Is Zandar (G.I. Joe action figure) Discontinued? What Happened?

Zandar came out in 1986 as part of the G.I. Joe toy line. He was Zartan's brother and another member of the Dreadnoks, a tough gang that worked for Cobra. His look was rugged and outdoorsy, with camo colors and swamp-raider gear.

Like Zartan and Zarana, his plastic skin changed color when you took him outside into the sun. It turned a bluish color. You could hold him up and watch it happen in a few seconds. Having all three figures with the same trick made them feel like a set, and kids who collected all of them knew they had something special.

He came with a bandanna, a backpack, and weapons that matched his style. The whole package felt like it belonged out in the swamp.

Together with Zartan and Zarana, Zandar was the third piece of the color-change group. In the mid-1980s those three toys were some of the most talked-about figures in the whole G.I. Joe line.

By the 1990s the color-change plastic was gone. It wore out too quickly and was hard to keep looking right, so Hasbro stopped using it. Zandar kept showing up in the toy line with a new look but the same character.

Newer Zandar figures have better detail and can move in more ways than the original. But the 1986 version is the one people remember most because of that color-change skin.