Twenty years ago, there was a lot of interesting aspects to G.I. Joe, that I think probably were overlooked in the excitement of the retail renaissance G.I. Joe was having, as well as the burgeoning online community. The internet was becoming more and more widespread, so now it was even easier to tell people that they were wrong about things. One thing interesting about the turn of the century, is things that were pretty widespread amongst the G.I. Joe community, really didn’t have a hell of a lot of staying power. One example of this would be the Funskool Zartan figure.
In 2001 Hasbro released an absolutely terrible Zartan figure, where they did a decent job on a retrofit of the 1984 head, but mucked things up by painted the 1990 Saw Viper into a pastiche of the 1984 Zartan. The 1993 Ninja Force Zartan, which was heavily reviled at the time, would’ve been a better choice for a Zartan repaint. Let that sink in for a second. Around the same time, Funskool released a version of Zartan, themselves. It was the 1984 mold, which Hasbro probably shipped to Funskool at some point where it was obviously a bad time to send it over. So when it became clear that a use of the 1984 Zartan, even with some curiosities, was available for like $3.99, people jumped on it.
The freshness and appeal of the Funskool Zartan didn’t seem to last long. There was the New Sculpt Era coming about, so everyone was excited about what was becoming available at retail, even if it wasn’t too appealing, there was the thought of “well, if we buy the Neo Viper Commander who doesn’t have an O-Ring, maybe Hasbro will repaint Snake Eyes v2.” By the time collector’s had wanted another taste of the 1984 Zartan mold, Hasbro had regained it from Funskool, and allowed two mediocre uses of the figure to be released. The Comic Pack Zartan, wasn’t a very good figure, but featured a new head that was closer to what the fanbase wanted for a Zartan figure, at the time. That being Bat Man facepaint, and a big cowl.
The early 2000s were a pretty harsh time for fan scrutiny on the 82-84 sculpts. There was a fair amount of criticism about them being “too skinny”. It was kind of funny, because 2001-2002 were when it was starting to be acceptable to like a few ’88 Joes, and the 1989 COBRA army builders, but still 82-87 were the years categorically considered “good”. The fanbase was so ridiculous, that three of the five good G.I. Joe years, still had too many issues to use. However, Zartan was one of the characters that did manage to avoid a lot of those criticisms, since he was a popular character and his only post ’84 version looked like he stepped out of an episode of Quincy.
Foreign G.I. Joe releases are a somewhat misunderstood sub section of G.I. Joe. In the early 2000s when there was such a focus on the drastically different from anything released domestically, a lot of the stuff that was basically the same as a domestic figure flew below the radar. Nobody really paid attention to how different a Brazilian or Mexican release of Mutt or Flash was, because it was fundamentally the same figure. So a Funskool figure like Flint or Road Pig might just be a cheap placeholder for a US release.
Funskool’s Zartan is interesting, because he was both similar to the ’84 US release, as well as entirely different at the same time. It was one of the first times people paid attention to the differences between foreign and domestic examples of the same design. Of course a lot of Joe fans just wrote it off to Funskool being “Cheap” rather than looking at how this could expand collections.
The basic design is the same as the 1984 Zartan, but with some significant colour changes, first the maroon used on Zartan’s pants and cowl has been changed to brown. It’s an impressive change, as it’s a nicer look for the mold and still manages to maintain the essence of the character. The original Hasbro figure didn’t really feature many paint apps, so the Funskool one, really ups the game, there. He now has silver toes to his boots, and a gold belt buckle. They’re nice upgrades over the original, but don’t look out of place, the way some paint apps can, when added to a fairly plain mold.
The figure no longer has a colour change ability, and the pads are fully black. Another major change, is now that the colour change gimmick isn’t around, the disguise gimmick has been moved to the forefront. His cowl is a separate piece, and fits best when the mask is attached. I think the separation of cowl and head is a conscious choice as other Funskool figures requiring glued in hair pieces (Zarana, Baroness, Buzzer) all featured them.
The biggest change to this Zartan, is the face paint. Gone is the intricate design on Zartan’s face, and now he just has a little black around his sunken yellow eyes. It’s a dramatic change, but can actually do a lot for the character. Prior to the “Oh actually he knew COBRA Commander and Firefly a long way back, and he was a good enough martial artist to get into the Arashikage clan, so he could kill Snake Eyes. Who would’ve thought that there was a bunch of connections between all these characters years ago, and they’re all ninjas!” reveal, that basically turned the G.I. Joe comic into Snake Eyes’ High School reunion, Zartan was a character who was mysterious and strange.
The Funskool’s face paint changes, and cowl-less look, makes Zartan look like a far weirder and deranged individual, with this appearance, him being some strange master of disguise and assassin that COBRA Commander has brought into his organization, fits a little better. Him having his own biker goons works a lot better too, as he’s got more of a cult leader vibe going on.
The Zartan and Dreadnok connection is one of those things that worked well in the storyline, but the figures don’t mesh very well, so it’s never been something I’ve been too crazy about doing, photography wise. However the idea of Zartan, having a couple of dangerous criminals in his employ is a solid one, and gives the character a little more of a cult of personality, as the Zartan personality is one of the strongest ones in G.I. Joe. This Zartan meshes a little better, specifically with the Funskool releases of Buzzer and Ripper, though that might just be due to the skin tones co-ordinating.
At the end of the day, I like this figure quite a bit. He’s not arguably better than the 1984 version, but he’s a different take on the same figure. I find that sometimes repaints can be a freeing experience to view characters in a different light, without thinking too much about preconceived aspects of the character. This figure is obviously Zartan, and won’t be mistaken for anyone else, but at the same time, as a much creepier and foreboding appearance that well, you can see him in a different role.
The Funskool Zartan, costs a lot nowadays, and I’m not sure if it’s worth it, but it’s still a good take on the classic mold, and probably the second best Zartan released, but that’s not actually saying much, since the Zartan character might be one of the most important ones to not have many decent figures of. In addition to the commonly seen one with the flesh tone elbows, there’s a variant where the earliest releases had elbows that were cast in black plastic. It’s one of those little changes that makes a bigger impact that one would initially think.
Attica Gazette 
The eye paint on mine was too messed up for my tastes. That and the hard plastic hands on my made the figure a disappointment at the time. Now, glad I own him…because I certainly would not pay what they are asking today.
The Budo backpack. Just because.
It’s amusing to note, that Zandar, Zarana and 3 dreadnoks appeared in Funskool’s line before Zartan. Zandar was Master of Camouflage and Zarana was sold as ZANDAR’S SISTER.
Ah, one of my biggest collecting regrets is passing on numerous chances to get this guy for $15. I took too long getting over his lack of face paint, which at one point, ruined the figure in my eyes. Maybe Hasbro will have the sense to reissue Zartan in the near future, but somehow I just find myself without any confidence in the retro line.
“Prior to the “Oh actually he knew COBRA Commander and Firefly a long way back, and he was a good enough martial artist to get into the Arashikage clan, so he could kill Snake Eyes. Who would’ve thought that there was a bunch of connections between all these characters years ago, and they’re all ninjas!” reveal, that basically turned the G.I. Joe comic into Snake Eyes’ High School reunion, Zartan was a character who was mysterious and strange.”
Zartan is so weak in the later comics. Really makes me wish Hama had focused more on new characters rather than continually wear out older ones like Zartan. The over exposure just destroyed any sense of mystery and intrigue with the characters, besides really diluting ones like Zartan.
I take your point about collectors being too focused on drastically different figures and overlooking other interesting, if more subtle variants. However, I’ll be honest that I have a really hard time getting excited over a figure whose clothes are a slightly darker shade of green or brown but are otherwise identical to one I already have. I find wild variations like this one much more appealing.
There was a nice little controversy over the figure. I think it ended with guys like Beav at JoeCustoms getting banned from SmallJoes. The early 2000’s were a weird time with bullshit like that, too.
The figure is fun as it makes Zartan far more creepy and bizarre. And, that really meshes with how all the kids in my school viewed him when we all first saw him in the 1984 catalog. The hard plastic mask and cowl are kind of tough to work. And, I’ve picked up a few aftermarket Funskool Zartans where the original owner just glued in the cowl and gave him a 2001 mask instead. The black pads are, IMO, an upgrade over the original and give the figure a more covered look. (Though, I never used the stickers on mine, so he always appears fairly bare chested.)
Funskool did release some bagged versions right before they returned the mold to Hasbro. They have paint that is so much crisper than the carded versions. But, they had no gear. They were like $1 in 2003 and 2004 before disappearing. The club’s Zartan, of course, was garbage. Hasbro’s attempt in the Comic Pack was better, though still flawed. There’s not much to be done with Zartan. So, Funskool making him super weird was useful in getting their figure to be kind of fun.
I love the subtle changes between foreign release of figures. That’s part of what makes them all fun. You’ve got a good point in this figure being among the first to really show that similar but not the same foreign figures could have value to a collection. It was also good that this figure was $4 at the time so everyone could buy them, paint them, glue them and customize them into different ideas of Zartan. Now, it’s viewed as a collectible. But, at its release, these figures were really viewed as disposable portions of a collection.
I really do wonder if Funskool’s fate would have been different if American collectors hadn’t been so adamant about getting molds back. Funskool lost some guys who had been in production for nearly a decade…implying they were among the most popular sellers. If those molds had stayed, we might have gotten the new Rock and Roll and all new amagamated figure that was going to be based on the traditional Indian army. Maybe we’d have seen more and more unused molds, too. We really shot ourselves in the foot on that one and I can’t think of a single reclaimed Funskool figure who got a definitive release after Hasbro got the mold back.
I likewise regret not picking Zartan up when he was cheap. And yeah, the early 2000’s were bullshit for collectors, though I re-built my entire collection from the ground up in 2001-2002. Back then I had a row with Timmer from yojoe.com in the old yahoo groups over something stupid. In reality he was just a thin-skinned Belgian martinet. He would fit right in over a Reddit now. Hard to imagine this was 20 years ago.
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