 Here and it's time for our weekly vintage GI Joe toy review and last week I looked at a figure that I really loved But this week I'm gonna do the opposite because I know the amusement you all get from my pain And I want to give the viewers what they want this week. We are looking at the 1993 Ninja Force Scarlet the second version of Scarlet and the last version of Scarlet in the vintage line I first got this figure cheap super cheap even though I didn't really want it It was so cheap. I figured why not but then I looked on yo joe.com and I saw there's a variant I have to get another one, but thanks to even Foster for hooking me up with the variant of this action figure I will have a very important special announcement at the end of this video, but for now HCC 788 presents Ninja Force Scarlet This is Ninja Force Scarlet the second version of Scarlet from 1993 this figure was only available in 1993. It was not reissued in 1994 And we do have a variant to look at incidentally 1993 was the penultimate year for the real American hero line. The line was discontinued after 1994 In 1994 there was not a replacement for Scarlet, but in 1994 We did get shadow ninjas, which were translucent versions of Ninja Force figures So they took bad figures and they made them look even more stupid version two of Scarlet is of course a part of Ninja Force and in the late 80s in the 90s GI Joe was all about sub teams You had your Tiger Force you had your night Force and of course you had your Ninja Force The first version of Scarlet came out in 1982 in the very first series of GI Joe figures when the line was relaunched that year and 1983 we got version 1.5 of Scarlet, which was pretty much the same action figure But they changed the arm to add a new point of articulation the swivel arm after the 1983 swivel arm version of Scarlet We did not get another version of Scarlet for ten years The entire body mold of Ninja Force Scarlet was reused to make the Street Fighter 2 figure Chun Li Also in 1993 before we look at the figure and the accessories Let's look at the packaging Scarlet came on a card like this sealed inside a bubble and Ninja Force had its own kind of design with this hot pink color Which I really think is hideous up here You have the GI Joe logo and then you have the Ninja Force logo and down here You have a sticker warning about small parts and I believe there's a variant of this card that doesn't have that sticker You have Scarlet as the counterintelligence specialist and this number four here That's there because for some reason Ninja Force figures were numbered sequentially and Scarlet is the fourth Figure in the second wave of the line There are some instructions that are printed on here that would be behind the figure on the bubble and then we have This big space here and that is for the accessories tree Now i'm going to talk about this quiet a bit later Don't you worry, but i'm going to set it aside for now so we can continue looking at the card The artwork on the card is really not bad I don't mind this at all and then we have the caption here for the real ninja action Spring action kato kick flipping the card around we have more to see here We have the cross cell and we're no longer advertising the whole GI Joe line here This up here just has the other ninja force figures that were available that year And their numerical order we have a little description of ninja force here It says these swift and silent commandos are the true elite forces for GI Joe and cobra Each ninja warrior is fully capable of neutralizing an adversary in milliseconds. You hear that milliseconds screw you science It has an advertisement for a vehicle here the ninja lightning and that looks really goofy It tells us about more special forces other GI Joe sub teams DEF and battle core and then over here we have our flag point Our sad little flag point finally we have scarless file card And I think it was a very poor choice to print the file card in that hot pink or purple color I just think it looks garish and it's very hard to read Let's take a look at scarless accessories the accessories came out of the package on this tree And you're meant to pop them off and I really do not like this I know ninja turtles had these accessories trees and I didn't like them there And I sure don't like it for GI Joe Now plus the accessories are all bright yellow. I mean these do not look like Ninja accessories at all. It's just really bright. Now. I know the yellow goes with the colors of the action figure That and I understand why they chose yellow, but you know what color also would have gone with the colors on the action figure Black black accessories would have gone very nicely with the black highlights on the figure or you know in the olden days We got accessories that weren't all the same color. This is just lazy This is the epitome of laziness It is insulting to the consumer and to add insult to injury. None of these accessories are original They were all used on other action figures So let's look at those accessories and where they came from and the best accessory is probably The figure stand it did come with a figure stand and that's nice That's a good thing about later GI Joe action figures early action figures did not come with the figure stands It is bright yellow, but at least it's a figure stand So that's good. The figure came with two yellow claws that fit around her wrist And they are both the same And these were reused from the 1988 Storm Shadow version 2 and of course storm shadows are in black and that black looks much better than the yellow She had this short sword with a straight blade and handle and this sword was reused from the 1992 Dojo she also had a long sword with an angled handle and this sword was reused from the 1992 Storm Shadow version 3 she had a long sword with a curved blade And this was reused from the 1993 snake eyes version 5 She had this curved knife which also came from the 1993 snake eyes version 5 And finally she had these nun chucks and these nun chucks are reissued from the 1992 figure called nun chuck Her file card calls these standard issue nun chucks scarlet does not come with her signature crossbow Instead she comes with a lot of reissued accessories from other action figures And they're not very good accessories and this is a pet peeve of mine She comes with more accessories than she can possibly carry at one time And really if you're not going to give us good accessories giving us more accessories does not make up for it Let's look at the articulation on scarlet and this is where we can start looking at the variant The early issues of scarlet version 2 had a ball jointed head Which was standard for gijo figures at the time that meant she could turn his head from left to right She could also look up and down later issues of ninja force scarlet had a swivel head Meaning she could only turn her head from left to right. She could not look up and down I don't know why that would make this change It would require retooling the head and the torso which is expensive and it reduces the articulation So I don't know why they would do this. It really doesn't seem like a good move Otherwise the head sculpt is exactly the same It can be very difficult to tell these apart other than the neckline of the ball jointed head version Goes slightly lower than the one on the swivel head version But that's very difficult to see especially if you're looking at them on ebay You will probably have to ask the seller which version he has on the ball jointed head There is a seam on the neck that you can see if the head is tilted down But that is not an angle that a seller is likely to photograph her arms had the standard articulation of gijo action Figures at that time meaning they could swing up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around They had a hinge at the elbow so that she could move at the elbow about 90 degrees and a swivel at the bicep So she could swivel her arm all the way around once we get past the arms. We have more articulation problems This is not an o-ring figure. It does not move at the torso at all. It cannot move at the hip It can't turn it can't go up and down The next point of articulation we have is at the hip here is where the action feature really interferes with the figure Instead of having a ball jointed hip with a wider range of motion You can only move the legs at the hip forward and a little bit backward She does have articulation at the knees now We get to the spring loaded action feature the kato kick and the spring is in the right leg You just pull the right leg back and it kicks forward it kicks forward like that I hate this. This is terrible. We lose articulation points for this. This is bad It's not a high kick either. It really only kicks up to about crotch level. So her real ninja action is a nut shot He's still smiling You know, that's what it feels like to review this figure. It hurts. It really hurts Let's take a look at the sculpt design and color of ninja force scarlet and starting with her head I'm gonna say right off the bat that I like this head. I think this is a good head sculpt It's an improvement on the version one scarlet head sculpt Version one of scarlet never really looked the way we wanted the character to look and she had Short red hair and she was always depicted in the cartoon in the comic book as having long hair But they did achieve the long hair on version two of scarlet with this Red doll hair and I I like that. I think that's a good choice And I really do think this is an excellent head I believe the first gi jo action figure to use this doll hair for long hair Was the dreadnought zanzibar from 1987 prior to that for long-haired action figures such as the baroness and buzzer They just used soft plastic hair pieces. This head looks more like scarlet and take a look at her eyes She has green eyes guys. She doesn't just have the standard brown or black eyes They gave her an extra paint application to give her green eyes I think that's a very nice touch the swivel head version also has green eyes But the green appears to be darker the head is a good start But unfortunately we have to look at the rest of the action figure on her shoulders She has these gold shoulder pads and those are okay. I guess She has gold upper arm plates and those look a lot like the ones that were on zartan, but they are different She's wearing kind of a green leotard with black around the edges And she has this black rope that goes across her chest and her file card calls this musubi nawa Which is twisted horse hair Which makes a durable and flexible climbing rope and then right in the middle of her chest She has a grenade the grenade is totally random It doesn't fit with anything else on the action figure and it continues the plague of grenades on gi jo action figures Is like the design team decided if they couldn't think of a detail They just put a grenade there even if it doesn't make any sense She has a cloth tassel on her right hip and I do like this This is a pretty cool deal on her back She has what the file card calls quick toss throwing daggers and what exactly are they attached to They look like they're hanging from the skin on her back That just looks really weird and out of place on her arms She has yellow green bands around her wrists and she has oval shaped elbow pads and this is a very unfortunate choice I'll talk more about why this is a poor choice when I talk about her knee pads Her leotard thing comes down to a v which looks very awkward since her crotch is squared off Same in the back that just looks embarrassing Her hips are very wide to accommodate the spring loaded feature And this makes the figure look short and stout like a little teapot I am guilty of referring to this figure as thunder thighs scarlet and I admit that's a bad thing to do We're not about body shaming on this channel. There's nothing wrong with this body shape The problem is it's the wrong shape for scarlet in all of her depictions and gi jo media She is shown as having a slender athletic build This just does not look like her her right leg is pretty plain and on her left leg There is a green sculpted pistol Which the file card calls a custom oak handled six shooter Which is kind of weird. It sounds like an old west gun and why is it on her left leg? Is she left-handed she has green oval shaped knee pads green shin guards and black boots And she has footholds on her feet for the figure stand and that's an improvement on the first version of scarlet Which did not okay. Let's talk about these knee pads. I'm normally a big fan of knee pads I've always liked knee pads ever since we first got them with the cobra soldier Always thought of knee pads is like a little bonus feature When you bend the knee the knee pad kind of sticks out a little bit The problem with the shape of scarlet's knee pads is they don't just stick up at the top of the knee They stick out at the sides as do her elbow pads They kind of swing out to the side like that and it makes it look like she's wearing pie plates on her elbows and knees Let's take a look at scarlet's file card as it was printed on the back of the card on which she was packaged It has a small portrait of scarlet up here and then down here It has numbered arrows and a list of the features on the figure and to be honest I don't need this if you want to give me a list of her accessories. That's fine But I really don't need this. This doesn't appeal to me at all Usually this is just a bunch of made-up stuff anyway that I don't care about her codename is scarlet counterintelligence specialist File name shana m. O'Hara primary military specialty counterintelligence secondary military specialty classified Birthplace Atlanta, georgia and grade e five her biographical information is mostly the same as the version one file card except her serial number changed I don't know why they do that her grade is still e five Which means she hasn't received a promotion in 11 years This section says scarlet began her training in the martial arts at age nine and was awarded a black belt at age 15 and this is the same as the information on her first file card It goes on to say she was not only physically ahead of her time, but mentally as well She graduated summa cum laude from two ivy lee universities And went on to excel in training courses in all four branches of the armed forces Cobra often mistakes her for just another pretty face rather than a member of gi joe's elite ninja force Which makes her perfect for undercover missions She is a great friend to each of the joe's and especially snake eyes and a deadly enemy to cobra I like that it mentions the snake eyes relationship. These two are great friends Now i've already talked quite a bit about the cartoon relationship with duke So i won't go into it again other than to say i am on team snake eyes This file card makes the same mistake that duke's file card makes it tries to make her too perfect I mean she's already elite. She was a great fighter from an early age But now it gives her two ivy league degrees graduating summa cum laude even So she has two ivy league degrees and she didn't enter the army as an officer I can only imagine at her second ivy league graduation ceremony an army recruiter walked up to her Handed her a flyer and said have you thought about your future and she said Hmm with my two ivy league degrees getting shot out sounds like a good career move You don't have to do this. She's already a cool character You don't have to turn it up to 11 scarlet of course was very prominent in gi joe media in the cartoon series She appeared in the very first episode and she appeared all the way through the sunbow series When the sunbow series ended and deke took over the animation for gi joe She appeared in that series as well, but she appeared in her version one costume The deke series predated ninja force it ran from 1990 to early 1992 So as far as I can tell she did not appear in this costume in the comic book She appeared in issue number one and she appeared for many years thereafter Even when there was no scarlet action figures on the shelves for the kids to buy and she appeared in her ninja force costume As a part of ninja force although the comic book pointed out that she was not a ninja They just considered her an honorary ninja She was part of a ninja force story arc starting in issue 135 Which had her infiltrating cobra as a double agent Which is a pretty cool concept for a story Now I wasn't reading gi joe at the time those issues came out So i'm just now getting around to reading those issues and i've got to tell you They are not good that ninja force story has transformers in it It has hawk with brown hair and that's bad. We've talked about this I'm generally a big fan of the comic book, but I had not realized how fatigued the series had grown by that point It was dark times man dark times looking at ninja force scarlet overall This is a terrible action figure. It's not the worst. Remember this guy, but it is not a good figure It has some points that are not bad. I think the head sculpt is pretty good. It really kind of looks like scarlet But it's a great improvement over the version one head sculpt the colors are not bad and that cloth castle That's okay. The rest is pretty terrible. The yellow accessories are hideous and unoriginal She doesn't have her signature crossbow and the shape of the action figure is not athletic as scarlet should be I should have reviewed this figure for christmas Because she looks like a christmas tree. Here's the thing about spring-loaded action features I hate them. I've always hated them, but if you're gonna give me an action feature You can't wreck the rest of the figure to do it So what you have here is a figure with less articulation than a normal action figure to give it a spring-loaded feature Which if I were playing with it as a kid, I would never use and that's all we got for scarlet figures Scarlet who is one of the most important characters in all of gi joe media She was all over the cartoon and the comic book when it came to the toys All we got was one figure that was arguably mediocre and another figure that I think was terrible and in the vintage line That's it. So at no time in the 12 years that this line ran You couldn't take another shot at it. It's characters like scarlet that make gi joe culturally important Scarlet was a woman in a boys toy line Who was portrayed as doing things that women in real life still were not allowed to do and that is significant That gives gi joe a relevance beyond just toys scarlet ought to be remembered even today as an iconic role model for girls and young women As the father of daughters I would like for my daughters to be more like scarlet, but as far as the toys go This is what they give us scarlet deserves better Scarlet deserves better gi joe is not just a label You can't just slap the gi joe logo on something and call it good gi joe isn't just a label it is a legacy gi joe had a historical significance Before it ever became a toy. So if you're gonna call something a gi joe You have something to live up to and this ain't it. Do you know what this means? Do you know what this piece of plastic means? It means we're not trying anymore We're just gonna poop out some plastic slap the gi joe logo on it and hope the kids buy it And that is not good enough that is never good enough It would have been better for the gi joe line to have ended earlier than to continue on and tarnish its legacy like this gi joe deserved better the kids deserve better and scarlet deserved better. That's it. I'm out I'm not quitting. There are still a lot of good gi joe toys to review But I do have a very special announcement that I need to make right now I need a break hooded cobra commander needs to get back to cobra island for some much needed r and r That means next week. I will not be doing a new review, but you will get a new video I'm going to try an experiment next week. I am going to have a guest reviewer instead of hooded cobra commander Your reviewer is going to be face plated cobra commander Maybe if this experiment goes well in the future, I will have more guest reviewers There are some vintage toy reviewers that I'd like to promote I'd like everybody to watch a but it depends on how this experiment goes, but I think it will go well So I will see you in a couple weeks. This is hooded cobra commander seven eight eight signing off Exactly