Destro (2010)
Look upon Arctic Destro, a symbol of frustration that represented the sometimes poor distribution of the Pursuit of Cobra line. 2009 to 2010 was a time of feast to famine for a Joe collector. Going from the wealth of movie product on shelves to the delay of the follow-up line’s launch to its subsequent sporadic appearance raised my ire. After the initial wave, this Destro hung on the pegs seemingly forever, holding for ransom collectors’ hopes for a restock of new product. In my area, this Destro was still on the shelves into the time of the 30th anniversary line. This figure was so inescapable, I ran across one at a flea market the same day after seeing one at Target. Maybe it was all an ironic joke by Hasbro–overproduce an arctic figure to be a peg-warmer. Now that a little time has past, I can look at this figure without contempt.
An arctic themed Destro was a figure I’d wanted since I saw him wearing a stylish coat in the Sunbow cartoon movie. The figure eschews the typical snow parka for a more modern stylized padded jacket. Wait a minute, why would a man who wears a steel helmet need a hood? Now that I think of it, does he need goggles either? Oh well, it’s just a toy, I should really just relax.
I don’t normally like washes and oversprays on figures, but the snow and frost effects are very well done. The only problem is that the goggles, when left on the forehead, can cause the white “frost” to chip off. I like to think of mine as a partially defrosted variant.
The accessories are what really push my buttons. The clip-on ice adds a little bit of play value to a line that at times seemed too collector centered. The water squirting weapon adds even more fun. Throw in an ice auger (that could double as an awesome post-hole digger for combat engineer Tollbooth) and you’ve got a winner in my book, regardless of how well he warmed the pegs.
I still need to get this figure–I’m perplexed by how the Target near me didn’t clearance these and the Zartan figures that remained–and increased the price on them, along with the 30th Anniversary figures, to $10.99. TEN FREAKING NINETY-NINE. WHAT GIVES, TARGET?!?!!?!?!?
I adore how you refer to the peg-warming qualities of this figure in the past-tense. I was at a Target just last week and they still had 3 of him sitting there with about 6 or so other, more recent, figures.
Not a bad idea using the auger for the likes of Tollbooth. Might have to use that for my custom figure of him.
He’s certainly no ’89 Dee-Jay, that’s for sure.
Good for customs…
He’s okay given that he’s done more in the modern style rather than the recent “homages” which have given us so many great figures. I just hope that there isn’t another product drought between the final movie wave and whatever comes next for Hasbro.
If he didn’t have the frosted paint job, I would have bought this guy/. As a rule, I like my figures “clean”. And I don’t think the effect works for simulating snow accumulation — it looks more like he dipped his head in liquid nitrogen.