171: “Destro (v2)” G.I. Joe “Real American Hero” Series 7, 1988
Finally. This is version 2 of Destro, one of the most well known of the figures. At this point in the toy line he has branched off into his own distinct faction: Destro’s Iron Grenadiers. Because of the order in which I draw the figures we have actually already been introduced to his Iron Grenadiers with fig 160: Iron Grenadier soldier, and: fig 169: Voltar, Destro’s General. On the site (https://gijoe365.com/) you can sort by faction, btw, to quickly see only the Joes so far or the Cobras or now the Iron Grenadiers.
Destro v2 is a personal favorite for sure and I have a few other special art pieces in the works for him beyond this standard figure drawing. I love a few things about this figure actually, not the least of which is the colour scheme. The gold, black, and red core colors are just so great together. I love the gold in general and think it was a brilliant point of distinction for his faction. You’ll see the gold colour feature in virtually all the figures in the I.G. faction as we push forward. There are quite a few in this faction that I love.
As a kid in 1988 it was really neat to suddenly have this third major team within the Joe world. I suppose I would say the Dreadnoks were also a separate faction, but it felt a bit different with the introduction of Destro’s I.G.’s I think because of how “militarized” they were. Destro had always been a “weapons specialist” supplying Cobra with weapons and tech etc but suddenly now we have him “going his own way.” I remember as a kid I’d often do a thing where I would have my Joe guys team up with some Cobra guys out of necessity for for the “greater good” in order to infiltrate and take down some plot of Destro’s. It’s this kind of thing that very clearly exemplifies the depth of imagination that this toy line elicited.