Sometimes my childhood memories don't hold up to my adult scrutiny. As a kid, my absolute favorite episode of G.I.Joe was "Memories of Mara" (S1E45, Nov 15th, 1985). The story featured Shipwreck rescuing a blue-skinned woman from the ocean. You're led to believe her hue is due to cyanosis, but during CPR attempts, he realizes she has gills on her neck and climbs back into the water with her to continue his revival attempts. Turns out Mara was an escaped Cobra Eel lab test subject. She was supposed to be amphibious, but accidentally turned out completely aquatic and unable to breathe on land. As a kid I found this concept mind-blowing and one of the first mer-people I ever saw represented in my cartoons. As an adult, it's a pretty odd 22-minute story with some major logic holes. But even still the nostalgia is palpable with this new figure. Despite me begging for her on forums for years ("Please! Such an easy re-use of parts!"), I never expected to actually get her. Let's check out Mara below!
[Fun fact, Mara's episode came out the same week as my favorite Transformers episode, "The Search for Alpha Trion", which introduced the first six female Autobots. Nov 12th and Nov 15th, 1985].
Mara comes with her watertank helmet and watertank backpack. She wears this briefly when walking around on land and breathing water. (But then inexplicable stops wearing it by the end of the episode, having whole talking scenes on the beach where she is essentially holding her breath).
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Time for a Group Pic!
Here are all the G.I.Joe ReAction Wave 6 figures:
Cobra Commander (Movie), Scarlett (Arctic), Mara, and Snake-Eyes (Crystal Poison).
The Crystal Poison "Red Glow" Snake-Eyes is very interesting. I've never seen a toy that glows in a complimentary color before (blue plastic to orange glow). However, I've also never had a GITD toy that dims so quickly. You literally only have seconds to enjoy this effect, even after super-charging it with a blacklight like I did.
Cheers!
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