Hello, everyone. Nice to see you again. I am still alive and I still enjoy toys, so let’s talk about one today. Sound good? Alright then.

The Haslab Skystriker Scarlett is not a 90s toy in any way. It’s a sort-of remake of a kitbash that could possibly happen with 80s toys, but is a new mold.

I did buy the figure to serve a 90s-related purpose (which we will get into in a bit here) and it’s a new GI Joe figure, so I decided it might be a decent review subject.

Also, Mike T from Forgotten Figures and RTG from Attica Gazette are also reviewing Pilot Scarlett this week. Here are those links:

• Pilot Scarlett at Forgotten Figures
• Retro Scarlett at Attica Gazette

Make sure you check their reviews out, as our perspectives are all likely to be pretty different.

Let us begin.

Why I Bought 2023 GI Joe Scarlett (Haslab Skystriker)

I made the decision that the Haslab Skystriker was not for me soon after it was announced. I really like fighter jets (particularly sci-fi versions of the F-14), but I just don’t have the room for it. And it probably would not get much use. And even if I did have the space and could think of something to do with it, it would not have been a sound financial decision at the time.

So instead I found a trailer for Top Gun on YouTube, took a screenshot of one of the jets, printed it out, and stuck it to my fridge with a magnet. It’s basically the same thing, right?

I did like some of the announced figures, though. The 2023 GI Joe Scarlett (Haslab Skystriker) figure caught my eye instantly. Here was one of my favorite GI Joe characters in a science fiction flight suit, and it would be a real thing I could probably find later on the secondary market. Sure, the figure looked like it was just Ace with a Scarlett head, but I’m cool with that. It’s a great idea for an easy kitbash. So I made a mental bookmark and moved on.

Recently, the people who backed the crowdfunded Skystriker started getting their toys in the mail. So I hopped over to The Electronic Bay to look for Scarlett.

I haven’t really been in much of a GI Joe mood lately, for a combination of reasons (real world wars, Hasbro quality control issues, interest in other toy lines), so I figured Haslab Scarlett might rekindle my passion for sci-fi army dolls. I found one for $50, which seemed pretty reasonable, and clicked “buy it now.”

I was excited for the figure in a general sense, but I also had a specific purpose in mind for her. I wanted to use the figure as a Star Brigade Scarlett, as the Ace flight suit design has always looked high tech and spaceworthy to me. I thought Scarlett’s various shades of blue and white would look good with most of the 93 and 94 Star Brigade figures, too.

Space Scarlett! What a grand idea.

Unfortunately, when the figure arrived, I realized it wasn’t going to fit into my plans very well.

Here’s why.

2023 GI Joe Scarlett (Haslab Skystriker) Review

2023 GI Joe Scarlett was released only with the crowdfunded Haslab Skystriker set. The figure came individually carded inside the Skystriker box, but could only be bought with the entire set, which includes a jet, utility vehicles, and six other figures. It was a Big Thing.

Here’s the carded figure:

That card art is beautiful! It’s some of the best GI Joe artwork I’ve seen in quite some time, even if it’s not accurate to the actual figure, who neither has a pistol or a long ponytail. But whatever, I’m still glad it exists. Note the lazily inserted “oh and uhhh she can totally fly planes and helicopters and stuff” line on the file card.

I’m totally cool with Scarlett being a pilot. It makes sense for the character and just makes her that much cooler. If Tom Cruise can do it, Shana O’Hara can do it. I’m just saying that Hasbro could have put a little bit more effort into the file card.

“Hasbro could have put in a little bit more effort” will be the running theme of this review.

Here’s the figure:

From what I understand, all of the new o-ring GI Joe figures from the last couple years are entirely new “digital sculpts.” They aren’t just remolds/repaints of the 80s toys. The designers wanted to get as close to the classic sculpts as possible, but they had to be recreated. So this is the newly sculpted Ace figure with a newly sculpted Scarlett head, both of which are trying to recreate the classic 80s molds as closely as possible.

That doesn’t affect my opinion of the toy either way, but it is worth noting.

At first glance, the figure looks pretty good! The light and dark blues work very well together, and the little pops of white also complement them nicely. But then you notice that her hair is more of a brownish-red than the vibrant red we’re used to. By itself, that’s not a bad thing. She’s still recognizable as Scarlett.

Then you’ll notice the brown paint on the torso, which I’m almost 100% sure is the same paint they used for the hair. Then you notice the figure’s waist, which is cast in entirely in brown plastic and features no paint. It absolutely does not match the brown on her torso, and it just looks odd. I don’t think brown was a great choice for a highlight color in the first place (red, purple, silver, or black would have all been better).

The sculpting itself is quite nice. This is a cool looking flight suit and/or space suit with lots of neat little details. I really do think Hasbro should have painted the pistol handle and picked out a few more details, as this is an expensive, premium product for adult manbabies/collectors.

The lack of effort is already showing through, and we haven’t even gotten to the figure’s accessories or articulation.

But, if some odd paint choices were the worst thing about this figure, I’d still be pretty happy with it.

The nature of the Ace body mold means 2023 GI Joe Scarlett (Haslab Skystriker)’s face is partially obscured from most angles, but you can see it from the top of the figure. It looks almost exactly like the 82/83 Scarlett head sculpt we’ve all grown to love. The paint is also just as good as it needs to be. Some fans have been very vocal since prehistoric times about Scarlett being “ugly,” but they also don’t realize this is just a doll and Scarlett is a non-romanceable NPC. She’s not gonna swipe right on you, bro. She’s made of plastic.

I’ve always liked Scarlett’s head sculpt, as she looks like a real person to me. She’s got some real personality and a totally unique look.

When I compared the figure to my old 2003 ToyFare exclusive Scarlett, I noticed that the head on the 2023 version is much smaller. That’s fine, as it’s a “new sculpt” and it also has to fit inside the Ace helmet. It’s no big deal at all, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Now, let’s move on to the accessories. Settle in for some serious gripes and grouching.

First, let’s cover the helmet. On the surface, it’s a well-done accessory. The paint is nice and it fits the figure well. The plastic is crystal clear and you can see the figure’s face through it easily.

It’s also an essential component here, as the figure looks incomplete without it. If you somehow lost the helmet, I don’t think 2023 Haslab Scarlett would be a useful or desirable figure in any way.

With the helmet, Scarlett looks like a super cool high tech pilot, astronaut, or space soldier. I have no gripes about the aesthetics here. With the helmet on, this is a fantastic looking figure. You can even overlook the poor color matching on the torso and the unpainted waist piece.

The helmet has one big problem, though, and it’s a doozy.

Once you put the helmet on the figure, it’s very secure. Too Secure, if you will. As in you cannot remove it through any normal means.

I first tried to remove it by using some hot water, hoping the plastic on the neck brace might expand and/or soften. I struck out with that one, but did get some water inside of the helmet.

Next, I was a total idiot and tried to use pliers. The helmet still didn’t come off, and the pliers scraped off a good amount of blue paint on the helmet. That’s totally my fault for being such a fucking dummy, but it was still frustrating. This is an exclusive figure I paid $50 for, after all.

So, finally I decided to just take the figure apart. The screw hole on the figure’s back (we will come back to that later) is smaller than a regular GI Joe screw hole. The screwdriver I use for all my Joe repairs did not fit inside easily. I did get the screw out, but it was a bit of a scary process– I felt like I was scraping the plastic around the screw hole and possibly stripping the screw a bit, too.

The helmet did come off pretty easily once I separated the figure’s torso halves. But I shouldn’t have to do that to remove a helmet!

I mentioned this on Twitter, and many other people told me this happened with both their Ace and Scarlett figures. So this is a widespread issue and it’s unacceptable for a premium product. It’s like no one tested anything before the figure’s release. The helmet should fit securely, but it should not be impossible to remove.

Luckily, my pal Ross (who has written for this website before) came up with a good method to remove the helmet:

https://twitter.com/DokSewage/status/1624486438590099456

Okay, so at least there’s a solution for that.

Let’s move onto the crossbow, shall we? Surely things will get better.

lol.

The design and/or product team at Hasbro FORGOT THE CROSSBOW’S HANDLE. On the one hand, it’s hilarious. On the other hand, it shows that the team working on this project was not detail-oriented at all. Scarlett’s crossbow is one of the more recognizable accessories in the entire GI Joe toy line, but someone at Hasbro either didn’t know what it looked like (and thought the bow’s sight was the handle) or it just got left out of the molding process and no one paid attention or cared enough to notice or fix it.

Granted, this Scarlett probably doesn’t really need a crossbow. She’s a pilot and/or astronaut. And if she DOES need her crossbow, it’s an easy accessory to track down. It was released many times in the 00s with various figures, so sourcing a complete one should be easy. But you absolutely should not have to source one.

As it stands, she can only hold her crossbow by the sight on the top/rear of the weapon.

If these were the only two problems with the figure, I’d still like it quite a bit. Unfortunately, it still gets worse from here.

Before we resume the griping, here’s a lineup of Scarletts over the ages. Some have held up better than others. I don’t have every version of Scarlett, but I think this should be every unique Scarlett mold released in the ARAH style.

So now we have to tackle the two remaining major problems with this 2023 GI Joe Scarlett (Haslab Skystriker) figure:

1. She cannot wear a backpack
2. She has an “o-ring pull,” which severely hinders her articulation

Both of the newer GI Joe o-ring two packs I bought last year featured some problems that showed the GI Joe team at Hasbro either doesn’t really care about these figures, or just has no ability to pay attention to detail.

The 2022 Cobra Officer cannot bend his knees all the way due to a molding problem. It’s a bummer. The 2022 Duke figure has some wonky eye paint that you rarely see in any GI Joe toy line. It’s not super noticeable unless you’re up close, but it is still an issue.

So we’ve come to expect that there are going to be some problems with Hasbro’s newer ARAH-style offerings. But Haslab Scarlett was a figure I was very much looking forward to, and her issues are worse than either Duke’s or the Cobra Officer’s.

First, let’s talk about the backpack problem. The first thing I did after I opened pilot Scarlett was try to equip her with a Lanard Star Force backpack, as I thought it would complete the Star Brigade/astronaut look nicely. And it would have, if the figure could wear a backpack at all. But she cannot.

The screw in the figure’s back protrudes out too far for a backpack to fit, even when it’s tightened all the way. And, since the backpack/screw hole is smaller than usual, it’s possible that the figure couldn’t wear a backpack even if the screw wasn’t an issue.

Every single ARAH GI Joe figure is supposed to be compatible with all GI Joe weapons, stands, backpacks, and vehicles. That is the entire point of the toy line– interchangeability! Even Star Brigade Armor Tech figures can wear a GI Joe or Corps! backpack.

I’m sure the Hasbro designers either didn’t notice or didn’t think it would be a problem. They probably figured most adult collectors would either keep the figures carded, stick them into the Skystriker and forget about them, or stand them up in a straight line in a glass cabinet or on a shelf. And maybe they were mostly correct about that.

But I’m not leaving this figure in a vehicle forever or putting her on a shelf. That’s not why I buy GI Joes.

So, the backpack thing is a big deal. But 2023 Skystriker Scarlett is a cool, nice-looking figure so maybe I could even look past that whole thing if it was the last problem I encountered. But it was not.

Next, we come to what I call the “o-ring pull.” This was an issue with many of the old 00s comic pack figures (and other figures from around that time), and it also happens with many factory custom figures (Black Major, Red Laser, etc). Basically, there’s something wrong with tolerances and engineering within the figure that causes the toy’s waist and legs to snap back into a few “neutral” positions when you try to pose them.

So, you really can’t do much posing with this pilot Scarlett figure because her legs will snap back to “straight at attention” and her waist cannot be rotated to any degree– it just pulls back into the neutral, forward position.

A few friends on Twitter told me that they even had problems getting Scarlett to set in a convincing looking position inside the Skystriker itself, and she has some trouble sitting in other vehicles like the Dragonfly, as well.

Not being able to get the figure into cool poses for photographs is the biggest bummer of all for me. She can take some poses, but you’re working around the toy’s own tolerances and engineering, so you’re very limited.

A new o-ring does not fix the issue and I’m not 100% sure what actually causes it. I understand that engineering these toys to work perfectly is difficult, so I will always cut Black Major and other third party Joe creators some slack on that. Hasbro has been making these toys since before I was even born, though, and they should have it down.

But again, no one is putting in the required amount of effort or paying attention to the necessary details. I’d say it’s tragic, but that would be overdramatic. These are just toys. I like toys a lot, but there are more important things in the world.

So instead of being tragic, it’s just disappointing. I was hoping this figure might renew my interest in GI Joe, but it ended up doing the opposite. I expect a certain amount of quality from a Hasbro product, especially if it’s part of an expensive, exclusive set.

I did not receive that quality at all.

In the end, this figure still looks pretty good with 93 and 94 Star Brigade Joes, which is what I wanted. She also looks great piloting the 93 Starfighter. I really enjoy the toy’s colors, sculpt, and design, as well. But the Hasbro design team’s refusal to give even an iota of a shit about the figure makes what should have been a rousing success into a bewildering disappointment.

Overall: Well, if you crowdfunded the Skystriker, you already have this toy and don’t need my opinion on it. It’s possible that you are perfectly happy to have 2023 GI Joe Scarlett (Haslab Skystriker) sitting in the jet, standing on a shelf, or remaining carded. But for everyone else considering buying pilot Scarlett on the secondary market, this toy is Not Recommended unless none of the issues I described matter to you.

Closing Thoughts on 2023 GI Joe Scarlett (Haslab Skystriker)

I didn’t set out to be negative and write 3000 words bashing Hasbro. I usually find something to like in almost every GI Joe figure. I want these toys to be good.

When I first got this figure, I didn’t set out to dislike it. I wanted to love it! I was quite excited for it, even. But it turned out to be a huge disappointment.

Did you buy the Skystriker set? What did you think of it? What do you think of Hasbro’s other recent o-ring GI Joe offerings? Let me know in the comments!