Sometimes, I’m not sure about my ability to separate a character or idea I like from the actual toy it’s applied to. Like with the Iron Grenadier, the elite foot-soldier of Destro’s personal faction, I’m not really sure if the toy is that good or if I’ve just been conditioned to love it from the daydreams I have about him. Of course, the character is kind of part of the toy, which was one of the selling points that separated GI Joe from things like The Corps!. Without getting to deep about it, here’s some happy words and a few photos of the Iron Grenadier.
The colors are really nice on the Iron Grenadier, in multifaceted ways. Going with his elite European profile, the black and red makes him a little reminiscent of a Nazi SS uniform. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not, but this wasn’t too long before WWII mania really set in so there’s that. More importantly, the colors also riff off his Cobra equivalent of the Viper, and directly match up with either version of Destro. Obviously his colors match Iron Grenadiers Destro, but with only silver and gold to separate them, he looks pretty splendid alongside the V1. There’s some amazing consistency there, as I really wouldn’t expect an ’88 figure to look good along side an ’83 figure, but the thematic colors are one of the stronger characteristics of the Iron Grenadiers, as a faction.
I’ve seen the sculpt described as “space conquistadors” and mildly can’t unsee it, but overall I really dig the look of the armor. It’s bulky, and looks like it could take some shots. Paired with his primary weapon being an Uzi, I imagine Iron Grenadiers using a lot of shock tactics without much worry as to their personal harm. The helmet design is really impressive: the fin on top gives it a similar look to knight armor, but also the more ornate WWI European helmet designs*. Underneath that, is an advanced and futuristic looking tactical (Gas?) mask, that combines to form the most defining element of the figure.
*In particular, it kinda looks like a Russian Adrian helmet. I wonder if that was intentional, since Cobra Troopers have helmets sometimes depicted with mildly German styling. Given the conflict between Cobra and the IG’s, perhaps a reference to Germany vs Russia at any given point. That, or a toy designer just checked out a history book on gear, choose it at random, and here I am making shit up 37 years later.
It’s funny how the space-y look of Iron Grenadiers is fairly well accepted, even outside of this figure, whereas the BF2000 remain obscurities hardly touched by any facet of the brand (I think even Classified has continued to ignore them). I think some of that is owed to the fact that the Iron Grenadier is actually a good figure, as well as the face of his own faction (which, you really can’t say about Maverick). I’ve sometimes wondered if sci-fi is just a more accepted theme for villains, but there again the character ties back to Destro, whereas the BF2000 amounts to a bunch of bland Captain Power rejects, who drive MASK reject vehicles. One expands the lore a bit, but the other serves no real purpose.
His accessories are interesting. He includes a gold, sheathed sword, a red pistol and a giant black Uzi. These parts are tied to the character and make him more visually impressive, though none of them are very good. The obvious flaw with the Uzi is that it’s absolutely massive, over-scaled on par with something atrocious like the SAW Viper LMG. It’s also a notorious thumb breaker, so I don’t use the ones that I have and usually opt for a Snake Eyes or Low-Light/LAW Uzi. I also find some flaw in the hip mounted accessories that were popular for a few years, such as this sword. As an adult, it works well enough and figures can be carefully posed with said style of accessory, but I couldn’t imagine playing with something like this. It just falls right off. Of yeah, last but not least is the pistol, which is actually pretty cool. It’s very blocky, but it looks unique and he holds it well, so that’s good. This later became more of a standard Cobra pistol during Battle Corps, included with a few oddballs like the HEAT Viper and TARGAT.
The Iron Grenadier sculpt never got a good repaint besides 4 bootleg versions by Letal Customs. In Brazil he was released as Terrok, with no changes at all. The head was slapped into a Night Viper body and released as a 2005 JoeCon figure. The Letal Customs figures were nice, but he never released more than a handful of them. Given his recent habit of revisiting Cobra Troopers and Steel Brigades over again, it’d be nice if The Black Major would take another stab at the Iron Grenadier. The sculpt still has a lot of untapped potential, and an o-ring version of the fantastic looking POC Iron Grenadier seems more than doable.
Iron Grenadiers price in around $20, though auctions seem fairly inconsistent for them. Joe prices seem to finally be softening a lot, as a few years ago these guys had gotten really pricey. I remember wanting a broken one for a custom and being unable to get even that for less than $30. It’s a far cry from when you could get toys like this for $5, but $20 is a fair market price for an o-ring figure when you consider that’s about what a new TBM figure or ReAction figure would cost. For me, I might go back for a few more at current prices, since my squad is still fairly modest.
Orange swords from the bootleg. Not a perfect swap.
The Viper Pit 
I was out of Joes in ’88. But, still close enough to play with them when no one was looking. My brother got the IG and I thought it was one of the coolest figures they had ever made. This is likely a function of the fact that he couldn’t be mine and had a somewhat “taboo” nature to him since I had aged out.
In the old days, he was dirt cheap since he wasn’t a Cobra. So, you’d see guys build up nice armies of them since you could get 2 or 3 for the same price as 1 Viper or CG. I had a pretty large army at one time. But, I took one photo in 2000 or so and never used them all in one setting again.
It’s amazing how well the ’88 IG figs and vehicles blend. I’d say they’re an even better match than the ’83 Cobras. But, they seemed to fall just outside of that “mainstream” collecting window. And, you never really saw anyone do anything with them.
If you want a new take on the Joe world, you can have the original General Flagg completely destroy Cobra in 1985 when they attack Springfield. Destro then rises out of the ashes around 1988 as his own, independent, threat. And, the actual G.I. Joe team is created that year with the ’88 characters as the original team members. No Snake Eyes. Maybe Stormshadow starts as a good guy. Destro gets to be a real villain. And, you get to reboot the Joe story without the baggage of the first 70 issues of the comic or the cartoon.
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One of the great but overlooked Army builder troops. Really great photos, seeing IGs in numbers is awesome. Love how they just mesh so well with the Destro and Baroness in the classic cobra colors despite the fact the IGs are their own sub team. The style of the Iron Grenadier sub team was something out of an alternate 1950s comic book reality to me. Such a cool and unique style while also meshing in well with the rest of the standard ARAH line. The uzi that came with the IG got heavy use – typically I paired it with Falcon. One of my favorite guns from the line.
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Your photos are great! I know the uzi is over-sized, but it’s my favorite one of the whole Joe line. In my child brain (and adult brain), this was the coolest uzi sub machine gun. I gave it to Snake Eyes all the time.
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