Metalhead
Continuing in my recent trend as of late, in this little diatribe I will be focusing on yet another ’94 offering from Hasbro, which came late in the line and is often overlooked, although it is one of the finer figures Hasbro put out, and infinitely better than it’s predecessor.
In 1990, there was an accessory revolution of sorts. Hasbro rediscovered the beauty of the accessory and soon every figure became laden with them. While in some aspects that was a good thing, in other aspects it was not. That barrage of accessories eventually led to the disastrous "weapon tree" and any hope of individualized weaponry was completely abolished. In 1990, though there were a TON of accessories with each figure, yet each batch was still uniquely distributed. Some figures this worked for, and some, well it did not. I would say Metal Head, though falls into the former category. The 1990 Metalhead, in my opinion was a decent figure, but only that. He was not great, but he was far from bad. He was, well…mediocre. Yet, after slapping his wide array of different accessories and missile launchers on him, he became infinitely cool! A walking tank! I think this really saved that figure, and was the key to any kind of popularity he may have had. His atrocious personality in the DIC cartoons I’m certain didn’t win him any fans.
Now fast forward 4 years. Metalhead version 2 is released. And pretty much ignored, as far as I can tell. Why? I really believe it was because of his lack of individualized weaponry. Nothing else makes sense. Let’s break it down:
Mold: Metalhead v.2’s mold is fantastic!! A great rubberized bodysuit underneath, with some neat, silver plated armor covering it. His various metal coverings give him a very cool, sci-fi-type cyborg look, which really appeals to me when done right. I can see him in the middle of battle, bullets ricocheting off of his armored hide while his cybernetically enhanced eye picks off targets for his missile launcher. Coolness personified!! Compare that to the relatively plain and boring ’90 mold. To me, it isn’t even close. Just look at ‘94’s maniacal grin!!!
Colors: While some folks may lambaste Metalhead v.2 because of the pink in his colors, I don’t see it as an issue. To me the color is muted enough to hardly be noticeable. Sure, red would have been infinitely preferable (perfect Iron Grenadier colors) but as it is, pink works for me. Although, as I write this, I have acquired a second Metalhead for fairly cheap, so I may alter mine to better reflect these colors. Okay, now look at Metalhead v.1. Black…cool…gray…cool…red…cool…. Yet, the delivery just doesn’t work. Don’t ask me why. Even as a whole picture the ’90 version just doesn’t quite cut it for me.
Playability: Now surely you must be thinking the ’90 version would win this one hands down, right? Welll…not really. The problem with that one was that if you even touched the leg-mounted missile launchers wrong SNAPPP they were toast. How fun is that? Yet the second Metalhead can be maneuvered and played with without consequence. If desired, the first version’s missile launcher backpack can be put on him for added arsenal. Not only that, but the mounted rockets won’t fall off every time you move his legs.
Now, this might sound like I’m bashing the original Metalhead. Really, I’m not. It’s not a bad figure, per se. In my opinion, it just pales in comparison to the original. So many figures from the later side of the line get shortchanged simply by the year of their release, that I consider it a challenge to prove the nay-sayers wrong.
At the moment, I have yet to find a real use for Metalhead in my little Joe universe…rest assured, though, after Power Struggle, a lot of the guys you see in these profiles will finally see the light of day.
Side by side comparison of the two Metalheads
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