Day 2: Spytroops Part 1Destro: (Spytroops) - Bucky
Destro was a fun figure to build and went through several versions of pants before I found that the Snow Job pants looked bulky enough to go with the upper body. The base color of them being white, I never got past their color when digging through the fodder bins. I'm glad I went with them. The chain is some scrap from a Storm Shadow weapon.
Grunt (Spytroops) - Oreobuilder
I am on record as a pretty big Grunt fan. He was one of my first Joes and still represents GI Joe in my mind after 30+ years. As such, I try to fit him into many of my projects. Grunt had several figures during the new sculpt years. While browsing Yojoe.com for inspiration for this project, I realized that I had customs of every O-ring version of Grunt ever made except this one. Since I had already figured out the recipe for this figure when I made the Night Force version, I simply copied it and changed the colors. My Grunt collection is now complete. As a bonus, Bucky was already building the Destro that was included in the same Spytroops 2-pack.
Alley-Viper & Cobra Viper (Spytroops) - Oreobuilder
When we were wrapping up this project, we realized that we were a bit light on Cobras. I started looking through Yojoe for ideas on which Cobras we could add. The Alley-Viper and Viper 2-pack was released in the Spytroops line and probably proved pretty popular at the time given that it included two solid troop builders. I tried to replicate that with these customs. The Alley-Viper is a straight repaint. However, the Viper is a kitbash of several ME versions of the character. I like them both, I may go back and make a couple more of each.
Day 1: New BeginningsIn 1997, Joe was back after a 3 year hiatus with new takes on old favorites. The line was exclusively available at Toys R Us and helped successfully relaunch Joe into the 21st Century.
Duke (GvC) - Bucky
Another group build gave me another reason to do a Duke figure! My favorite character from the Joe mythos, I think I have done a Duke every year I've been customizing in some form or another. This version is based a little more off the concept art, which had white sleeves, rather than the production figure. With a Colton base, he ends up being fully poseable. I went with the Tatum head, and with blond hair, I think it looks pretty good.
Hawk (RAH Collection) - Oreobuilder
We tried to avoid straight up repaints as much as possible for this project (bucky and Dusty79 managed to uphold that guideline, I failed miserably). However, with so many ARAH repaints released during the New Sculpt era, it was difficult to stay away completely. While browsing James Kavanaugh’s book for ideas, I noticed that, with a few minor tweaks, 1997 Hawk’s color scheme fit perfectly with 50th Flint. The grays worked together nicely and with these two figures as well as my custom Beachhead and Duke, I had the beginnings of a nice urban combat squad.
Dusty (RAH) - Oreobuilder
Anyone who has seen my Battle Corps customs knows that I’ve learned to embrace the colorful side of GI Joe. As such, this version of Dusty, originally released in 2000, is interesting to me, despite not looking like a desert trooper. For my version, I punched up the contrast for the camouflage on the pants. Also, I’ll probably repurpose him as another character. With the red beret, I’m thinking a UK Action liaison officer.
Sideswipe- Oreobuilder
Released in 2000 in the Real American Hero collection, Sideswipe became GI Joe’s 4th Medic. The original re-used Stretcher’s body parts and accessories but featured a new head sculpt. When I put together this custom, I was struck with how much the RoC Aqua Viper Officer’ head was similar to Sideswipe’s. Once that was in place, the rest came together quite quickly. I decided against giving him Stretcher’s sled as it is iconic to that character in my opinion.