The second wave of Super7’s Sunbow-inspired GI JOE figures have arrived and that means I have to kick my lazy ass into high gear and get through the rest of the first wave so I can dip into the hot newness. I’ve already covered half of the first wave with Cobra Commander and Snake Eyes, so let’s hit the third today and check out Sgt. Duke Hauser.

Just like Snake Eyes, Duke comes in a window box with a green camo sleeve over it. Pull off the sleeve and you get treated to the figure and an array of extra goodies! The presentation for this line is just top notch stuff! Boy, I can still remember the day that little white mailer from Hasbro showed up with my mail-away Duke figure. I was so excited to get him and have a brand new leader to whip my JOEs into shape. Many Duke figures have come and gone into my collection since then, but I’m so excited to have a faithful treatment of Duke from the Sunbow cartoon.

And everything about this figure just screams cartoony goodness! Not that the original Duke figure was all that different from his toon version, but here we get animated Duke in all his glory. Upon first inspection, the colors really grabbed me first. The bright tan, almost ochre shirt is so vibrant and it goes so well with the bright green trausers. The boots are brown with a lighter brown striping running up the center and crossed by two bands. A lot of Duke’s basic coloring is achieved through the plastic itself, and that vibrant shiny finish lends itself brilliantly to the cartoon look. And being based off the cartoon model, the sculpting here is kept simple. The detail in his shirt is soft, there’s some light rumpling to the trousers, and his sleeves are rolled almost to his elbows, as if he’s ready to get down and fight for some mutha-lovin freedom. YO JOE!

Duke’s belt and shoulder strap are both separate pieces and sculpted in soft brown plastic. You get a gold painted belt buckle and fastener on the strap, along with some sculpted pouches. He also has his parachute jump badge on the right hand side of his chest, which is incorporated into the sculpt as well as painted. As for articulation, you know what to expect here, folks, and you probably either love it or hate it. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say you either hate it or are OK with it. I’ve gone on record many times, I’m happy to go to Classified for my agile and highly articulated JOEs, and leave the more moderate poseability to the toon figures. Would I like more than barely 90-degrees out of those shoulders? Sure I would, but I’m still Ok with it. What’s the hand situation, you ask? How about four pairs! Fists, accessory holding, gun holding, and pointy fingers!

You get three heads to choose from, and I am extremely pleased with all three of them. They did a great job capturing toon Duke’s portrait from the prominent brow to the cleft chin. His blonde coif is impeccably combed and you get some immaculate printing for his eyes and eyebrows.

The other two heads include a shouty head and one wearing a comm headset. I really love how they changed up the expression for the headset version, rather than just slap it on the same neutral head. Here Duke has his lips parted a bit as if he’s speaking into the microphone. The shouty head is possibly my favorite. I don’t think it’s easy to get this look right in the sculpt, but I do believe they nailed it here, as he is in full YO JOE!!! mode. Superb!

Now, while this is clearly Sunbow Duke, Super7 gave us all the extras we need to display a majestic blending of toon Duke with that original Real American Hero figure release, namely his his combat helmet, backpack, and binoculars. He’s not really known for any of these things ine cartoon, but it’s a wonderful bonus to be able to kit Sunbow Duke out in these trappings. The helmet fits well, and even works with the comm headset, which is the combo I like the best. On the other hand, the binoculars are a little big and awkward, and thanks to the articulation limitations, he can’t really use them convincingly,

The backpack is a great looking accessory, and I love that it’s worn with actual straps, cast in soft plastic, rather than pegging into the back like the Hasbro figures. It’s an excellent recreation of the assault pack issued with that first figure, with some extra paint to boot, including some sharp silver on his entrenching tool.

He also comes with a recreation of the green submachine gun issued with that first figure. It’s cast all in green plastic and has some soft sculpted details, including a skeletal stock.

Of course, you also get the ubiquitous standard issue Sunbow laser rifle, and I’ll never get tired of expressing my love for this simple design. There’s just something about it that’s so well designed and sparks the imagination. It’s like a cross between an M1 Garand and a sci-fi blaster. I sincerely hope that we keep getting one of these with every JOE released, and if not, Super7 needs to issue a pack of them for sale separately.

The final accessory is a walkie talkie, which is a welcome addition to Duke’s gear. It’s a simple black box with an antenna and a screen showing the frequency and some kind of dial indicator on the bottom. Alas, the hand designed to hold it doesn’t really do a good job, so I had to use a bit of poster putty to keep it there. And hell, I totally forgot to mention the separate wrist-watch that Duke comes with. Be damn careful of that when you swap out that hand!

I’m three figures into this line and still loving every minute of it! Duke is a great representation of his animated counterpart and it’s great that they included some of the Hasbro figure accessories. Next week I will wrap up the wave with a look at the Cobra BATs!