Head: Star Wars 30th Anniversary Tycho Celchu
Torso, Arms & Legs: Duke vs. Red Star Comic Pack Duke
Helmet & Visor: Comic Pack Hawk
Web Gear: Ram vs. Flight Pod Breaker
Backpack: Gung-Ho (Or Single Pack Duke)
Mortar: Spy Troops Iron Grenadier
M-16: Duke vs. Red Star Comic Pack Duke


No Short-Fuze yet, either... COULDN'T WAIT. Made my own ideal version of him. I know he should have glasses. But I can't find any that look decent. So for now I just keep telling myself he's based on how he looked on the cartoon, even though I liked him in the comic a lot better. Especially in Declassified.

Frank Welker voiced him on the cartoon and I kinda liked that, too. He made him sound just like Rumble on Transformers. Either way, every incarnation of him is angry and high strung most of the time or at the very least a little miffed about something. I can identify.

I painted all of Duke's straps black, carefully taped around all of them, and went over him first with Dullcote and then Gloss-Cote and then Dullcote once again to get a satiny, new plastic feel/look.

Even though the Web gear was plain black like I wanted, I painted over it and went through the motions with Gloss and Dullcote so it would match exactly. I basically just cut the grenade off the front of the straps, turned them around backwards and glued them across the chest and under the arms, front and back. Same thing with the belt after cutting the holster off. No little backpacks like they, or Grunt had originally, so they all get Gung-Ho packs which actually look nice, match, and hide the incomplete straps on their backs.

It ties both Short-Fuze and Zap more closely together with the others like Breaker and Hawk and my custom Grunt. Having the similar belts and straps gives them a standardized look like the original line, but with a lot better outcome, namely they're not all sharing the same 3 or 4 heads. I actually like this look so much I did the same thing for my 2nd Torpedo wearing the Original Thirteen uniform. (blue Snake-Eyes body) and a Shooter I'm working on.

Did a variance on that on my Steeler, The belt is there- once more bringing to mind the huge diaper crotch all the original straight-armed figures had, only now more anatomically correct. It feels like when I got my first few figures in '82 or '83.

Well at first, it was like: these aren't Stars Wars, Mom.

But it quickly changed to liking the usage of the same arms and legs. (JUST FOR THIS SERIES- THERE'S A LIMIT TO REUSING EVERYTHING OVER AND OVER AND OVER.)

ANYWAY, RANT LATER- Everybody looked like a team. Don't get me wrong. I love the later Joes, especially when Flint came into it... But back then it was only 12 men and 1 woman, same uniforms, and it was beautiful. Hawk was the man. A Colonel. None of this General garbage. And Duke knew to stay out of it, damn it.

Anyway, very happy. This is probably one of my favorites so far, tied with Grunt and Zap and Flash.

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