Spirit Iron-Knife (2005)
Wait, didn’t we just cover this guy recently? Sort of. He was part of a comic pack in 2006, but before that was a single carded DTC release. This original figure features a really large Freedom sidekick as well as a unique belt and rifle. All three elements add more interest to the character and I prefer this one to the later repaint.
I’m not an expert on eagles, but I imagine Freedom is out of scale. Regardless, he’s an impressive sight on Spirit’s arm, and I’m glad he doesn’t have fragile claws like his predecessor. I’ve long been a fan of animal companions in the line, and was happy to see him included.
The rifle appears to be another of the odd modular weapons that populated the latter offerings of the new sculpt years. This one has a mount point on the bottom, as well as some pegs on the side. I recall that the concept was supposed to involve the never-realized Robot Rebellion series planned after Valor vs. Venom. Who knows what this could have been?
Thank you very much for the information about the Robot Rebellion. I have never heard about that before in my life, until now. Anyway, the colors on this figure look way better than the ones on the other figure that you showed us recently. But to me, the face on this figure just doesn’t look anything like what Spirit is supposed to look like to me, from both the 1980’s cartoons, and the original o-ring figure. And also, the Slaughter’s Marauders version. The only thing that they have never gotten right about Spirit, it is his skin complexion from the way that it was colored in the Marvel/Sunbow episodes. As for this figure’s younger looking face, it looks to me more like this figure could have been released as Spirit’s son, instead. That to me would have been not only better, but also, way more interesting. And it would have been a great way to farther expand the story of the original 1982-2006 G.I. Joe saga. What a wasted opportunity. And as for that eagle, I think that in real life eagles can get pretty big. And their wingspan can get even bigger. They can get big enough to actually be able to fight off wolves. So, I think that the scale of this version of Freedom, has been done just right. And you are so right about the feet of not only the original Freedom, but also, the other 1980’s pet birds. They would always break, or something(like the 87 Raptor’s falcon, and the 88 Voltar’s condor, for example). And as for that rifle, as weird as it’s very long barrel actually looks, it is still not as bad as the rifle that was packaged with the 1990 S.A.W.-Viper figure.
The Rise of The Robots/Robot Rebellion was the next phase of the “new sculpt” era was cancelled in development. A lot of the concepts were folded into SIGMA SIX. There was once a listing of what two packs were gonna be, including a character named Strong-Arm (I think he was the new ROBO JOE?). The unreleased Firefly and Cobra Commander figures made it to ebay.
You can google around for more info. (I’m learning somethings right now!)
The theme after the robots would’ve been an alien invasion!
Thank you very much for that information. And thank you for taking the time to post it. If only the original 1982-2006 G.I. Joe story line would have continued, instead of been rebooted, who knows how many more great things we would have gotten. Like maybe, more classic o-ring figures that would have been reissued, or reproduced, instead of the bigger scale 25th Anniversary reboot figures(which do not fit in most of the classic vehicles, and planes) ever been made. A guy can dream, right? And as for an alien invasion, I would have liked to have seen the Joes in space again, fighting the Lunartix Empire aliens(whom perhaps could have joined forces with the Manimals). First the robots, and then the aliens. I think that would have worked just fine.
Nice face sculpt and a great skin tone.