake Eyes carries..and there is alot here! The other side holds the figure, plus multiple hands for weapons and equipment. The scale of this figure is 1/6 (or 12" tall) and I'd say everything is perfectly scaled to the size of this guy! The panels are used very well with Art of the character. And on the inside, a bio of the mysterious character, usually knowned as "classified", has been included because alot is unknown about this military hero. And givin a nice "military files" style bio with everything labeled "classified" adds to the mystique of the legendary soldier. The packaging is, as always with Sideshow, Amazing! Right down to the magnetic clasp so the panels close tightly and securely. The Art and logo is reminiscent of the old action figure packaging of the 80's Joes, which is a good thing, because aside from the visor on Snake Eyes' noggin, the trademark swords, and the Arishakage symbol Snake Eyes is associated with, the comparasons end here. This isn't Snake Eyes from the 80's. It's better!
This is the FIRST figure in a new line of realistic military enterpretations of famous Joes and infamous baddies! The pieces and extra's Snake Eyes is packed with will make any military figure collector happy and I hope they continue that with the other figures they plan to release. Complete with A base(to stand the figure on display..he stands perfect on his own though)realistic weapons that piece together like the real thing, all painted to look even more real. There is an extra pair of boots and multiple hands for differant uses which I will get into later. The thing about Snake Eyes is that he's a quiet assasin. Along with training in multiple hand to hand combats that pertain to military close qaurter combats and secret black ops missions, Snake Eyes here is also a trained Ninja! That's right, he trained with a secret clan of ninja called the Arishakage. Which is why he wears their symbol on his weapons (and in the comics and cartoon he has the symbol tatooed on his left forearm). So the inclusion of a Ninta~to fighting blade, a ninja like bootknife and a ceremonial ninja sword (apparently given to him by the ninja masters) makes perfect sense. He's a quiet assasin with all the tools of a ninja, but he also has some heavy duty weaponry...but not too heavy.
Snake Eyes is equipt with a SPEI harness rig, which has all the pouches, harness attachments and clips to carry ALL of his gear. And it looks awesome on the body that was used. My only real beef with the figure is that the body, as articulated as it is, may be a tad bit too small. You can't really tell here because I "beefed up" Snake Eyes at the biceps, shoulders, chest and back with cotton balls haha! Just to give him that EXTRA muscle to his otherwise skinny frame. And it looks fine now! =D The uniform is great! The pants have multiple pockets and have intergrated knee pads. The head is a perfect size. Sometimes these figures come out, and the head is either too small or too big! Not in this case. Even with his protective visor, the size looks just right. I would have preferred that the visor could be movable (It hangs a little too far below the nose area), but it's not really a big deal.
Included in Snake Eye's gear are a set of black ops type utility bands complete with counters and time pieces embedded in them. I mean if Snake Eyes is racing against time to save the world, he needs to know how much time he has left to do it in right? Right. They're very detailed, you can actually read the numbers on the watches. Fancy stuff!
The MK-23 here is a light weight 45. Caliber pistol complete with a silencer, a 20 round magazine, and a laser guided sight, which all fit together nicely.
And that MK~23 fits nice and snug in a holster which is apart of the SPIE harness rig Snake Eyes is wearing. There's even a pouch for the silencer. Very cool!
Here's the boot knife I was yapping about earlier. And it fits perfectly in the knife sheath on Snake's boot in the pic below.
Snake Eyes comes with a handful of unique grenades which have differant purposes, and there is a place for all of them in Snake's harness pouches. The "Frag" Grenades (above)fit into a dropdown pouch on Snake's side. And the smoke grenades (seen below) fit in a pouch on the belt harness. Theres one extra pouch, maybe he can fit some sandwiches in there. I don't know about you, but when I perform secret military missions, I get hungry along the way! ...Sandwich pouch it is.
The magazines are plentiful, but again, there is a place for them on the human weapon known as Snake Eyes. There's 2 extra 20 round mags for the MK~23 and also 4 extra 80 round mags for the Sub-machinegun 9mm UZI (Which we'll look at in a bit) and you have to be careful with these because they are actually a bitch to get into the harness rig pouches! The sharp edges of the mags dig into the polyester pouches and can potentially rip them! So be careful. But eventually they fit fine!(pictured below)
Theres a grenade bandelier (which hangs across Snake's chest~just like in the cartoon I might add haha!) And this grenade bandelier is attached to the sword carrier which ends up on his back(2 pics down)
This is the Ninja~to sword inserted into the sheath and carrier(you can see the Arishakage symbol on the blade close to the handle..VERY nice touch sideshow!)
This is what the grenades look like across his chest along with the sword carrier, doesn't look to bulky or out of place at all. And is a nod to the old figure, very nice touch!
Here's the 9mm UZI sub machine gun I was talking about. It's the only "heavy weapon" Snake Eyes has (and even the UZI is actually light weight, so it works fine for the character) It has a nice folding stock, a strap and an nifty silencer supressor on the nose...we need to do things quietly on special missions, this will definitely do the trick!
And the UZI clips onto the SPIE harness and hangs over the shoulder and under Snake's arm for quick use.(pictured below)
This is the ceremonial "gift" I was talking about earlier from snake's ninja trainers.....looks like a freakin' Machete!!! lol! Either way it looks nice, again it sports the Arishakage symbol near the handle, and fits nicely on the back with the other sword!
OK ..here is a gun I added to ol "Classified" here. It's a BIG gun, I like to have my soldiers displayed with big guns....I don't know if that's just a male thing or not, I dunno...It looks great with him though! =D It's even got a working light on it for that extra point of realism!
See? Working light! Now he can work in the dark.. oh sorry, he has night vision in his visor...I'll shut up now =P
But like I said, He looks BAD ASS with that carbine machine gun along with the rest of his gear!
Snake Eyes just looks like the guy YOU would want on your side if you were going to war with high tech terrorists and one guy who wears a steel dome over his head and calls himself Cobra....nevermind...long story....
The gear works very well for the character. I can't stress enough about the accessories added with collectibles sometimes that have no use, or no place on the character. Sideshow got everything right, the uniform, the harnesses and weapons all correlate to a soldier equipt for light wieght weaponry, sneaking missions, and low profile deployment. He has just enough weaponry to make ALOT of damage against whoever he has to go through, and still do it all quietly, without being noticed or even seen.
The last items I'll address are the extra boots. These work very well because there are some poses that call for "bent toes" . Weather he's crouching, or leaning somewhat into a particular direction, they are an added bonus, making the poses look more natural and relaxed.(pictured above and below)
Overall, this is a solid figure from Sideshow. The only real problem I had with it was the size of the 30+ point body they went with. They could have easily used a bulkier body and it would have given Snake Eyes a more imposing quality as far as muscular physique. Again this is something that can be fixed if one would be willing to do so. You can even go a step further and switch the body out for a beefier one, you can do that with sideshow/hot toys/bbi/dragon figures, they're pretty versatile. What I loved were the little details Sideshow decided to use, such as the symbology associated with his ninja clan, the black ops/ NATO issue weaponry, the harness and load-out pouches, and the overall look of the figure...was all done top notch! This is an Awesome figure for any G.I.Joe fan or military figure collector because again the detail in this is astounding! Supurb packaging, articulation, accessories, and paint ops. I give this figure a 9 out of 10. A better body would have given Snake Eyes here a perfect score, but it really comes down to the essence of the character and they captured it flawelessly! When you see this guy, you know exactly who it is if you are a G.I.Joe fan like I am, and that gets it huge points..;)
Deadsurfkiss, over and out
There is modified variants of SkyWarp and ThunderCracker. All with differant weapons and color schemes ofcourse. So I think if you're rich, or have some cash to play with, these toys are a great thing to own. On ebay, They sell for upwards of 300$ american. So if you need cash, these things can always be sold rather quickly. I can see them selling for much more once they are scarce enough. So good luck finding them if you want them down the road!
