Ninja Force figures were not big favorites from back in the day for me. Ninja Force Zartan, Slice, Dice, and Night Creeper were the figures I bought off the pegs, however. I didn't have a Zartan until that figure came out. I may have bought Dice first and then Slice, but it is worth mentioning the Marvel Comic was still running and with both of them in the story and the obvious team the pair made might have succeeded on leading me toward the purchases. That's how my desire to have a Night Creeper (1990) may have swayed me into buy the Ninja Force Night Creeper, however THAT Night Creeper figure was nowhere near as cool as the Marvel Comic depiction of the figure.
The 1992 Firefly was also somewhat new to me at the time, Despite the neon green that figure did get quite a lot of use. Just thinking back to that point in life sort of brings back the vibe of my collection at that point right now.
I did buy the Shadow Ninja Bushido and Nunchuks but these purchases may have been more due to being on clearance around the end years of the Real American Hero line. I don't think they got much use.
With the more recent purchase from a local shop of stuff, I picked up the Ninja Force Scarlett. The ninja action gimmick is broken. This gimmick along with the yellow weapons tree along with the more drastic departure from the Marvel Comic Scarlett's look made it easier for me to choose another figure for purchase at that time. The "combat togs" did not seem very interesting to me or the less articulation waist and legs.
The 1982 Scarlett figure has not been more appealing to me either to purchase over the years, either. Something about the Scarlett character in the Marvel Comic and the Sunbow cartoon somewhat really made that image something I wanted in the figure. The "new-sculpt" years "version 6" was maybe my first Scarlett figure, my memory might correct me on this later, but a 2004 figure for a character that has been close to Snake Eyes status in exposure highlights the characters absence in my collection and "joe-verse" for quite a long time.
I think that 2004 figure left the building when I decided to trim out all the "new sculpt" figures when I was doing some major collection trimming.
The 2011 G.I.Joe Renegades figures were starting to really appeal to me and I bought the "version 14" Scarlett. That's been my Scarlett since but the "modern" figures that are few in number have remained mostly separate from my main collection. If the Renegades quality of design that I liked had continued I would have jumped on the figures more. I somewhat wish I had bought more of them when I had the chance but this is also the same with the "Pursuit of Cobra" years where there are some really alright figures that advanced past the first 25th Anniversary style change of figures that I found in the long term to be kind of clunky.
Anyway, so now I have an actual A Real American Hero Scarlett figure for the first time. I can see the design reasoning. It has the unitard style not unlike the 1982 design and instead of the pad on the shoulder it has some floating armor pieces. I thought these armor pieces made the figure less and they just seemed like things that were not very functional for a character that was likely going to be getting into some physical hand to hand combat.
The boots seem alright but the knee pads, and this goes for many of the Ninja Force I suppose, just a little too Ninja Turtles.
The overall figure colors are not crazy, the lime green has been seen here and there through the Real American Hero line. The gold of the armor pieces might be what is the part I dislike the most, though.
And there are those felt straps, I kind of like. A little extra on the figures even if they serve no real function. If the fabric could have been worked around the torso it could have been like the "modern" web gear, maybe figure interchangeable, maybe even a small accessory holster of some sort slipped in the fabric for holding swords?
I like the head sculpt, though. I am not doing a lot with my collection these days but it has that tough Marvel Comic Scarlett look with the red hair and pony tail that has become sort of the "it is" look for the character that has built up in my head. Plus I have seen nice custom figures with this head, so it maybe destined for another figure body that has been in my possession for 26 years for almost this very custom purpose. It's one that I hope is a simple swap but the Ninja Force Scarlett body will mostly destroyed to get to that point. Then again, I can't recall seeing any pictures of the insides of a Ninja Force figure ever.
The yellow accessories that were with the figure have little appeal to me. Checking out the full tree photos online I thought it was interesting seeing two "claw" parts on the tree. Most of the accessories on that tree I like, just not the color. That was a major purchase decision for me back in the day, the figure with the all black weapons trees were more appealing.
I have to wonder if these accessory tree molds still exist somewhere.
I am somewhat surprised that the Collectors Club created so many "modern" figures that stuck so close to the original designs, even down to the colors. These are the colors from the years that were supposedly horrible and yet people online will jump on these "modern" brightly colored copies.
If I had had the power I guess I would have taken what was good about the design and made it so it came out better.