Our recent studies on the synthesis of metallacarboranes based on the cationic species [(Carb)M] + are summarized. The labile complexes [Carb´M(Solv) 3 ] 2+ (Carb´ = 9 SMe 2 7,8 C 2 B 9 H 10 ; M = Rh or Ir) and [Carb´Fe(C 6 H 6 )] + were suggested to use as synthons. The new method was employed to synthesize a great variety of sandwich, half sandwich, and triple decker complexes.The species [CpM] + are widely used in organometallic synthesis. In particular, these species react with Cp -and C 6 H 6 to form metallocenes MCp 2 and arene complexes [CpM(C 6 H 6 )] + , respectively. 1,2 The analogous reactions with MCp 2 produce triple decker complexes. 3-5 The cationic species [CpM] + also proved to be useful in the chemistry of metallacarboranes. For example, these species were used for the synthesis of complexes with the tricarbollide [C 3 B 8 H 11 ] -(see Ref. 6), phosphadicarbollide [PC 2 B 8 H 10 ] -, 7 and dicarbollide [9 SMe 2 7,8 C 2 B 9 H 10 ] -(see Ref. 8) anions. Due to the single negative charge, these anions are close analogs of Cp -in the ability to be coordinated to transition metals. This suggests the simi larity of the cationic species [CarbM] + and [CpM] + . The present review summarizes our recent results on the generation of the metallacarborane species [Carb´M] 2+ (Carb´ = 9 SMe 2 7,8 C 2 B 9 H 10 ; M = Rh or Ir) and [Carb´Fe] + and their use in organometallic synthesis. Rhodium and iridium complexes. The rhodium and iridium cyclopentadienyl chloride complexes [Cp*MCl 2 ] 2 are widely used as synthons of the cationic species [Cp*M] 2+ for the synthesis of arene, 9-11 triple decker, 5,12-14 Scheme 1 M = Rh, Ir; X = Cl, Br, I; Solv = Me 2 CO, MeNO 2 Scheme 2 R = H, Me