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

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.

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.

Accessories: 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.