1997 Snake Eyes (Commando Team)

Snake Eyes is a character I’ve always appreciated as an adult, but never really had much attachment to. This is probably because of the fact that I grew up more with Sunbow cartoon, where Snake Eyes never played a very prominent role. Because of this, I’ve for the most part never put a big focus on obtaining Snake Eyes figures, especially once I had the ‘97 release.

The commando look for Snake Eyes has always been my preferred appearance for the character, though to be frank, ‘83 Snake Eyes is kind of a bad toy. The sculpt is alright, but he has no paint at all, and looks flat because of it. The ‘97 figure improves on this a lot by adding details to things like his web-gear, goggles, explosive and so on. A lot of other (and probably better) repaints provided this same quality later, but this was the first one I got, so for a long time I’ve felt this is the only Snake Eyes I really need.

Of course, it’s a little annoying that this figure uses the ‘84 Roadblock waist. It looks thick on him, though overall I don’t think it hurts his look that much. The thing is though, I can’t figure out why they went to using the Roadblock waist. The original Snake Eyes waist was still floating around at the same time and was used on Stalker and numerous other figures in the Stars and Stripes set, but wasn’t used for this figure or the Snake Eyes in the Stars and Stripes set.

The biggest fault of these 1997 figures is the oversized rivets. Ever since I was a small child, I can’t remember a GI Joe figure I’ve broken: not a thumb, crotch, or gun. As an adult however, I’ve had both a ‘97 Cobra Commander and this Snake Eyes break at the shoulder, in both cases, from a light touch while handling them. Thankfully RTG (Attica Gazette), hooked me up with some similar looking arms from the comic-pack era, which has kept this guy in action since his arm broke.

Some interesting choices were made for this figure’s parts. Unfortunately, his satchel of explosives is gone and instead he picks up a black version of ‘86 Hawk’s backpack, along with the sword from ‘84 Storm Shadow, his original uzi, and a laser rifle from ’84 Baroness. The sword was a pretty nice inclusion, and I think the fact that it’s the same sword Storm Shadow uses adds something to the character. The backpack and Baroness rifle were some lazy inclusions though, and seem really out of place to me.

From time to time, you can get this Snake Eyes for about $10. Usually, he’s easier to get in the full Commando Team 3-pack, with a more interesting Storm Shadow and Lady Jaye for around $25 to $30. If you want the whole set, I think those other figures worth more to have. On it’s own though, this Snake Eyes is invalidated by a lot of later releases that did the same thing better.