Show and Tell > Iron Klaw (G.I. Joe Extreme)

Today’s Show and Tell comes courtesy of Poester George C. Some images taken from Yojoe.com.

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When I was growing up, I didn’t own too many toys–my mother didn’t approve of them or maybe we were just broke. Whatever the reason, it helped me value toys whenever I did get some, even more. As I recall, most of my friends were jealous of a Spider-man I got at KayBee Toys (when they had a special of three toys for $5). But I didn’t care much for Spidey, so I lent him out like crazy. It seemed to me that, around that age, I only had “hero” toys–after all they were my favorite. I had the usual Batman and Robin and Spider-man and Leonardo, but I never had a bad guy. Until…Iron Klaw.

History: I remember saving up my money from mowing my neighbor’s yard, I was so determined to buy a villain figure for my Bats. (I had mowed Ms. Loya’s yard twice that week, which I’m sure she didn’t mind.) And after begging my mother so many times, she took me to Mac Frugal’s. Boy that was a great store. As I ran to the toy section, which was in the back and is still there today (though its called Big Lots now) I remember looking for the Joker or the Shredder, but they were nowhere to be found. Saddened, I was walking back when in one of the end capsules was…G.I. JOE EXTREME.

Now, prior to this I have no recollection of even owning a G.I. Joe, and I’m not exactly sure if I knew who they were. But I was infatuated with this one figure. I picked it up, and sure enough it was love at first sight. From that point on, he was the terrorist that haunted New York City, the Rebel soldier that betrayed his battalion, the man who would shoot puppies, the thug life that Batman captured…I think you get the point.

Image taken from Yojoe.com

Packaging: Now I don’t remember the packaging, but you can see it on Yojoe.com. It was a deluxe figure, and had quite a wide package as oppose to other figures at the time, with a green-on-black camo as the background and red and yellow lettering…isn’t much more I can say here. Apparently he was the harder one to get because he is the most expensive on eBay.

Paint And Sculpt: The figure itself was molded in black with Silver accents highlighting his face, upper chest, wrist bands and belt, very nicely applied with very little slop. His eyes were painted in bright red and made the figure look “alive.” Like most Super Hero toys before Marvel Legends, the standard articulation was a swivel at the neck, swivels at the shoulders, and swivels at the hips. The sculpt shows some muscle-tissue-like under armor (like Iron Man: Rebirth), a shield for a belt buckle, and some random fodder around his thighs and butt. His face looks mean, that of a modern skull, which seems like a mask. His Klaw hand is open and his right hand is sculpted closed, in order for him to secure his gun tight.

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Image taken from Yojoe.comAccessories: Now when I found this toy, I remember he had armor piece that would cover his shoulders and part of his face, I also remember him having Klaw armor on his hand right hand, and his legendary gun with a Klaw-barrette, which I still use on some of my DCUC figures. With the magic of Yoejoe.com, I also see the backpack reads “Venom,” and like other toys of the time had some sort of gimmick, Iron Klaw’s was a missile launcher, which basically worked like a Nerf gun (though the package describes it as “SLAM” power). The “venom” backpack would slide into a peg that Iron Klaw had; but as I remember, the pump never worked right, so you had to pretend with your hands..

The gun is what really impressed me the most , its pretty detailed for that time, has a scope, and very nice machine gun design, and even after 14 years, it fits snug on his hand.

Well there you have it folks–my first figure to be a criminal.

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10 Comments

  1. "Like most Super Hero toys before Marvel Legends, the standard articulation was a swivel at the neck, swivels at the shoulders, and swivels at the hips."

    It's line like this that make me regret Todd's Toys and all they Spawned more and more.

    Back in the 1970s and 1980s, of course we had decent articulation in our figures. Superpowers for example featured functionality, plus articulations at the shoulders, neck, legs and knees. And the older Mego figures were crazy with their articulation.

    And then the Spawn toys of the early 1990s brought in the toy-as-statue craze which took years to get around. How cool would GIJoe: Extreme (to say nothing of other lines like Total Justice) have been with articulation.

    So yay for new articulation. But let's not consider it a new thing. It was just forgotten for awhile.

  2. dayraven

    can come on, who can look at iron klaw and not be reminded of the gargoyle's xanathos fig w/ gargoyle armor?

    and for 90's toys… we got toxic avenger, spiral zone and C.O.P.S. in the same decade… 'nuff said.

  3. Ben

    @Newton Gimmick

    I know a lot of people tend to write of the 1990s, but there were a number of lines that really stand the test of time. TMNT got crazy, but they did some very creative and clever stuff all the way through the 1990s. The early Power Rangers stuff is great. Exo Squad rocks. Mighty Max is awesome. Sure, the POTF2 figures and Toy Biz Marvel stuff doesn't hold up too well, but there were some glimmers of hope in the 90s.

  4. I had a bunch of GI Joe Extreme figures, although not this one. As toys they pretty much suck, but whatever. It was a bad era for toys all around.

  5. izdawiz

    he's awesome!

  6. Santo

    ha!..i remember that figure , i used him as a superman bad guy for the 90's man of steel line. superman , superboy and steel could only fight luthor and conduit so many times before they needed a new threat

    i also remember the really cool ninja in that tv series and me wanting a figure of him..don't think they even made one , but i have not given this line any thought til now…thanks

  7. George

    Iron Klaw is standing on the Wayne Manor Playset, from the Batman returns movie. You can see a bright green yarn holding the house together, one of my friends gave it to me recently.

    Thanks Ben.

    By the way Mr. Poe I was trying to be creative with the HIStory I guess you didn't catch it. oh well.

  8. Ben

    I really feel sorry for kids who do not have the "bargain bin" option when it comes to their toys. I lived and breathed those 3/$5 and 3/$10 bins, and with the prices of action figures nowadays, kids need bins like that to keep their interest. It seems like weird places (Five Below, Marshall's, TJ Maxx) seem to be the only places where you can get closeout action figures like that anymore.

    I know that there's a lot of animosity among collectors towards G.I.Joe Extreme, basically because it completely ignored EVERYTHING about ARAH and any previous incarnation of the line. I do think that Iron Klaw is a great looking villain and that, if the line hadn't had the "G.I.Joe" part in its title, there might be a greater appreciation for this. I'm glad you appreciated this figure!

  9. Great write-up! I never got into GI Joe Extreme. This guy looks pretty awesome though. Sometimes toys (like anything) can have a lot more meaning when you've got to earn them. When I was a little'un, I found a G1 Ultra Magnus at a Sears Surplus discount store, it was only $14.00. My mother bought it, but I had to earn it by doing chores, taking out the garbage, etc.

    Whats that in the backgroun in the last picture?

  10. George

    Wow Awesome, Thanks Poe. 🙂

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