Metal-Head
Iron Grenadier Anti-Armor Specialist

Continuing on the theme of repainted Iron Grenadiers, version 2 of Metal-Head certainly needed it, what with his purple leotard look. There was a 2005 convention exclusive that was a version of this mould in Iron Grenadier colours, but rather than just copy that one I decided to do my own interpretation. I went with Molotow chrome ink on the silver parts, and did the rest in IG colours. I gave his the same rocket launcher as the repaint of version 1.

All parts – Metal-Head v2

Personal defence weapon – Cobra Commander v15
Rocket launcher – Grim Skull

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Darklon
Darklonian Ruler

Darklon isn't strictly a member of the Iron Grenadiers, but he's a distant relation to Destro so he gets a repaint as well. His original colours are pretty gaudy, and I decided to keep some of that audaciousness with the red trousers with black tiger stripes. But his top is now more of a military colour, and did his armored bits in a gunmetal colour. I replaced his weapon with a Star Wars rifle of some kind, which reminded me of the original a bit.

All parts – Darklon

Rifle – Star Wars

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great looking updates!

would that chrome paint stick to darklons rifle? I need to get a link to the chrome markers, really amazing stuff!!

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I'm sure it would, I've used it a fair bit now and haven't had any issues with it binding to any surfaces. The issue is that it's *really* finicky stuff to work with. Very easy to mess it up.

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Bombstrike
Forward Air Controller

We didn't get many female figures in the ARAH days, so when there's a non-ARAH female character, making an ARAH version of her is a necessity. So here's Bombstrike, a character from the VvV era of the Joes. I had her body put together for a while, but it took me some time to decide what to do for her head. I tried a few custom-cast parts, but none of them really worked, and there aren't many vintage female heads to choose from. I finally settled on removing Lady Jaye's cap and sculpting some hair on the top of her head. That, plus the fact that Bombstrike is blonde, gives me enough differentiation from Jaye that I'm happy with it. Overall I'm quite happy with how close this version adheres to the look of the original figure. I did think that a member of a secret covert ops force wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with their logo is a bit silly, so I didn't reproduce that part of the figure. I put a Combat Controller badge on her chest instead to make sure the shirt wasn't too plain. For weapons, I gave her an M1911A1 and the same HK UWSC carbine she came with originally, since it's a cool weapon and the accessory is a very good representation of the real thing.

Head – Lady Jaye (modified)
Arms, waist, upper legs – Lady Jaye
Torso – Jinx
Lower legs – Airborne

Carbine – Bombstrike
Pistol – Grand Slam v3
Backpack – Marauder Inc.

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Bombstrike
Sea Devils Forward Air Controller

I really liked the recipe I came up with for Bombstrike, and had extras of all the required parts, so I did up a second version of her as well. This one is a member of second wave the Sea Devils (pun intended), a subteam I created that specializes in amphibious, littoral and riverine operations. For this version I decided to let her keep the cap, but the rest of the figure uses the same recipe as my first Bombstrike. I switched up her weapons a bit as well – she still has an M1911A1 pistol, but her carbine is an M4 this time.

Head, arms, waist, upper legs – Lady Jaye
Torso – Jinx
Lower legs - Airborne

Carbine – Duke v11
Pistol – Duke v23

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Beaver
Canadian Patrol Pathfinder

I was thinking of doing ARAH customs of various Action Force characters, and decided to start with Beaver, since he's Canadian as I am. When I was working on him, however, I hit on the idea of instead doing three-packs of customs from countries around the world (other than the US, of course), starting with Canada. Each one would be based on some aspect of the real-world military for the country in question. So here we have Beaver, who in this context becomes a Patrol Pathfinder. You'll notice he's armed with what might appear to be an M16A3 assault rifle. That's an optical illusion, it's actually a Colt Canada C7A1 assault rifle.

Canadian Army Patrol Pathfinders (PPF) have training in precision paradrops, insertion and extraction techniques, pathfinder operations, survival techniques, waterborne operations, and marking and securing drop zones, landing zones, beach heads and air strips. They're the first into hostile territory, setting the stage for other forces to arrive.

Head – Stalker v2
Arms – Gen. Flagg
Torso – Rampart
Waist, legs – Dusty v3

Kayak – Stalker v2 (modified)
Rifle, submachine gun – Marauder Inc.

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Northwind
Canadian SAR Tech

Northwind is the second of my Canadian three-pack. He is a Canadian Search and Rescue Technician (SAR Tech), which is a non-combat role in the Royal Canadian Air Force. They're essentially USAF Pararescuemen with the combat training. They are elite paramedical personnel, trained in pararescue, paradrops, diving, mountaineering, rappelling, extreme condition survival, and securing landing zones and drop zones.

Head – Dial-Tone
Arms, waist, legs – Barbecue
Torso – Ace v2

Parachute pack – Snow Serpent (accessory pack version)
Bag – Agent Faces

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Wendigo
Canadian Ranger

The third and final member of my Canadian three-pack is Wendigo, a hardy Canadian Ranger. Canadian Rangers serve in northern areas, conducting surveillance and sovereignty patrols (SOV PATS), inspections of North Warning System (NWS) stations, and act as guides, scouts and survival experts for other forces coming into arctic conditions. They are lightly armed, but well-trained in marksmanship. I based the camo pattern on the actual camo used by the Canadian military now, but only loosely since the actual parrent is a digitized one.

Head – Countdown
Arms – Leatherneck v3
Torso – Bazooka v3
Waist – Skidmark
Legs – Roadblock v2

Cap – Marauder Inc.
Rifle – Unknown

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Zartan
Dreadnok Wrangler

Since the Dreadnoks are a biker gang, it makes sense to have a biker version of Zartan. But the actual v2 of Zartan released by Hasbro back in the day clearly will not do. So I made a new version of Zartan as a biker. I drew inspiration from the original figure – he's still wearing a leather top with green pants (though now they're khaki instead of neon), and used Torch's legs because they have shinguards similar to Zartan v2. I made his Mohawk maroon in homage to Zartan v1 instead of the neon orange v2 was saddled with.

Head – Zartan v2
Arms – Heavy Metal
Torso – Hawk v2
Waist, legs – Torch

Bow, arrows – Marauder Inc.
Quiver – Lanard The Corps!

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Buzzer
Dreadnok Demolitions

I’m giving all of the Dreadnoks a bit of an update. For some, this will be just a paint touch-up; for others, some new body parts; and for others, even more significant modifications. For Buzzer, he gets new arms from Monkeywrench, and a fairly significant paint upgrade. His jeans are no longer acid-washed, and I added a few painted details as well, including an anarchy tattoo on his right arm, based on the one that Road Pig has.

Head, torso, waist, legs – Buzzer
Arms – Monkeywrench

Backpack, chainsaw - Buzzer

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Flat Top
Dreadnok Sergeant-at-Arms

Street Fighter heads are a good source of new Dreadnok characters, since they generally don't fit either the Joes or Cobra. Guile here becomes Flat Top, a real Dreadnok fanboy. I gave him an anarchy tattoo on his left bicep (like Road Pig's), and NOKS RULE knuckles tattoos as well. Here's the writeup:

“Flat Top loves being a Dreadnok. He petitioned for membership for seven years before they'd even give him a chance, and they put him through hazing that would make most men run off with their tails between their legs. But he made it through, and joined the ranks of Zartan's gang. Now the Sergeant-at-Arms for the gang, Flat Top is in charge of making sure that Zartan's orders are followed and that the rules of gang (such as they are) are followed. He takes his job very seriously, even if the other 'Noks don't take him seriously. I mean, have you seen the guy's homemade t-shirts and baffling hairdo?”

Head – Guile (Street Fighter)
Arms – Taurus
Torso – Salvo
Waist, legs – Crystal Ball

Shotgun – Marauder Inc.

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Dart
Pathfinder

Dart was a pretty cool character who was unfortunately first released in 2002, which meant that his figure came from the New Sculpt era and his proportions were all wonky. To do him justice, here we have Dart in ARAH format. His original figure gives the impression of a pretty big dude, a solid build with muscular arms. So I selected parts to recreate that build, and in terms of the colour scheme it was inspired by v2 of Dart, which is my favourite of the three versions that were released between 2002 and 2004. The other two are kind of plain. I tried something new with this figure, by adding wrist articulation. This was an experiment I wanted to try in advance of a project I have planned, and it worked out pretty well.

Head – Spirit (modified, including ponytail from Agent Scarlett v4)
Arms – Wildcard
Hands – Shipwreck
Torso – Mutt
Waist – Flint
Legs – Roadblock v4

Carbine – Sgt. Airborne v3
Machete – Marauder Inc.

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Shooter
Sniper

Since Shooter was retconned as an original member of the GI Joe team, she obviously needs an ARAH action figure to fit in with Stalker, Zap, Breaker and the rest. This is the 1.5 version of Shooter, with Swivel-Arm Battle Grip. The head is custom-cast, but all other parts are taken from moulds from the original run of ARAH Joes, with some modification to Scarlett's torso to give Shooter the right look. The Shooter figure released by Hasbro in 2016 had a Barrett M82 rifle, but I gave her a pretty basic sniper rifle instead, since the M82 isn't even a sniper rifle.

File Name: Craig, Jodie F.
Birthplace: Montclair, NJ
Service Branch: Army
Grade: E-7 (SFC)
Primary MOS: Infantryman (Sniper)
Secondary MOS: Chaplain's Assistant

Pulling the trigger is the next to last thing Shooter does as an expert marksman. First, she might take days to move into a shooting position, progressing by inches. Then she remains motionless in the hide, waiting for the target to appear. Once the target is acquired, she uses hard-won skills and esoteric knowledge to judge wind deflection and bullet drop before exercising precise breathing control prior to trigger break. The last thing she does is the hardest - getting away.

Head – Falcone O-Ring Shooter (modified)
Arms, legs – Short-Fuse v2
Torso, waist – Agent Scarlett v4 (modified)

Backpack – Grunt (accessory pack version)
Rifle – Barrel Roll

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That Zartan is inspired!

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