Originally I had really hoped that the movie line would give me an excuse not to buy, but they keep sucking me in. These are really great toys and today I'm going to review my first movie figure that is one of the characters reinvisioned. That figure is Heavy Duty.
Heavy Duty is not exactly the most exciting character in the GI Joe universe. In a lot of ways he's a poor man's Roadblock. During the early 1990's Heavy Duty came along as the new big machine gunner much like Roadblock had basically replaced Rock N' Roll. His character wasn't that defined, supposedly he played classic guitar and liked to shoot stuff.
I am not Roadblock!
As time has went on, Heavy Duty slowly began to assimilate Roadblock. Many versions of the figure looked more like Roadblock and often in different forms of media, the character was played like Roadblock but called Heavy Duty. In fact in the new GI Joe comics, the character is EXACTLY like Roadblock but called Heavy Duty. Why? Who knows, since Hasbro still owns the name of Roadblock. Apparently someone favors Heavy Duty and thus we get him in the movie and the movie line.
Packaging:
I'm not going to go over this every time I review one of these. Check out my Sgt. Stone review for more in depth thoughts, but basically it's a serviceable package that combines the Marvel Universe style with modern GI Joe flare. He has a couple of rubber bands in there so be careful and just cut them.
Although I don't love the new filecards I don't hate them either. The thumbprints continue to be a cool portion of these and for those keeping score at home, Heavy Duty's thumbprint is considerably bigger than Sgt. Stone's. That's cool because Heavy Duty is supposed to be a giant of a man. Kudos to them for not just using the same generic thumbprint over and over.
Articulation:
More stuff I'm not going to harp on too much this time. He's got the standard GI Joe modern articulation so you know the drill. His head seems a tad limited in movement, but he holds his poses well. The only area that is a slight concern is the wrists which do seem a little weaker then I'd like but it's nothing serious.
The full run down: a ball jointed head, ball jointed shoulders in a disc/post style, the same sort of ball joint on the elbows but this allows for swivel arm battle grip, swivel wrists, ball jointed torso, the standard Joe T-bar ball joint hips that they've been using since 1982, double hinge knees, and ball jointed disc/post style ankles.
Sculpt:
This is the core of the review right here. I mainly purchased this figure because he's the first Heavy Duty to be released in the modern or Generation 3 of GI Joes. That means that no other version of Heavy Duty has been made since the 25th Anniversary collection began and I, like many others I assume, will be using this Heavy Duty to fill that void.
Got to get tough... YO JOE!
Although Heavy Duty has not been made in this line before, he has been made quite a lot during the 2000ish Valor versus Venom era of Joes. As such, no one was really clamoring for this guy. Heavy Duty is far from one of my favorite characters but I confess that I grew a fondness for him during the Sigma 6 days because he seemed to fit well into that small elite unit status. In that version he was a hulking brute of a man and this continues here. Heavy Duty is a thick figure and the heaviest of the line so far (no pun intended).
The sculpt is quite solid giving him a large football player style body. He's got muscles, but he's not going to win any pose downs with Arnold either. He's big and bulky and could probably break down your door then eat you out of house and home. The body is supposedly all new, but he certainly could have shared parts with Bazooka if he doesn't.
The figure is based off the movie and has a good likness to Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, AKA Mr. Eko on LOST although he also seems to have a strange resemblance to Charlie Murphy to me. So I'm going to say his new battle cry is "STRETCHY PANTS!"
Stretchy pants!
Since it's based on Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (which is quite a mouthful to say I'd imagine) he looks like he does in the movie. Nothing is overtly wrong with that, but Heavy Duty traditionally wears either a hat or bandanna. I mean, Heavy Duty had 9 other versions (Not even counting the Sigma 6 versions) that all had either a backwards baseball cap or a bandanna so it's hard to imagine why that didn't get included here. He also almost always has a moustache or goatee but not in the movie. The damn bandanna is all that separates Heavy Duty from Roadblock!
I tried to rig up a bandanna for this review, but didn't have much luck. I'll eventually make one though, mark my words. He looks like he needs something on his head though so I gave him a helmet from a vintage Joe and it works fine enough. Although all I could find was comic pack bright green. Such is life.
Anyway, the sculpt is quite nice and the paint scheme is one of the better ones in the movie line. He's wearing basic green military fatigues. Why not light blue like everyone else? Who knows, but I'm thankful he's in the colors he is. Since he's in green he fits in without looking odd next to the classic Joes and again since Heavy Duty never had too much of a distinctive look, he's perfectly acceptable except for the aforementioned bare head.
Paint is the one weak area of this figure because all of his eyes are painted goofy. Not Indiana Jones bad, but pretty bad. I actually scored one that's pretty decent, but just expect your Heavy Duty to be crosseyed or at the very least looking like he's been kicked in the head by a mule.
Speaking of paint, he has a tattoo on his arm that's supposed to be something, but I swear it looks like the Decepticon symbol. If it's not supposed to be the Decepticon logo, I don't know what it is. But my brother has a Decepticon tattoo on his arm and this one looks more like the Decepticon logo than that one, so yeah.
Accessories:
When I was at the store and my GF was trying to convince me to get Cobra Commander instead of this guy, I decided that the weapons that came with Heavy Duty would be a deciding factor. Again, I remembered that on the Sigma 6 version, Heavy Duty looked really cool with some big guns. He does come with a big Automatic Cannon Chain Gun... But unfortunately it's the missile launcher he comes with.
That would be okay since it's ridiculous huge size works with this character, but sadly there really isn't any way for him to hold the gun in a convincing fashion. It has a couple of handle grips but even after 15 minutes of posing, I never found a really good way for him to hold the gun and make it look "right"... That's not to say he can't hold it though.
His other weapons include a huge backpack with his initials on it, which I assume carries extra ammo. The back pack actually straps onto him and works quite well. He also has a small pistol type of gun that looks pretty futuristic but might be based off a real model, I'm not sure. His best weapon is a combination of a SAW with a grenade launcher style gun.
Interestingly his belt is detachable and his vest is removable. It's a lot of work to get the vest off and he doesn't really look any better with it off, so I'd leave it on. The belt is optional I'd say, it doesn't do much either way. I should note that my belt is a bit crooked and because of the way it's made, it has to stay crooked because it plugs into his back. So the HD is a little off to the side. Maybe they're all like that or maybe it's intentional.
Additional Notes:
I probably should have brought this up in the sculpt but he has some sort of strange wristband on one arm. Not sure if that plays into the movie or not, but it looks like Jack Harkness' Time Agent Wrist-Strap to me. Maybe he's a time agent and a Decepticon?
Where you going?
Value:
These guys run between $6.99-7.99 depending on where you shop. But be on the lookout for sales as lots of stores are running good values. Because these aren't just your standard movie toys, you should really take advantage of these prices. These 3 3/4 dudes are worth it.
Score Recap:
Packaging - 8
Sculpting - 7
Articulation - 8
Accessories - Backpack, Cannon Gun, SAW Gun, Handgun, Vest, Belt, Stand
Value - 8
Overall - 8 out of 10
Heavy Duty just isn't as good as Sgt. Stone despite their fairly similar scores. However Heavy Duty is still a fine figure and unlike most of the movie characters he's not "replacing" another current modern figure. So this guy will fill in the gap for a Heavy Duty and if we never get a proper one this one will do. I could also see this guy being used as a custom base for a William "Refrigerator" Perry as well.
The name's Duty, Heavy Duty.
If all else fails and you just have a hankering for a little extra muscle around the Joe team this Heavy Duty figure will fit the bill. He's a Joe with a lot of heft and a decent amount of accessories and sculpt. Just watch the paint work on the eyes.
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