Between Cold Slither and these M.A.S.S. Device related releases, G.I. Joe Classified is really leaning into their Sunbow Cartoon roots lately. I’m more of a Hama Comic-Book guy when it comes to favorite G.I. Joe stories, but I cannot deny my love for the old cartoon. Today we’re taking a look at the latest Sunbow related release, Snake Eyes and the Polar Bear!
The box is what we’ve come to expect from G.I. Joe Classified lately with a big window, a rendered scene on the back and nice artwork on the sides. I especially like the composition of the side artwork with the bear towering over Snakes.
Snake Eyes comes with a fairly large Polar Bear, a couple of containers for the M.A.S.S. Device crystals, four sets of hands (2 normal grips, 2 pink chops, 2 pink fists, and two pink grips) a pistol, a knife, a rifle, a bear trap, and two battle damage covering fur pieces.
The weapons are familiar and have a two-tone silver and black paint job. The knife fits loosely into the sheathe because it’s not really the knife designed to go in there which was much larger. I’m not sure why they chose this dinkier knife since I don’t believe he uses one in the show. He doesn’t use a the classic Sunbow style laser rifle either, but I appreciate it’s inclusion though I think I’d prefer it just in the tan color you usually see on the show.
The Bear trap has a chain that’s one solid piece and a hinged claw. It works great with the bear, but I could see using it with Timber to re-enact his meet-cute with Snake Eyes.
The two containers represent how the characters use the crystals in the episode with a carrying case for when Snake Eyes takes Crystals from the mine and a glass domed case for when it’s added to the M.A.S.S. device. The carrying case is nicely detailed, far cooler than what’s in the show and contains a little glow in the dark paint “window” to show there is something in there. It doesn’t open as far as I can tell. The crystals in the dome do not have GITD paint, however.
The hands are translucent plastic with GITD paint. It glows fairly strong and I could kind of show that in a long exposure time image above. It really goes nuts in Black Light, however (see right picture).
It’s a nice variety of hands, and they fit well in the sockets. It’s a fun way to represent the radioactivity without making the entire figure red. In the show he basically has a red glow around his whole body and I think I like this solution to that look because it gives me normal Snake Eyes as well as an obvious way to show the radioactive effect.
The Polar Bear itself is pretty astounding. He’s quite large, especially when on all fours and he has a nice mass to him with great fur detailing and expressive faces. He’s got a battle damaged gouge on his shoulder that is painted a sickening bright red that is covered convincingly by one of two included panels., arrow punctured or clean. It’s a pretty fun throwback to Jurassic Park dino-damage that you can easily ignore if you don’t like it.
The bear is much more realistically proportioned than the muscular monster in the show, thankfully, and Classified continues their hot streak of producing amazingly detailed and functionally articulated animal figures. I hope they can work a Tiger in one day. Maybe a re-do of the Sigma Six or original Adventure Team tiger sets.
It’s pretty funny how scarred up the bear is as a lot of G.I. Joe characters in this line tend to get scars. It’s so well done, that I don’t mind the slight repetition.
The articulation is pretty typical of animals in this line with hip ball joints that allow the legs to swivel around and hinge outward slightly. This guy has a little extra thought put into the neck joints so he is able to pose well standing or on all fours. The ball joint in the neck gets a lot of hinge forward to assist with that. There are also hinged toes on the paws so he can walk and deliver a bear paw smack-down. I do wish there was some side-to-side movement at the base of the neck or head.
Snake Eyes should be pretty familiar to collectors of the line, the body having been re-used several times at this point including Stalker and the Retro Snake Eyes and the articulation is typical of the line with no real big issues for me other than that web gear has a tendency to ride up slightly higher than where I’d like to see it lay.
Paint is decent, with the bear getting a couple of different shadings on the mostly white plastic fur. Snake eyes is mostly blue plastic with some purple highlights, which works pretty well for the Sunbow version, the only slight complaint I might make is that the knee plastic does not match the rest of the leg color exactly and reads as knee pads.
Overall, I’d say this set is a home run and any quibbles I have are minuscule compared to the awesomeness of this super-articulated bear. Even if you don’t collect much Classified, this would be a fun figure to have in a Legends or other six inch-ish scaled collection. The Snake Eyes is a classic and smart repaint and the M.A.S.S. Device accessories are a fun tribute to the episode. I don’t think they will ever make a full M.A.S.S. Device since it’s basically a big box, but I would eventually like a little something to hold the three element containers at some point in the line.
