Gnawgahyde (30th anniversary)

The Dreadnoks never had the biggest presence in my collection growing up. I was never really a fan of the classic trio in the cartoon (though Zartan was pretty cool). I wound up getting Zartan via Ninja Force, but any and all references to the Dreadnoks were missing from that particular filecard. However, my brother, being a little older, did have a pair of Dreadnoks in his collection, Monkeywrench and Gnawgahyde. I’ve already touched on my love of Monkeywrench, and I’ll have to admit, I always thought Gnawgahyde was pretty cool, too. I was very happy when Gnawgahyde (renamed Clyde “Gnaw” Hyde) was included in the 30th Anniversary Dreadnoks set. I have now been able to add the snarling Dreadnok poacher into my collection and I’m really glad he’s here, though I do wish he had a few more ties to his classic version.

Gnawgahyde shares a similar wiry build to Zanzibar, which makes sense since they share the scarred Storm Shadow torso. However, the design team made far better decisions with the rest of his body. His arms come from Pursuit of Cobra Jungle Duke and his legs come from Pursuit of Cobra Zartan. I realize these legs get used a lot between the Dreadnoks and Slaughter’s Marauders sets, but really, I’ve got no beef with it. They’re good, generic legs. I can see how useful a pair of basic pants with kneepads could be in just about any situation, so really, as long as Hasbro keeps doing decent things with the paint jobs to make them look a little different from use to use, I’ll be happy. I really do like the use of the scarred torso again. Gnawgahyde is a poacher and has probably squared off against enough animals that he’s picked up a few injuries here and there. Gnawgahyde gets a brand new head and I do like it, but I also kind of wish his snarl was a bit more extreme. The big snarl was a really defining trait for the original Gnawgahyde and I realize that this version’s snarl is far more realistic, but I do find myself missing his exaggerated, feral look. To complete his ensemble, Gnawgahyde is also wearing a nice slouch hat and a very cool vest. The hat is surprisingly not the same one that Pursuit of Cobra Recondo wore. This hat has the added detail of a bunch of trophy teeth being held in the leopard skin hat band. His vest is also a really great piece of work. It’s also all new sculpting and has plenty of pouches, but again, since Gnawgahyde is a poacher, he’s got a lion’s mane over his shoulder and a necklace of more teeth that he stole from some animal he killed illegally. On his back, he’s also got a sheath for his knife. It’s such a nice piece I actually had to check to make sure Hasbro didn’t reuse this tooling for their Marvel Universe line. It would really work with their recently-released Kraven the Hunter figure, but they’re two very different pieces.

Gnawgahyde’s paint job also has a few surprising homages to the original look. They kept his pants blue and gave him a green belt which I think is a nod to the machete sheath he had on the front of his leg back in the day. I do wish the boots were still black to complete homage, but they look fine in brown too. While the vest’s design is a pretty big departure from Gnawgahyde’s original look, they painted it well and the leopard skin motif does get a nod on his hatband and on the buttstock of his rifle where he’s got storage for some extra rounds for his rifle. Honestly, I don’t mind the loss of the leopard skin vest. It was a little bit too over the top in my mind but the fact that the designers did find a way to give it a little shout out is nice. I do, however, miss his tattoo. That G.I. Joe logo with a slash through it was a nice touch and something I thought was really cool back in the day. I kind of wish they would have been able recreate that here. I always like to see my Dreadnoks with some ink and I wish they would have let him keep the ink he had back in the day here. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it would have been a little nod that would have helped tie him a bit closer to his original look.

Beyond what he’s wearing, Gnawgahyde really doesn’t get a lot of accessories, and I think that’s kind of a shame. His rifle originally belonged to Resolute Scarlett. It’s a good fit for him, but I would have liked to have seen him packing a little more firepower. The original Gnawgahyde came with a pretty big sniper rifle back in the day. This one seems a little underpowered compared to his original kit. He also has a nice knife that I believe originally came with Resolute Firefly. I do like this blade because it’s a unique look, but again, it feels a little undersized compared to his old machete. They’ve got a couple nice machete molds and I would have liked to have seen it used here. I also find myself missing Gnawgahyde having a bow and arrow. There’s something kind of sinister about a poacher with a bow and arrow. He’s got to be good enough with that weapon to use it as a hunter, so I can imagine that he’d love stringing up his bow to kill an unsuspecting Joe in the quietest way possible. While they didn’t give him a lot of accessories, they really did do a bang-up job on them. His rifle has nice, complicated paint apps between the buttstock strap and they even painted the bolt on his rifle. That’s a nice detail and I’m glad it got a little attention from the paint team too. The choices they made are good ones, but when the weapon I remember is a big rifle with a bipod, their stand in really doesn’t quite have the same memorable nature.

While I’ve been a bit critical of Gnawgahyde, especially in terms of his gear, he really is a great update to a character that I was definitely hoping to see at some point. He really benefits from a great batch of reused parts. Unlike some of the Dreadnoks, his design hangs together really well and he doesn’t look like a bad custom. While there are few small things I would have liked to have seen changed, the look is still very good overall and there’s really no mistaking who he’s supposed to be. He looks like Crocodile Dundee’s evil brother, and I like that. I can hear a sinister Australian voice being bitten out from behind that snarl. That’s what was so good about the original Gnawgahyde. You got a sense of his character just by looking at him and this version of Gnawgahyde definitely still shares that trait with him. He’s been updated in a lot of good ways and I am really glad Hasbro was able to get him out in a relatively mass market fashion.