Hasbro: Hall of Fame Heavy Duty: head and HOF beret
Hasbro: Vietnam Jungle Recon uniform,
M&C Toys: body, pistol, holster, bayonet (now a knife), sheath, suspenders and radio
BBI: boots and hand grenade pouches (resin copies)
21st Century Toys: Daewoo shotgun and ammo pouches (resin copies)
Unknown: belt with replacement buckle and pack (purchased loose)
Various spare buckles, grosgrain strap and paint


I'm sorry if I am offending anyone changing the ethnicity of Falcon; please don't judge me too harshly. When I began the project of updating my Hall of Fame Joes, my intention was to use as many HOF pieces as possible for the custom figures I was creating. It turned out that all of the Falcon figures I came up with along those lines looked like Flint clones. But Heavy Duty as Falcon, well, for me that works. He can still be half-brother to Duke and yet not resemble the other shotgun toting-beret wearing Joe in the Real American Hero theme.

The uniform I used was from the Classic Collection and was of a unique tiger stripe camouflage pattern. I cannot match it to any real camouflage used during the Vietnam War, but I like it. Unfortunately there is a square "hole" in the back for a push button for swinging an arm on the original Joe. This had to be covered and I had several extra pairs of pants in the same pattern from G.I. Joe M60 gunners released the same year. I used a pair of those pants for scrap cloth for another project and I had enough left to cover the hole; gluing it inside the back of the uniform. Can you see it? It's just between the two vertical harness straps. The long magazine pouches are from a 21st Century Toys weapon set which I cast to make the 4 ammo pouches on Falcon's gear. These work well with the long magazines from his automatic shotgun. I used dark tan and green on the gear to better match the uniforms color. The BBI boots and M&C gloves were painted to look more like worn leather. The beret was from the Green Beret (HOF) Weapon Set and, sadly just before photographing, I lost the one I was going to use. This one is a replacement I had dyed green back when I first bought it; I don't care for it as much. I'm sure once this posts, I'll find the nicer looking one under a couch cushion or somewhere. I guess those are the breaks.

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