This great looking figure first hit our radar courtesy of Mat Brouillard who posted an image of the sculpt for Clutch on his Facebook page. Everyone kind of wondered whether it was a canceled concept, or merely something still to come.
I had an opportunity to speak with John Warden at the G.I. Joe Convention, and he confirmed to me that this version of Clutch was initially slated to come with the Pursuit of Cobra VAMP, while the updated HISS Driver was going to come packaged with the HISS in the same assortment. Unfortunately, due to cost reasons, the new figures were dropped, and kit-bashes were put in their place.
If you don’t know which figure I’m talking about by now… here’s the official run down:
8 – G.I. Joe: The Pursuit of Cobra Clutch
Clutch was always a tough character for me to get my head around. He had such a great personality in the comic books, and seemed to be one of those guys that you love to hate. He smooth talks you, and goes out for beers with you, then waits until your passed out drunk and hits on your girlfriend. He’s a guys guy, a grease monkey, and seems to be one of the more popular characters in the G.I. Joe mythos.
What is so great about this figure is they take a guy like Clutch and really turn him into something unique and interesting. He has the familiar bearded head sculpt, but the whole rest of the figure is something dramatically new. The armored vest with pouches are awesome, the bulky gauntlets look great, and he’s got all sorts of that terrific Pursuit of Cobra pseudo-futuristic design from head to toe. I would have loved to have seen him behind the wheel of the VAMP, but alas it was not to be.
Perhaps all is not lost, though. If enough fans clamor for him, perhaps his appearance in the Concept Case will get him a second life. If you want to see this guy at retail, don’t forget to vote!
For now, just take a peek at the images below.
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Agreed! Clutch has been undeservingly neglected in the toy aisle for too long. He was the womanizing cad in the comics way before Shipwreck was on the cartoon.
They always stop short of the awesome bearded heads! We need more beards! I hope this one’s head at least makes it to production – of course I’m not knockin’ the rest of the figure. Pretty awesome! Still, I stand by my need for bearded dudes. What we needed in all those concepts is a new Rock ‘n Roll!
Beyond that though, it’s cool that Clutch was finally gona get a figure that wasn’t a mass of other parts. I’m not big on any of his previous figures. The headsculpt is okay, but the rest of ’em has always been mostly other parts that don’t work as well anymore ’cause they’re from the 25th line. Really hope we see this one sometime.
He looks like one of Bane’s mercenaries from “The Dark Knight Rises”.
I just love clutch, imagine a night out with him and shipwreck!!!!!
Don’t care for the colors and not a fan of the armor, gauntlets and pseudo-futuristic design. He’s a grease monkey jeep driver and deserves a better classic look figure first.
With all the cool stuff in that case, this is a pass for me.
Not a huge fan of this design. Just looks too bulky for a vehicle driver.
I like the head sculpt a lot. Not really crazy about the uniform, etc. Hasbro’s used Clutch’s head for a few other Joe figures so we need a new Clutch head!
I like the figure’s design and sculpt – just not as Clutch. Absolutely agree that the Clutch character deserves more facetime with a cool new figure and that figure deserves to see production, but the two just don’t mesh as seemlessly as others in the Concept Case do.
I hope they decide to use this head sculpt in the future.