Destro (2008)
The Iron Grenadiers version of the Enemy Weapons Supplier must have been quite popular in the Hasbro ranks during the first few years of the modern GI Joe era. This Destro mold was released five times in 2008. Those sort of numbers remind me what an amazing time collectors had during those reinvigorated Real American Hero homage years of 2007 to 2009. Cast your memory back, kids, and remember the times of real actual GI Joe product in stores. It wasn’t always a bounty of selections, but for a while, wave after wave was making its way to collectors’ hands. And here we thought things were rough going when one wave wasn’t as readily available as we’d liked at Wal-Mart and other retailers. Imagine the kind of trouble that was waiting for us in just a few years.
Released in a comic two pack, this repaint of the “gold head” Destro replaces the black uniform for a mixture of grey and blue. Changes in color palettes for well-known characters are often interesting, but in this case, the original is so well defined that this new version looks a bit odd. As an alternate look for the IG Destro, I find that the black masked variant of the figure seems more coherent. The gold really needs a dark contrast with the uniform to really stand out. The same sort of issue applied when the modern 1983 homage was repainted in colors other than black. Nevertheless, there is something intriguing about an army of rainbow-hued Destros. Imagine a crimson or Python version…
Wow. Those boots are enormas.
In my neck of the woods, Destro is the favorite of the older fans. I guess thats why he commands such outragous prices.
As easy as repaints are, I wonder how much thought goes into them. Like, did someone just say, “Destro’s a Cobra, right? Let’s do him in blue.” Or was it the old comic-book-black-subs-blue-for-definition trick?
It was a cool figure in 2008!