Zartan (2014 Kre-O)
Hey kids, it’s another Kre-O minifigure. I can’t resist, they’re so darn photogenic. Besides, can you really complain about about an homage to ’84 Zartan? Especially one that carries an alternate head on its own special little handle. Weird, I know, but somehow it makes sense.
All of the hallmarks of Zartan’s outfit are well represented. There’s the always amazing bare midriff, chest armor and thigh pads. There’s back printing too! Also, the figure cries out for a blue-green colored variant, doesn’t it? Too bad it didn’t happen. The main detail missing (besides his Chameleon of course) is the backpack. That would have been a nice little added micro build.
Time for a little Kre-O parts investigation. We all know that Joe sourced many of its parts from the Battleship and Transformers series, but a few bits were shared with another Kre-O line. Around the same time as the release of the fourth and fifth waves of GI Joe, Hasbro released a second and third series of Dungeons & Dragons minifigs. Well, they showed up overseas and in Canada before being offered via Entertainment Earth. Anyway, the figures incorporated a few new parts that also made their way to the GI Joe series. The shoulder armor that Tomax and Xamot wear was also part of the human knight and barbarian figures. Zartan’s hood made a couple of appearances as well. The armor pieces were around in series one of D&D, but the hood is kind of a chicken or the egg situation. Which came first?
Oh, it’s not a D&D part, but isn’t that Megatron Zartan is holding?
And yes, I did write some of this entry in order to have an excuse to post some pics of a couple D&D figures. Can you blame me? They’re pretty cool.
Being such a high-tier character, Zartan was due his Kreon. Much better than my LBC using D&D parts and a Cityville thief head. I’ve displayed Z holding that extra head for so long, my kid thought it was a coffee cup! So now Zartan shleps around the upper Terror Drome antagonizing TeleVipers about their TPS reports.
When did Zartan employ Megatron in any scheme. UNLESS, he was disguised as Joey Slick?
Great Megatron gun!
I say if you post CORPS and Action Man figures because they share the same styling and construction as vintage Joes then you don’t need an excuse to post non-Joe minifigs either! Keep ’em coming!
Thanks for the vote of confidence!