Commando 2007 Wave 3 - Commando Snake Eyes

The most famous and popular character in the G.I. Joe mythos is without a doubt, Snake Eyes. He is truly the "Wolverine" of the Joe universe, involved in every story, and often given somewhat superhuman capabilities. For a long time, and throughout the entire Sigma 6 storyline, Snake Eyes has been the veritable "Super Ninja" which is an aspect that many Joe fans do not care for. The character started out, twenty-five years ago, as simply a Commando, and here, in 2007, he goes back to his roots, in more ways than one.

Not only does this version of Snake Eyes put aside his ninja tendancies, but he also side-steps his always familiar dark colored spandex uniform, going instead with a much more traditional military look in different shades of green. Sometimes drastic color changes can have a serious impact on the character's appearance and effect, but in this case, Snake Eyes is extremely successful. This figure takes on a whole new look, and still manages to "feel" like Snake Eyes and bring all of his spirit and attitude to a whole new look.

The ultimate G.I. Joe Commando goes back to his early look, especially in the head sculpt, which is strongly reminiscent of his original 1982 figure. Ever since the figure that came out in '85, Snake Eyes' most familiar look has been the visor worn over his eyes, but Hasbro designers go a different route here, bringing him back to his more standard goggles and facemask that really gives him a great "Commando" feel, yet still exudes Snake Eyes' attitude.

This version of Snake Eyes uses the same old torso piece, and uses the double-jointed elbows from the Commando '07 Wave 1 Snake Eyes earlier this year, which is cool with me, as I love those double joints. He's got Kung Fu Grip on his right hand as all of the figures do, and it looks like they engineered it into the regular Snake Eyes hand, and it works well. He's got a tight grip, and a minor trigger finger, but ultimately it works well.

The waist piece on this version of Snake Eyes looks to be taken from Gung Ho, but the rest of the figure's legs look to be brand new sculpts. Well detailed sculpted cloth and a very cool hybrid combat/ninja toed boots really gives his legs a unique look and is very much a Snake Eyes characteristic. The paint apps on his legs are very, very nice, also. A fairly elaborate, well detailed camouflage paint scheme works quite well and meshes with Snake Eyes' character nicely. As I mentioned, too, his footwear is a terrific combination between his split-toed boots and regular, thicker combat boots that gives him a nice unique look.

From a color perspective, Snake Eyes is pretty much just painted in different shades of green, and it all works. Between the camouflage pattern and the different shades of light and dark green throughout his torso and arms just brings the whole figure together, and even though he's not in the traditional black and gray color scheme, he still looks great. Definitely Snake Eyes.

From an accessory standpoint, Commando Snake Eyes is stacked. He's got rubberized webgear and a gunbelt, an interesting modular machine gun pistol, some new flip-out swords, and even a listening device. He's got a ton of great gear that suits his Commando purpose well. The webgear is especially nice, with twin spots to hold his grenades, and a slot on the right to hold his gun. Snake Eyes really is loaded with great gear which compliments his Commando look. A very, very successful update to the Snake Eyes character, and one of the nicer figures in the line. I highly recommend giving this figure a shot, even if you have the other fifteen versions of Snake Eyes that have already been released.