As promised last week, I’m back to check out the second of Hasbro’s Classified Do-Over figures. First came Duke and now it’s Scarlett’s turn. It’s easy to forget that in the early days of Classified, Hasbro was tying the toyline to designs from the video game, Operation Blackout. Probably not a great idea, since the game really was a pile of ass and Classified has since proven that you don’t need a media tie-in to have a successful toy line. Especially when most of the people buying them are probably nostalgia-driven old bastards like me. Well, Duke was an absolute homerun, so let’s see how Scarlett turned out!
Here she is on her super sexy retro-style card with some absolutely bitchin’ character art exploding right in your face. As with Duke, the card stock is nice and thick, perfect for MOC collectors and the extended bubble allows for all of Scarlett’s accessories to be laid out around, with only a couple of the extras nested below. The back of the card has a huge multi-lingual file card and a classic “Collect-Them-All” spread of the three figures in this wave, the other two being Duke and Recondo. Alas, as great as this looks, it is not at all collector friendly, so it’s time to rip it open and get at our new recruit!
And like the new Duke, Scarlett is a complete return to her original RAH ’82 roots with a few modern polishes thrown in for good measure. Her uniform consists of the classic khaki one-piece with matching gloves and boots and a dark green underlying body suit showing through on her legs, arms, and around her neck. She has her shuriken sculpted onto her glove, a canister grenade (I think that was a round grenade on the original) sculpted on her left shoulder, and the red recoil pad on her right. She even has the hidden last-resort pistol sculpted on the inside of her left gauntlet. There are a few reinforced tailoring lines added here and there as well as a gold zipper(?) running up the side of her abs. She has a primary belt that’s sculpted as part of the figure and then a secondary belt worn by the figure with some sculpted and painted cartridges. They even added a peg to this belt to keep it in place! Her quiver is attached to her right leg with a high thigh strap, and this is the most obvious new addition to the design. She also has her knife and sheath on her left leg, something that was sculpted onto the original figure, but is now attached with the knife as a removable accessory. I think Hasbro did such a great job updating this uniform that the only thing I can nitpick are the boots. I would have liked to see the return of her high heels and, yeah, they were ridiculous and totally unpractical, so I’d guess most people will be happy to see her have flats.
I’ve thought long and hard about this portrait. I like it a lot. The original RAH Scarlett was not what I would call a handsome woman, and this one certainly remedies that. It draws a fine line between being pretty and yet still striking me as a serious woman of action. The printing on the eyes and eyebrows are perfect. The lips are painted well, but I think they may be a tad too big. Everything else is great, right down to the light peppering of freckles. The hair is sculpted separately and looks great with no flyaway bangs to get in the way of targeting Cobra. You even get two ponytails, one falling pretty straight and a second to work better with the backpack. The whole shebang is rounded out with a couple of small black earrings. Now, I really liked the first Classified Scarlett’s portrait. It was more youthful and definitely presented a different take on the character, but in the end, I think this one is a big improvement.
The backpack is a wonderfully complex sculpt with a ton of pouches, straps, rumples, and buckles. It would have been great to see some paint apps on here, but instead it’s cast in the same very pale olive plastic as her belts and quiver. The alternate ponytail works perfectly with the backpack as it’s designed to cascade down in a sort of S-pattern. The backpack stays pretty snug in her back and you get a little functionality with the two pegs on the sides to mount her rifles through the trigger guards.
The articulation here is fantastic and offers a well needed update to the arms. Here you get bicep swivels and double-hinged elbows replacing the rotating hinged elbows of the previous figure. Of course, the new Scarlett is also based on a pinless body, but everything else is more or less the same when it comes to posability. You also get one set of fists and a set of accessory holding hands.
Scarlett comes with an automatic pistol and the aforementioned combat knife. The knife is pretty standard fare and fits into the sheath. Despite her having two trigger-finger style hands, she can still hold it quite well. The pistol is an excellent sculpt and cast in the pale olive plastic. It has a hole in the barrel to take a blast effect part, although none are included. The pistol seems a tad big for her, and sadly there’s no holster for her to store it on her person. I found the trigger guard to be a little too small to risk pegging it to the backpack.
There are two rifles included: One Sunbow style XMLR-3A Laser Rifle and an AR-15 style rifle. The Sunbow rifle is always a welcome addition and it’s the same accessory that was included with Duke. I love this sculpt!
The AR-15 is also fantastic with a ton of detail, including a scope mounted on the carry bar and a removable magazine. Granted, this is not a weapon that I associate with Scarlett, but seeing as Super7 also included this type of rifle with their Ultimate Scarlett, I feel like I’m missing a connection here. But hey, I’m not complaining as this is one of the line’s best looking weapons and even if Scarlett won’t be arming herself with it much, it’ll likely get repurposed to another JOE.
Of course, Scarlett is best known for her trademark crossbow and that’s obviously included here, along with some bolts to stock her quiver. The crossbow is cast in black plastic, as are the bolts, and it’s a little more rifle-like than the RAH version, but I dig it a lot. The bolts do notch into the crossbow and you get a few different types to choose from. Sadly, there is no string on the crossbow, but maybe that’s for the best. I’d prefer no string to a chonky plastic one that warps easily and just looks wrong. I would have liked an option to peg the crossbow into her back instead of the backpack, but she’s just going to have to hold it.
Finally, you get a rectangular black figure stand with the GI JOE shooting star logo sculpted onto it. As I mentioned with Duke, I’m always happy to get these and it’s pretty close to the generic ones I use for my Classified figures, so it fits in pretty well.
To me, Scarlett is a near perfect Classified update to the Real American Hero figure and definitely the one I’ve been waiting for. She is absolutely going to be replacing the first issue Scarlett in my display. With that being said, I think Scarlett falls just slightly below the update we got with Duke. I feel bad for saying that because she is still an extraordinary figure but I think Duke just came out slightly ahead. I haven’t picked up Recondo yet because I have the Tiger Force version but I probably will eventually.