G.I. Joe Classified Series Metal-Head review No. 118 (2024)

Metal-Head was one of the very few bright spots of the DIC run of the GI Joe cartoon series. This was a larger spotlight than he got in the comic book where he was featured in one issue before sliding to obscurity.

His specialty of being a mobile one-man anti-armor operative made him pretty intriguing of a character. Especially as one of the few named members of Destro’s Iron Grenadier forces.

It felt a little weird to have an IG member in the Classified Series before Destro but the arrival of the Iron Grenadiers and Iron Grenadier BATs finally gave me enough incentive to go ahead and review him. Let’s see if Metal-Head is a banging figure or if he’s a dud.

Packaging: Metal-Head is a deluxe figure, so he comes with the wider window setup.

I dig the Easter Egg on the back package as it has him launching another missile strike while his cartoon BFF Dreadnok Gnawgahyde is riding a train in the distance.

His skill set rankings are 4 in launcher, a 3 in ordinance and anti-armor and a 2 in computer technology.

Likeness: For his Real American Hero figure, Metal-Head a shorter, neatly coiffed hair style with matching prim and proper goatee. That didn’t really vibe with the card art, which had a wilder shorter hair portrait. The CS figure has the wilder hair style with an intense teeth-gritted expression.

Metal-Head is mostly a reuse of the updated Firefly figure with a few changes. The biggest is the chest protector piece and thigh support bands for his leg missile launchers. His chest protector has a raised section for his chin/neck area. The original figure had more quilted, padded elements on his legs and boots.

The Firefly mold had kneepads but didn’t offer any thicker boots for Metal-Head, which might be useful for a guy toting such massive gear on his back and legs. He does have thigh wraps to distribute the weight for the leg missile launchers.

Scale: Metal-Head seemed to be a regular height and size guy despite what seems like a fairly heavy mechanized rig. He didn’t need to use the larger, taller buck but it would have made sense.

He’s about eye level with Darklon and a bit shorter than the IG BAT.

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Paint: Metal-Head has a snazzy paintjob with that sharp maroon and a light and charcoal grey outfit. His original costume was black with a red shirt that was largely obscured and grey straps for his launchers.  It does seem like ditching one of the grey shades for some black in the outfit again would have made him look more imposing like the Iron Grenadiers or IG BATS.

All of the colors are smoothly done. He’s got some fun additional details like the teardrop tattoo under his left eye.

And his chest protector guard has Cold Slither painted on it along with his kills. There’s some wear and tear to this section with some silver scratches to show the shield is doing its job.

Articulation: Metal-Head doesn’t have any restrictions with his movement since his gear is positioned around him not in front of him. That allows him to crouch, kneel and rear back to unleash his missile array on any Joe vehicles.

The Classified Series line has a tremendous articulation scheme and Metal-Head is another great example of that in action.

Metal-Head has:

• head
• neck
• shoulders (butterfly)
• elbow (double-jointed)
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• mid-torso
• torso
• waist
• hips (ball-jointed)
• drop down hips
• knees (double-jointed)
• ankles

Accessories: Metal-Head has a bunch of gear to aid in his efforts to cause as much mass destruction as possible.

First up is his missile rig. This plugs into his back and has articulated arms that raise up and down. The thigh mounts plug into the ports. It’s got impressive detail including vent ports and some visible circuitry.

There is no point having anti-armor gear without some missiles to fire. He’s loading up with six missiles — two larger scale for the top portion.

Each missile comes with a blast effect with three different lengths — the longest for the largest missile and a medium and short for the smaller missiles.

In a rare…misfire (hmmm) for the Classified Series team, the design for the missiles wasn’t thought out particularly well. They can’t load into the silos snugly without the blast exhaust ports so the missiles are very loose and fall out with any kind of movement. There’s no good in-between.

He comes with a small knife — maybe to use to fix some of his gear if it gets out of whack on him. The knife can be stored in the sheath on his chest armor.

To help fight back against opponents when a bomb blast would harm him as well, Metal-Head has two guns. One is the SMG that was previously used with the Retro Cobra Trooper. He also has a machine gun. Both have the red and black Iron Grenadier color scheme.

For his RAH figure, Hasbro gave Metal-Head a bit of a bullet-head helmet, which looked a bit cheesy since he wasn’t being fired out of a cannon. His CS figure has a far more sinister looking helmet. This one has a Spartan-style design with all types of spikes and a buzzsaw looking mohawk. It also has some paint detail with eerie yellow eyes and red chin guards.

Finally, he’s got an alternate hair piece for a more traditional Metal-Head portrait. This hair also includes his read-out goggles, which I imagine is how most collectors will display him.

Worth It? Metal-Head started out at the normal deluxe price of $34.99, but he hasn’t sold out and frequently gets reduced in price.

I grabbed him when Target put him up for clearance at $17.49, which of course is a fantastic price. I’ve also seen him go for as low as $24.49

Rating: 9 out of 10

With the exception of the missile launcher setup, Metal-Head is really well done and a welcome addition to both Cobra in general and the Iron Grenadiers.

Where to Get It? I occasionally see Metal-Head at GameStop, but he’s easy to grab online at Hasbro Pulse or my affiliates Amazon or Entertainment Earth.

As an Amazon and Entertainment Earth affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.