Resolute Zartan

by KansasBrawler

The fact that this figure is in my collection surprises even me. I thought the new designs for the characters in Resolute were amazing. Even though Resolute took some flak for being too dark, I really enjoyed its take on the G.I. Joe universe for the most part. However, until very recently, I’ve never been much of an online shopper. I got kind of burned by my first online Joe transaction ever and I never really saw the need to try again. So I was kind of bummed that the Resolute sets were going to be pretty much available only online. You can imagine my surprise, then, when I was shopping at my local Hastings in Kansas (yeah, Hastings is one of the few things I miss about not living in Kansas anymore—it was a great DVD and collectibles store that came sans the markup you can sometimes get at places like that) and both the Joe and Cobra Resolute sets were sitting there on the shelf. While I hemmed and hawed a bit more of the Joe set (but still bought it that same trip), I immediately snatched up the Cobra set. While I initially went after it for Destro, Zartan really came to surprise me and I’m really glad I was able to purchase figures of the Resolute designs. Big props to Hasbro for finding a way to get these designs out even though they couldn’t rebrand the line before the movie took over to do a full series of Resolute figures.

Now, I will freely admit, at this point it’s probably been close to four years since I’ve watched Resolute. I’ve just never gotten around to tracking it down on DVD, but from what I can recall, Hasbro did a pretty darn good job recreating Zartan’s new, unique look without really molding any new body parts. He shares his arms and legs with the cool Rise of Cobra Flash and his chest with the 25th Anniversary Snake Eyes. I realize YoJoe says he’s got a new head, but honestly, to me it looks like the same head Zartan has been using since the 25th Anniversary. It’s a good head, and I really don’t know why Hasbro would have needed to make a new one anyway. Mercifully, the dated Snake Eyes torso is covered by a brand new piece of armor and Zartan gets a nice hood to top off his look. The detailing on his armor is pretty impressive and Hasbro really went all out on the sculpting since the entire figure is made from reused parts. The armor is sleek and angular and honestly looks really intimidating. It looks like Zartan could take some pretty harsh punishment and still survive because of the stoutness of this armor. The new armor does unfortunately limit Zartan’s poseability, but I’m not sure that’s such a huge drawback. He looks good and he can move somewhat, so I’ll count it as a win. The detailing on his arms is nice and sharp and even though the Flash parts weren’t designed for Zartan, they really do a good job of making the high-tech look he had in Resolute. They do unfortunately lack the standard, modern wrist articulation which does keep him from holding his sniper rifle in a more realistic shooting position, but they still look good here, so I’ll give them a pass. I do kind of wish there were a few more details on his legs. They just look awfully plain. There’s a lot of detail from the waist up, but from the waist down he looks a little bland.

The paint job also does a really good job selling the Resolute look for Zartan. Honestly, he looks like he leaped right out of the screen and on to my display shelf. Zartan’s look has always been braced in browns, blacks and grays and this Zartan doesn’t really deviate from that look. Considering how much more of a departure he is from the classic Zartan idea, that’s probably a good thing. Even though he’s clearly more of a high-tech thief and assassin than the leader of a biker gang, he still uses Zartan’s basic color palate and I think that really helps him out a lot. His paint scheme is pretty simple with a dark brown shirt and brown pants. Grays and blacks are used to bring out the armor details but what I really like is the neon green paint on the back of his armor. In the cartoon, Zartan’s gear glowed green and I appreciate the attention to detail they had here to give the illusion of some glowing parts being built into the armor as part of his holographic camouflage system. As an added touch, the green used for Zartan’s eyes is a similar (if not the same) color. That adds a really nice inhuman touch to this version of Zartan. Apparently using this high-tech holographic camouflage has some unforeseen side effects and has done something to Zartan’s physiology.

In the Resolute cartoon, Zartan had to impressive and unique weapons: the sniper rifle he used to kill Hard Master and the rocket pistol he used to fight Scarlett and Duke in the Arctic. Amazingly, Hasbro gave Zartan both these accessories and they made them look really sharp. Both pieces are brand new molds and I’m honestly pleased we haven’t seen them get a lot of use with other figures. I’m usually the type of guy that feels if Hasbro’s got a good gun mold (like the rifle that came with 30th Anniversary Lifeline), I want them to use it until I’m sick of it. However, I think both these weapons are so associated with this particular version of Zartan, I’m okay not seeing every Tom, Dick and Serpentor running around with them. I’m not an expert in military hardware by any means, but the rifle looks to be a relatively high caliber model judging by the muzzle break on the front. I can just see Zartan, cloaked by his holographic camouflage, lying in wait with this gun at the ready, just waiting to pick off any target he was hired to kill unfortunate enough to walk into his crosshairs. The rifle also gets two nice paint apps: some green for parts of the rifle stock and some red in the scope. The green looks pretty sharp on the butt of the gun, but up at the front, it doesn’t work as well because the sculpt lines that it follows up there aren’t quite as distinct. Until I took a really close look at it while reviewing, I just thought they decided to paint the bottom part of the stock green up at the front, but there is actually some detailing up there that the paint job follows. It’s just a shame that the detailing is so subtle that it doesn’t really pop out, even with a paint job. The rocket pistol is also quite sharp. I like the triangular, three-barreled look. It’s unique and you can tell what it is right away. The only thing I don’t like is the backstock. The way it’s designed means that Zartan can only hold it in his left hand. Considering I shoot right handed, I’m okay with that. I see his rifle as his primary weapon so he’d want to shoot it from his strong side while his offhand weapon would be the pistol. However, I kind of like being able to decide which hand holds which weapon. The barrels of the rocket pistol also get the same green paint application as the rifle so Zartan apparently took the time to make sure his weapons were color coordinated.

This version of Zartan really embodies everything I liked about the Resolute mini-series. He clearly has stylistic ties to his classic version, but at the same time, he’s quite a bit darker and harder-edged and looks a lot more modernized. I love the look of Zartan as the shirtless leader of a gang of bikers, but I also like the look of the more techno-wizard master of disguise that he’s been updated to more recently. This Zartan looks good standing with the other Resolute Cobras, but he also doesn’t really look out of place just hanging out with his Dreadnoks. That’s something you really can’t say about the other versions of Zartan. The first 25th Anniversary Zartan looked a bit more like a Cobra and the second looked very Dreadnok and didn’t really mix well with the Cobra command side of his character. That was always my one beef with Zartan’s other figures. I can see him as the leader of a biker gang, but to be as highly placed as he eventually wound up in the Cobra hierarchy was just kind of laughable. The Rise of Cobra version looks really good with other Rise of Cobra figures but doesn’t really fit in anywhere else and the same can be said of the Pursuit of Cobra version. Resolute Zartan really looks appropriate in any setting you place him in and I really like that amount of versatility here. He looks sinister and deadly and clearly is someone you don’t want to cross. That’s what you want to see from Zartan and Resolute Zartan really delivers on that front.