Heavy Duty (1993)
Man, has Hasbro been in love with Heavy Duty since his debut or what? Being a recent addition from just two years earlier, he got a spot on the Armor Tech team alongside longtime Joes like Duke, Hawk and Rock N Roll. Considering the color scheme, I would have assumed that he was Stalker, but not so. Then again, a heavy ordnance specialist would seem to be a natural fit for a team of walking space tanks.
More than any other Armor Tech figure, Heavy Duty looks like a tank. The angled chest armor and even the color scheme are a contrast to the other members’ streamlined suits. By the way, why would you paint a space suit in green camo? I absolutely love the over the top helmet; in his spare time, he could play a part in a Joe team production of Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung (there’s a total Elmer Fudd “What’s Opera, Doc” vibe happening here). Actually, that kind of makes sense since Heavy Duty is a classically trained musician. Underneath the helmet is the standard RAH version of Heavy Duty, complete with cap that resembles his original appearance. The guy just couldn’t escape the backwards cap or doo-rag look until his movie appearance.
He’s certainly loaded for bear, with an arm launcher, which is creepily shorter than his other arm (what happens to his hand when it’s in there?) and a ginormous rifle. His missile-firing left arm looks more like a gatling gun than a launcher to me. I think Rock N Roll would have been more suited for this weapon attachment, but what can you do?
I have to say, a lot of the additions to the team I find strange. Wouldn’t an aerospace based Joe unit be made up of more Air Force members?
I had always wondered that about the shorter launcher arm too. My brother had the Duke and the first questioned I asked him was “Hey, what happened to Duke’s arm?”
That being said, my little kid brain was just fascinated by the horned helmet Heavy Duty had. I never found him but I wanted him pretty bad back in the day. Now, I kinda look back at those Armor Tech figures as a neat concept that had some dubious execution since it stripped them of so much articulation. (However, in my mind, the most dubious execution of a concept was Mega Marine…Play-Doh armor, Hasbro, what were you thinking?!)
He looks like he’d best belong among the oddest Transformers concepts ever: The Pretenders.
Aparently the armour tech figures were made from cancelled transformer action masters. With that helmet and his arms spikes he’s a dead ringer for Unicron
Where did you hear about that?
Actually, I think the helmet is making people think of the Pretender Starscream:
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Image:PretenderStarscream_toy.jpg
Yikes! As bad as GI Joe got with neon colors and gimmicks galore, it never sunk as low as Pretenders, Micro Machines (ahem, Micro Masters), or Action Masters (AKA Transformers that can’t transform).
He is Stalker i.m.o.!
[In regards to the action master comment i posted yesterday] Someone posted something on yojoe a few years ago about prototypes. One of the brand designers kids ripped the heads of his Transformers action masters to make “space joes”. The other guys on the design team liked the idea so the third year action masters [cancelled 1992 figures] became armourtech