Back in my review of Talking Battle Commanders Cobra Commander, I talked about how intimidating it is to review some figures. Cobra Commander is probably the most important character in the GI Joe franchise, and I had a lot to say about him. Before I wrote the post, I wasn’t sure how well I’d express myself or how well I’d measure up against the standards I set for myself. I think it turned out pretty well, in the end, but I’m struck by that same feeling again for today’s review.

Zartan is my favorite Cobra operative and one of my favorite GI Joe characters as a whole. The 1993 Ninja Force Zartan figure was a toy I had as a kid, so I have many thoughts and memories associated with it. I want to do the figure justice and I want to do the character of Zartan some justice, too. So I’m feeling a bit anxious about the whole thing as I write this. But Zartan is just a fictional character and this figure is just a piece of plastic, so how bad could the whole thing actually turn out?

There’s only one way to know for sure. Join me for a review of the 1993 GI Joe Zartan figure.

The Mystery of 1993 GI Joe Zartan (Ninja Force)

As a kid, I didn’t really understand Zartan. My main exposure to him came from reruns of the old Sunbow cartoon and GI Joe: The Movie. He was sometimes a ‘master of disguise’ and sometimes the weird, bumbling leader of a gang of nebulously European and Oceanian bikers. He was wearing a belly shirt and either had long, flowing hair or a hood that wasn’t attached to anything. For most of my childhood, I thought it was his hair.

He also had what appeared to be a set of large face tattoos over his eyes. These days, we usually recognize it as face paint or a big domino mask attached with costume grade spirit gum, but to my younger self it definitely looked like he had face tattoos.

None of this added up to me. It all seemed disjointed and random. But that was true for a lot of Cobra characters.

I was born in the mid 1980s, a decade which I barely remember. Most of my earliest memories come from the early 90s, though I do remember some incidents before the decades changed. The people who designed GI Joe’s characters and their designs, though, were designing them based on earlier decades– decades I only knew about from what I saw on Nick at Nite.

In a 70s context, Destro’s open collar and disco medallion make sense. The Dreadnoks seem like credible bikers. Gung-Ho seems more like a tough guy than a weird pervert. This philosophy carries over to Zartan, whose belly-exposing hodgepodge of armor and a hood is reminiscent of professional skateboarders and action movie gang members of the 70s and early 80s. He’d easily fit into something like The Warriors, The Road Warrior, or Zardoz– all things I had no idea about at the time.

Even though I was perplexed by him, Zartan still left a big impression on me as a kid. I received Ninja Force Zartan for Christmas in 1993, and I was excited to finally have a version of the character in my collection. He was much, much different than the Sunbow Dreadnok Leader I was used to, but he was still recognizably Zartan. The face paint/eye mask/face tattoos helped seal the deal.

I hadn’t read much of the old Marvel Comics run at that point, so I didn’t buy that this dude with a mohawk wearing a leather vest was an actual ninja. But, I did enjoy the Ninja Force figures so I was happy to have another one. Plus, his look was unique and his weapons were cool.

I did have some sense of what a punk rocker was in 1993 and Zartan obviously fit the bill. As a 9 year old kid, I only knew punkers as something “bad” or “dangerous,” because that’s what the news, kids’ cartoons, 80s movies, and my family told me. Punk rockers were dangerous drug dealers trying to upset the American way of life, so that meant this Zartan was more than a credible threat.

As a kid, I used this Zartan figure in a few ways. I would often mine the “master of disguise” aspect of the character, where he’d disguise himself as a member of GI Joe, infiltrate their headquarters, and wreak havoc until someone finally stopped him. He also often disguised himself as a Joe and went on missions with the team, only to sabotage their operation at the last minute.

Zartan would also team up with Slice to ambush the Joes, quickly disarming them and leaving them in mortal peril, only for Storm Shadow, Jinx, Nunchuk, or Quick Kick to save the day. He sometimes attended Cobra Command meetings, as well, but he was never a central player like Cobra Commander or Destro.

Truth be told, I enjoyed the 1993 GI Joe Zartan figure during my childhood, but I never used him as much as I did other figures. But GI Joe was on the way out for me less than a year after this toy’s release, and I was moving more into Playmates Star Trek at the time. I don’t have my childhood Zartan, as he was lost in the house fire, but I did make it a priority to reacquire him sometime after I started this website. Can you believe it’s almost been 9 years??

As I grew up and learned more about both GI Joe and the world at large, I reassessed both the concepts of Zartan and punk rock. Though I’ve never worn my hair in a mohawk or owned a leather vest, I’ve been playing in punk bands since I was 14 years old.

There was an old radio station based out of Rexburg, ID in the mid 90s to early 2000s called 98X that changed my life. They played an assortment of “modern rock” that included punk, new wave, indie, and alternative from the current day and decades prior. Before I heard the bands that radio station played, I was basically listening to the same classic rock as my mom, along with some radio pop and alternative bands I’d see on MTV or VH1.

Soon after I started listening to and playing punk rock, I met people who kind of looked like Ninja Force Zartan. Some of them were cool and some of them weren’t. People with mohawks and leather vests either tended to fall into the “street punk” camp (either rich kids LARPing as being poor, or kids from actual lower-to-working class families) or the “fashion punk” camp (kids who were solidly middle class, usually pretending to be poorer than they actually were), and those two camps were usually at odds with each other over how much money and privilege they perceived one another to have.

Mohawks and leathers were kind of a relic of the late 70s and early 80s, but the 90s brought them back in a big way. You had bands like Rancid on one end and the Casualties (I love one of those bands and despise the other, and you might be able to tell which is which based on a bad graphic I spent too much time making for this review) on the other end, all playing dress up. I don’t begrudge them for that. The punk uniform looks cool as fuck. I’ve personally never worn it, though. From 1998 to now, you’d never look at me and think “clean cut, straight laced individual,” but you’d also never see me looking like Zartan.

Even though it’s not how I’ve ever dressed, if I see a punk rocker with a charged jacket, dyed hair, and a Discharge t-shirt on the street, I know they’re more likely to be a friend and a kindred spirit than someone wearing the Official Northwestern United States Uniform (Patagonia or The North Face).

And then, to come full circle, my love and appreciation for the character of Zartan comes from the old Marvel Comics, which I finally read from beginning to end in my early 20s. He was a compelling character in Larry Hama’s run, and I loved the idea of a dangerous, unstable individual who didn’t really know who he was. He ran around with outlaw bikers and ended up being one of Cobra’s most effective agents. Sure, his story took some ill-advised twists and turns, but he ended up being my favorite member of Cobra.

We’ll talk about that more later. For now, let’s get into the nitty gritty details of the action figure itself.

1993 GI Joe Zartan (Ninja Force) Review

Zartan version 2 was released in 1993 as part of GI Joe’s Ninja Force sub-line. He featured all original parts and the figure was never repainted or reused again. Cobra usually got fewer figure releases than GI Joe in the 1990s, and Ninja Force is a great example of this.

Here’s the Spread for Cobra:

• 1992 – Dice
• 1992 – Slice
• 1993 – Slice (Repaint)
• 1993 – Night Creeper
• 1993 – Zartan
• 1993 – Red Ninja (Repaint, New character)

6 Figures
5 Individual Characters

For GI Joe:

• 1992 – Storm Shadow
• 1992 – Nunchuk
• 1992 – Dojo
• 1992 – T’jbang
• 1993 – Scarlett
• 1993 – Snake Eyes
• 1993 – Bushido
• 1993 – Banzai
• 1993 – T’Gin-Zu (Repaint, New Character)

9 Figures
8 Individual Characters

So, obviously, Zartan had to do a lot of heavy lifting for Cobra’s Ninja Force without much in the way of backup. It’s a shame we never saw him again like we did several of the others, whose body parts were reused throughout Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and the Repaint Era.

Anyway, here’s the figure:

The first thing you’ll notice about 1993 GI Joe Zartan is his neon orange mohawk. It hangs over his forehead and below where his hairline would be, so it’s likely he has some sort of bangs or even a “devilock” thing going on. His face paint/tattoos/mask almost match the mohawk, but the paint is more of a red shade. Hasbro could have cheaped out here, but the red-orange is a nice extra paint color. Zartan’s eyes are also completely white, which is something you didn’t see often on vintage Joe toys. His face is somewhat handsome, but he looks both fearsome and haunted. I can confidently say that no other GI Joe figure looks like this.

Zartan’s torso is covered by a leather vest. Coupled with his mohawk, it gives him a punk rock look, but it kind of conveys a biker aesthetic as well. Even though it’s not super common, there is some crossover between punkers and bikers in the real world. I personally know at least a handful of punk barflies who take their motorcycles on pub crawls and dress somewhat like this. Don’t drink and drive, kids. Wear a helmet. You’ve only got one brain and, no matter how poisoned or rotted it is, it’s better inside your head than it is scrambled on the pavement.

The vest has one orange chain picked out in paint on the figure’s right side, but there are other chains, studs, and spikes sculpted in, too. If Hasbro could have afforded one more paint color, they’d look great picked out in silver.

Zartan is also wearing neon green pants. It’s probably the color on this figure that most people have a problem with, but it’s also at least a little bit grounded in the real world. You’ll see punks with obnoxiously bright colored pants from time to time at any dive bar in Portland. Ninja Force Zartan is also wearing black combat boots, a purple belt, and two purple knife sheaths on his left leg. We’ll talk more about those later.

Zartan’s left arm is completely bare, but his right arm features a glove and bracer/arm guard. His file card lists this as a “sword blocking forearm guard.” That makes sense for a guy going around playing ninja all day. Some people think of it as an archery arm guard, since Zartan was a bowman in the comics and he comes equipped with a compound bow, but it’s probably on the wrong arm for that. If you’re right handed, you hold your bow in your left hand and use your right hand for your arrows. Zartan could be left-handed of course, but the card art shows him using his bow as a righty. Plus, I think Zartan is the exact kind of maniac who would fire a high-tension compound bow with no arm protection.

There’s not much new detail revealed around the rear of the figure, but all of the paint apps continue and it’s nicely sculpted. Notice there’s no screw hole like most GI Joe figures have. That’s because Zartan has a “real ninja action” feature. If you twist his waist and release it, he performs a sort of power punch like an old He-Man figure. That’s the Moroto Chop, baby!

Because there’s no back screw, you can’t easily replace the figure’s o-ring. I’m honestly not even 100% sure that Ninja Force Zartan HAS an o-ring, but I guess he must. He seems less prone to going loose or his o-ring breaking than other Ninja Force figures.

People complain about the figure’s bright color scheme and, in one sense, they’re right– he IS a neon figure. I think the combination of black, neon green, purple, and neon orange looks objectively great though. It’s like Grave Digger with an extra pop of orange. If you don’t like bright figures or neon figures, that’s fine, but this is a well-done color scheme.

So, how does Zartan work as a successor to the 1984 original figure and his legacy?

Well, here they are together. This 1993 Ninja Force Zartan looks drastically different from the original 1984 figure, but some hallmarks remain. You can tell that Hasbro cared about making sure that this Ninja Force version still looked like the same character, even if it came almost a decade later. The whited-out eyes and facial markings are two of Zartan’s most important visual indicators, and they kept them for this release. The black leather vest also isn’t too dissimilar from the original Zartan’s midriff-baring body armor. It’s a new look, but it’s definitely still Zartan.

But is 1993 Zartan, as a figure, a worthy inheritor of the 1984 version’s legacy? I hate to be wishy-washy, but it’s hard to say. The original Zartan is one of the coolest and most unique toys in the entire vintage GI Joe toy line. It’s hard for any figure, let alone one with spring-loaded ninja action, to compete with him. But, on the other hand, it’s cool that people my age at least got a version of Zartan in the 90s that had some thought and care put into it. I think Ninja Force Zartan is good and succeeds on its own merits, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the original in most ways.

And, just for fun, here’s a look at o-ring, ARAH-style Zartan figures through the years. I know I’m missing a couple and I’m using the “wrong” thigh pads on some figures, but you’ll just have to either forgive me or find a different website run by someone who has more money than me. 1993 Zartan definitely stands out in the lineup, but I also think he still visually reads as “Zartan,” even when standing among the other figures.

This is just a harebrained theory (or just a random idea), but part of me wonders if the Hasbro designer was thinking about the “Cold Slither” episode of the old Sunbow cartoon when they came up with this figure. Hair metal was decidedly uncool in 1993, but punk still seemed both relevant and dangerous. Did the designer take Zartan’s orange hair and brightly colored pants from the episode and just translate them into a more dangerous, punk rock type of look? Here’s the 1993 figure with Super7’s 2025 Cold Slither Zartan figure for comparison.

One thing I’ve heard even the most curmudgeonly 80s Joe fans say about Ninja Force Zartan is that he works better as the leader of the Dreadnoks than the original does, just because he actually looks more like an outlaw biker. Before I sat down to write this review, I wholeheartedly agreed with that statement. Now I’m less sure.

When setting up these Dreadnok group photos, I realized how cohesive they are as a group– including the 1984 Zartan. Sure, he looks like some weirdo post-apocalyptic assassin instead of a motorcycle enthusiast, but there’s a consistent aesthetic shared between all the Dreadnoks that he also shares. The designers knew what they were doing.

If we look at the 1993 Zartan along with the crew, he still looks good. He especially goes well with Zarana and Zandar, and makes them stand out a bit less. It makes sense that Zartan and his siblings might share the more brightly-colored markings. I think he looks great leading the group and makes a worthy Dreadnok kingpin, but I’m not convinced anymore that he looks better than the original.

And here’s another photo, with Sonic Fighters Road Pig swapped in for the original. I think this is also a cool grouping, as Zartan, Zarana, Zandar, Road Pig, and Gnawgahyde all look good as brightly colored weirdos alongside their more subdued, but no less dangerous, compatriots.

1993 GI Joe Zartan looks good leading the Dreadnoks. It’s a natural fit. But, having set up and taken these three photos, I don’t think it’s a case of him looking better with the group than the 1984 figure does.

Let’s move on to accessories!

Ninja Force Zartan came with a neon orange bow, long sword, short sword/machete, sickle, two knives, and a figure stand. All of these accessories were either shared with other figures in the Ninja Force line or repurposed from earlier figures.

I may be missing some, but this set of accessories also came with Night Creeper v2 (in electric blue), Ken Masters v1 (in black), and Dhalsim v1 (in purple), all from 1993. They were also released in translucent blue plastic with Shadow Ninjas Night Creeper in 1994.

Here’s Ninja Force Zartan, all geared up! (Note: the long sword is attached to his back with poster putty. I just like the way it looks)

Most of these accessories work pretty well for Zartan, particularly the compound bow. This weapon first came with 1988’s Storm Shadow v2. In the comics, Zartan was an archer, so this is a great piece for him. If you don’t like the colors, you can always grab the version from either Storm Shadow or Street Fighter’s Ken.

The bow has a cool sculpt with a sight, a counter-balance, and a built-in quiver of three arrows. I prefer to have the fletching of the arrows pointing up, as that makes sense to me, but card art for Storm Shadow shows the fletching facing down. It seems to me like that might be a recipe for the arrows just falling out of the quiver, but maybe they’re secured in some way. Regardless, the card art for Zartan shows the arrowheads pointing down and the fletching pointing up. But you can do whatever you want with your toys– I just like pointing out those little oddities.

Next, Zartan comes with an orange sickle. This piece is reused from 1992’s Dojo. With Dojo, it was a full kusarigama, including the sickle, a string, and a handle. Zartan just gets the sickle part, but there’s still a loop to attach a string to if you want. This isn’t a bad piece, but it’s probably my least favorite of Zartan’s accessories.

Zartan’s long sword was a new piece for 1993, even if it was shared with several other figures. This is a cool, no-nonsense katana-type weapon that looks good with the figure. If your Ninja Force guy needs a standard ninja sword, you could do way worse than this. I actually wish this piece was reused more in the repaint and new sculpt eras, as it’s better than a lot of the swords they actually released.

The short sword/machete was originally released with 1988’s Spearhead. A lot of people poo-poo this weapon, but I’ve always really liked it. It seems a bit too ornate to be a run-of-the-mill machete, so with Spearhead it came off as more of a family heirloom than a standard weapon. With Zartan, it’s probably just something he stole from the mall or a museum. I love the detail on this thing, though, with the design in the middle and the blade having raised edges. Besides, it just looks cool with our ninja master of disguise.

It’s time to talk about Zartan’s knives and/or daggers! I have to assume these were originally designed for this figure and then released with others, as he has sheaths on his legs that hold them perfectly. Very few ARAH Joe figures have built-in weapon storage, so this is a special treat. If you have this Zartan figure, you basically need these daggers in order to get the most out of your toy.

The sheaths are kind of funny, though. The knives really only fit properly with the blades facing inward. So, when Zartan is walking around, he’s probably going to be poking himself in the leg with deadly ninja weapons. Pretty frequently. That’s not ideal. Zartan is not a sane individual, though, so I don’t worry too much about it. It’s just a funny idiosyncrasy of the toy.

Even with its non-standard construction, 1993 Zartan very much succeeds as a GI Joe figure. Or just as a toy in general. It’s bright, it’s cool, and it’s anything but bland. You can take one look at it and know exactly who this guy is supposed to be– a tough looking dude with a bunch of pointy objects that’s going to make life hell for your various straight-laced, mustachioed army men. The action feature isn’t ideal, but he also doesn’t lose much poseability because of it, unlike other Ninja Force figures. His weapons are fun and (mostly) appropriate for him and, if you don’t like the neon orange color, it’s easy to source replacements from figures released in the same year.

He has a great color scheme, he doesn’t look like any other GI Joe figure, and he’s easily identifiable as Zartan. What more could you want?

Granted, he doesn’t fit in that well with Hasbro’s other ninja figures of the era, but they’re all weird enough that he works with them anyway. I imagine that back in the day some kids teamed him up with Whispering Willie and Crowbar from Lanard’s The Corps!, too, making their own version of a band of degenerate criminals who fought against America’s Highly Trained Special Mission Force.

 

I also like the fact that he’s fairly cohesive with the other command-level Cobra figures released in the 1990s, too. Hasbro was actually pretty good about making sure 90s kids got versions of the villains they saw in reruns of the old cartoon and in the pages of Marvel Comics. Sure, we had to wait until 1997 to get a Baroness figure (I got her around 98 and used her along with my childhood Joes), but we got solid versions of Cobra Commander, Destro, Dr. Mindbender, Major Bludd, and Zartan. You could also throw in Firefly, Slice, Dice, Metal Head, Night Creeper Leader, Interrogator, and any number of other named Cobras and have a colorful cast of main villains for your GI Joe team to fight.

I think that’s an underappreciated aspect of what Hasbro did in the 1990s. Sure, the figures looked different than their 80s counterparts, but they kept the same spirit and the same play pattern. Even though I never grew up with a Dragonfly or a Terrordrome, it was still a great time to be a GI Joe fan.

Zartan, as a character, is fairly complicated, but that also makes him fun. His original file card lists him as a “paranoid schizophrenic” (which was later changed because it was too insensitive for even 1980s sensibilities) whose original personality is buried and forgotten, and his 1993 file card reinforces that fact by saying he’s taken on so many roles that he can’t keep track of them.

Even in 1984, Zartan was depicted as being a practitioner of several mystic martial arts, so including him in Ninja Force makes sense. I don’t want to go too far into all of the deeply-involved-in-Snake-Eyes’-backstory ninja malarkey that Zartan got into in the old comics, but I do see him as someone who knows his way around a bow, a sword, and some throwing daggers. But, just as often, he’s going to use a pistol. He’ll just use whatever tools are available to him.

Above all else, I see Zartan as having a flair for the dramatic. As a kid and young adult, he was likely involved in theater, music, art, and poetry. He loved losing himself in a stage role, being the center of attention, or sowing discord and drama amongst his peer group.

At some point in early adulthood, he was likely involved in some military conflict, whether through conscription by his country, or by enlisting in a troupe of mercenaries. It was probably a way to see the world and become more financially stable. But war changed him. Taking lives changed him. He found he could use his theatrical abilities, makeup skills, fascination with cultures and languages, and innate cunning to his advantage. Assassination, sabotage, subterfuge, betrayal.

His acting skills and inherent ability to mimic others and learn new skills brought him into contact with many cultures. He learned their languages, their customs, their weapons, and their martial arts– all to benefit himself.

Eventually, as an assassin, spy, and saboteur for hire, he did take on so many roles that he forgot his youth as an aspiring stage actor and poet. He barely remembered the fresh-faced kid he was when he first picked up a rifle and pulled the trigger. There are parts of his original personality that remain, though. His flair for the dramatic is still there, as is his penchant for causing chaos. He still loves fading into a role and becoming someone else, and the thrill of so completely playing a part that no one can even tell he’s not the person he’s portraying.

Eventually, his sinister vagabond lifestyle led him to fall in with a gang of outlaw bikers. He was smarter and tougher than them, so they fell in line. Their gang expanded and eventually caught the eye of Cobra. He appreciated Cobra’s money and the fact that they granted him access to better technology to make his disguises even better.

As he spent more time in the organization and got involved in the politics of Cobra Command, he found he relished the drama and the power struggle. He liked being a big player– a capable agent and, in some ways, a cult of personality. He was dangerous, charismatic, and one of Cobra’s most successful players. He enjoyed the respect and power that came along with the role.

That’s the space Zartan occupies in my head. He might get into a ninja fight every now and again because that’s what the job calls for, or just because it seems like fun at the time. To me, this 1993 Ninja Force version of Zartan just represents another look he wears sometimes. This is how you’ll see him on the street when he’s not on a mission. He’s out at the bar, waking up suburbia with his loud motorcycle, or committing petty crimes. When you see Zartan at a small town pool hall with the other Dreadnoks, he probably looks something like this.

So, I don’t see this figure as the definitive version of Zartan, but I do see him as an absolutely valid version of Zartan. He really pops in photos and he’s just a fun figure to use. He’s outlandish, but Zartan has always been outlandish. I’m glad I got to grow up with this figure and I’m glad it’s still inspiring my imagination today.

Overall: 1993 Ninja Force Zartan is a good GI Joe figure, even though it features spring-loaded ninja action and a bunch of reused, neon orange orange weapons. It’s not the best version of Zartan, but it’s still a really fun version of Zartan that the designers put real thought and effort into. And, if nothing else, he’s a ninja warrior with a mohawk and neon green pants– what could be more fun than that?? This figure is Recommended.

Additional Resources:

• 1993 Zartan at 3DJoes
• 1993 Zartan at Forgotten Figures
• 1993 Zartan at Attica Gazette
• 1993 Zartan at Mike’s Collection
• 1993 Zartan by HCC788
• 1993 Zartan at YoJoe

Closing Thoughts on 1993 GI Joe Zartan (Ninja Force)

Thanks for joining me. I was intimidated to write this review, so hopefully I did the character some justice. I also had so much fun taking these photos that I took even more than I normally do. This is just one of those figures that gets my imagination going.

There’s a GI Joe Classified version of this character coming out soon that actually looks pretty decent, so hopefully that inspires some people to look back at the 1993 original. It’s worth a second look, for sure.

Did you have this Zartan growing up? If not, what do you think of him? Do you love or hate the idea of Zartan being a ninja? Let me know in the comments!