I think out of all the redesigns in the Classified line so far, Scarlett’s is probably the biggest departure from her classic look. Oddly enough it’s the one I warmed to the quickest. It feels the most like a MCU superhero outfit out of all of these, which might be part of why it fits for me since her original outfit felt the most like an ’80s super hero costume of the original Joes. Let’s take a look!
This is my favorite box of the bunch as I really like Phil Noto’s artwork and dig the scenes of Scarlett in action on the side. I love that parachute in shot and now want those goggles!
Scarlett comes with a crossbow, a removeable strap with and attached quiver and three knives.
The crossbow is cast in matte black and has nice detail to it. It fits well in Scarlett’s hand, but has the irritating habit of popping apart quite often during posing. I wonder if they were originally intending to include an alternate crossbow head with the string in a fired position because as is, it looks like it’s always ready to be fired.
The smaller knife is designed to go in the sheath on the quiver strap. It stays in there nice and tight fortunately so I’m not worried about losing it.
The other two identical knifes have a sheath in the top of the quiver that also holds them well. They can occasionally get in the way of the ponytail.
The quiver strap is designed so that both the knife sheath and arrows point downward which is a new thing for me, but I think it looks better than flipping it the other way as I have in the pics above, though oddly enough the strap stays more secure in place when flipped. When worn as designed, it can flop around.
The design choices may have thrown me off a bit originally, but the sculpting is well executed with tons of detail in the costume piping, armor parts and cloth textures. The proportions are great and it’s so nicely done that I think it goes a long way towards selling me on the concept.
One little detail that I absolutely love are these little vents on the back of her boots. Are these boosters of some kind? Do they give her flight or perhaps a boost in jumping or running? I just know details like this would have fired up my imagination as a kid.
The face also has a lot of charm to it as Scarlett has a nice, self-assured expression on her face and I like the jaunty way her hair falls across her eyes. I also like the application of a little bit of freckles on her face, though I think her lips could stand to be a little darker and cheeks a little more pink.
The very light pale plastic they used for her face can get blown out easily in photographs, especially in contrast to the darker parts of her armor, so I’d like her face a smidge darker. On the other hand I really like that there is a difference between Duke and Scarlett’s skin tone.
The paint on my figure is a bit sloppy in the details in parts. For example, the shuriken on the arm have a lot of gold slop on them and the red part of the shoulder pad isn’t painted all the way to the edges. I think in general her costume has maybe one too many colors for my taste and I personally would eliminate the blue top and make it gray like the pants. But on the other hand, the blue is really growing on me.
Articulation is very good here, but Scarlett does have the least arm range of motion in the line so far with single elbows that don’t get past 90 degree bend due to the armored gauntlets. The left shoulder also can’t raise quite as high due to the attached shoulder armor. Scarlett has:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Ball and socket head, neck, mid-torso and waist
- Thigh and boot swivel
- Hinged butterfly pecs, drop down hips, and neck
- Double knee hinges
The hinge in her neck allows Scarlett to look up well, though the ball and socket at the base of the neck does not get much motion due to her high collar. The ball and socket at the head does get a nice range that mostly compensates for this however. The ponytail can get in the way at times, so I found myself wishing it was articulated.
Even with some of the articulation compromises this figure does move better than 95% of the domestic super-articulated female action figures I own. I really love the combo of ball-jointed waist and mid-torso for subtle posing too. Overall Scarlett is another hit for me in the line. Sure there are choices I might not have made, but the figure itself is super dynamic and so much fun to play with.
