 Hello everybody, hooded Cobra Commander 788 here and I'm back with another vintage GI Joe toy review. This time we are looking at the enemy weapon supplier, Destro. Before we get started I want to remind everybody to like this video and subscribe so you don't miss any of the GI Joe toy reviews I have coming up. This is Destro. He was sold in 1983. He was also sold in 1984 and 1985. He was discontinued in 1986. He did not get a second version until 1988 and that 1988 version was significantly different from the first version including a gold head instead of a silver head. Destro was a very unique character in the GI Joe universe. He was an enemy of GI Joe but he was not technically a Cobra officer. He was linked to Cobra. In fact he was romantically linked to the Baroness who might be considered Cobra's second in command. There is another Cobra character that is somewhat linked to Destro and that is Scrap Iron. According to Scrap Iron's file card he was Destro's anti-armor specialist. Let's look at Destro's accessories. He had two. First he has his weapon which the card called a high density laser pistol. Now this doesn't necessarily have to be a laser pistol. You could imagine this as kind of a modified Mauser broom handle pistol with a scope on it. There are Mauser broom handle variants that have an extended magazine so it really could be a fair approximation of that weapon. Destro also has a backpack which the card referred to as an armed attaché case but of course an attaché case is not a backpack. To be an attaché case it really should have a handle which I actually think I would have liked better. If this instead of being a backpack with a peg that goes into the back of the figure it had a handle for him to carry. It would have looked like a briefcase and I think that would have been really cool. The backpack opens up by pushing this latch apart. You open it up and it's got some really impressive detail on the inside. It looks like it has a disassembled M16, a little mini pistol there with an extra magazine, two knives, some grenades and what looks like I think a muzzle fired grenade. This is really some pretty amazing detail for 1983 and the backpack has another nice function and that is that you can place the pistol inside of it and so it can store the weapon. And that's really nice. I actually wish that more GI Joe figures from the 80s had a way to store their weapons. Let's look at the action figure itself. Let's start by looking at the articulation. Destro had the typical articulation for 1983 which meant that he could turn his head from side to side. Starting in 1985 GI Joe action figures had a ball joint at the neck so they could also look up and down but in 1983 they could just turn their head side to side. At the shoulder the arm was swinging up about that far and it could rotate all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow so he could bend at the elbow about 90 degrees and he had a swivel at the bicep so he could swing his arm all the way around. The figure was held together with a rubber O-ring that looped around the inside of the figure and that allowed him to move at the waist a little bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could bend at the hip about 90 degrees and he could bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's look at the figure overall and you have to admit he looks really weird. He's got this metal head, this shiny metal head and an open collar. It's just one of the strangest action figures that you've ever seen. According to the file card this metal head is supposed to be a mask but in the cartoon the lips on the metal face would move whenever Destro talked which of course is not possible if this is supposed to be solid metal. Destro has an open shirt and you can see his bare chest and on his chest he has sculpted on a ruby medallion. This look seems to be somewhat inspired by Disco Godfather. Seriously if you haven't seen that movie you've got to see it, it is messed up. Destro is wearing a jacket that appears to be leather. He has sculpted on here what looks like a walkie talkie that's on a strap that actually goes all the way around to the back and he has some slight shoulder ridges. He has a high collar that is red on the inside. He has silver cuffs on his arms and on the right side he has red rockets, wrist rockets and on the left side he has red buttons of some kind. He has black gloves which are actually ridged with a little bit of detail there that is supposed to represent armor. These gloves are supposed to be armored gloves. You can get a better view of the armored gloves on the card art. You can see there that this is Destro's glove and it definitely is supposed to have an armored look to it. On his right leg he has a red holster for a sidearm but this is actually a second sidearm because it does not fit the pistol that he came with. His left leg flares out a little bit and it looks a little bit like a Nazi uniform. Fitting with the Nazi uniform theme he has some very tall jack boots with some nice detail. Destro is a very tall figure. Let's compare Destro to your average GI Joe figure from 1982 and as you can see there is an obvious height difference. He stands probably a quarter of an inch taller than the average GI Joe and about equal with scrap iron. Destro is a conglomeration of a bunch of parts that just don't seem to go together. I mean the metal head, the bare chest, the Nazi uniform on the bottom half. It's just very strange and yet somehow all of these parts together just work really well. We just never question how strange Destro looks because we know that Destro is a really powerful character and this is just how he is. Of course it helps that the character was written very well in the comic book and the cartoon. Let's take a look at the file card. Up here it says enemy weapon supplier codenamed Destro. There's a slight mistake here under the portrait where it has his faction as GI Joe. Now technically Destro was not a member of Cobra but he definitely wasn't a member of GI Joe either. I think on later file cards they actually corrected that. His file name is unknown. His primary military specialty is weapons manufacturer and I think it's interesting that they introduced Destro as a weapons manufacturer because he would fulfill an important role in an organization like Cobra. Cobra could not obtain their weapons systems legally because they are an illegal organization so they would need somebody like Destro to help them out. Now as a kid playing with these toys you probably didn't think about where Cobra got their weapons other than you know they just came in the packaging that's where Cobra got their weapons. But Hasbro and Larry Hama who was writing these file cards at the time actually gave some thought to how an organization like Cobra would be structured and supplied. His secondary military specialty is terrorist and that's kind of an odd hobby but later in the file card I think it gives a hint as to why terrorism is his secondary military specialty. His birthplace is unknown but we find out later in the comic book that he is from Scotland. This section says Destro is the faceless power behind Mars in parentheses military armaments research system largest manufacturer of state-of-the-art weaponry. Now with that line this file card adds an entire new dimension to the G.I. Joe universe. Up to this point it was just G.I. Joe versus Cobra but according to this file card there's a third organization that is feeding weapons to Cobra. To Destro war is man's most natural state. The fittest survive and the greatest technological advances are made. He maintains the luxurious lifestyle around the world. Destro provides high-tech arms to any side able to meet his price and will incite war where it does not exist. And that I think is why terrorism is his specialty because where war doesn't exist he uses terrorism to incite it and then sells weapons to whichever side can pay him. He dons his silver battle mask a family tradition and enters battle himself either with Cobra command in parentheses Destro is their major weapon supplier or against them if it's better for business. That is a fascinating contrast to the absolute loyalty that Cobra commander demands of his own troops. So Destro would be extremely valuable to an organization by Cobra but would also be viewed with suspicion. Now in this bottom section it says Destro respects the G.I. Joe team for their combat skills and expertise but abhors them for wasting such skills to maintain peace. He's totally dedicated to seeing them undermine, subverted or destroyed. So the file card depicts a very complex character. On the one hand he respects G.I. Joe but wants to destroy them. Also he supports Cobra and gives them weapons but will gladly switch sides if business is better dealing with somebody else. He is vital to Cobra despite the fact that he has no loyalty to Cobra and Cobra is an organization that usually demands loyalty from its recruits. So important is Destro to Cobra that he is actually given command of Cobra troops when it's necessary. That was my review of Destro and his file card. I hope you enjoyed this review. If you did go ahead and give it a thumbs up. If you didn't go ahead and give it a thumbs down. That's what it's there for. 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