Duke (1992)
Can you believe it took seven years to get a new Duke mold in the ARAH line? Pretty amazing considering the GI Joe poster boy he would become in later lines. I like this Duke a lot. Though the color scheme isn’t an accurate desert camo, the tan and red work together well. My only complaint about the mold are the arms, which can’t be posed to the sides of the torso. The head sculpt is sans grin, and looks a bit older than the 1983 version. The more modern helmet is removable, and is nicely scaled to the rest of the figure.
Duke, like other 1992 figures, came equipped with an action feature accessory. Say what you will about the prospect of spring loaded launchers, at least some of this group were incorporated in ways that weren’t simply giant guns. Duke’s launcher is more like a mortar than an RPG, with its angled position and tripod legs. There’s also a flip down seat, stirrups and handles. That’s right, Duke is supposed to sit on this thing. The term crotch rocket has never been more appropriate. Even the card art depicts him straddling the cannon, with an appropriately pained expression on his face. Taking a second look at this odd contraption, a question comes to mind: does the army have a mechanical bull riding division?
The tripod legs on the launcher are incredibly brittle, at least on the two examples I have. My original broke during a photo session, and I had to replace it. The next one I acquired also looks very stressed, like the legs could snap at the slightest pressure. I’ve even seen the tripod broken inside sealed packages. Guess we need to come up with a term for this weird situation that’s similar to the infamous Gold Plastic Syndrome. Any suggestions?
Quite a little mold history on this one: the mold was repainted in 2000 as part of the Real American Hero Collection, and then only the torso and arms were used the next year for the (not-)Leatherneck figure. The helmet would be packed with that Duke, Sidetrack I, Crossfire and Double Blast, and (not-)Leatherneck, who would also come with this figure’s rifle and knife. The rifle would be used as one of the sound-attack guns (which fittingly came with the 2002 Duke). The entire mold was to be used for the never-released Wal-Mart parachute figures of 2003, but did see use (sans the head) in 2004 for the Desert Patrol Squad 6-pack Stalker. The upper arms would be used for the Crimson Guard figures from between 2003 (with the mail-away Agent Faces, who used this figure’s head) to 2005 (for the Crimson Shadow Guard). The entire mold, sans arms and head, would finally be used for the 2005 convention-exclusive Steel Brigade paratroopers.
BROKEBACK MORTAR.
Hahhahahahhahaha.
Wow. Look at his little red rocket too. This toy is obscene!
Funny stuff.
Scroll down towards the bottom of this page–it’s hilarious:
http://joebattlelines.com/reviews/toys/arah/1992/dukev3.htm
This was the first Duke i ever purchased. I was the only 6 year old to think ARAH was superior to everything else [i think i’m the only person from Gen Y who hates TMNT] on the shelves back in’92. But i did think the crotch rocket was a bit silly.
I will always have a soft spot for the D.E.F/Battlecorps stuff as many of them were my first Joes
I love JOEBATTLELINES by the way
This is my favorite Duke of all, given that I’m not a fan of the character. He look very “un-Dukish” with that beefed up sculpt, tan and red camo, plus a very Nixon-esque nose.
The helmet is great but I can vouch for the rifle being afflicted by the same condition which breaks the tripod legs. The rifle on my Duke crumbled away the moment I opened his card. It was probably gone already but I hadn’t noticed. A clear case of Brown Plastic Syndrome, I suppose?
His launcher was likely designed tongue-in-cheek because no way can anyone take that straddling action seriously. That second pic is positively phallic, to say the least.
I’ll definitely confirm the easy breakage of that tripod. I got Duke towards the end of my childhood Joe run. I was never super hard on my accessories but younger play was definitely harder on some, but when this Duke rolled around I was far more careful that a five-year-old would’ve been and it still broke.
I definitely used this version as my default version for a long time. I still used him well into the new-sculpt era because this version just said Duke to me more than the Dukes on the shelves at the time. My only real complaint is his relatively prominent nose. It’s not bad, per se, it’s just way more noticeable and prominent than any other Joe nose, and that makes it stand out even more awkwardly.
I love the pics used for the Joebattlelines review. Spearhead, ’94 Flint, and the ’89 Stalker desert repaint work great with this version of Duke.
GPS doesn’t only affect gold plastic in fact there’s a very famous Transformers example, BW TM Megatron, that has bad brown plastic
See http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Gold_Plastic_Syndrome#Beast_Wars
Dont forget Skyquake and the Predators. They werent made out of gold plastic either but it was just as frail.
I do remeber the tripod breaking with reletive ease
What I can’t figure out is what the Hasbro designers were thinking.In real life that mortar tube would be extremely hot.Why would you need to sit on it in order to operate it?
“My only complaint about the mold are the arms, which can’t be posed to the sides of the torso.”
That’s my only issue with this figure, otherwise, it’s very good in my view.
My Duke had all the brown accessories turn into a dry, almost melted candy bar-like decay.
If a piece of that tripod is available, can you post any pictures of the inside of a broken piece?
I’m wondering about the crumbling accessories, mine did, too, but only after nearly 10-15 years of having the figure loose did this happen to me.
Did you get the figure originally off the shelf when the accessories crumbled?
The idea of Duke on this mortar reminds me of that scene from ‘Armageddon’ when Steve Buscemi was straddling that minigun ala Slim Pickens in ‘Dr. Strangelove’. The figure itself was great but the red made the figure less plausable with the backdrop of post-Operation: Desert Storm.
Gosh, I should check through my parts bin and see if I can find this Duke’s original rifle. I don’t remember it ever decaying that badly, but now I’m wondering. It’s been a long time since I’ve used him, but I do remember there being a lot more hand wear on the handle of the gun than happened with most Joe weapons.
Terrific colors!
Heh. Took you long enough to give my favourite version of Duke (though I’ll always have a soft spot for his V12 figure) some proper attention. Needless to say it’s been worth the wait. That said, I’m quite surprised nobody has brought up the fact if you look closely at Duke’s packaging art, his face is that of actor Wren Roberts, whom played the character throughout the live-action commercial run of 1991 to 1993.
As for plastic decay, the tripod and rifle on mine are utterly pristine, even after 20 years of play. It’s his knife however that eventually fell victim to the tests of time, finally snapping in half late last year.
this is my favorite version of Duke too.
I love this figure, it is bad ass, and I’m glad to see Rob reviewing it now. I did back in 1992 and I still do, in fact, it’s still one of mt favorite RAH Joe figures in the whole line.
Brown Plastic Syndrome? Looks like all that speculation led to finding the entry point for GPS/brittle plastic in the GI Joe line. Yeah, Beast Wars Transmetal Megatron falls prey to it (I thought the plastic was considered bronze in color).
1992, what a year. Recall Roadblock and Duke with the oversized crotch rocket (or is he doing a sort of Dr. Strangelove impersonation?). Any other missteps that year?
@scott: I first bought one off the shelf that had no problems. Didn’t keep it for long, though. The one I have now, I got much later, and the rifle likely crumbled inside the bubble pack during the ensuing years before I opened it.
@Paul-Agnew: I never thought of checking the card art for Wren’s likenesses. Good call.
Yojoe.com has an lengthy, in-depth interview with Wren where he covers everything about the live-action commercials. He sounds like a real cool guy. Check it out: http://www.yojoe.com/reviews/interviews/wrenroberts.shtml
I remember breaking the knife, which has a holder on the back of the launcher. I had no idea it was a widespread problem with the plastic. That stinks.
Funny is that Duke was featured in a lot of 1991 commercials (live action!) and one of those briefly shows a Duke figure whom IIRC is some prototype oddity, Duke v1’s head on 1992’s body.
NFCJD, you have a very fine taste in O-Rings.
Clutch, it’s funny you should bring up that fantastic interview (and anyone with an interest for lost periods of Joe history or toy-accurate live-action adaptations should check it out). It was while listening to the MP3 version ages ago that I heard about them using Wren’s likeness on the card art, immediately thinking it was awesome. And yes, he sounds like a great guy to hang out with too.
Nega, that’s a point which left me pondering. While I have yet to see all the 1991 commercials (and 1992, and 1993. Sadly, the YoJoe collection is missing a few, and their no-show on the Shout! Factory DiC DVD sets was a disappointment in itself), the idea of a mix-and-match Duke figure seems solid enough.
Admittingly at first I thought of the 1993 photo shoot which features Wren holding a V4 Duke, but after re-reading the above interview, apparently he was presented with a hand-painted figure in the forest deco using different parts. Could this have been the one you saw on the commercials?
Pingback: April Review Round-Up, Part One (April 1st-14th) 129 Links! « It'sAllTrue.Net