Alexx Shorts: 30th Iron Grenadier (9/5/11)

Well, this is it: I've finally decided to start reposting my old "Alexx Shorts" G.I. Joe reviews.  They're the reviews that lead to what eventually became this blog!  I'll be posting them in straight copy-and-paste format, separating them with bold dotted lines so you know where they begin and end, and then I'll post some final thoughts on what I think of the figure currently.

For those unfamiliar: I used to take random pictures here and there, but by the time the Rise of Cobra toys came out, I was getting annoying with how much people had been bashing the figures which were clearly better than the previous 25th Anniversary offerings.  I set out to show people how awesome they were, and things went from there, forming into "Alexx Shorts", named so because I thought I was going to keep to a short format with a few pictures.  I did not do that.


But where are your grenades?

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*snrk* HUH?! What? Reviews? Oh yeah.

Hey look, a new toy! One would think that the new stuff is hitting me finally, though it looks like they skipped the end of PoC, 'cause here's the 30th Anniversary figures! Well, one of 'em anyway. I don't mind so much, 'cause he seems to have what he needs, though he is missing stuff that the PoC version had, as you can see from General Hawk's review. Not only is he missing his (mostly useless) gun, but he's also missing the camo pattern on his arms and legs.  It's odd, though I don't mind so much. I could never get anyone to hold that gun well anyway, and without the camo, his blank body is at least a uniform gray when the armor is off (though I would rather have camo all over than not at all).

Interesting changes for something that is still in the same price range. Less stuff for the same price? Well...whatever. In the long run, like I said, I don't really care. He could have used a pistol (like it says he has on his filecard) but when you've got a few IGs already, these guys just needs to fill the front lines with big 'ol guns!

And what a big gun it is. You'll notice that he doesn't have the same connector that came with Destro, that allowed for this:

And as you can see the same thing still works. Sadly...

...the ball joint cannot fit in the hole on the big gun. The peg can, but that's supposed to go in the armor.

At any rate, you can shove the ball joint into the armor and stretch it out, and kinda make it work.

So in the end, I don't care that the connector is missing, 'cause it's hard to get it work, and he holds it just fine without it!

'Course there is the thing with the two backpacks. You can see here that he's using the small backpack, and that works. The big one doesnt:

The bullet belt from the 25th line isn't made to fit in the slot from that RoC backpack. Thing is, when you look at the artwork at the top (which I didn't until I was finished takin' pics) you can see the small pack is shoved in under the gun:

So I guess you have options (second pic is just me trying to make it look better).  Honestly, I dunno what the bigger backpack is supposed to be for. Personally I like making this some sorta multi-gun, so it'll fire bullets, or it can be hooked to the big generator backpack for a crazy beam type weapon. I mean, you look at that gun and you just KNOW it has to be more badass than just a regular machine gun with a bullet belt. I like me some futuristic weapons, and that thing fills that role nicely. 

Speaking of filling roles:

How awesome is that? This is a rare hole to be filled here. The package doesn't even say he's a heavy IG, but the filecard mentions it at the end. He's a regular IG, just decked out in the heavy stuff! AWESOME. Just a great friggin' idea, you know? I love the look of him, and he's ripe for army building. 

*WARNING WARNING*

I've bascially finished the reivew, but OMG you had to have been thinking of mixing and matching when you first saw this figure. Well, guess what? If it wasn't bad enough that this guy is good for army building, he also just has the BEST head ever for just about anything.

I...I couldn't help myself. The rest of the reivew will be for showing off the amazing way this figure's head makes everything better.

First off, the prerequisite mix between the old Destro. I'm using that body for Scrap Iron, and GOOD LORD his head just works with every possible combination. I just don't know what my final mix will be, but it may be this:

Or I may just swap heads.

Next, the head works for a sort of new style IG, with either of those bodies:

Or hey, how about an accelerator suit or an arctic version?

Or maybe you want your own modern version, like something they could have done in the movie?

Finally, my personal favorite: a suited body guard for Destro on those important outtings:

OKAY OKAY, by this point it's just me playing around, more so than a review, so I assume this has gotten my point across. This is a DANGER figure, because not only is he awesome all on his own, but the mix and match possibilites are endless. I kinda wish they would finally make a new standard Iron Grenadier already, because the problems with the 25th versions were way more evident now as I was trying to pose them with the new guys. If they ever do get to new IGs, I really hope they stick with this gray scheme, because the details stand out way better on gray, than on the black helmet with the red paint blobbed on to cover everything. 

If it isn't obvious already, I highly suggest buying multiples of this figure in either form (PoC or 30th). There is no way to NOT use this guy.

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Wow, not sure what else there is to say!  Nowadays, this one is probably best in ebay lots, because there's no real need to buy a nice complete in-package figure.  You can probably supply a better gun for him, or, he'll be good for parts!  There's really no downside to getting some of these guys in a big lot of figures.  The colors and parts are just so nice, and a breath of fresh air, compared to standard Iron Grenadiers (and I love those guys).  He's even a bit of a throwback to the G.I. Joe vs Cobra era, where they repainted an IG in gray and gold. 

If you're not looking for one in particular, then make sure you scan those large lots of figures and see if you can score some that way.  You won't be disappointed.