G.I. Joe: The Pursuit of Cobra Destro (Arctic Threat)

Okay, I’ll be honest.  This review is a very tough one to write, because, well, frankly, I’ve got a big case of déjà vu.  I do feel like this version of Arctic Destro does deserve at least a bit of a write up, simply because he is slightly different than his pre-production predecessor, but really, the figure is much the same.

Not that this is a bad thing.  In fact, I’m pretty glad the figures are so similar, just because he was a very cool toy originally, and didn’t need a whole lot of improvement.  Underneath the bulky winter jacket with the fur-lined collar, Destro has some very nice, solid tooling, just like every other Pursuit of Cobra figure.  It’s pretty neat the way Hasbro has given these figures great looking secondaries, yet still didn’t crimp on the detail underneath.  Destro is racked with sculpting detail, almost like a bulked up Reactive Armor suit, and the result is impressive.  Hell, Hasbro even went with a great looking snow covered overspray underneath the jacket as well as on top of the jacket, and the attention to detail shows.

The most obvious difference between the two Destro’s is that the production version has a green glow to his eyes where the previous one had Ecclestein’s vacant stare looking right into your soul.  I think the change is a good one, and with the goggles on, the bright green paint carries a very interesting aspect.

From the color scheme perspective, the figures look quite a bit similar, with just some very minor spraying changes.  The production Destro lacks a Cobra symbol on his right pocket that the pre-production version sported, but by and large the paint jobs are the same.

I'm not sure how much I need to go into the quality of the tooling itself, since I spoke of that fairly extensively in the other review for the pre-production version, but I suppose I can reiterate that from a tooling perspective this figure is simply awesome. The bulky, yet nicely articulated arms and legs look like perfect arctic representations, yet still retain a nice Cobra feel. Obviously, without the jacket, the figure does look a bit silly, but I still love the highly detailed armor plating on the chest. I do continue to be kind of curious about these crazy handles, though:

The pre-production Desert Ripcord has 'em, the Jungle-Viper has 'em on his arms, and Destro has them. What is up with this?

Beyond that, this figure is layered with very cool, intricate detail, that compliment the paint scheme very nicely, and you get a version of Destro that looks at home in the arctic, yet still looks like a version of Destro we all know and love. A great figure.

The final version of Arctic Threat Destro comes with every accessory that he came with in pre-production, and also added a neat looking ice drill that was originally slated to come with Snake Eyes before he moved from Arctic to Desert.  It’s a neat enough addition, though nothing to necessarily write home about.  I do love Destro’s twin ice picks, too, all decked out with silver and black paint.  He could certainly do some damage with those.

Like the pre-production version, Destro’s main armament is a backpack-fueled squirt gun…while I couldn’t even get the hose to fit into the weapon prior to official release, I’m happy to say this one worked better, though I haven’t busted out the squirt feature yet.  Destro also comes with the same flamethrowing torch that the Rise of Cobra version did, which may seem odd for an ice trooper, but I could see why he might need emergency melting abilities at the arctic circle as well.

All in all, rather than be repetitive with this review, I’ll echo much of what I said last time around.  This figure makes for a very cool update to Destro, and he looks great as an Arctic operations specialist.  I really enjoy the reddish color scheme many of these new arctic figures are sporting, it kind of unifies them as a group.  I know folks have been complaining about the upcoming Snow Serpent who comes with the Ice Cutter, but if you look at Destro and the Elite Ice-Viper, there is a cool trend of white and red that brings these Cobra arctic specialists together nicely.  Destro is a cool addition to that group, and manages to be very cool above and beyond his snowbound specialty.

GRADE:

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