Dusty (2000)
When is a desert trooper not a desert trooper? When he’s been repainted for the 2000-2002 Real American Hero Collection, a line populated with a share of the cool, the strange and the lackluster. Wait, that’s pretty much any Joe line.
The ’91 Dusty mold is, like many others from the same year, among my favorite figures of the 90’s. Dusty is missing his animal companion Sandstorm, as well as his signature rifle with extending stock, which is odd, considering the weapon was given to many other figures of the era.
The ’91 Dusty also happens to be one of my favorite updates of a core Joe team member. The mold is all present here, though the repainting gets odd in places. I don’t understand the logic of trying to paint bare sculpted arms as short sleeves. Dusty gets a coat of paint at his bicep swivel, and it looks odd. Is he supposed to be wearing a super tight shirt or what? If the figure is molded with bare arms, just make them a flesh tone and be done with it. The same thing happened with excerable ’97 Duke and continued to plague the top sergeant’s vintage mold releases through the end of the new sculpt era.
Having railed on that aspect of Dusty, I rather like the figure despite the problem. The color choices are interesting and different from what we’d expect to see on a desert specialist. The legs incorporate swirled plastic camo, a funky effect that has grown on me the more I’ve seen it. Producing environment specific Joes in basic uniforms could be an interesting concept. Fans have demanded (and received) a land based Wet Suit, so why not others? Although, if it happened, I would probably be waiting a while to see my wish list version of Snow Job in Bermuda shorts.
Not to mention that the gun holster on the thigh, the knife sheath, and the belt buckle remain unpainted. Also, I wonder why if Dusty’s hair in the comic and on the cartoon was brown, then why was the ’91 version’s red, and why were future releases in the new sculpt era black?
IIRC, one episode of the toon gave Dusty black hair as well, “Lights, Camera, Cobra”
Hair color has really been inconsistent throughout the comic, cartoon, and toy franchises. I think Hawk going from blond crew cut to brown AND black wavy hair right out of the blue (no pun intended) is the most glaring example. Then you have guys like Ace (brown comic/figure to black cartoon to brown comic/figure again) and Steeler (brown comic/figure to blond cartoon to brown comic/figure again) or guys with sculpted helmets were you were never really sure to begin with. Dusty would have fit in this category figure wise had the cartoon not shown him without his helmet so prominently in “The Traitor.” Ditto for guys like Airtight, Barbeque, and Wet-Suit during the Sunbow years.
Yeah, the inconsistent hair color throughout the years really bothers me. It just seems sloppy. Couldn’t they have an intern track that info? I mean, couldn’t at least just the toys be consistent?! Hawk confused me for years.
There’s an issue very late in the Marvel comic run where Hawk switches from blond to brown halfway through the mission! No wonder the book was on its last legs by then.
Loving the blog BTW!
One of the things I like about this website is it makes me look again at figures I own. I have both this and the ’91 Dusty and never noticed the sleeves before and you know what, I think it works!
As for Snow-Job, didn’t IDW send him on a mission in Venezuela? Could have really used those Bermuda shorts there…
That Venezuela issue was one of the better IDW solo stories. Snow Job is iconic enough to warrant a generic, non-climatic specific figure.
Great figure!
This figure looks more like Flint.
Yes, but is he IN like Flint?
Nice Coburn reference, Acer.
This is probably my favorite figure of the arahc era. It was a neat repaint that gave dusty some depth. For the really obscure though the con paratrooper version is better. This mold was going to come with the desert striker in 2001 but has bro pulled it. Production level chocolate chip dusty’s appeared in a con dio but no samples made their way to collectors.
It was also going to appear with the proposed 1998 Desert Headquarters (a repainted 1983 HQ) with those same colors.
I made an LBC desert chip Outback using parts from a couple of the Desert Patrol Squad figures.
I’m not so sure on that. The desert hq was rumored with 5 figs and then three: pathfinder outback and dial tone. I haven’t seen any evidence that the cc dusty was planned for 1998.
Man, I wanted that desert HQ so bad. I never had the ’83 original and it is still my favorite playset aside from the FLAGG.