6 INCH: GI JOE CLASSIFIED: ZARANA

The sister of Zartan. As a kid, her physical representation was ugly as hell. Not that she needed to be a superhero-looking babe, but she just didn't look like a figure I wanted. Over time, she got some different looks. Her Theme Year version (which was Devils Due oriented), fans said she looked like a van-driving, soccer mom. That was actually kind of hard to unseen because there was some truth to it. As for the Classified offerings, she is acceptable. I'm not sure how much excitement there was over her when Hasbro announced her; it felt more like, "Let's just make brother and sister". Again, Hasbro checking off a box to get her character out of the way. Not that she was a filler figure. I'm sure there was some excitement for her. The flip side, fans would be crying out, "why haven't you made Zarana yet???" if Hasbro pushed her to the back of the list. Classified has definitely evolved over the few years that the line has been active; taking greater risks and creating new characters and, uh, entities. (Ie; army builders who don't have names)

Zarana is simply a figure I wanted to fill out the Z family. I didn't have her as a kid and I wasn't too worried about it. As an adult, I guess I thought it'd be fun to have the three of them. 4 if you include Zanya. I've yet to use her in story or photos. She often gets stuck standing behind Zartan. I suppose her time in the spotlight came in the Sunbow cartoon where a relationship developed between her and Mainframe. I don't subscribe to that. In the Zedd Universe, she doesn't have much of a story. I was hoping something might work its way through via photography but the photos often have a story in mind. With her, my mind is as blank as Emmett's from the Lego Movie.