I don’t think I ever saw a Lady Jaye figure in person when I was a kid playing with the old 3.75 inch scale line. She was a character I knew solely from the cartoon, so I was glad to see Hasbro pay homage to the cartoon with the alternate hair piece. None of my pre-orders for this wave of two figures have shipped, but I was lucky enough to find these in a store, so let’s take a look!
The box is usually my last concern with a figure, but I really love the depiction of Lady Jaye on this art and I like how they integrate the new characters into the mural on the back of the box as well. I will confess to busting out a magnifying glass to get a better look at the Classified Major Bludd on there.
Lady Jaye comes with two hair pieces, two javelins, three javelin heads, a pack, a knife, and a javelin launcher. The pack has two indents inside that can store two javelin heads. I like the idea of swapable javelin head as it calls to mind all the trick javelins she used in the cartoon. Two look like simple spear heads with silver tips and one is all black and more squared off. I assume that’s an explosive.
One Javelin can clip to the side of the pack and the pack also has a little camera on an articulated arm. The arm swivels where it attaches to the pack and two other spots along the arm so it can be posed in a variety of ways. The one thing I don’t love about the pack is it has a tendency to swivel where it pegs into the body. It stays on there nicely, but doesn’t keep oriented as I would like. I also found myself wishing for a more quiver-like pack to resemble the cartoon a bit more.
The javelins slide into the javelin launcher and Lady Jaye can hold that in a nice two-handed grip. I think I prefer the visual of her just chucking the things at Cobras, but I appreciate the option to have the original toy version or cartoon style.
The knife is cast in all black plastic and fits in a sheathe on her hip securely and I do like that these figures come with lots of gear. It is fairly blunt as is the way with these toy knives and I do wish there was some silver paint for the blade, but if they are going to go all one color plastic with weapons, black is a good color choice.
My favorite feature is the option to have Lady Jaye wear her vintage figure inspired hat or her animated style hair. The hat hair is one piece that swaps with the other hair and stays on with a pretty small lip on the inside of the head. It doesn’t fall off in normal movement, but it’s surprisingly easy to flick off with your finger while posing. Even though I’m more of a cartoon guy when it comes to Joes, I really like the pop of color the blue hat adds to the figure and the logo is really nice and crisp.
The sculpting on this figure is fantastic. The uniform has a lot of interesting seam lines and textures, but doesn’t feel overdone. It’s modernized, but captures the feel of the originals well. Jaye’s portrait has a wonderfully playful expression that fits the character well, though I would not have minded a more serious face more appropriate for battle as an alternate.
Articulation is really great with the first double elbows that I can remember on a Hasbro female figure and the rest of the articulation moves really well. I do like that both wrists have an up/down hinge. Lady Jaye has:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Double hinged knees and elbows
- Butterfly pecs
- Ball and socket neck, head, mid-torso and waist
- Bicep and boot swivel
- Neck hinge
The paint is pretty good with some effective face printing and more muted colors. Gone are the crazy golds and reds from wave one, but I also feel like we are missing some detail hits around the buckles and straps that could give the figure a more polished look. The knee-pads are the same color as her pants, but are obviously sculpted to represent a different material, so I would have liked to see those in a different color, maybe gun metal or black. The open collar does lead to an issue where the paint doesn’t 100% match up between the neck and the chest because one is bare plastic and one is painted. It’s not as noticeable in person as it is in photos, fortunately.
Overall, I’d say this is another hit for the Classified line and really like how they stayed true to the spirit of the character’s original figure while updating the look and accessories a bit to modernize them. My main gripe with the line at this point is that I want more of what they are doing here more frequently!
