Cancelled Heavy Duty from G.I. Joe

February 15, 2012

Another representative from G.I. Joe makes it to CardedHeroes and this time he’s from the Rise of Cobra series. Or, should I say, he was GOING to be from the Rise of Cobra’s follow-up line, the Pursuit of Cobra. However, for reasons uncertain, they decided to can this figure. Welcome to Desert Battle Heavy Duty.

Now, you’re not going to see this figure at a lot of places. If you got the “Reactive Armor” version of Heavy Duty from the Rise of Cobra series, then you already have the core of this figure The only differences between the two figures are in the paint apps and the accessories below. As for this Heavy Duty, you’ll see on my figure it’s marked up on the forehead and left cheek with a gash in black paint and, on his forehaed, the markings “HM”, which usually mean it’s a sample figure or a test shot. Aside from those markings, it’s no different from the Rise of Cobra Heavy Duty head. There’s a bit of a paint error where his earring was done a little sloppily, but otherwise it’s a good sculpt and paint job. This time around, the reactive armor was given a paint job, with gold paint lightly applied on the armor panels and the Rise of Cobra G.I. Joe logo done in gold on the left breast. The armor pieces for the arms are all colored in the same light gold and the figure has black gloves. The thighs are given the same gold treatment, while the remainder of the legs, the holster and strap, kneepads, and boots are all the same base black as the remainder of the suit.

One awesome thing about the Reactive Armor body suits for the G.I. Joe figures was that the articulation was free and clear for full movement. The head rests on a ball, which gives it unrestricted side to side movement, as well as some up and down movement. The swivel ball joint shoulders are unrestricted and are able to move freely. The elbows have the same jointsas the shoulders, which gives the arms full movement. The wrists end the articulation on the arms with swivel joints. The sliding swivel torso has full movement until you put the vest on, then you’releft with swivel motion. The hips move freely and keep their positioning, the knees have double hinged joints, and the ankles have the same swivel ball joints as the wrists.

The accessories are what make the figure this time around. The gray vest has orange highlights, and in a neat little add on, the right shoulder has double post holes for a shoulder mounted launcher, which locks tight once fastened. Normally, the launchers were obscenely huge, but this one isn’t quite so ridiculously gigantic. Unfortunately, Heavy Duty can’t hold the handle on the launcher, so he just has to wrap his arm around it. He also has his “HD” ammo backpack that has an insert for an ammo belt and can be connected to the large machine gun. My Heavy Duty has an empty holster, so either I’ve misplaced his handgun or he didn’t come with one. As I bought this from China, it’s possible I didn’t get the complete figure.

I’ve always thought that the reactive armor figures were excellent bases to build off of. I think this does that quite well. You know, if it’s going to have a launcher, it’s neat that it attached on to the figure, and that it didn’t look horribly out of place. The gold paint serves to break up the black suits. If you want a piece of G.I. Joe history, you can track this sucker down. But otherwise, you won’t find this guy anywhere.