G.I. Joe Extreme: Iron ClawToy’s from my childhood and from the 90′s. I’ll be hone

G.I. Joe Extreme: Iron Claw

Toy’s from my childhood and from the 90′s. I’ll be honest. I got this toy in the 3rd grade but would you believe that I just recently found out that these were actually G.I. Joe figures?. All of the kids in my 3rd grade class had these. I remember it as clear as day. They were cool yet no one could ever tell me the names of these toys. Not that I cared at the time because my father would later buy me the only 2 that would ever own. The 2 that I got came in a 2pack. The other toy was a soldier which I no longer have. As a matter of fact, I lost the toy very early on. So “The Skull” as I and many of the kids in my class used to call him, is the only physical memory I have that these things ever existed.

2 years ago I decided to do some research and I discovered that these were from a short lived line called “G.I. Joe Extreme” The name was correct. Most of the toys I had seen were just that. They were cool, big and looked very intimidating for the time. They had cool weapons and their face were always pissed off. Apparently G.I. Joe Extreme also featured comic books and a cartoon that ran for 2 seasons!. Again, no one I ever knew had seen or heard of the cartoon nor were they aware that comic books existed. The toy in the photos is actually a character called “Iron Claw” who supposedly, was brutal and quite the bad ass as well. In other words he was the main villain of the series. The soldier I mentioned earlier was actually a character named “Stone”who looked a lot like Duke but was much bigger physically which brings me to my next point. These things were 5 inches and some were even bigger. They also maxed out with 3 points of articulation which is nothing compared to their smaller G.I. Joe counter parts and down right pathetic for 2016.

The photos don’t lie. He’s beat up. This is one of the oldest toys to survive my childhood. Although I didn’t know it at the time, he was my top villain. Playing with him against some of my other toys would often result in tough battles which explains his now deformed appearance. I guess subconsciously I knew that he was a villain and his boots always reminded me of the wrestler Triple H when he was “Hunter Hearst Helmsly” in 1996. I even gave him the pedigree move to. The missing fingers that came from all of the pokes to the eyes of my other toys. The fist, which has been caved in and filed down from all of the constant punches thrown looks like an ugly tumor. Did I mention that the fist once had claw like features as well? Look closely enough and you’ll see traces of it still. The rope on his left hand used to have a loop that dangled down is gone from all of the illegal chokes that was associated with it. I could go on and on but he survived which is something I can’t say for today’s figures as they wouldn’t last 5 minutes in a child’s hands today.