G.i. Joe Classified Retro Carded Duke
As field commander for G.i. Joe, Duke has the deep respect of his fellow Joes and they would gladly follow him anywhere without question. A natural born leader with superb tactical acumen, Conrad S. Hauser leads the G.i. Joe team to victory against Cobra over land, sea and air!
In the original Marvel Comics run, Duke arrives just in time to join G.i. Joe, boosting morale for the Joes following the death of General Flagg and the destruction of the team’s base, the Pit, by Cobra forces. After Colonel Hawk gets promoted to General, Duke becomes the team’s field operations.
Like most Retro Carded Joes, Duke comes with alternate close-fisted hands.
Duke comes with a visored helmet.
While not quite spot on to the original toy, I guess it’s OK.
As another throwback to the vintage toy, Duke also comes with a pair of binoculars.
Yet another throwback to classic Duke, the figure comes with a backpack. Too bad the shovel isn’t removable.
For basic weaponry, Duke comes with a knife and sidearm pistol.
The knife can be sheathed on his left leg, while the pistol can be holstered on his right leg.
For more firepower, Duke comes with two different rifles.
Duke’s submachine gun features a removable ammo magazine.
Duke’s other rifle is the “laser rifle” that the Joes use in the ARAH cartoons.
Sigh… now why, oh, why did they have to color his iconic laser rifle green? It’s tanned in the Sunbow cartoons.
The Joe team’s version of “Optimus Prime”.
Overall, a pretty good Duke. It’s got almost all the bells and whistles for Duke, lots of accessories and throwbacks to the original vintage toy, done in upsized 6” scale. Plus his headsculpt is scar-free (unlike the V1 Classified Duke). I never understood why they had to add facial scars to the previous figure.
While it does have a more “retro” flavor compared to the “modernized” Duke from the first wave of G.i. Joe Classified, I find that it takes more similarity to the vintage toy and comics versions of his uniform, rather than the classic Sunbow animation models, which I think a lot of us were hoping for. I think it’s safe to expect Hasbro is going to probably release another color variation for this guy down the road.
I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think Hasbro has an oddball codename for Retro Carded Duke? At least that’s how it seems based on the shipper box alone. The shipper box just indicates the actual character now, no more “oddball codenames” printed outside, unlike before.
Gold
