CONTEXT:
From the G.I. Joe Commandoes 8-9" scaled action figure line comes the metal-skinned, metropolitan menace, Crime Boss Destro: an urbanized, bank robbery ready action figure of the classic G.I. Joe foe. Despite this figure being technically released under the G.I. Joes Commandoes line, Crime Boss Destro is sculpted, accessorized, and articulated just like the G.I Joe Sigma Six action figures. With that in mind, Crime Boss is the second Destro figure to come from the Sigma Six styled action figure line; and this figure offers a different look from the classic blue, high ranking military officer`s outfit he`s usually wearing. The story that drives this figure's design involves Destro's day job, which is robbing banks in order to fund the development of Cobra's state of the art weapons technologies. With his special arsenal and seasoned criminal mastermind, the vac-metallized villain Destro is ready to prove his rank as Cobra's Crime Boss.
APPEARANCE and ARTICULATION:
Crime Boss stands 8 and ¾" tall, and although the figure`s size can seem cumbersome at times, his sculpted height fits perfectly in the context of the Sigma Six/Commandoes action figure line, as well as in the context of the Sigma Six TV show. Another advantage of this figure's height is that Crime Boss is big enough to hold his massive foot locker with both hands, unlike most Sigma Six figures. Crime Boss's body is the same one used for the Sigma Six Destro figure. For those who don`t own the previous Sigma Six Destro and are therefore unfamiliar with the sculpt and articulation for Crime Boss, I`ll describe Crime Boss`s sculpt and other features. For those who already bought the Sigma Six Destro, I'll describe what features make Crime Boss similar and different from the first Sigma Six Destro figure. Like Sigma Six Destro, Crime Boss has three molded holes in his back to hold weapons. The PAINT job on Crime Boss greatly differs to the Sigma Six Destro. As Sigma Six Destro was painted to have grey gloves, Crime Boss's hands are painted with maroon gloves and there is a red square painted on the back of his right hand. Instead of the blue pants with gold straps and black boots, Crime Boss has removable maroon colored shorts, with all black pants, straps, and boots under the shorts. While Sigma six Destro is painted without a shirt and a given a removable jacket, Crime Boss has a black painted sleeveless shirt and is given a removable weapons harness. The eyes are the same for both figures, painted a bright solid red. Instead of painting Destro`s whole head in a shiny, metallic paint, like on the Sigma Six figure; only a centered strip extending from the back of Crime Boss's skull to his chin is painted in the shiny metallic paint. The sculpted lines found on the sides of Crime Boss's face are the same sculpt from Sigma Six Destro, except on Crime Boss the sculpted lines act as the border to keep in the strip of shiny, metallic paint. These lines containing the shiny paint, start out as a narrow strip at the back of his skull, but then begin to widen at his forehead, until finally expanding over his cheekbones and jaw. Outside the lines, on the sides of his head, there's a very mild, metallic paint job that compliments the shiny, centered stripe. Crime Boss's head is a major improvement from the Sigma Six Destro's head, because although the completely shiny head looked good right out of the package; dirt, smudges, and scratches from action figure usage can easily become visible on the Sigma Six Destro`s head. Crime Boss's head limits that visibility by decreasing the surface area of shiny paint, while keeping that classic, metal head Destro look. The SCULPT of this figure is not super detailed; but, like most other Commandoes or Sigma Six figures, it possesses a rather stylized or artistic sculpt that mirrors the character drawings from the cartoon. In my opinion, this figure perfectly translates the artwork of the Sigma Six show from a drawing into a sculpture. Although this figure is overall not super detailed, this figure does have some thoroughly sculpted features; the crumpled pant legs that submerge into the straps of his boots; the treads and laces of the boots add that extra touch that any kid or collector can appreciate. Also, the lines and wrinkles that are formed when muscle contracts are superbly sculpted into his arms and shoulders and are also present in his legs, abdominals and upper torso. His wrists, and the outer surfaces of his forearms and shoulders have carved lines that were added to point out the connections of the metal plates used to vac-metallize Destro. Also found on his outer forearms and shoulders, are extra layers of plastic that are sculpted to look like thicker layers of metal, meant to add protection over his arms and shoulders. Even though Crime Boss uses the same body from Sigma Six Destro, Crime Boss has one minor but crucial extra point of ARTICULATION: The Kung Fu Grip, which allows Crime Boss to hold any of his weapons or loot securely. He has ball joints in his shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. His head is a ball and socket joint, while his waist is a swivel joint, and his torso is a hinge joint. I estimate the points of articulation for Crime Boss to be at 30 (including the Kung Fu Grip) and I reached that number by counting each ball joint as 2 points of articulation, and also counting the ball and socket head as 3 points; so the articulation point total may vary depending on how you count the points.
ACCESSORIES:
Crime Boss Destro comes with 18 accessories, and I reached that number by counting his rifle and projectile as one accessory; as well as counting the safe deposit box, which can be gently pulled apart into 2 pieces as one accessory. The other accessories include 4 gold bars, 4 stacks of cash, 2 tear gas grenades, 1 Uzi styled handheld machine gun, 1 huge desert-eagled style handgun with a scope, 1 gas mask, 1 weapons harness, 1 pair of shorts, and 1 foot locker. So it seems that even if you already have the Sigma Six Destro, or if you're into slightly smaller scaled action figures, Crime Boss Destro is still a worthy purchase as these are some undeniably awesome action figure accessories. Regarding weapons, there's a huge rifle with a projectile that loads into it, and fires about 2-3 feet, so be careful not to fire it towards your eyes, or face as well as anyone else`s. The Uzi is nice, but not a star of the set; the handgun is very nice and has a grey marbled texture on its grip. The tear gas grenades, along with 2 of the guns have pegs meant to fit into the harness. On the back of the harness there are 4 holes which fit over the 3 holes sculpted into his back, so it's nice to gain that extra hole when he's wearing the harness. On the front lower right strap of the harness there are two holes where the grenades or Uzi can go. I was able to fit 2 guns on his back and 2 grenades on the front while he was wearing the harness. The handgun can be held by the belt loops on the shorts, which have superbly molded plastic kneepads that hang freely from elastic straps sewn into the shorts. Remember to be careful with the velcro strip that holds the shorts up, pull it apart too hard and you might tear the seam. The gas mask itself is molded plastic, but the straps are elastic which is a good choice for Destro, because the elastic helps hold the mask snug without scratching Destro's metal looking head. The safe deposit box opens and although it can't hold all the gold and all the money when closed, it doesn't matter; this is an awesome accessory. It does hold the four gold bars and two of the stacks of money while closed. The stacks themselves are molded to resemble 100 dollar bills with a clip down the middle. The gold bars look bright enough to almost resemble real gold and they have "20k" in molded writing on the top of them. The safe deposit box has a sculpted number and a painted bank logo with writing next to it. An open gash is molded on the outer face of the box, and on the inside there's a yellow grated texture that's been molded into the lining of the box`s drawer. The foot locker that can be assembled with the two halves found on the outside of the Crime boss Destro package, is different than the Sigma Six foot locker. Crime Boss's foot locker is bright red, and has a sleeker sculpt compared to the Sigma Six lockers. Also, this foot locker does not stack with the Sigma Six ones. On Crime Boss's locker, there are the same size pegs on the locker's top and grooves on the underside that were used for the Sigma six lockers. These pegs and grooves allowed multiple Sigma Six foot lockers to be securely stacked on top of each other, but they're spaced too far apart on Crime Boss's locker and the wide grooves don't line up with the more narrowly arranged Sigma Six locker pegs, so you can`t securely stack this red locker with the Sigma Six ones. And, there's no foam insert to cushion the accessories within Crime Boss's foot locker, although you can still fit all his accessories in it. One more interesting aspect of the foot locker is that it has a slit, like the Sigma Six lockers, at the top where the plastic hook attached so the figure could hold on the pegs at the store. This slit resembles a coin slot, except on Sigma Six lockers, there are too many openings on the locker for it to be used as a safe coin bank. Crime Boss Destro's foot locker not only has a slit that fits most coin sizes, but the locker itself has no unsafe openings surrounding it and can be used as an effective piggy bank.Get more detail about
G.I. Joe 8 Inch CRIME BOSS Destro.
