GI Joe 3.75" Pursuit of Cobra Shadow Tracker

Awww yeah!

If you don't think even for a moment he looks anything like any thing in the GI Joe line before him, it's because he isn't meant to!  Or at least he's meant to look like something else, something like...The Predator!

First we had Pursuit of Cobra Duke.  Then we got Recondo, followed by Spirit.  And all three figures were part of the Jungle Assault themed characters in the line but had very strong likenesses to characters from the original Predator movie.

Recondo looked suspiciously like Blain (Jesse Ventura), Spirit like Billy Sole (Sonny Landham) and Duke, while he didn't much look like Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch, is attired very much like him (and is also the leader, so yeah.)  So then it's no surprise that they would finally come up with a character that looks like the title character of the classic movie.

I'd been waiting for this figure to arrive in Singapore for a long time, so much so that I'd almost lost all interest in getting him.  So when I finally did see him at the local flea market, I almost passed because I'd kinda grown lukewarm about it.  Also, he was priced at S$22 (US$17).

But then I convinced myself of how much I liked the Arnie's Predator (and that all the rest were just not that good).  I also wanted to complete the Predator sub-theme within the Joes so this guy was a must-have.  So I tried my luck and managed to get Shadow Tracker for S$20--reasonable considering the large department stores don't bring in the newer GI Joe stuff anymore.

But just how would Hasbro pull off making a human look like an alien hunter? Well, let's find out!

Like: Dreadlocks, mon!  A simple and elegant solution to mimic the Predator's head tails.  They've given the Shadow Tracker a real shock of 'locks so that his hair has some real body.  The dreads are also so detailed that you can see the texture in each 'lock.

His dreads are a two-piece affair with a base piece for his inner 'locks and and a top layer forming his fringe and back 'locks.  It's got a real 3D effect going because it is in fact 3D! :P

Special mention goes to the translucent green mask and the creepy black eyes with white pupils, which are sharply painted.  The mask lets just enough color past that you can see a stange shade of his brown skin tone and what could be black face paint or possibly his skull.

Like: That he's got more weapons that he can carry!  But it doesn't mean he's got no way to carry all of his equipment.  In fact, he's got plenty of weapon peg slots...But more on that later!  Shadow Tracker comes with: an elaborate spear of seemingly alien design, a modern bow, a quiver with a detachable arrow, a bolas, a net (with drawstring), a short sword, a dagger, a machete, another larger silver jagged-edged dagger, and a modified sickle.  I just ran out of breath writing that.

Like: That his vest has two holes in the back and an attached sheath for his dagger between them, at the small of his back.

Like: The spear has another hole so you can peg in his bolas.  Hell yeah!

Like: That he's got a hinged right wrist so he can properly be put in a bow firing pose!  Better yet, his wrist hinges allow him to wield his large array of knives with all sorts of flourish!

The fingers on his right hand are molded so that an arrow notched between them but that two hooked digits also add to his machete-brandishing brilliance!  And that hand, oh that same right hand, makes him look like he knows all sorts of martial arts moves that no alien has the earthly right to know!!!

His left hand is hinged but in an up/down fashion as opposed to the more commonly seen left to right hinge. What does this mean?  Well, more kick-assery  posing with blades!

Right Wrist "Slapping"

Left Wrist "Stabbing"

Like: That they chose to give him pale dark skin (a paradox!) because it resembles the skin of the Predator, while at the same time making him very much a human being with a scary mask and hair.  Herein lies the trick of making a human look like our favorite hunter-killer alien (except for all you Alien fans, of course. ;P)

Dislike: Or more like disppointed that his mask isn't removable.  It's stuck straight onto his face.

Dislike: That the mask and 'dreads severly limit his head articualtion.  Limited to swivel by mask and vest, not the dreads--those are flexi enough to that the can bend to accomodate the head turns.  Still, his head can safely move about halfway to the right and left efore popping off.  Down is ok, but up is out of the question because of his bulky hair.  Tilting either way is also fine.

Dislike:  That his 'locks block his top vest hole in the back (that's for his quiver) unless you turn his head either way to the openings in the back of his hair.

RATINGS

Aesthetics: 8.5/10 - Great "Predator" look, great choice of skin color and of course, those marvelous dreadlocks.  His head sculpt really steals the show.  But other than that, he's an ordinary Joe (or rather, ordinary COBRA, uh, dude...) in the looks department.  I'm also not a huge fan of his neon green trimmings.  Perhaps it was meant to reflect the color of the Predator's luminous blood?  But in al fairness, they didn't overdo him with neon green, so his colors are acceptable--I just don't think he'd blend in well in a jungle!

Poseability: 9.5/10 - Plenty of weapons, plenty of places to put them, and those brilliantly hinged wrists.  Excellent ankle hinges also allow him to point his toes very well, and he's also got great metal ball-joints for his hips/legs, which allow 90 degree bend forward and almost 90 straight out to the side. He does lose some points for the slightly troblesome head, but when it stays on, the head can look very menacing indeed.

Fun: 10/10 - There's no end to the fun you can have with the "Predator" terrorizing Dutch and gang, killing Blain and BILLIEEEEEEE!!!  And what's more fun than a litle crossover with our favorite planet-hopping alien hunter than to have him visit all our fave planets from across all our fave brands?

Even if you just wanted to use him as a regular (and I use hat erm loosely) COBRA troop, he looks unique enough that he'll pop out on the shelf and and even outshine the likes of the more human looking Joes.

Value: 9.5/10 - 11 accessories, a figure stand, a vest, lots of great head tooling really make Shadow Tracker worthwhile.  The extra wrist joints are also  very welcome bonus and the effort put in is very much worth every cent you put into the figure.  And really, across the board, GI JOes are right not the absolute best when it comes to bang for your buck.

Overall: 9.4/10 - Shadow Tracker is not just possibly the best Joe figure ever, he's also one of the best 3.75 inch scale figures I've seen with a few special exceptions.  (Yes, World War Hulk is my absolute fave...)  Recondo/Blain from this same Pursuit of COBRA line was excellent but Shadow Tracker is better.

Chase away the leader...

Recondo may have free head movement (baldness has its benefits) but he ain't got no hinged wrists madness.  Both the figures come with good, useful stuff, with 'Tracker just just simply having a ton more tools for a-killin'!

I like this figure so much that I hope that they need to reuse Shadow Tracker's head sculpt on a different guy with different colors--more predators so that COBRA can have their own Predator squad!

Blow away the big mouth...

Kill off the minority...

Then take the show on the road!

GI Joe 3.75" Pursuit of Cobra: Recondo

Stalking Recondo
In the jungles of Congo,
Once you had hair,
Now you're a baldo.

Jesse Recondo,
You look more like Gung-Ho,
I say you're Edward Norton,
Chubbier, with a mustachio...

I knew my major in Creative Writing would come to goood use some day.  Yup.

Like all the rest of these figures getting a push in the Pursuit of Cobra Jungle theme (excepting Duke), I really have no connection or love whatsoever for the character.  Except for my masterpiece of a poem up there. :P That's why I'm not bothered that he looks more like Gung-Ho or should have hair etc.  I'm kinda neutral about the Recondo character.

But enter a hint of a Predator theme and tons of references toward the original cult classic and BAM!  Suddenly I'm all in.  So there was no hesitation when I saw this guy on the pegs in a local store, heck, there was no hesitation once I saw the solicitation pics of him online!  I was going to get him come hell or high water!

Why?  Four Words:

Jesse "The Body" Ventura.


It's not that I actually liked the guy or his character during his wrestling days.  I mean, what kinda of a man wears a feather boa, bandanna, and tights?  Well nowadays, most everyone but when I was a kid, it was strange to say the least.

I kinda of liked him a little bit better when he first took over as governor of Minnesota--I was headed up there for college and most people seemed to like him then, especially when he had a nice bald head and returned them tax money at the end of the year.  Or something like that.

But then Minnesotans started to turn on him when things got heavy and he started to go a little crazy.  It was kinda not cool to say you liked The Governor back then.  So I didn't.  And he grew out his hair, or what was left of it.

But it was really these two classic quotable quotes from Predator which just made Recondo come alive and revive the Blain character in the Ventura of old:

"I ain't got time to bleed."

"This stuff'll make you a goddamn a sexual tyrannosaurus.  Just like me."

How can you that not catch your attention?  And really, the poor guy, for all his tough talking, didn't really get a good shot off at the Predator before the guy put a hole in his chest the size of, well, his chest.  But like Billy Sole (POC Spirit: Iron Knife), Blain has been immortalized in 3.75 inch scale plastic and will forever live on in our playrooms/on our display shelves.

And was it a good immortalization?  Well, I ain't got time for jibber-jabber so jump on over!


Ok so I lied.  Here I am with more jibber-jabber.  And jibber-jabber is totally Mr. T, not Jesse Ventura.  Hey, but Mr.T wrestled for a bit in the WWE and maybe even Jesse himself, so there's a valid connection! 

Jibber-Jabber!

Like: His head sculpt.  He looks like Jesse Ventura, Gung-Ho, and Edward Norton all rolled into one!  Maybe they're hinting that Ed could come in and play the character in GI Joe 2?  I mean, why else would he give up playing the Hulk, right?  Riiiight....

Like: That he can carry all his stuff, and I mean all his stuff, on him at one go.  I really love it when a figure can do that, never mind that some of the equipment he comes with may be weird (see backpack below).
Like: His really nicely tooled and paint vest.  It's got a nice white collar, a padded left shoulder areas to prop his sniper rifle up against, pockets, and even a cell phone!  The paint is great to, with most of it quite sharp.  The vest also comes off easily with two pegs and holes on each side, and has two small holes to peg his axes on.  That is truly sweet!

Like: His hat and his mask.  It's a mask!  That fits perfectly by snapping into his ear holes with two really tiny pegs.  It fits firmly, tighter than the hat, which falls off rather easily (probably due to the lack of texture of his head.)

But both have awesome detail: the hat with it's one edge folded up ala an army ranger, and the mask because it looks so tiki and tribal and is perfect for a jungle themed figure.  The mask is the stuff you kinda look for in figures to give it that extra X-factor.  And it delivers here! 

Like: The two bear traps of death.  These are articulated so that they can clamp shut.  And can be pegged on to his pack, with space for one of them to be attached to tha pack's zip-line of destruction: attach the trap, pull the string and set it down, depress the huge ol' red button and zip! Recondo relels the poor schmuck that steps in it in.  The strength of the retraction is so great it always breaks apart and unhinges the trap.

Dislike: The really weird and un-jungle-like backpack.  The solar panels make me laugh.  Just like Ventura's feather boas and fancy-schmancy sunglasses of old, they really feel out of place on a figure that supposed to be all equipped for the jungle.  Solar panels?  Really?  Lol.

Dislike: That he has a tiny additional peg at the side of his backpack that his other bear trap can peg onto, but the peg is either slightly too large or slightly blocked by some sculpted detail on the pack.  So the trap tends to fall off pretty easily.  This is one of those situations that I love that they have a peg there but am disappointed it doesn't work right.

RATINGS

Aesthetics: 9/10 - This guy fits in perfectly with the other guys he's meant to fit in with: Duke and Spirit.  While Duke's clothed in deep jungle green and Spirit's workin' the light greens, Recondo's taken the browns with hints of yellow.  Having the three of them together is really a sight.  Gone are the days when these three characters would mean three different heads on three of the same bodies.

Poseability: 9/10 - Say what you like about the bear traps and the backpack gimmick, but they add to his poseability, even if he does look kinda stupid trying to snare an animal barely two feet away from him.  The other PoAs are standard modern Joe, with him being ale to not only look down well, but tilt his head as well.

Fun: 10/10 - It can't get more fun than the sexual tyrannosaurus who ain't got time to bleed. Just imagine him saying it as he chews on his tobacco.  There you go.  Or just click on the earlier link above.  That'll do it.
I can't say how much fun Recondo turned out because of the number of pegs, slots, holes he has to carry stuff. (That's not even counting those he uses to express his mastodonic sexuality.)  And as more accessories with similar pegs etc. are released with the new figures, you'll be able to mix and match his equipment, making him even more of a beast of an equipment carrier. For example: POC Firefly's forearm armor has similar pegs to Recondo's axes.  Hopefully more figures will have these and soon!

Value: 9/10 - No doubt one of the best value for money figures of the line.  Sometimes figures come with lots of guns.  Some come with tons of gear.  While this guy might not have it all like say the ROC Pit Commando, what he has is unique--a tiki mask, the hat, the vest, the backpack (solar panels and all), and the bear traps.  There's no doubt they'll be re-used in some form or other, but for now, it's nice to have some new stuff to fiddle with that functions (read: plays) well at that.

Overall: 9.25/10 - Quite possibly the best Joe from the Pursuit of Cobra line, which is in itself already excellent. Whether or not he looks like what Recondo in the comics or the cartoons looks like, I really don't mind because this guy works, Recondo the Body Ventura works perfectly as a toy and as a possible character from the movies to come (except for that one small peg on the backpack for the bear trap, but that's minor.)

From the overall look, to the paint apps, to the accessories, to the playability (he can carry it all and still strike a pose!), I can't help but be impressed by how impressed I am by this guy.  Just looking at the axes pegged on his vest gives me a tingly feeling that warms my heart--I think my gigantic prehistoric lizard is emerging...figuratively speaking, of course...Aaah...