The original 13 A Real American Hero G.I. Joe figures were largely defined and differentiated by their weapon specialties and as the line continued they added characters suited to specific environments. We’re now getting into the environmental specialists in G.I. Joe Classified with the desert trooper Dusty. Let’s take a look!
Dusty has some appropriately dusty dusty artwork on the box and a nice big window up front that shows off all the gear. He comes with a rifle with removeable magazine, a knife, a pack, two sets of goggles and a helmet.
The pack has impressively detailed sculpting with a lot of wrinkled cloth and strap details. It’s pretty convincing cast all in one color and makes me wonder how great it would look with a little paint here and there on the straps or canteens or perhaps a wash for detail. It does stay attached to his back well.
The knife is small and fits in the boot sheathe securely and I like the detail on the painted silver blade. It’s cool to me that they make these knives a little different from figure to figure.
The gun is based on his version 1 figure’s weapon just with the hard surface details dialed up to 11 and a foregrip for a two-handed hold. It has a removeable magazine that fits tightly into the gun and a hinged bi-pod for stability. I was able to get Dusty into a lot of firing poses, but I did find myself wishing the stock was a little bit shorter. Just slightly.
The two goggles are there so Dusty can wear the larger set on top of his helmet as he did in the original figure, comics, and cartoon, or wear the smaller set over his eyes. They are cast in a flexible black plastic and have silver paint for the lenses which looks nice, but I would have liked to see clear goggles. I like the goggles on the helmet look best because I feel like the helmet sits a little high when he’s wearing the goggles over his eyes in concert with the helmet.
The helmet is cast in a really flexible material and I found that initially had a hard time getting it to stay where I wanted. I would push it down to a position that I thought looked good, but it would pop back up slightly.
The Full Force YouTube channel had a video that said if you put the smaller goggles on backwards, then add the helmet that it gives the helmet something to catch onto and it stays on better and I’m glad to say that it works. It saved the figure for me because I did not like the way it was sitting without them and it also stores the extra piece away neatly. I still kind of miss the cloth helmet flap from the original figure.
The sculpting on the figure is solid and he re-uses a lot of Stalker parts. The head, neck, chest, straps, belt and accessories look to be new and they all have nice detail. The belt is attached to the little skirt part of his un-tucked shirt which is free floating, so it gets out of the way of leg movement. I do think the neck is just slightly too long which keeps the flaps on the helmet floating a bit high, but the longer, thinner neck does help differentiate him from Duke more.
Based on my memory of the Classified Duke, I thought Dusty’s portrait was really similar, possibly even re-use, but it’s a different story when comparing the figures in hand. The jaw lines are similar, but the nose and lips and hair are fairly different.
The articulation is Classified standard, but I noticed his limbs are a little looser in the hips and the detents less strong in the knees than most of my Classified figures. I do wish they would bring back the neck hinge. The looking up range was so much better on the figures that have it. I also don’t love the biceps on this body. The cut is really obvious and not integrated into the sculpting while the biceps themselves are a little too thick and get in the way of gun firing poses. Dusty has:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Double hinged knees and elbows
- Ball and socket waist, lower neck, and head
- Swivel thighs, boots, and biceps
- Hinged pecs and mid-torso
The paint is okay here and while I like the face print, it is one of the glossiest Joe faces I’ve seen and makes me think of recent stuff from the Star Wars Black Series. I like that they kept the Tadur name tag as a tribute to one of the legendary G.I. Joe designers (Ron Rudat) and the little flag patch is a great tiny detail. I also like the camo for the most part, but there could have been a couple more dark brown spots for my taste. I would also like some more tiny paint additions for the buckles on his belt, pack, and helmet strap. The main issue I have is there is an obvious mismatch in plastic tones between the chest, knee joints, and elbow joints and the rest of the body parts. It’s less obvious in person, but I really see it in photos. I think the mismatch is due to the different types of plastic used between those parts and I do like the solidity of the knee and elbow joints using the harder plastic, but the mismatched colors really stood out to me here more than I like.
Re-reading this review, it does seem like I dislike this figure way more than I really do. I think he’s a solid figure, but I have some nits to pick. Dusty was never a favorite character of mine, but despite all of my nitpicks, it’s still a super fun poser and looks fantastic with the rest of the Joes. I absolutely had to take him out to the back yard and get Dusty all dusty playing in the dirt for these pics.
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Source: Fwoosh
