Shooter has one of the more interesting journeys to the Classified line, inspired by an in-joke on one panel of G.I. Joe #1 and then created and retro-actively added to the original Joe team in the G.I. Joe Declassified comic book in 2006. She did get a figure in the modern four inch line and is now in Classified. Let’s take a look!
The box is plastic free and features a neat little rendered scene with Shooter chilling out in a field of dark Energon, a theme that persists with these Nightforce releases exclusive to Walmart. The fact that she is Nightforce labeled does make me wonder if we’ll get a repaint in the future. I believe Jodie wore all black in the comic (it’s been a while since I read it) and her four inch figure is very basic black, like Snake Eyes’ OG 13 look, so they might not think it necessary. She has no bio on the box, but her ad copy on Hasbropulse does give a little background:
Jodie “Shooter” Craig may spend days motionless waiting for her target to appear. Then her esoteric knowledge of wind deflection and bullet drop along with precise breath control guide her as she flexes her trigger finger.
Jodie comes with three hair pieces (one with an attached gas mask), a sniper rifle, a pistol, a magazine for the rifle, a knife, and a little dongle to attach her sniper rifle to her back.
The rifle is cast in a fairly soft gray plastic and is ludicrously large with sci-fi styling. The weapon reminds me a lot of a Battlefront II sniper rifle I would use when I played as a Battle Droid. The removeable magazine fits in there really tightly, which is nice, but the barrel’s length and relatively malleable plastic makes me concerned about it holding the required shape. Fortunately she holds the weapon very well and gets in a lot of nice sniper poses easily. I do feel like it’s wanting for a bi-pod.
The rifle holding piece attaches to the usual Classified back peg hole and has a peg and hook designed to hold the weapon. It works fairly well and you can choose to angle the weapon any direction you like.
The knife is cast in the same gray plastic as the gun, but holds it’s shape better due to the smaller size. It’s got a nice sharp look to it and fits well in the shoulder sheathe while not getting in the way of rifle firing poses too much. I do wish it had silver paint on the blade.
The pistol also has a bit of sci-fi detail added to the standard gun and fits well in her leg holster. I think my favorite accessories are probably the hair options.
Shooter has one head and you can swap on three hair pieces for different looks including a gas mask. Part of me wishes the gas mask was not integrated into the hair piece so it could be shared with other figures, but this way the straps and hair interact in a more realistic way. The green goggles on the mask also add an interesting pop of color.
There’s also a hair piece with a similar hair style to the gas mask piece. It goes on easily, but holds position well, with solid registration marks in the head. These are less fiddly than other swappable hair pieces in the line. The final hair piece has a more elaborate braided style. It doesn’t feel completely necessary, but it’s nice to have.
The figure itself reuses parts from Lady Jaye (arms) and the Movie Scarlett (legs), but looks to have a lot of new pieces as well. I like the way they totally changed the feel of Scarlett’s legs by adding a boot piece that make it look like the pants continue down into her more athletic styled shoes.
The overall aesthetic actually makes me think of the vibe that the original Classified wave of Duke, Roadblock and Scarlett had with more of the modern sci-fi touches that are often derided by fans as looking too “Fortnite”. I think my preference would have been a more simplified OG 13 Snake Eyes look, but I also like the balance they struck here of a more traditional shirt combined with more textured pants with a bit of armor.
Paint is pretty good, though they missed the top of her gloves in spots so they still have the skin tone. I like the face print and the tattoo reminds me of a sniper school logo I’ve seen, so it works for me. Part of me wishes they went a bit darker with the paint scheme, but I like the color pop that the cool greenish gray and green bring to the mix. I also like the super tiny little readout on her chest armor as it’s a nice little bit of detail.
Articulation is decent, but the torso movement is pretty poor. The waist gets a nice backward movement and some side to side, but little to no crunch and the mid-torso doesn’t hardly move at all on my figure. I find that the shoes do make balancing a little more challenging than with other figures and it feels like the detents are in-between where you want to put the figure in posing, so they’ll slip out of place causing her to fall. The shape of the shoe also hinders forward hinging, which makes crouching less stable. I also really miss the top neck hinge on characters like snipers that you might want to pose in a ground fire position. Shooter has:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Ball and socket head, lower neck, mid-torso, and waist
- Double hinged knees and elbows
- Hinged butterfly pecs and drop-down hips
- Swivel thighs, boots, and biceps
Overall, Shooter is a solid figure that adds some new(er) blood to the Classified line up. As much as I love recreating the original line, I’m glad they add in new and more recent characters like Shooter too. As a sniper, she does feel a little redundant so hot on the heels of Lowlight, but she also has quite a different feel to that character. Mine shipped speedily from Walmart, so hopefully this one won’t be too tough to get for most.
Source: Fwoosh
