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Striker Duke is 8" of baaaaaaaaaaad, armor-clad soldier! The figure is decked out in armor very similar to the one the Colonial Marines wore in 'Aliens'. There's a chest plate, shoulder and thigh pads, the works! Even a removable helmet with a movable visor!
Ah but the key is the massive cannon and flight-pack Duke comes with! The accessories come with a multitude of light and sound effects and the cannon has four different, detachable barrels. There's also a pistol that can fit into a removable holster.
Toy Line: GI Joe - Sigma Six
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Meat and Potatoes; 5.0
Perks; 5.0
Homer Factor; 5.0
With GI Joe it came down to stuff, LOTS of stuff! Guns, swords, backpacks, planes, helicopters, enough stuff to invade any country, all carried by just one figure! Yeah, yeah, Ken hung-out with Barbie but you knew whom Barbie was scoping. Woohoo!
As Joe figures went from 12" down to 3" back to the current 8" size what still draws me to these guys is the gear. Well the last figure I got from this line, Snake Eyes, was ok. Decent figure, lots of stuff, and the end-caps that became an 'equipment locker'. Not great, not horrible... which ISN'T what you want to hear after throwing down about $15 for a figure. Doh!
Just the same Joe pieces appear to be selling well. Flash forward and the new lines are flowing out to consumers and what do I see? It's Duke. Whatever. Ah, but he has POWERED ARMOR!!!!! Whoa! Hey, y'all know I'm a sucker for powered armor. But is it worth it? Oh yeah baby! You want to see Joe packing? Here you go, and let COBRA beware!
Meat and potatoes are solid on this piece like the Snake Eyes piece I snagged a while ago. The sculpting is heavily influenced by manga styles. The face is very angular with corners sharp enough to chip stone, but giving Duke a fresher look. The articulation is also pretty dang good. It's not quite Kaiyodo style but more then enough to hold a weapon with two hands for assorted poses.
Ah, but you didn't get this figure for just Duke, you wanna know about the STUFF! First there's the powered armor which is cool. If you're thinking Colonial Marines from 'Aliens' you aren't far off. The armor is a nice chest plate, belt, shoulder-pads, et al. Unfortunately the only removable pieces are the belt and shoulder-pads. Doh! All of it is nicely done so no complaints. In addition Duke comes with a removable helmet and movable visor. Bonus! There's the obligatory side-arm pistol and holster.
What really does it is the MASSIVE cannon. No, I take that back, just saying it's a cannon does the weapons a disservice. This is a multi-weapon worth drooling over. The main parts of the weapons are the jet-pack/power-back that mounts to Duke's back. There's 8" inches cord that connects the 'base' of the cannon to the power pack. This allows for an assortment of different sound and light effects. The weapon comes with FOUR attachments. Yep, FOUR. There's a buzz saw, flamer, and 'power pulse blaster'. Basically it looks like a grenade launcher. The killer is the 'laser cannon'. With the barrel attached the entire weapons is 8" of alien/Cobra/villain kicking weapons! Duke can carry each weapon while still standing. Nice!
Oh, and sound effects! Each weapon has it's own sound effect. Neat. The details in the sound effects really capture your attention. For instance when you switch 'barrels' there's a little 'click' sound. Then when you ATTACH a new barrel there's a DIFFERENT 'click' sound to intricate you changed barrels! That kind of detail makes a toy really stand out.
Homer factor? Oh come on, can't you tell I'm past drooling here!
In the end this is an outstanding figure to have. The combination of good sculpting and articulation and awesome accessories make this a must-have for your toy collection. Unfortunately I do have a slight problem... now I gotta get some bad guys to balance things. Hmmmmmmmmmm...