As one of my favorite late 80s Army Builders, I once was highly anticipating a modern version of the Iron Grenadier Elite Guard, but in all honesty, the variation we got a few years ago left me just a little bit cold. I wasn’t a big fan of the build, using mostly dated 25th Anniversary parts, and a somewhat strange metallic color scheme.
A few years later, I feel very similar.
Granted this new Annihilator has a pretty cool new shade of red and black rather than the purple and orange of previous versions, but the basic figure build is the exact same as it was with the Oktober Guard set, which does the figure no favors. It’s a somewhat skinny, outdated clutch of parts that doesn’t really protray the muscular bodysuit of the originals, though to be fair, I’m not sure the Annihilator was ever a popular enough troop builder to warrant its own new tooling.
The head is from Lamprey, with the body mostly from Strato-Viper (which was in turn cobbled together from other 25th Anniversary figures) and while it does help kind of blend this character in with the Strato-Viper, compared to figures using next generation parts, Annihilator suffers somewhat.
Accessories
Annihilator comes with the Strato-Viper vest, somewhat more ceremonial throwback than his plain uniform, his helicopter backpack, and submachine gun, all carried forward from the 2012 Convention Set.
The change in color scheme to red and black is the only noticable change (though one can’t help but also notice that we now only get two figures for the same price as three were only three years ago). Don’t get me wrong, I like this color scheme a lot more than the strange bronze/purple from 2012, but at the end of the day, we only get so many new toys in a given year, I just hate to see the same stuff again.
Annihilator
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
2.3
Summary
Annihilator was one of my favorite Iron Grenadier troopers in the 80s, and unfortunately the Collectors Club really hasn’t been able to capture the coolness of the 1989 original. It doesn’t help that the Annihilator was already released in a Convention 3 Pack a few years ago, which goes a great way towards reducing the appeal of this update, even though this newer version has somewhat more interesting Iron Grenadier themed colors. The older parts don’t really fit all that well, and the lack of a great range of motion in the elbows is a significant detraction as well. Not their best showing here.
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.
Iron Anvil
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.8
Summary
The original Iron Anvil represents everything I’ve ever wanted from the G.I. Joe Collectors Club. Taking established parts, adding better colors, and developing something new. I was such a fan of the 1994 Viper in spite of his purple and red color scheme, the fact that the Club took that fantastic base figure and made something amazing out of him rocked my world in 2005 and that Convention Set remains one of my all time favorites. Thankfully, when they elected to pull that Trooper forward into this year’s set, they also pulled out all the stops and created a spectacular formula for a nearly flawless update. Boss Fight and the Club worked together to give us one of the epitome’s of great Convention figures.
Just seeing this figure brings me back ten years… it seems like things were so much simpler back then. Not nearly as much convoluted history…no fierce dichotomy between o-ring purists and the modern era fans. Sure, there was a growing divide between “new sculpt” and “vintage” but by and large, anyone who loved the new sculpt also loved the vintage, and Conventions were a time to celebrate the legacy of the o-ring and see what cool stuff the Club could do with it.
It didn’t get much cooler than 2005.
One of my favorite army builders of all time as the ’94 Viper, and getting that figure in good colors was enough to sell me right there. Combine that with an awesome new Iron Grenadier using Night Viper parts… not to mention Mega Marines Gung Ho in better colors, PLUS a real live member of the Oktober Guard? Good stuff.
The Steel Brigade concept felt relatively fresh, with a new look at the idea as an International peace keeping force, and they introduced a new character by the name of General Mayhem. What a great set.
Flash forward ten years later and General Mayhem no longer feels quite so new, but his figure is still really nice.
Like Metalhead, we have Boss Fight Studio to thank for the great new head sculpt here, with gorgeously sculpted mutton chops, certainly designed with love by one of the bearded wonders at BFS. A close look at the head reveals a ton of great little detail work, and I’m surprised that they were able to take a cobbled together Gnawgahyde and transform it into this work of art. The torso belongs to SDCC Destro/Joe Colton, with arms from Ultimate Cobra Commander and legs from Rise of Cobra Destro. It’s an strange combination of parts that gives us a really great looking update to the Russian Iron Grenadier field commander.
Like most other figures in this set, the deco is black, red, gray, and a hint of gold, tributes to the Iron Grenadier faction. It’s not amazingly new or interesting, but exceptionally well executed.
Accessories
The most critical point of discussion with the accessories is obviously the new vest. Boss Fight Studio designed and sculpted this new secondary along with the head, and all of a sudden provided a wealth of opportunity to the Collectors Club and customizers. A good basic dress uniform secondary had not really been available until now, and thanks to this one small addition, there are numerous possibilities down the road.
Along with this, General Mayhem comes with Retaliation Lift Ticket’s flight helmet, which works remarkably well as a replacement for the Long Range helmet from the vintage days. He also has a submachine gun and rocket launcher.
There aren’t a lot of accessories here, but the ones that he comes with are pretty great and suit the character well.
General Mayhem is great. I love getting new characters introduced to the mythology, and while this isn’t truly a new character at this point, he’s a great addition to the Iron Grenadier story, and it’s pretty cool getting him in modern format.
General Mayhem
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
4.1
Summary
Although Mayhem wouldn’t top my list of characters that need modern updates, he fits into the modern mold very well, especially with his newly sculpted head and dress jacket. I’m glad the Club developed these two new pieces, and as expected, Boss Fight did great work on their side. The figure ends up coming together remarkably well, and while a year ago I would have never said I needed a modern General Mayhem, I find myself very pleased to have him.
With Voltar and Darklon’s release in the convention set from a few years ago, Metalhead became the most wanted individual as part of the Iron Grenadier corps. So much so that a custom version offered at the New Jersey Collectors Convention became a highly desirable item on the secondary market. The Club enlisted the aid of Boss Fight Studio to design and sculpt the head, and I assume they did the build for the figure as well, and by and large it’s successful.
I think it could have been a bit better.
When it comes to developing these modern updates, you must always walk a fine line between paying tribute to the vintage and trying something new, especially in the case of Metalhead, who has such a different and unique vintage appearance. You can sacrifice an homage to bring something new and different to the table, or pick an element from that classic figure to build around. We ended up with sort of a mixture of the two.
First and foremost, the head sculpt is just terrific. It has loads of character, from the mullet-like hairdo, to the crosshair etched goggles, and the grimace encased inside the crazed beard. Even if nothing else on the figure resembled the Iron Grenadier explosives expert, you’d know exactly who it is.
Using pretty slender arms was an interesting design element here, especially considering those ’90 era figures tend to be on the bulkier side. They tried to make up for it with the extra bulky Jungle Viper legs, which I actually really love for Metalhead. Deco is relatively straight forward, with the familiar black, red, gray, and just the slightest hint of gold.
I’m not sold on the build. I realize that the Club (and Boss Fight) were going for some vintage elements with the strap patterns of Snake Eyes’ webgear, not to mention the knife sheath, but combining the extra large webgear with the extra slender torso and arms just makes for a somewhat odd combination. It’s almost as if the bulky webgear exentuates the skinny parts underneath (and vice versa) so it appears to be more drastic than it really is. At some point I’ll likely swap out the webgear as a test, because I really do love most of the figure, it’s just those parts together don’t jive really well in my eyes.
Accessories
As I mentioned, he’s using the PoC Snake Eyes webgear, which is an awesome vest, even if a bit oversized in this case. He also comes with a knife for his sheath, the great Retaliation Cobra Commander laser gun, and the Pursuit of Cobra Duke missile launchers, which suit the character so perfectly it’s almost scary. I’m not one of those vintage devotees who won’t accept a Metalhead without rocket launchers attached at each thigh…I think what he comes with is pretty much perfect. The color matching of the rockets and the launcher/backpack is pretty flawless as well.
There is a lot to love about this Metalhead. His new head sculpt is really perfect. The range of motion on his arms and legs is excellent. The deco is spot on, and I so much want this to be my favorite Convention figure ever. But that oversized webgear combined with the extra-scrawny torso and arms just makes for a weird combo. Thankfully webgear is easy to swap, and I’ll kick some stuff around to see if anything else grabs me. Beyond the issue with Metalhead looking a bit too skinny, most of the figure is great, and will look awesome among the other score of Iron Grenadiers.
Now we need some Nullifiers and TARGATs!
Metalhead
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.8
Summary
Metalhead is a figure I want to love, and I almost do. The head sculpt is spectacular, Boss Fight Studio at their best, but the combination of large, gapping webgear and slim body makes for a figure that just doesn’t mesh real well. He doesn’t look like he goes together. The articulation is great, the paint scheme is pretty nice, there are just a couple minor choices that I might have preferred. Ultimately he’s a good addition to the Convention set and offers a great template to build from, I just wanted Metalhead to be perfect. He isn’t quite.
Destro’s diver troops have had a convoluted history throughout the Real American Hero mythology. Emerging in 1990, somewhat separate from the majority of Destro’s troops, Undertow sort of became amalgamated with Cobra right off the bat, especially in the DiC animated series. Their colors never really matched typical Iron Grenadier colors (though to be fair, neither did Nullifier, TARGAT, or several others) and in fact, during G.I. Joe’s 2000 release, they became official Cobra underwater troopers.
When the Collectors Club reintroduced the Iron Grenadiers for the 2005 Convention Set, the Undertow was conspicuously absent…a fact that the Club rectified several years later, releasing him as their annual incentive figure in a great Iron Grenadier deco. When Undertow was announced as part of this year’s Convention set, many folks wondered which one it would be… the Iron Grenadier deco, or the 1990 deco?
With Iron Anvils and General Mayhem in the set, the IG deco is the one that made the most sense, and honestly, it looks pretty nice, too. It’s fair to mention, however, that the 50th Anniversary Eel, released this summer, bears a pretty striking resemblance to this Undertow, but still, it’s nice to have another squad of Destro troopers in hand.
Undertow uses Torpedo’s torso, Retaliation Snake Eyes upper arms, Torpedo lower arms, and Retailation Snake Eyes’ legs, all of which combine together to portray a decent wet suit look and feel. Mixing the more modern parts in there, though, offers better range of motion and sculpting than we saw originally. As I already mentioned, Undertow uses the Iron Grenadier paint scheme, a mixture of black, gray, and red with just a hint of gold, and it looks really nice, complimenting the rest of the Iron Grenadier corps quite well.
Accessories
Undertow comes with the typical weapons allotment. The Cobra Eel Speargun along with Torpedo’s backpack, and the familiar facemask, trident, and underwater sled that they are so well known for. It’s a pretty great selection of weapons, and I love that the sled is included as well. Those miniature vehicles that came with certain figures are among my favorites in the line.
Undertow is a pretty basic upgrade, but one that works well within the confines of the Convention Set. I have no doubt that we’ll eventually see a classically deco’d version either in the FSS or elsewhere, but this version will be a great placeholder until that happens.
Undertow
Character
Sculpt
Articulation
Paint Deco
Accessories
3.2
Summary
Using a variation of the formula for the 50th Anniversary Eel, the end result is the same – a figure that represents an underwater operative well, but also can work as a land based trooper, too. The Retaliation Snake Eyes legs can maintain the wet suit aesthetic, but also allow for walking, not just swimming. The formula works, the more modern parts add some nice range of motion, and the paint apps matching the o-ring GIJCC exclusive from a few years back make for some great integration into the IG core.
