Up to this point, the original Iron Anvil from 2005 has remained probably my favorite Convention figure to date. It hit that perfect sweet spot of a great 90’s figure that desperately needed a new paint job, and perfectly executing that new paint job. Sure, in a perfect world, it would have remained with Cobra and been painted blue and red rather than black, gray, and red, but beggars can’t be choosers, and the end result was still pretty spectacular.

So obviously it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I awaited these new Iron Anvils… I’m happy to say at the end of the day, I’m quite pleased with the update.

Boss Fight Studio brought their incredible skills to the table for the new head sculpt for Iron Anvil, and you can really tell. Along with the great head sculpt, the figure itself uses Retaliation Snake Eyes arms on a Shock Trooper body, with Pursuit of Cobra Firefly legs, a terrific combination of pieces, managing to blend sleek with strong, and the figure stands as one of the best in this 2015 Convention Set. I really love the Shock Trooper torso for pretty much everything, and the Ninja Duel Snake Eyes arms have fantastic articulation and detailing. Leveraging the color scheme from the original Iron Anvil allowed for a great looking update here, going with mostly black and red, and just the right hints of gray and gold for trim. This version of the Iron Anvil is modern, but more than that, the color breaks are done just right and he comes across as a significantly effective modernization.

Accessories

The Pursuit of Cobra Alley-Viper vest provides the row of pouches that was unique to the ’94 Viper (and thus the Iron Anvil) and manages to be extremely successful doing so. Anvil also comes with the slim parachute pack, Annihilator submachine gun, and a great jagged knife, reminiscent of the Battle Corps original. The leg harness from a Para Viper polishes off the accessory compliment quite nicely.

As an Iron Grenadier Paratrooper, the Iron Anvil works really well with these various accessories (not to mention the Iron Anvil Officer as the parachute figure), but even without the parachute equipment, he is really well developed as a modern special ops looking trooper, too.

All of the right pieces came together in 2005 to produce one of the finest G.I. Joe sets ever made, in my opinion. So many great elements, of which the Iron Anvil was only one small piece. I don’t feel as strongly about this set of course, but the Iron Anvil figure is a beautiful modern era action figure, and one I’m extremely excited to own. Great stuff.