Starduster (2009)
For a guy who originated as a cereal mail-in, Starduster sure got some play during the 25th Anniversary series. It stands to reason, as there is a ton of nostalgia that surrounds the original figure. One of the senior ranking officer sets featured the character, albeit with a modified code name.
Clad in a brighter blue camouflage that mimicked the uniform of Argentinean agent Sgt. Manleh, Starduster uses the same mold as the previous version.
This time however, he’s sporting the chest harness with holster rather than the Duke bandolier. It’s a nice little nod to the original variant that used Recondo’s chest mold.
Being a convention exclusive, there’s more attention to detail in terms of paint and accessories. The JUMP pack gets a second paint app with silver thrusters, and the star emblem from the helmet is repeated on the pack itself.
The club version of the file card handily ties the figure into the year’s theme. It not only mentions Cobra’s acquisition of JUMP jet packs (at that time common thanks to the 25th series’ jet pack trooper) but also details Starduster’s training of the international Joe forces. Sgt. Manleh, included as a pack mate with this figure is a trainee as well. Kudos to the Club for working out the small details and furthering the theme’s storyline.
Not t mention he uses a better torso mold, one that enables him to sit down.
Hasbro should sell the jetpack flames separately, maybe as part of an accessory pack. I know they say accessory packs don’t sell. But this is something new to most collectors who don’t have 299$ to spend on exclusive sets.
You could try to find the Boba Fett the flames originally came with,I guess.
I would love to see more stuff at retail
I like the J.U.M.P. in black, it’d be a regular accessory for every G.I.JOE member.
I just remembered that I painted a JUMP like this for Fast Draw to be an astronaut back around ’88. As a character, I think Starduster gets too much hype, but this is a nice figure with the camo. He looks less “Franken-Joe”.