You’ll hear me talk a lot about this throughout these Real American Hero reviews (at least the ones I write) but I’d like to state again that people who are solidly against collecting G.I. Joe figures from the 90’s era are really missing some great items. Not even considering the ultra-neon Battle Corps, or the vast number of subgroups out there, there are a wealth of little gems that you just wouldn’t know about otherwise. From a distance a figure like Decimator seems somewhat bland…but up close, he’s got a lot of merit, and is one of my favorite COBRA’s from the 90’s era (which is really saying something).
A lot of folks might not have this figure because he came with a pretty large, elaborate vehicle, the Hammerhead. The Hammerhead itself is a conundrum, especially considering it came out so close after the BUGG was released a couple of years earlier. In function and form the two vehicles are nearly identical. Submarines with wheels that travel underwater or on land, each large, armored vehicle has a vast armament and several smaller detachable vehicles to increase the attack potential. It would seem obvious that both of these vehicles were most likely competing for the same spot back in ’88, but only the BUGG made the cut to get released. Thankfully, Hasbro saw enough potential in the Hammerhead to let it see the light of day as well, even though it is so similar in function. I’m happy that the Hammerhead did get released because design-wise it is incredibly impressive, and it also comes with Decimator, who has become a high point of my collection.
From a mold standpoint, Decimator is pretty straight forward. His head sculpt is great, with a nice standard ninja-type face mask, but with some raised detailing that really sparks the mold a little bit and makes it a little fancier, if you will His torso is a non-descript almost European military style, with a nice little patch of medals or company designations on his upper left chest. This torso could easily be used for a standard officer in almost any capacity, and seems to fit the profile of COBRA vehicle drivers, especially considering figures like WORMS and Strato-Viper who both appeared to be somewhat high ranking officer-types.
Decimator has a nicely bulky mold with large arms, a broad torso, and thick tree-trunk legs. The trimming around his waist, feet, and arms are a nice round armored plating and it compliments the rest of the fairly standard sculpt well, giving the figure some depth and design.
Coloring is also done very well here with a dull gray jacket and an almost muddy water green color to the pants. While his mask is a very bright yellow, it still works very well, and can be easily covered up by the cool, elaborate helmet he comes with.
Speaking of this helmet, Decimator’s accessories are pretty neat, too. His helmet is large and has a great visor which enables him to see in 180 degrees without turning his head (according to his filecard)! This helmet is a big focus point of the figure, as it should be, and it works really well. It’s constructed of a pretty soft rubberized plastic which wraps right over Decimator’s head perfectly. He also comes with an interesting spear gun for those times when his Hammerhead gets flattened and he needs to take the battle a little more personally.
Decimator’s aren’t real hard to find, but they can get a little expensive, especially complete. He is worth dropping some cash for, though, and I think, especially if you don’t own one, you’ll find him a buried treasure of a sort, and a figure you will find a lot of uses for.
