By Justin Bell and Terry Dizard

A hero is only as cool as his nemesis, and one of the terrific things about G.I. Joe is the wealth of worthwhile villains that the Joe team has to combat. While COBRA Commander has his own sense of evil about him, things could get pretty boring if he was the only "face" of the COBRA organization. Thankfully, he has a "right hand man" in the name of Destro, and because of some fantastic writing in the cartoon and in the comic, we have a conflicted villain with a sense of honor, and a deep and rich character-driven history.

It's easy to write off bad guys as bad guys "just because" but Destro has always had a method to his madness, and he is arguably one of G.I. Joe's toughest villains to battle. A twisted sense of honor drives him, and has driven him since he first appeared nearly twenty-five years ago. To go along with this distinct personality, Destro has a very unique appearence, with his Berrylium steel battle mask, leather body suit, and heavily armed silver gauntlets. Never before has Destro's cartoon and comic book look been translated so accurately to plastic form. Each wrinkle, each rocket, each tall red collar has been sculpted in intricate detail and we still have room for a vast array of functional articulation, from his neck joint to his swivel forearms, and all the way down to his boot ankles. This is Destro, pulled from the pages...pulled from the television, and on your display shelf.

For whatever reason, Destro is not given the double-hinged knee joint that many other figures were, so he has his limitations there. Also, there seems to be a tooling issue with his left hand that has rendered it partially closed, so even though it appears to have been originally sculpted to hold his briefcase, in final form it is, sadly, practically unusable. That is unfortunate, because it is the only minor blemish in an otherwise very nice looking figure. Unlike some of the Anniversary line, Destro has deep sockets in his hip joints, so his legs have full range of motion, and he is a very imposing figure. Standing a full head taller than many of his COBRA cohorts, Destro screams intimidation, just as he should.

With a nice assortment of weaponry (including a briefcase that opens, revealing a hidden pistol inside) Destro looks the part of international arms dealer, and is the accurate version of the character that many Joe fans have always wanted.

COBRRAAA!!!

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