 Hello everybody hooded Cobra Commander 7A here and this is another video comparing and contrasting a modern G.I. Joe action figure with its vintage equivalent. This time we are looking at Destro Version 1 from 1983 and alongside him is Destro Version 14 from 2007. I have to thank a friend of mine named Steve. He's a local friend who gave me this Destro Version 14 action figure specifically for this video. He's given me a few other items that have already shown up in reviews. Version 1 of Destro was part of the 1983 series of single carded G.I. Joe action figures. He was one of the early villains and of course he's one of the most important characters in the entire line. This version 14 was released in 2007 as part of the 25th anniversary series and he was available two different ways. He was available as a single carded figure and he was available in a five pack with four other Cobra figures. In fact thanks to another donation from a viewer named Larry I have the five pack to show you. This five pack was one of two released. There was one for G.I. Joe and one for Cobra. This was the Cobra set. It's in this box with the angled sides. It's got a huge logo that is mirrored here on the front. It has a die cast star and it says press star. If you do that it plays the theme song. You can also open this front flap to reveal the figures inside and along with a Cobra Trooper, Cobra Commander, Storm Shadow and the Baroness right there is our Destro. Let's take a look at version 1 first. This version was all new in 1983 and of course the most prominent part of the figure is the head which is VAC metalized chrome so it is all shiny. He also has a wide open collar showing his bare chest and he has a red disco medallion there and then he has an entirely black uniform which is of course pretty good. It looks pretty great. This is iconic. This is how most people remember Destro. He's got some red highlights and silver here and there including some red wrist rockets on his right wrist and then he has some accessories that were also unique to Destro. He came with a pistol. This was his only weapon. The pistol is pretty good looking. It's a machine pistol with a small magazine and a little scope on it and he came with a backpack. This backpack was a little bit more like an antashave case. You could open it up. On the inside you had some other sculpted in weapons. Of course these were not removable so you could not use them. However, the pistol would fit in the backpack so you could use the backpack to store his other accessory. I always wanted this backpack to have a carrying handle so you could carry it around like a briefcase rather than wear it on his back. Looking at Destro version 14 from 2007 we see that the basic design is the same as version 1. The details are copied over but of course they are modernized with modern sculpting and of course he has modern articulation which has several more points of articulation than the vintage figure. But the overall color scheme is the same. The overall look is the same. The scale is different. Modern G.I. Joe action figures are slightly taller than their vintage equivalent, averaging 4 inches instead of 3.75 inches. The most prominent difference is probably the head again, whereas the vintage version has a vac metallized chrome head so it is mirrored and shiny. The version 14 head is just painted silver, still ok but not quite as shiny. In addition to the pistol and the holster he comes with another very tiny pistol but I've not quite figured out where exactly this is supposed to be stored. It doesn't fit the holster very well. It doesn't fit in his other hand very well, we'll talk about that in a minute. It doesn't fit in his attaché case very well so this is kind of just an extra pistol. This is a little peeve I have with modern figures in that often they give us just a lot of accessories, more accessories than the figure can carry, which I don't think is really necessary. But he did come with an actual attaché case, not just a backpack like the original figure. This even has the word Mars on it and of course that is Destro's Araments Manufacturing Company. In this case it couldn't be a backpack anyway because this figure has no backpack of any kind so you couldn't do a backpack on it. But this does have a carrying candle and I do think that is an improvement on the original accessory. Like the original backpack this does open up and it reveals some other weapons inside the backpack and even one that's painted here, some kind of radio or cell phone or something like that. And it has one that is removable, a machine pistol. Not quite exactly like the one that came with the vintage figure but it's close, they're definitely going for that style. In fact we'll put them side by side and you can see them together and you can see they are a bit different, the proportions are different, but I think that's what they were trying to go for. But that does fit in the attaché case. There we go. That pegs in fairly well, it does sometimes fall out a bit. But I have noticed that there really isn't room in here for the extra pistol. I think that's something I would have wanted. If you could close this thing up when it has both the machine pistol in it and the other small pistol I think it would have been better. But as it is it just will not close with both of those in it. We are not done talking about accessories on the modern figure, he also comes with this submachine gun and this actually does fit in the hand just fine. There's no equivalent on the vintage figure, this is just something new for the modern figure but it looks fine and it looks like something Destro would carry so no problem there. And in addition to that his final accessory is his figure stand which even has his name on it, it says code name Destro. I wouldn't exactly count it as an accessory but his collar is a separate piece, it's not just molded on like it was on the vintage figure, that's a separate molded piece that pegs on here in the back. You'll notice that I described the vintage figure fairly quickly because there's not all that much to describe and I've spent quite a lot of time describing accessories and features on the modern figure so that might give you the idea that the modern figure has the edge over the vintage but I do have a few problems with this modern figure. Well first of all it looks nice, I can't complain about that at all, it's a very good looking figure and it does have that nice modern articulation but I really have a problem with his left hand. This hand is in this sort of permanent half clench and it doesn't seem to hold anything. It doesn't hold his other pistols, it does not hold his attaché case and like I said you cannot peg it onto the back because there's no way to do that so he can carry one accessory in his right hand and that's it and I just don't know why this decision was made I guess because you know you can pose him you know in sort of a menacing way with that half clench on his left fist but man I don't care about that I want my action figures to be able to hold their accessories and so that is definitely not my favorite thing. Which one of these figures is better? To me it's kind of a wash, they both have good points and bad points that kind of cancel each other out. I love Destro, I love the character, I love the version 1 Destro, I think it works great and it looks great. It's very well remembered because it is iconic. In version 14 most of what's good about it is taken from version 1, I mean some of the details are almost rote copied from the vintage to the modern but he does also look excellent. He looks great on a shelf, excellent display piece, has all that modern sculpting and modern articulation and of course you know that's great. I can't argue with that he does have an advantage in those areas but for all of his modern updates the modern Destro figure is still somewhat lacking in functionality. That's all for now, I just wanted to briefly show you these two figures. Thank you to both Steve and to Larry for your donations to the channel. I do accept donations to the channel so if you're interested in doing that I will flash the email address on the screen. You can email me at that address to find out how. I would like to thank my patrons for all their support. I do have a Patreon so if you'd like to support the channel in that way please check it out. I also have a Ko-fi account so if you like the videos you can give me a one time tip. You can find me on social media on Facebook and Twitter and I have a website hcc788.com. This channel does full vintage GI Joe toy reviews every weekend so check back this weekend for a new review. Thank you all so much for watching I've got more GI Joe content in the works so stick around I will see you soon.