Scarlet (GI Joe: Renegades)
I’ve never been a big fan of Scarlet. But her Renegades incarnation has changed my mind. Both the update to her character and her outfit made a lot of sense to me. As such it only makes sense, that she is the first version of the red haired lass to join my GI Joe collection.
Appearance:
Out of all the Rengades figures, Scarlet is the one most like her screen version. This costume is a pretty close translation of her cartoon one, although the colors might be slightly off. It’s a far sight more practical than her original blue/white leotard.
Scarlet wouldn’t be herself without her trademark red hair. That is represented well here with some of it spilling down on to her fore head and a great ponytail piece in the back. I was really glad the cartoon didn’t try to pull off a short hair version. But, that might just be me.
Of course, under that hair she has a pretty face. She looks like she is a tough cookie for sure. The green eyes are there along with a slight bit of color on the lips. I’m not sure if it is intentional or not, but she seems to have her nostrils a bit accentuated. It’s minor and I can get past it, but I did notice it when I was taking the pictures.
The main potion of her body is made up of a flak vest. This serves a pretty practical purpose for both her and the figure. Obviously, everybody on screen in a TV show or movie with police our military wears a bulletproof vest these days. So the figure should have one. It also does a great job of hiding her body pivot. This allowed the figure designers to add a little shape to her waist and hips.
Her arms have the standard shoulders and elbow joints, however since they are all the same color, they really don’t detract from the overall appearance. they also don’t look “bulby” at the joints. She is missing the new style wrist joints. I’m okay with this. For a female figure, I’d rather them keep to a slimmer design.
Her hands look a bit odd. It’s hard to tell what is sleeve and what is glove. A slightly different shade on the fingerless gloves would have really helped.
Her legs are fairly plain. They are essentially just a green-grey pair of khakis. No knee pads, no holsters, no pouches. It is kind of odd to see. They are bunched up at the boots and look pretty good.
I really like the boot here. They don’t look a woman wearing a man sized combat boots. They look like a properly sized woman’s boot. They also have that two tone look we’ve seen a lot of lately. These appear to be desert colors, which while it matches the animation, doesn’t necessarily match the rest of the outfit. Although, they may be her most comfortable pair, so I’ll forgive it.
Fun:
The other neat thing about these boots is they are hiding a new type of joint. Her ankles are pivoted, but not in the normal way, they can move side to side. Essentially, it gives you the ability to give her a wide stance and keep her feet flat. This gives a huge advantage to getting her to stand. Since female figures have smaller feet, they are often hard to get to stand on their own, this ankle helps that situation immensely.
Of course, Scarlet has to have a cross bow. This one if fairly low on detail and doesn’t match the animation one very well. I had originally thought the bad in the package was to represent a bow string. After playing with it for a minute, I was adjusting it and shot the cross piece across my desk. The rubber band is apparently to keep the thing together in shipping. I left it on cause I liked the look.
Scarlet also comes with a nondescript Renegades pistol and base.
Overall:
While light on accessories, I’m very happy with this Scarlet. Even though she based on the Renegades animation, she looks detailed enough to be displayed with regular Joes. I nice update to a classic character. I really hope they carry this ankle articulation over to all the female figures, it will make standing them up so much easier. Well done, Hasbro.
Engineernerd: Score 95/100
Category: Featured, GI Joe, Toy Reviews