I special ordered the new Zartan from Hasbro Toy Shop due to my inability to find anything in actual stores anymore, between the line's popularity and the mentality that stores seem to have of "restocking is extra work". So...

The swamp skier is a useless accessory. It's too small, looking like something a kid would sit on and not an adult vehicle.

The masks are useless. The "Duke" mask looks nothing like Duke and could pass as a generic face, but Storm Shadow? Will anyone really believe he's Storm Shadow?

Instead of getting a sculpted chest, they sued the stock bare chest and added PVC chest armor which secures by tabs under the arms. The tabs hold poorly and they didn't accomodate at all for the hole in the back. Adding the backpack forces one to tug on the armor. Which brings me to...

The backpack's peg is sculpted too low. Once you actually hassle the thing in place, it looks like it's being worn around the neck.

This figure's main plus is that it's an update of the original, but there are a good deal of accessories that don't work well in my eyes.

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I'm glad I'm not the only one disappointed with this figure. I actually had it in my cart and ended up putting it back the more I looked at it. The new headsculpt is okay, and the armor is cool, but I hate, hate, HATE the gung-ho torso (and really wish they'd stop using it). And his little swamp skier always reminds me of the Scooty-Puff Jr. from Futurama.

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Hmm one of the few 25th offerings I considered, given how i loved the first 25th zartan.

now though? mmmm
I love the idea of the Gung Ho torso (i.e. standard buck bare torso for customizing and that you can put stuff on but i agree with Darko the torso itself seems strange.) but not the torso itself.

The problem I have with it I think is it is very lean but at the same time super muscle bound. Lean Muscle like that is less pronounced and super muscle needs more meat to it so to speak.
They need to get a new bare torso.

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It disappoints because it's a silly design. Practical problems aside, it was silly in 1984 and it's still silly.

A grown man wearing a half-shirt with leather gloves? Seriously.

The first 25A figure was much better. Like Serpentor, it was re-imagining based on the Devil's Due appearance, and it worked.

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Quoted for pure win!

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I really want to get this guy. (two, actually) But, I've yet to see him in the wild. I am a bit dissapointed by the chest armor, and if it really does have that problem staying fastened, then I'll probably end up gluing it in place. I kind of wish they'd just remolded the previous version's chest to lose the molded in Cobra logo, and used Ripper's lower torso. That one has much better muscle scuplting.

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I guess I'm in the minority here, because I actually like this second remake of the 25th Zartan. It's a true homage to the original and makes proper use of existing parts. I know lots of people have complained about gung-ho's bare chest, but it works for comic Storm Shadow and Torch, so it's a pretty good "standard buck". I'm not sure how Quick Kick's torso would work, but this one is lean enough to accomodate any addtional armor. I'm more upset about Gung-Ho's crappy arms and legs than his chest.

As for the masks, yes no one will believe he's Storm Shadow, but seriously even with the Duke mask (which I think is just fine) he's still wearing the Zartan costume!! I think this is where imagination comes into play. I'm not sure why they didn't give us a bearded figure like his ARAH v1 but c'mon sqwint your eyes a little bit and pretend he's invaded Joe HQ as Duke!

And thank you so much for that pic MightyMegs - I was going to trade away this SE/Zartan Combat Heroes pack I picked up today, but that insipred me to use the sqwashed swamp skier with mini Zartan!

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I agree I have only seen him once but that was enough and I put him back on the shelf, just too many other interesting things for me to enjoy than to feel bad about another Zartan.

The original file card also made it quite clear that Zartan was insane. Factor that in when going with the idea that he dresses himself...

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See, I never thought the torso worked for any character (Gung-ho, SS, Torch, or any of the others). The sculpting is way too weird. I much prefer the Quick Kick torso (even though the neck is weird) or the lower half of the Ripper torso. I just wish they'd retire the Gung-ho mold altogether.

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Hysterical, MightyMegs, that's awesome. Dude, I laughed for a full 3 minutes at that picture, I needed that laugh!

Agreed, they more or less sculpted the abs all weird. For that level of definition cut into them, the abs are way too flat and not..i dunno. it just looks too geometric & robotic. and gung ho doesn't seem like the type to have ripped abs like that any way. if anything, a beer gut.

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hmmm I don't know about Gung-Ho having a beer gut, I mean he is a Marine! But I do see the point about the almost robotic/geometric abs sculpt. I guess for me, I think the Gung-Ho arms and legs are far worse than the torso. I love my Torch (except for his arms) and I would have kept my Gung-Ho but his stupid legs couldn't hold him up.

Maybe they should just retire that mold all together indeed, and toss out the Duke arms while we're at it.

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