Edward “Starduster” Skylar (2007)
Some of the art of customizing, or creating a new figure using either paint, sculpting, or mixing of parts, is the effective choice of said parts. To have an idea in mind, and to make the right choice from thousands of possibilities in the various GI Joe line, is a daunting process. It’s made even more of a challenge when the proper parts, or tooling, in the case of official figures, are not readily available. Though the convention exclusives
aren’t technically customs, they work along the same lines.
Starduster sort of flies under the radar with a stealthy use of parts that creates a new figure which also recalls elements of another similar character. The original ‘duster was simply outfitted in baby blue fatigues, probably not the best choice for protection from both the elements as well as flaming jet pack exhaust. This time, he’s a little more prepared, along the lines of Grand Slam, with some padding on his gloves and shins. This is where the smart parts use comes in. The Tundra Stalker gloves have the kind of quilting that is similar to the old Flash/Grand Slam pads, and the Downtown shin guards just plain make sense for a guy who’s bound to be making a few rough landings now and then. Honestly though, all of the jet pack guys should probably be wearing ablative heat shielded britches.
What can I say about the JUMP pack itself? For an accessory that goes all the way back to ’82, it still has a great look. Maybe it’s the nostalgia factor, or just the cool factor of a guy with a jet engine strapped to his back, but it still works. Heck, this thing was still hanging around for the 25th anniversary series. Does it have the longest legs of any Joe accessory? The helmet works really well, much more so than its original use with the comic pack Lady Jaye. Finally, just so we don’t forget the old version, there’s a teeny little touch of baby blue on his undershirt. Very nice.
Wasnt he killed by falling into the sarlec
Nice, I’ve looked at that figure before and never noticed the baby blue undershirt until you mentioned it. I liked that they dusted him off (along with Grand Slam) for the JUMP sets from that year. And the Downtown torso works great for a jetpack trooper who needs to be hooked into his system.
Ah! Ah! Ah!
Great figure!
If I recall correctly, the full construction consists of:
-Downtown’s head, torso, upper arms, waist, and legs
-’89 Stalker’s lower arms
He’s pretty much a Downtown repaint with different arms–the least they could have done was give this guy a new noggin.
The baby blue undershirt is a sweet tribute. I’ve never owned any version of Starduster but this one is certainly worth searching for. Other than the haircut, it’s a fine update of the original, although just as expensive.
Interestingly enough, Stalker wore the JUMP in the comics wearing only his camo fatigues and beret. Didn’t strike me as odd in any sense back then. Ah, childhood…
Too bad this fig is about as expensive as the original. He and grand slam were an awesome exclusive.
Looks like a great figure. Jet packs are pretty cool.
Downtown gets knocked since he wasn’t “short fuze” originally, and it seems like the powers that be even tried to correct that with the Night Force set. Since that was all Downtown in parts, that guy was even still all Downtown to me.
Like the man said above, it’s too bad a new noggin wasn’t used, Downtown (’89) almost seems like some sort of good guy version of the Crimson Guard with so many GIJoe figures having the same face!
Downtown has a great mold, in my view, it isn’t the obvious ripped muscular sleeveless looking tough guy figure like ’89 Backblast or ’88 Muskrat, but Downtown has a lot of subtle upper body strength under that long sleeve shirt with a lot of detail around on it.
The “blast” is from a Boba Fett, right?
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