Iron Grenadier (2004)

From the original file card: “The Iron Grenadiers, acting as agents, provocateurs, saboteurs or outright terrorists, impel an unsuspecting country towards chaos and turmoil, thereby creating new markets for Destro’s weapons where none existed before. Their pay is a percentage of of gross sales.” The Iron Grenadiers’ specialties include terrorism, sales and marketing development. That Destro, always the shrewd businessman.

The elite of Destro’s personal army, first introduced in 1988 has always been an intimidating force. The new sculpt version was no different. A tall muscular build combined with some great details makes for a figure that stands out as one of the best of the era. The new sculpt era had a tendency toward a superhero look in a lot of the costume design. That is very much in evidence here, as the Iron Grenadier looks like he’d be right at home on the comic page. The uniform built upon some of the vintage version’s designs while upgrading some elements, like adding a removable helmet and shoulder armor.

This particular figure, released exclusively at Walmart in a two-pack along with a desert version of Duke, has been given a very nice and detailed paint job. The usual all black deco of the IG has been replaced with an urban camo deco. The patterns of the camo are actually in scale with the figure, and for this reason as well as the figure’s realistic proportions, I think the figure can even work with the more modern line. Repaints often get a bad rap, but they can work when they’re well executed and done with a purpose, and this specialized trooper is a fine example.